Necromancer's Legacy 2: Q&A

[Clay_More]

I have, for some time, considered making a larger PDF for Necromancy in D20. I have, as some of you might know, made some advanced templates for Liches & Vampires as well as some Necromantic Items. I have played a 2 year long campaign with my players where they faced of an evil Necromantic Cult, which is where much of my material was made.
In my opinion, there are many interesting aspects of Necromancy which have yet to be explored. Some books, made my 3 rd. party publishers, have already touched on the subject, even though with varying success.

Still, I think that there might be many others on Enworld that might have some good things to contribute. My current idea is as follows, regarding chapters...

Chapter 1 : General introduction

Chapter 2 : Themed Necromancy - The Abyssal Summoner
This chapter is going to revolve around the Lovecraftian aspect of Necromancy. This borders on Conjuration, with human sacrifice & strange occult rituals. Will contain magical items, rules for imbuing corpses with demonic presences etc.

Chapter 3 : Themed Necromancy - Flesh & Steel
This chapter will revolve around the aspect of combining Necromancy with technology. Inspired, in part, by Frankenstein. This chapter is going to include such things as rules regarding the combination of animated undead and steam-punk grafts.

Chapter 4 : Themed Necromancy - Classical Lairs
This chapter will mainly hold new ideas for the classical Necromancer, magical items & such. Also working on some good spells etc.

Chapter 5 : Themed Necromancy - Elemental Dead
This chapter will be about the combination of Necromancy with the elements. I have already posted examples of spells, the Ukast the Cold thread, which had some ideas for combining animated undead with Cold effects. Should also include the other elements.

Chapter 6 : Vampires & Liches
Will include the Templates I have made for Vampires & Liches. Will also hold some PrC's made specifically for those two genres of creatures. I have already finished work on some Lich PrS, including the Minion of Orcus and the Hollow Blade.

Chapter 7 : The Dead Walking
This will be the Monstrous part of the PDF, which will hold undeads to be used in any campaign.

Chapter 8 : Spells
Will hold extra spells for the D&D Necromancer.

The entire PDF is intended to be non-campaign specific and is mainly centred around providing the DM with additional tools for making undead & Necromantic advesaries & encounters. If anyone are interested in contributing, have comments on the chapters or anything else, feel free to post your feelings here. I am also looking for good ideas on spells / items / monsters.

 

[Clay_More]

The current Templates that will be included are...

Vampire Template (The template is divided into 15 categories with varying power. Also uses Vampiric Gifts as a kind of Vampire Feats.)

Lich Templates

Wizard Lich - Archlich (The Lich template that most resembles the standard D&D Lich. As with all Lich templates, it grows in power over age)

Sorcerer Lich - Astral Lich (The Sorcerer Lich actually starts out as a PrC, where the Sorcerer slowly begins absorbing necromantic energy which he uses to sustain himself. Slowly, he grows undead and thus becomes a Lich. Has no Phylactery)

Druid Lich - Heirophalich (This Lich has the ability to defile the nature, drawing energy from the dying plants. Has similarities with the Wasteland Druid)

Cleric Lich - Heriticaumlich (This is another rare subtype of Lich which is a cleric that has undertaken the dark ritual to becomming undead. In my opionion, the Mummy was always a poor choice for immortality for clerics)

Blackguard Lich - Dread Knight (This is hardly even a Lich, but is included in the same chapter. The Dread Knight is an undead champion that died while serving his evil deity. Has some similarities with the Lich, uses his Sword as Phylactery)


I have been considering including a chapter holding some NPC necromancer archmages.
If anyone have any suggestions for Themed Necromancy chapters that they feel should be included, please feel free to make the suggestion.

 

[Lord Ravinous]

I'm no DM, so I won't be much help stat-wise, but some extra undead creatures for raising would be interesting, along w/ some feats that bolster summoned undead maybe. Possibly some different versions of "Flesh Golems", and definatly some utility spells, for beefing up their armies.

I know this prolly seems like a lame attempt at helping, but, like I said, I'm no DM. Just your friendly neighborhood necromancer.

EDIT: given some time and proper direction I could attempt to draw up some stats, dunno if any of that even interests ya.

 

[Ocelot]

Necromantic Metamagical Feats and Abilties... ???

Love the idea of undead Grafts....

 

[Clay_More]

I'm no DM, so I won't be much help stat-wise, but some extra undead creatures for raising would be interesting, along w/ some feats that bolster summoned undead maybe. Possibly some different versions of "Flesh Golems", and definatly some utility spells, for beefing up their armies.

Alot of that is already planned for. The way Flesh Golems are going to get alternated can be found in the Flesh & Steel portion of the book. Im planning on finishing some magical grafts that combine technology & undead. The Flesh Golems have always, In My Opinion, been a combination of this. Yet, what I was planning in the Flesh & Steel chapter wasn't simply new creatures, it is more a way of modifying your own creations. More options for DM's that way

Necromantic Metamagical Feats and Abilties... ???

Yes to both, in moderate amounts. Still, feats have been my weak side when it comes to designing. I will though include the Vampire template with its updated Vampiric Gifts (those can actually be seen in the Vampire Thread).

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Clay_More mate!

Sounds like an interesting idea.

I would be interested in seeing a discussion of Undeath and Religion. With perhaps a few undead gods (not necessarily with stats, although when you have the IH things like Avatars will be easy to cook up).

I'll post some more as I have a think on the matter.

 

[Clay_More]

Well, we have had our little talks on the subject of undead deities

Nice seeing ya here UK. Keeping you away from your work again, am I? Well, the deities that are going to appear are partly some that have already appeared in a published product.
Still, I have my difficulties with the perception of deities of undead stature. How their energies are affected, etc.

Good thing about making the PDF is though that I have good parts of the material already. Items, Templates etc. Off course, alot of the things I have contemplated about putting into it are still thoughts & ideas in my head, so they will need to be put down in writing.

I will be using some famous necromancers to introduce the various spells & items, to give it some atmosphere. I always liked the way spells appear on the MTG series, with small pieces of text that really adds alot of Flavour. I think the dear Michael Morris would agree

 

[HellHound]

By the way... Dare I claim "Dibs" on this project?

Alrighty then.

The official announcement about this won't be for another week or two on the main page, but I've been talking with Clay_More for the past two days and we have agreed to work together on this project and release it as the sequel to "Necromancer's Legacy" aka "Thee Compleat Librum ov Gar'Udok's Necromantic Artes".

The official announcement will occur when I get a draft of the cover done by one of our artists.

And I must say that I look eagerly forward to working on this project with Clay_More.

 

[Night Watchman]

I'm new to this board, so, um... hi everyone

Anyway, I'm working on a steam-punk, divine magic heavy setting and when I saw this post, I thought "bingo!".

I do have one question though: Is this going to be free or will we need to pay for it?

I have also made a type of undead minion that fits into the whole Flesh and Steel thing. E-mail me if you'd like more info.

Again I'm really looking forward to this PDF.

 

[Clay_More]

Well, it will not be a free PDF, but some of the material has already appeared here on Enworld. I have here a short list of some of the threads in which I have posted some of the material already. All of these hold un-edited material though.

Archlich
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43915

Vampire
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41702

Necromantic Items - Last post on the Chu'latal Walker is probably going to appear in the Flesh & Steel chapter. Such things as the Frost Chamber are going to appear in the Elemental Dead chapter.
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41122


Welcome to Enworld Night Watchman (hmmm, same as my job).