Necromancers: Wizards or Clerics?

[Tuzenbach]

I mean, if a Wizard specialized in "death" type magic, he's pretty much a Necromancer, yes? But, isn't that mostly what lots of the Clerical powers have to do with anyway? All that curing and causing disease, healing and harming the body, etc., etc. I'm sure there's a way for a Cleric to specialize in Necromantic spells, so I suppose my question is this:

As far as Necromancers are concerned, is it better to have a Cleric who becomes one or a Wizard? Or for that matter, what about a Sorcerer?!

 

[Mordane76]

It depends.

In my experience, most fantasy "necromancers" are arcanists -- they are men who are willing to learn black magic to harm their fellows and extend their own life (or grant themselves eternity through unlife). Some have made pacts with dark powers -- this might be more befitting a cleric.


Mechanically speaking, if you're using 3.0 rules, Clerics make better necromancers -- they have access to all the spells generally required to do the deeds befitting evil necromancers. Necromancers in 3.0 almost had to have levels as clerics and wizards to be truly capable. Sorcerers were pretty much unable to pull off the necromancer schtick in 3.0 -- their limited spell selections would cripple them if they selected to focus on Necromancy.

In 3.5 rules, either is a viable choice -- the school of Necromancy received a big boost in spells, making the wizard necromancer more survivable than he was in 3.0. The sorcerer is still a far cry from being adequate mechanically, but even he benefits from the increases in the school of Necromancy.

 

[Wombat]

This is one of those many points where D&D maps D&D very well, but doesn't map fantasy literature very well at all.

Yes, in using D20 rules, clerics make much better necromancers than wizards do ... which I still find terribly odd.

 

[Merlion]

I agree with Wombat.
The whole deal of Create Undead and Create Greater undead not being on the Wiz/Sor spell list in 3.0 was rank absurdity.
Necromancer in most fantasy is an arcane type thing. Of course, in most fantasy all magic is an arcane type thing, and I am biased since I dont think clerics and the concept of an arcane/divine divide should even exist.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Here's a concept for your classical, cliched Necromancer: Take the classic Necromancer Wizard, then take Cloistered Cleric from Unearthed Arcana, and Gestalt the two classes into a single True Necromancer class with spells from both types of Magic, Undead Rebuking ability and even the Lore extraordinary ability. Or, if you'd rather have a combat-capable Necromancer, gestalt the classic Cleric with the Wizard.

 

[Scion]

mystic theurge! Cleric (undeath/whatever), wizard. Hit the theurge, be the master of undeath from every angle!

But yes, as written the cleric is much better at it.. same with pretty much everything else.