Good Aligned Bodysnatcher

[The Great Bear King]

I want some help making a good aligned necromancer apprentice (more of a university medical student than an apprentice), though he or she may have to take a few levels of rogue for the stealth rquiered to sneak in and dig up a corpse for study and to avoid death or injurey at the hands of an angry mob. His actions are legal, but if he or she doesn't strip the corpse of its clothes or jewlery, the young necromancer can be hanged for theft. Its also legal for the angry mob to beat him or her to death.

The necromancer would need some low level arcane healing spells and some skills.

P.S. Necromancy isn't inherintly evil in my campaign world, though non-Necromancer rogues tend to be just plain vile.

 

[yennico]

There are several reasons why you do not got any feedback.
1.) Perhaps you have chosen the wrong title of your thread. Perhaps many posters (or the majority of the posters here ) think being good aligned and being a tomb robber is paradox. This could be a reason why they do not respond. I know you have a different opinion and I do not want to discuss this topic.
2.) Posters who create npcs for other posters also want a feedback (at least from the original poster and from (many) other posters of this boards).
2.) You do not give much information about the npc, the setting, etc.
3.) Your setting is very special, so if you do not drop these specifics, which only you know, in your posts nobody will create a npc for you. After receiving a posted npc you can change this npc for your needs. Most posted npcs need some work to fit in a specific campaign.

If you want that another posters create your npcs give them more information
They need:
- CR of the npc
- method of attribute generation: PB (how much points) or dice rolls (which method)
- available races
- available books and resources
- the setting FR, Eberron, etc.

I want some help making a good aligned

You can change the alignment of any posted npc if the npc has no classes which require a specific alignment. So you can drop this restriction.

necromancer apprentice (more of a university medical student than an apprentice),

sounds like necromancer level 1-2.

though he or she may have to take a few levels of rogue for the stealth rquiered to sneak in and dig up a corpse for study and to avoid death or injurey at the hands of an angry mob.

Every class can take skills as cross-class skills. Humans also can take the feat able learner.
"A few levels" can be because of the plural only 2+.

You want a grave robber with access to necromantic spells but you did not specific the CR of this npc.

The necromancer would need some low level arcane healing spells and some skills.

Drop this because without reading every of your posts nobody knows any healing arcane spells. It is an easy task for you to add a spell to the spellbook of a wizard.

though non-Necromancer rogues tend to be just plain vile.

Single class rogues are always evil in your campaign?

 

[The Great Bear King]

There are several reasons why you do not got any feedback.
1.) Perhaps you have chosen the wrong title of your thread. Perhaps many posters (or the majority of the posters here ) think being good aligned and being a tomb robber is paradox. This could be a reason why they do not respond. I know you have a different opinion and I do not want to discuss this topic.

The necromancer will need to study the corpses of the dead to learn the necessary surgical skills to become a physician. He's gathering the bodies himself (or herself if you prefer) to get around the local thieves guilds (who tend to be hit men, thugs, and particularly murderous brigands).

2.) Posters who create npcs for other posters also want a feedback (at least from the original poster and from (many) other posters of this boards).

I'm sorry about that one.

3.) You do not give much information about the npc, the setting, etc.

Think of the 16th century, where grave robbery is a misdemeanor (as is killing the grave robber) and theft of goods is punishable by hanging.

4.) Your setting is very special, so if you do not drop these specifics, which only you know, in your posts nobody will create a npc for you. After receiving a posted npc you can change this npc for your needs. Most posted npcs need some work to fit in a specific campaign.

Okay, I'll think about that.

If you want that another posters create your npcs give them more information
They need:
- CR of the npc

May not go above seven.

- method of attribute generation: PB (how much points) or dice rolls (which method)

I'll do that.

- available races

All with racial CRs below 6.

- available books and resources

Book of Exalted Deeds (if appropriate) , any D&D supplement that deals with arcane magic including and especially necromancy, and any D&D supplement that deals with stealth.

You can change the alignment of any posted npc if the npc has no classes which require a specific alignment. So you can drop this restriction.

Maybe.

sounds like necromancer level 1-2.

That sounds about right.

Every class can take skills as cross-class skills. Humans also can take the feat able learner.

That's fine.

"A few levels" can be because of the plural only 2+.

What do you mean?

You want a grave robber with access to necromantic spells but you did not specific the CR of this npc.

I'll figure it out.

Drop this because without reading every of your posts nobody knows any healing arcane spells. It is an easy task for you to add a spell to the spell book of a wizard.

Okay, thank you.

Single class rogues are always evil in your campaign?

