Players really want the Necromancer? (Forked: Non-published concepts you want)

[Boarstorm]

Ewww....

Is it time to break out the necrophilia jokes? I've got a ton of 'em...

 

[Evilhalfling]

I had 2-3 necromancers in my 3.5 game - a dread necromancer (teenager) who is still remembered for his villian monologs on his "HORRIBLE UNDEAD POWERS!!" and his realtive powerless against a death-warded party.

And a pair of nercomancers who thought they were heros/natural scientists who were gradually seduced into evil by repeated uses of necromancy - they eventually became ends justifies the means types.

The necromancer most effective at raising corpses? the warlock with the dead walk - 1minute undead for no cost, permanent zobies and Skellies at 50gp/HD

and for 4e? I betting that temp undead will be similar to cleric summoned spirits, perm undead is definatly a ritual - practically textbook definition of a ritual.

 

[Intense_Interest]

and for 4e? I betting that temp undead will be similar to cleric summoned spirits, perm undead is definatly a ritual - practically textbook definition of a ritual.

Hmm. Maybe a class ability that reduces the speed and/or cost of the ritual? Or should the ritual be introduced in the PHB II for the complete-ists and then throw the Necromancer Class in a later pack?

But I just do not see them stuffing psionic classes or the Necromancer in the Eberron book for one simple reason: while there are places for both in Eberron, neither are unique to Eberron. Unlike the Artificer, which is Eberron's pet class.

Yet I can see it, because I don't think that Swordmages are "unique" to FR either. But if the FR only includes one class, we'll have some empirical evidence for only the Artificer.

 

[Mercule]

But I must admit that not one, but two players of 3e, have played neutral cleric undead raisers (in fact it was one player's very first character in 3e), so there must be something to that archetype that some players gravitate to.

I always kinda wanted to play a paladin of Wee Jas and get the DM to okay having command instead of turn.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

As a long term fan of Ravenloft, Necromancers are definitely something that needs to be included as a playable class if they plan on relaunching the setting. One of my favorite 3e ravenloft memories was of a character a friend was playing who started off as a doctor(expert) and ended up dabbling in necromancy when he realized the futility of science in the face of the fantastic.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm curious as to how these necromancers handled whether their actions inflicted emotional trauma on the dead person's friends and family members, surely some of whom are innocent and not looking to be BBEGs some day. Or is that where the neutrality comes in?

What dead people's friends and families? The necromancers typically animated humanoids the party had killed in combat, they didn't go robbing graves. Why the hell would they? I've never known a D&D party to run particularly short of humanoid corpses, have you?

Roguerogue, you seem to be stuck in the same wierd confused place that Rechan started, thinking that all Necromancers can do is hang out in the graveyard stealing corpses. That's not the case.

I can think of one time that one of the Necromancers raised several "friendly" corpses - He did so to prevent living people from dying. If that caused "emotional trauma", then oh well, frankly. Better alive and a bit upset than y'know, eaten by ghouls. It's not like these are soft 21st century wimps, either, they're late-medieval country-folk, most of whom have seen some pretty horrible stuff.

Frankly, if inflicting "emotional trauma" in the process of saving lives makes you non-good, then I don't think there's a single good adventurer in D&D.

 

[Set]

Eh, this is 4E. People who are *part-demon* are now a core race (and people who make Pacts with Fiends are a core class!).

I'm pretty sure that Necromancers rate somewhere lower on the 'OMG it's EVIL!' scale...

The big 4E issue would be the extra actions available to your undead minions, IMO. Same deal with Conjurors or the Leadership Feat or Animal Companions, slows down game play, and 4E is meant to be fast, fast, fast. No extra actions for j00.

 

[Nymrohd]

People are also interested in white necromancy which could quite honestly make for a great leader character. A necromancer should be able to heal people both of damage and conditions or even call their spirits back from the dead, he should be able to curse and cripple his opponents, use spells of poison, blood, bone and flesh. Animation of undead is just one of the things they can do and should simply not be all there is.

 

[Jhaelen]

Really, the problem with the Necromancer is less flavor (as others pointed out, Warlocks have flavor issues that are overcome), and more that it's a "pet" class.

True. I've been thinking of the 'minion master' type of necromancer who never leaves home without an army of undead.

Now, a character class concept for a necromancer with a different focus that includes non-evil necromantic effects might indeed be interesting.

 

[jdrakeh]

I just want rules for necromancy as a DM. Screw the players. Necromancy is for Bad Guys.