D&D (2024) A Revised Necromancer Subclass?

[Yaarel]

Necromancy is one of the things that I find genuinely creepy. Creepiness is different from Evil. A Necromancer option can focus on the unsettling aspects, like unwhole ghostliness and exhumed bodyparts.

The darker themes of the Warlock class feel like a better fit for necromantic themes. The Warlock already has deathly subclasses, and these can develop further, or a new Shadowfell Patron can add. Patrons include a specific ghost, vampire, lich, or other undead, or a ruler of a Shadow Domain, or a spirit community, or "I see ghosts" generally.

Necromancy includes becoming undead, "awakening" undead, and communing with undead. Almost every spell effect can be understood as summoning a ghost to do that effect.

A Necromancer subclass can include the options for a go-to for a "Vampire class", sotospeak, as well as a Riddick "Necromonger" culture, using the energy of souls for magical technology (albeit this might slide into Evil).

Ethically, when a creature dies, the soul of the creature can linger in the Shadowfell − and Shadow Crossings into the Material Plane − because of "unfinished business". But eventually and normally the soul moves on into the Astral Plane, where the mindscape has an objectifying affinity with the ethical decisions that the soul made while alive − for better or worse. For a soul in a Celestial dominion, for example, a Necromancer might use magic to manipulate the deathly residue of the soul permeating the corpse, or even awaken a Shadow echo of a soul. But the consciousness of the soul is safe and secure within the Celestial. The soul knows personally and immediately what a Necromancer is doing to the body and the part of the soul that continues to entangle the body, but within the Celestial dominion the soul is in no way harmed by it.

 

[Yaarel]

"Necromancy" in the sense of "dark magic", includes the "Necronomicon" and its Aberrations, as well as Fiend Devils and Demons. A Necromancer should have these themes as options as well, albeit these are distinct from the Shadowfell tropes. The Warlock already has Fiend and Goo, but a Necromancer should be able to dabble if the player chooses.

 

[Yaarel]

I think that the problem with necromancer and similar strongly themed wizard subclasses is that they decided wizard would be "spell list the class" & then made sorcerer/warlock "wizard but hot"/"dating the gm".

The wizard chassis doesn't have enough room for necromancer features that feel special. That's exacerbated because there aren't enough wizard exclusive spells for it to matter even if it makes necromancer type spells more acceptable or more noteworthy. That wasn't helped by spending the last decade just accepting Internet wisdom carried over from 3.x blaming wizard for sorcerer and warlock excess while working to bring sorcerer and warlock up to that fictional level

Sorcerer is devoting too much to be "wizard but hot" to fit it without destroying the power scale. That's made worse because it already has the vast majority of wizard spells so it doesn't feel too special getting access to animate dead type spells too.

Warlock could have replaced agonizing repelling blast the bladelock thing or pact magic with cool necromancer type abilities that matter but all of those are trying to be top shelf on the power scale or better across nearly all levels and there is no easy way to do fit those kinds of things.

Yeah, because the Wizard is the every-spell-in-the-multiverse class it is unable to immerse in a theme. The Warlock and the Sorcerer do specialize thematically, which a Necromancer requires. Of the two, the Warlock class has the edginess to "go there".

 

[Yaarel]

Last post.

Options for the Find Familiar spell can be Medium size Skeleton and less-powerful version of Ghost. Then the Necromancer flavor is available in a balanced way at level 1. A skeletal Undead cat can be cool for certain concepts, but typically the Humanoid Undead is on theme.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Part of the issue with the 2014 specialist wizard subclasses is that some of them have too few spells for the "ooh, you get these spells for free or more easily" stuff to be meaningful.

In the case of the necromancer, it's not hard to come up with various creepy summonings and interactions with the dead to flesh out the chart. This isn't a new problem for D&D and first through third editions, at least, have a backlog of spells that WotC can and should pull from.

While, from a design standpoint, giving a necromancer, say, a spell that animates a crawling claw for 24 hours isn't super exciting, in practice, letting the necromancer have an undead something as soon as possible would help a lot.

And I'm going to disagree with @DEFCON 1. While there are certainly going to be tables that won't allow an obviously eeeeevil subclass, a robust take on arguably the most iconic evil spellcaster type around will get used a ton at most of the other tables. I have long wanted to play a necromancer based on Bill Hader's version of Vincent Price. I'd just like the crunch to match up to the fun fluff.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, because the Wizard is the every-spell-in-the-multiverse class it is unable to immerse in a theme. The Warlock and the Sorcerer do specialize thematically, which a Necromancer requires. Of the two, the Warlock class has the edginess to "go there".

It's probably just barely too late to do this in the 2024 PHB, but slapping a "general" tag on a small core of wizard spells and then granting access to the rest via specific subclasses (or good old fashioned killing an enemy wizard and taking their spellbook) could enable specialization and also give the subclasses a lot more personality.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I'd like to see the Necromancer have a pet and a minion.

That could be an undead familiar, or a creepy hand and a skull that gives them information (like Bob the skull from Dresden - although, Bob wasn't an undead, but you get the idea). It could be a spirit that only they see that they use for scouting or asking for information. At higher level, it could be an intelligent undead like a vampire. Or even ancestral spirits.

I like the idea of the undead army but it's not practical for a game. Those guys are at home, guarding the base. Or maybe an undead horde isn't the kind of magic that's possible without an artifact. I'd like to see some kind of consequence for creating undead...maybe it ages you, maybe it causes things around the casting area to die, maybe it weakens the veil between mortal world and the shadowfell.

I'd like to see more focus on necromancers as diviners, communing with the dead.

I'd like to see two sides of the necromancer coin to be an actual mechanic. I've seen DMs run their world as Necromancy as evil dark magic (but nothing in-game really supports that), I've seen DMs run it as non-evil useful magic (zombies working mines is great!) and I've seen DMs have it be somewhere in-between where the society decides (this town thinks they're evil, that town uses zombie miners). I'd like it to be a balancing act where doing SOME TYPES of necromancy can do bad stuff to the game world but it might be a bit more powerful and other types have no overt negative consequences but in line to regular spells.

Necromancers should have some kind of mystique.

 

[NaturalZero]

The Necromancer is the one of the strongest examples showing how the wizard chassis is clunky and needs to be deconstructed. When 95% of your features and abilities are just the same spells that every other wizard gets, it's time to strip the concept out of the wizard and make it its own thing. Have a minion subclass, a spirit control subclass, a necrotic energy elementalist subclass, a tanky zombie caster subclass, etc.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Last post.

Options for the Find Familiar spell can be Medium size Skeleton and less-powerful version of Ghost. Then the Necromancer flavor is available in a balanced way at level 1. A skeletal Undead cat can be cool for certain concepts, but typically the Humanoid Undead is on theme.

They've just added this to the chain-pact Warlock. I'd be sorry if the idea proliferated -- it's the first time that a medium-sized familiar has been allowed, and I like it being something exclusive to the Warlock.

 

[Tonguez]

. Have a minion subclass, a spirit control subclass, a necrotic energy elementalist subclass, a tanky zombie caster subcless, etc.

really thats even more reason to make Necromancer into a Warlock, necromancy makes a cool theme for summoner and controller classes, but most low level cnecromancy is fear and necrotic damage rather than controlling zombies and unhallowed spectres