Players really want the Necromancer? (Forked: Non-published concepts you want)

[Rechan]

Forked from: What not yet published concept are you hoping for?

Adding things up ..

Here is what we have so far ....

* Necromancer 5

Really?

See, this surprises me. I saw a lot of people complaining about Necromancers before 4e came out. They popped up about as frequently as summoners/illusionists.

The Necromancer that WotC would put out is for PCs. And honestly. most DMs wouldn't let me play a necromancer.

A corpse defiling, soul-taunting, undead making user of the black arts.

Do the people that want them expect to be able to play them? Or is it a completionist desire?

 

[Fifth Element]

It might be a completionist desire: "If there's a type of magic out there, the PCs should be able to use it". I'm not of that mind; I prefer to have stuff set aside just for my bad guys, necromancy being a good example.

 

[Intense_Interest]

The Necromancer that WotC would put out is for PCs. And honestly. I can't think of many DMs I've encountered that would let you play a necromancer.

An undead making, foul-magic user of the black arts.

Do the people that want them expect to be able to play them? Or is it a completionist desire?

Its also an Eberron thing, part of the "nothing-is-all-evil" design principle, also that one of the kingdoms was the Undead Army country.

Which is why I expect a Necromancer Class in the Eberron PHB in 2009.

 

[Rechan]

Its also an Eberron thing, part of the "nothing-is-all-evil" design principle, also that one of the kingdoms was the Undead Army country.

Which is why I expect a Necromancer Class in the Eberron PHB in 2009.

1) They weren't Undead, but "Deathless"; undead that run on positive energy. The necromancers of Aerenal focused on killing undead, really.

2a) Necromancers aren't that integral to Eberron. Not as much as say, Psionics.

2b) And if WotC cared at all about stuff that's integral to Eberron, they'd be putting Psionics in the PHBII, which they appear to not be.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

1) They weren't Undead, but "Deathless"; undead that run on positive energy. The necromancers of Aerenal focused on killing undead, really.

He's talking about Karrnath, which is using undead to fill out the ranks of its army.

 

[Intense_Interest]

1) They weren't Undead, but "Deathless"; undead that run on positive energy. The necromancers of Aerenal focused on killing undead, really.

2a) Necromancers aren't that integral to Eberron. Not as much as say, Psionics.

2b) And if WotC cared at all about stuff that's integral to Eberron, they'd be putting Psionics in the PHBII, which they appear to not be.

I think it was you who said in another thread that Psionics were integral to Eberron but was not base-level assumed enough to be put in the Eberron Sourcebook. Is this also true of Necromancer?

And if so, are the only classes in the Eberron PHB going to be Artificers and Dragonmark-Specialists? I disagree, but I can see it falling that way depending on how the FR sourcebook works.

 

[Rechan]

I think it was you who said in another thread that Psionics were integral to Eberron but was not base-level assumed enough to be put in the Eberron Sourcebook. Is this also true of Necromancer?

Correct. Because you don't need psionics to do, pretty much 90% of Eberron. And I could say you could cut the Aerenal (White necromancers) out of Eberron and not miss anything. (Granted, you might then lose Karrnath, but the necromancers out of there aren't very nice).

And if so, are the only classes in the Eberron PHB going to be Artificers and Dragonmark-Specialists? I disagree, but I can see it falling that way depending on how the FR sourcebook works.

I expect the Dragonmark Specialists to either be paragon paths, or just feat chains (similar to the Multi-class feats). As far as we know, Swordmage is the only class in the FR book.

And really, I think WotC would make a lot of people mad if they stuffed the Necromancer in Eberron.

I honestly expected Psionics to be in PHBII, to coincide with Eberron's release. But I just do not see them stuffing psionic classes or the Necromancer in the Eberron book for one simple reason: while there are places for both in Eberron, neither are unique to Eberron. Unlike the Artificer, which is Eberron's pet class.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I played a necromancer in a 3e campaign. There was a cleric in the party so I, a necromancer remember, was second best at animating the dead.

Okay, sure, I had good spells like empowered ray of enfeeblement, false life and magic jar. So I was great at those traditional areas of necromancy, self-buffing and mind control. It's just that I sucked at the relatively fringe ability of making corpses go walkabout.

So, yeah, I wanted to play one and yeah, I think necromancers should actually be good at animating the frickin' dead.

 

[Korgoth]

Though I've given up on 4E, I would expect to be able to have PC necromancy. Sometimes I want to do goody-goody fantasy, and sometimes I want to do amoral sword & sorcery fantasy. Much of the S&S I like has Necromancy as a strong theme. C. A. Smith's Zothique, for example. If the PCs cannot be wicked Necromancers that takes a lot of the fun out of it.

 

[Ahglock]

I played a necromancer in a 3e campaign. There was a cleric in the party so I, a necromancer remember, was second best at animating the dead.

Okay, sure, I had good spells like empowered ray of enfeeblement, false life and magic jar. So I was great at those traditional areas of necromancy, self-buffing and mind control. It's just that I sucked at the relatively fringe ability of making corpses go walkabout.

So, yeah, I wanted to play one and yeah, I think necromancers should actually be good at animating the frickin' dead.

Pretty much ditto except I also played one near the end of 2e and he was awesome for his short lifespan. 2e had some cool spells in its wizard spell compendiums for necros that helped the animating dead problem. Level 1 there was a animate animals spell level 2 a animate skeletons and level 3 animate zombies. The skeletons and zombies had an additional material component attached but at least you had the option.

Zombie animals with flight retained flight but it became clumsy, I had a horde of zombie bats hanging form inside my cloak for one of my scare tactics and a skeleton ogre in full plate as a bodyguard. For being probably the weakest character in the group I had a ton of fun.