Necromancers...Who else wants them?

[Zaran]

And that intelligent undead are not universally, inherently and irrevocably evil.

Which implies that there are certain circumstances under which the creation or the act of becoming undead is not evil either.

Thus leaving a gap for a Necromancer in 4Ed's "no yucky evil PCs" design theme.

I can tell you that the ghosts in that picture did not want to be undead. And they weren't created by a necromancer. Necromancy is about using death magic or the twisting of the life force to the will of the magic user. There is nothing heroic about that sort of thing. A necromancer might believe he's doing good but so did Anakin Skywalker.

And for you guys who want to play necromancers. Go ahead. I'm not saying you can't. I'm not even saying that DnD doesn't have a place for it. The necromancy school of magic has been a part of DnD for a long time.

I'm just saying that I do not like them and will not buy a book because just because it has necromancers in it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I fondly remember a character named Raef in a game I ran. He had a very high Charisma, threw lavish parties, and was on everyone's social calendar. The player's stated goal when developing Raef was "to put the 'romance' back in Necromancy."

 

[Klaus]

I can tell you that the ghosts in that picture did not want to be undead. And they weren't created by a necromancer. Necromancy is about using death magic or the twisting of the life force to the will of the magic user. There is nothing heroic about that sort of thing. A necromancer might believe he's doing good but so did Anakin Skywalker.

And for you guys who want to play necromancers. Go ahead. I'm not saying you can't. I'm not even saying that DnD doesn't have a place for it. The necromancy school of magic has been a part of DnD for a long time.

I'm just saying that I do not like them and will not buy a book because just because it has necromancers in it.

How about some reflavoring?

A heroic necromancer might be a "speaker of the dead", from a culture where the soldiers of the past don't cease their service to the land after death. Instead, they wait wherever they fall, swords in hand, waiting for a call from their living descendants to rise and once again do battle for their homeland.

 

[Piratecat]

I can tell you that the ghosts in that picture did not want to be undead. And they weren't created by a necromancer. Necromancy is about using death magic or the twisting of the life force to the will of the magic user. There is nothing heroic about that sort of thing. A necromancer might believe he's doing good but so did Anakin Skywalker.

And for you guys who want to play necromancers. Go ahead. I'm not saying you can't. I'm not even saying that DnD doesn't have a place for it. The necromancy school of magic has been a part of DnD for a long time.

I'm just saying that I do not like them and will not buy a book because just because it has necromancers in it.

That's cool, and that's definitely your prerogative. I'd buy it, though; in a game that has an undead character race (the revenant), I find "necromancers MUST be evil" a difficult position to support.

There's an interesting discussion to be had in "what societal barriers do necromancers have to struggle against?" There might be some fun complications to use in a game featuring a PC necromancer.

 

[Zaran]

You would definately have Raven Queen followers after you.

 

[mneme]

You might -be- a Raven Queen follower. After all, Revenants are undead by her grace -- there's no reason a PC necromancer couldn't be operating under her auspices (and hunting down evil necromancers who didn't have an arrangement with the Raven Queen).

 

[Felon]

I seem to recall a very honorable character from a beloved fantasy book who led an army of undead to do battle against the forces of evil.

If I could only remember his name...

Oh yeah, him.

No, but that does mean people who use undead to fight evil can be heroic.

Recruiting an army of ghosts to aid you in battle neatly sidesteps any concerns over defiling corpses or souls. Can a heroic necromancer completely avoid the latter?

Having said that, we can note that the warlock seems to get by with his pact powers feasting on life forces. There's a warlock PP that walks with around with a big of soul shards.

 

[DracoSuave]

Recruiting an army of ghosts to aid you in battle neatly sidesteps any concerns over defiling corpses or souls. Can a heroic necromancer completely avoid the latter?

Having said that, we can note that the warlock seems to get by with his pact powers feasting on life forces. There's a warlock PP that walks with around with a big of soul shards.

Well, in the case of Aragorn, he didn't exactly -enslave- the undead to do his bidding. He entreated with them and struck a deal.

So, a necromancer who raises the undead to do his bidding? Not so heroic, not so good. A necromancer who entreats the -dead- to help him? That's more like the shaman, but instead of spirits, it's ghosts. That -can- be very heroic.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Necromancy is about using death magic or the twisting of the life force to the will of the magic user. There is nothing heroic about that sort of thing.

As I pointed out, that is but one form of Necromancy.

Upthread, I pointed out that the difference between a good or evil Houngan or Mambo in the practice of voudoun was the quality of their actions.

The evil ones act as you say- they selfishly use their power to manipulate the dead. They enslave the dead.

The good ones, however, strike deals with the dead. The spirits who work with them do so voluntarily, they are volunteers and allies, not slaves.

 

[Zaran]

That seems like what a shaman does. I don't have issues with what a shaman does. One can say that's a form of necromancy but I do not think that is what those who want to play necromancers want to do. I've found that most people who want to play necromancers want to have undead armies of minions and suck the life force out of their enemies.