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Stradh Von Zarovich, formidable Necromancer? / Necromancer build for 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6699125" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>You mean, in literature?</p><p></p><p>Bauchelain and Korbal Broach come to mind, from /Memories of Ice/ by Steven Erikson. These two necromancers are the only ones who survive the siege of Capustan, thanks to all their demons and undead minions. Plus, the scene with the virgin's blood is hilarious. "Why, it's woody!"</p><p></p><p>Steve Brust's Morrolan e'Drien certainly has the mien of a necromancer.</p><p></p><p>In the Dresden Files, the Corpsetaker (/Dead Beat/) is a pretty iconic bodysnatching necromancer. You can even replicate her shenanigans, to an extent, in 5E via Magic Jar. (Though ironically, Magic Jar works better for a Diviner than a Necromancer. Although a Lucky Necromancer with high Charisma and Death Ward pre-cast could push things pretty far without too much risk.)</p><p></p><p>If you wanted to replicate the Bauchelain/Korbal Broach approach in 5E, you'd want to start out as a fighter for heavy armor proficiency and Con save proficiency, and then multiclass from there. Grim Touch will gives you oodles of hit points if you are fighting mooks--just cast Fire Shield or something similar (Evard's Black Tentacles) that kills on other people's turns so that you gain 8 HP per death instead of being capped at merely 6 HP like Fireball does for you. Vampiric Touch is a pretty good spell, especially for someone with good AC and Grim Touch. Remember that you can overcast it at 5th level (7 spell points) to do 5d6 damage, granting you 5d6/2 damage per hit and an extra 15 HP healed on a kill.</p><p></p><p>Nothing needs to be said about undead skeleton archers. They're awesome, everybody knows it, nothing to say there.</p><p></p><p>At high levels, creating your own Wight via Create Undead and then dominating it via Command Undead might be worth doing, especially because that wight can command a dozen zombies of its own for free. Zombies have about 40 effective HP due to the way Undead Fortitude works, so a dozen zombies is quite a lot of meat. If you're fighting in the midst of all those zombies you have at least partial cover from most enemies (+2 more AC) and relatively little to fear from most enemies, especially if you used Disguise Self to look like one of the zombies.</p><p></p><p>It's hard to tell from your post if you're interested in wizard shenanigans that don't involve necromancy, but one of the fun things about being a 5E necromancer is that you're still a full wizard. You don't even have restricted spell schools like AD&D wizards did, so you can cast Illusion and Enchantment/Charm spells to your heart's content. No need to discuss wizard tricks here, but you do have access to them all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6699125, member: 6787650"] You mean, in literature? Bauchelain and Korbal Broach come to mind, from /Memories of Ice/ by Steven Erikson. These two necromancers are the only ones who survive the siege of Capustan, thanks to all their demons and undead minions. Plus, the scene with the virgin's blood is hilarious. "Why, it's woody!" Steve Brust's Morrolan e'Drien certainly has the mien of a necromancer. In the Dresden Files, the Corpsetaker (/Dead Beat/) is a pretty iconic bodysnatching necromancer. You can even replicate her shenanigans, to an extent, in 5E via Magic Jar. (Though ironically, Magic Jar works better for a Diviner than a Necromancer. Although a Lucky Necromancer with high Charisma and Death Ward pre-cast could push things pretty far without too much risk.) If you wanted to replicate the Bauchelain/Korbal Broach approach in 5E, you'd want to start out as a fighter for heavy armor proficiency and Con save proficiency, and then multiclass from there. Grim Touch will gives you oodles of hit points if you are fighting mooks--just cast Fire Shield or something similar (Evard's Black Tentacles) that kills on other people's turns so that you gain 8 HP per death instead of being capped at merely 6 HP like Fireball does for you. Vampiric Touch is a pretty good spell, especially for someone with good AC and Grim Touch. Remember that you can overcast it at 5th level (7 spell points) to do 5d6 damage, granting you 5d6/2 damage per hit and an extra 15 HP healed on a kill. Nothing needs to be said about undead skeleton archers. They're awesome, everybody knows it, nothing to say there. At high levels, creating your own Wight via Create Undead and then dominating it via Command Undead might be worth doing, especially because that wight can command a dozen zombies of its own for free. Zombies have about 40 effective HP due to the way Undead Fortitude works, so a dozen zombies is quite a lot of meat. If you're fighting in the midst of all those zombies you have at least partial cover from most enemies (+2 more AC) and relatively little to fear from most enemies, especially if you used Disguise Self to look like one of the zombies. It's hard to tell from your post if you're interested in wizard shenanigans that don't involve necromancy, but one of the fun things about being a 5E necromancer is that you're still a full wizard. You don't even have restricted spell schools like AD&D wizards did, so you can cast Illusion and Enchantment/Charm spells to your heart's content. No need to discuss wizard tricks here, but you do have access to them all. [/QUOTE]
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