Inside the mind of a necromancer

[Yesway Jose]

It's really important to remember that regardless of what you think the shape of this world is, we know alot more about the shape of the D&D world and its probably (or almost certainly) not like this one. That difference makes a real difference in the D&D world. If you have a D&D world where people have outlooks that basically could belong to this world, then you could learn much I think by stopping a bit and going, "Well, what if all this D&D fluff was really true."

Yes, I suppose that in order to comply with a request to get into the mind of a necromancer for a coherent philosophy, I mentally transported a necromancer into a simulacrum of real-life.

I get it that D&D fantasizes the bad and the ugly as much as the good, and that the depravity of necromancy is diluted. However, I never attempt to get into the heads of truly evil beings in any fantasy or sci-fi RPG or book or movie -- I think of them more as a narrative constructs, because as fictional personalities, well, I think they're mostly caricatures.

So if I would be asked to get into the mind of a necromancer entirely within the D&D fiction, then I don't know that I could produce a "coherent" philosophy because D&D fiction is not coherent.

I guess I don't understand myself all the recent interest in "evil is cool", but that's just me, and that's a whole other story.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I guess I don't understand myself all the recent interest in "evil is cool", but that's just me, and that's a whole other story.

For the record, that's not my goal here -- and I disagree that it's a recent trend. It was a confluence of multiple inspirations: The new professor at Unseen University, seeing Bil Hader's Vincent Price impression and hearing that my co-DM was planning on running Paizo's Carrion Crown, and wanting to not do the easy thing there: an undead-hunting paladin or cleric.

My character won't be evil, but he also won't be cool. He'll be a necronerd, although he'll be convinced that he's a mysterious and suave creature of the night.

 

[Celebrim]

My character won't be evil, but he also won't be cool. He'll be a necronerd, although he'll be convinced that he's a mysterious and suave creature of the night.

One way to manage not to be an evil necromancer is to have sufficiently low wisdom as to be clueless. The coherent philosophy might be, "Aren't the Spirals of Xyzzy when they disassociate from Coburn's Decaying Stack of Unusual Numbers just totally cool? You should really observe the aura that this decaying liver is giving off!! See I can magify the effect so that its observable without optical magnification by applying a current of 20 thaums to the fossa for the inferior vena cava! Amazing isn't it!"

 

[Yesway Jose]

One way to manage not to be an evil necromancer is to have sufficiently low wisdom as to be clueless. The coherent philosophy might be, "Aren't the Spirals of Xyzzy when they disassociate from Coburn's Decaying Stack of Unusual Numbers just totally cool? You should really observe the aura that this decaying liver is giving off!! See I can magify the effect so that its observable without optical magnification by applying a current of 20 thaums to the fossa for the inferior vena cava! Amazing isn't it!"

"The orcs are attacking the village! Kill those evil scums!"

"The orcs are attacking the village! Kill those fools with too little wisdom to know that killing us is socially unacceptable and raping and pillaging is not the correct way to a harmonious co-existence with humans!"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Since Wye the Wicked is partly inspired by Bill Hader's version of Vincent Price, low wisdom is definitely in the mix.

 

[GSHamster]

You know what I find most interesting about this thread?

The OP asked for "why a brilliant spellcaster would devote himself to necromancy?"

A lot of people seem to interpret that as "why a non-evil spellcaster would devote himself to necromancy?"

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That being said, if I wanted to make a more interesting necromancer, I would pair one of the seven Virtues or Vices with the necromancer and see what sort of character that would produce.

For example, Necromancer + Gluttony = a Hannibal Lecter style character.

Necromancer + Sloth = someone who raises the dead solely to act as servants for her.

You could keep going, Necromancer + Lust would make a particular icky villain.

 

[Yesway Jose]

My character won't be evil, but he also won't be cool. He'll be a necronerd, although he'll be convinced that he's a mysterious and suave creature of the night.

My best shot:

He's secular and logical, necromantic energy is no more inherently evil than nuclear energy.

He's doesn't enjoy socializing with common folk, they're a bit dull and stupid and provincial, and he prefers his dark tower and black cape and he only comes down to the village to buy groceries.

He's not stupid, he recognizes that undead are distasteful to society, but he think it's better to send an undead into a dragon's den than risk a human life. He's not exactly crazy about zombies either (they stink really badly, drop pieces of flesh constantly and stain the sofa, and are magnets for flies, maggots and diseases).

His ultimate goal is to create intelligent undead, not something powerful like an intelligent vampire which is impossible to control, but an intelligent talking skeleton or talking skull that is more useful than a dumb animated one.

He does worry about inciting an angry village mob and he wants to do the right thing, so he has some houserules and best practices. Always get a full consent form from the family of the deceased, before digging up a body. Always avoid an awkward meeting with someone's undead friend or loved one. Try to animate the dead of orcs, goblins, etc. instead of humans.

For practical purposes, he rarely animates messy stinky maggot-ridden disease-carrying zombies. He has a vat of acid in his home. He throws the body in and lets the acid do the work. He knits the bones back together with iron pegs. He may paint the bones with bright colors and/or dress them up in clothes, whatever it takes to make them look less undead. Then they're not so bad after all.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He does worry about inciting an angry village mob and he wants to do the right thing, so he has some houserules and best practices. Always get a full consent form from the family of the deceased, before digging up a body.

I like this. I can see him pulling out a contract and trying to get the party fighter to sign his body away "after you're no longer using it, of course."