D&D 4E 4E character creation

[Aries_Omega]

I am new to 4E and remembered the old articles that talked about "do not convert the system, convert the concepts". I am doing that with some characters from 3.5E to 4E. I am going to try 4E in a friends FR game. I have no intention of converting my homebrew world to 4E.

Anyhow...here is my question...I have a concept...the one below. Using the current rules as is...how do you best make this character?

Concept: A son of a noble that is devoted to the support of church of Kelemvor. The character was formally trained as a wizard and lived the idyllic life of a noble. Secretly he is part of an outlawed heretical cult of ancestor worshipers. He is a necromancer and uses his abilities to commune with the dead to gain knowledge of things in the mortal world to help people. He feels necromancy is a good thing if used responsibly. Animating dead is only acceptable if it is a criminal or other enemy for use against enemies and even then only sparingly.

So with that...how would you do this character in 4E? Wizard? Warlock?

 

[mattdm]

Currently there's no animating dead at all in the game, so that's kinda a show-stopper. This is such a popular trope, though, that I bet there will be one eventually. In the meantime, wizard is probably a good choice, and you can work with your DM on making up a few animate-dead rituals. Following the hints of how 4E is going with this kind of thing, your minions would require your actions to power their actions in combat.

 

[Patlin]

One of the upcoming 4e books is focussed on undead. Maybe wait for that to be published first?

 

[burntgerbil]

This strikes me more as warlock flavor than wizard - have you seen the dark pact warlock in the FRPG ?

 

[cdrcjsn]

Just make a wizard or warlock with the ritual caster feat.

Describe all spell effects as undead based.

Fireburst? It's a flaming skull that appears, streaks screaming towards your enemies and explodes in a fiery doom.

Flaming Sphere? You conjure a ghostly hound surrounded by fire that attacks your enemies.

Icy Terrain? Undead hands burst from the ground. Their icy grasp pulls creatures to the ground and hinders movement.

You can freely modify the fluff description of spells as long as the mechanics stays the same (it's in the description of powers in the beginning of the book).

 

[Evilhalfling]

Well since your not animating dead, it can be done. Speaking with the dead and most other divinations are handled with rituals. Wizards get rituals for free, but I think religion is the necessary skill for speaking with the dead.
Its not a first level ritual, so speaking with dead is something you could have done with a scroll, or as part of another's ritual.

I would set him up as a wizard with the cleric multi-class feat. That gives you religon as a trained skill, which is based on int - your wizards primary skill.
you will need a 13 wisdom, which makes orb mage attractive. See if you can get a crystal skull appearance for the orb.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Warlock multiclassed into wizard would perhaps be the mix you are looking for. Dark Pact especially has a LOT of necrotic powers, although there are a couple of wizard ones as well.

Similarly, your character, with the multiclass into wizard, could have the following trained skills:

Arcana, Religion, Bluff, History, and you still have another.

The Knowledges (Arcana, Religion, especially History) can be flavoured, in part, as information you can pull from the dead. Bluff is important since your character is leading a "hidden" life.

For your "rare" animation of undead, I think there are some conjurations for the illusionist wizard that might apply, I'm not sure. Otherwise the cleric is actually the class with the conjurations to do that [in which case a wizard multiclassed into cleric could fit your concept better].

In either case, choice of rituals might be the bigger way to expand the idea. There are a number of divination rituals, plus some stuff like Hand of Fate, Consult Mystic Sages, etc and then there is Phantom Steed. They can easily be turned into a more necromacy based rituals, such as contacting dead spirits for the information and raising dead horses, etc. If your GM is up for it, they could even include some more gruesome material components ... perhaps making the ritual cheaper in exchange for making it more difficult to get access to the right materials.

 

[Conjurer]

To get your summoned undead, consider reflavoring some of the Wizard daylies that can be sustained:

Flaming Sphere? Reflavor it as a burning Skeleton, Bigby's Icy Grasp as a Frozen Zombie.
You summon a Huge venomous Specter of some sort... which is actually a stinking cloud. And so on.

Not exactly perfect, but the idea is there.

 

[Nail]

He is a necromancer ....

Just make a wizard or warlock with the ritual caster feat.

Describe all spell effects as undead based.

To get your summoned undead, consider reflavoring some of the Wizard daylies that can be sustained...

The trick now, with 4e so new, is that all of the major PC ideas aren't yet supported, so you have to get creative.

Shocking! Creativity in D&D?? Unheard of!

(...actually, it is disappointing that this version of D&D (4e) supports so few of the major themes "straight outta th' box"....)

 

[TheLordWinter]

If you and your DM is comfortable using some fan made material, you could use one of the numerous necromancer classes on this very site. You've got many flavors of necromancer to choose from, though I must admit I'm a bit biased toward this particular one as my favorite: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/242166-another-take-necromancer-class.html

If you don't like that option or your DM is uncomfortable with material not directly from Wizards, I'd say your best plan would be to try to reflavor things as many people here suggested. You said you're a secret supporter of Kelemvor, so I might take a slightly different tact and say go Warlock with the Dark Pact from the FR setting, and multiclass into Cleric. This would cover the ancestor worship, you could easily get the Ritual Caster feat, you'll have free access to the religion skill via the multi-feat and can eventually pick up rituals to commune with dead spirits and ancestors. While these rituals might not be considered inherently heretical in the setting, perhaps the fervor with which your character listens to the dead and the zeal he places in following them is what makes his beliefs rub against the norm.