Not always, but the majority will be.
If you want to understand why the necromancer's master doesn't work with the local thieves’ guilds, please read this.

body snatching

Body snatching, the stealing of corpses from graves and morgues. Before cadavers were legally available for dissection and study by medical students, traffic in stolen bodies was profitable. Those who engaged in the illicit practice were sometimes called resurrectionists; they were active from about the early 18th cent. to the middle 19th cent. Public opposition to any dissection of bodies was further aroused by discovery of the resurrectionists' activities; outbursts of violence occurred in Europe as well as in America. Robert Knox, an eminent British anatomist, became a victim of public attack because a body he had purchased for dissection proved to be that of one of a number of victims murdered by William Hare and an accomplice named William Burke for the purpose of selling the bodies; the murderers were brought to trial (1828) and convicted. This and other similar cases led to the passage (1832) in Great Britain of the Anatomy Act, which permitted the legal acquisition by medical schools of unclaimed bodies. In the United States dissection of the human body has been practiced since the middle of the 18th cent.; riots and acts of violence frequently occurred in protest against lecturers on anatomy and medical students, who reputedly dug up bodies for study. In 1788 outraged citizens of New York City precipitated a riot while ransacking the rooms of anatomy students and professors at Columbia College Medical School in search of bodies. The following year body snatching was prohibited by law, thus creating a climate for the growth of an illegal group of professional body snatchers. It was not until 1854 that anatomy students were allowed access to unclaimed bodies from public institutions.

See The Diary of a Resurrectionist (ed. by J. B. Bailey, 1896); T. Gallagher, The Doctors' Story (1967).

 

[yennico]

The necromancer will need to study the corpses of the dead to learn the necessary surgical skills to become a physician.

That is true. I know that even Leonardo da Vinci needed dead bodies to perform his anatomical studies. After death he had only IIRC two days before the dead bodies started to begin foul smelling. Leonardo did not open graves, he paid and bribed persons to bring him bodies.

He's gathering the bodies himself (or herself if you prefer) to get around the local thieves guilds (who tend to be hit men, thugs, and particularly murderous brigands).

Most necromancers want knowledge to become a physician but they certainly do not want to waste their time by digging. To save their time they pay some unscrupulous persons who perhaps could be members of the local thieves guild.
Their saved time they can invest in their studies. If they do not dig themselves, they do not need any rogue skills. Learning any skill costs time. Advancing as a rogue instead as a necromancers costs also time. Why should a necromancer shorten the time he can learn necromancy or related knowledge by learning skills he seldoms need.
A rogue/necromancer never can be better in rogue skills than an entire thieves guild which is his rival. Perhaps the rogue/necromancer can fool some low level rogues, but if the thieves guild know that somebody steals dead bodies they will set a trap for the necromancer.
To learn rogue skills he needs a trainer. If the trainer was from the local thieves guild the tieves guild knows he is a rogue.
A necromancer can cast more powerful spells than a rogue/necromancer of the same CR.

If every necromancer needs dead bodies the thieves guild know this fact and selling dead bodies to necromancers is a way to gain profits.

I am not saying that your character concept is bad, but your NPC is an outsider even under his fellow necromancers. He is an outsider because he has not the money to pay for the dead bodies. He has to dig himself which limits his time to study the bodies and to study necromancy and he has perhaps an enemy in the local thieves guild.

Think of the 16th century, where grave robbery is a misdemeanor (as is killing the grave robber) and theft of goods is punishable by hanging.

IIRC A dissection of a dead body was forbidden by the church.

May not go above seven.

For your special grave digging necromancer I suggest a human rogue 2-3/necromancer 1-2
or a human necromancer 2 with the able learner feat and some skill points spent in rogue skills. He has no masterwork weapons because if he had money he could buy the dead bodies from the local thieves guild.

All with racial CRs below 6.

All intelligent humanoids.
I can think about a drow rog2/necromancer2 who works in a city at night only.
I can not think about a reason why this drow should be a good-aligned drow but this is your problem
He lives in an abandoned haunted house (he used ghost sound and prestigitation to create the rumor or a haunted house). Nobody trust a drow so he uses the alter self spell, but he can not speak common very well so he has not so many contacts in the city.

Or a half-orc or other monstrous race like hobgoblin, bugbear or goblin rogue2/necromancer1 who was a former thieves guild member but he found somewhere a magical book which teachs him necromancy. He abandoned his old ways but he knows nobody like to deal with an ugly half-orc or other monstrous races.

What do you mean?

levels is the plural of level. The minimum for the use of the word "levels" is 2(levels).
2+ means at least 2 level, but it can be more levels.

Not always, but the majority will be.
If you want to understand why the necromancer's master doesn't work with the local thieves’ guilds, please read this.

Do you suggest that in your campaign grave digging and stealing dead bodies is legal?
If it is legal you need unscrupulous man to do the work.
A normal fantasy world is not 18th century. The time of a fantasy world IIRC is medieval.