MoogleEmpMog said:
Ah, OK. I was bored stiff (pun only somewhat intended) by Diablo 1, so I never got 2 and didn't recognize that.
Put that way, it makes ME think of Angels and Archangels in Heroes of Might and Magic, who could rez other stacks in combat and were ALSO awesome.
Well, Diablo II was a better version of the "click until the monsters are dead" system. And, AFAIAC, should have been the last version. It had a few interesting things in it. My favourite, as I mentioned above, was the necromancer. This character's powers amount to low-powered direct-damage, curses and debuffs, and raising dead monsters to serve him. His entire shtick was to stand back, curse the enemies, and let his expendable undead minions (and less-expendable golems) chew away at them. Despite the fact that minions and companions are currently out of fashion, I'd love to see a necromancer built around this concept for 4th edition.
He would be a controller/defender, and his abilities would include:
1. Short-term raise dead that creates minions whose power is based on the caster, not the creature being raised
2. Companion golems at higher levels--very weak compared to "real" golems, but essentially mini-tank front-line combatants (the defender aspect of the class) that come in different themed styles, the selection of which constitutes a tactical choice.
3. Curses and debuffs
4. Very limited direct damage, to get the ball rolling with the raise dead effects at low levels, before you have a golem to provide dead bodies for you.
In order to prevent the necromancer from dominating the combat turn with his minions' actions, I suggest that minions be limited to "attack for damage" on their turns, which always occur on the necromancer's initiative. Any special effects like the blood golem's health leech (feeds health back to both the golem and the necromancer) should be conceived as automatic abilities that do not require player choice, cannot be turned off, and are quick to resolve. I also suggest a fairly low (3, perhaps) number of minions active at one time.
A necromancer would be a total wuss in melee combat without his minions, and so his strategy should be to hide back, throw his direct-damage effects until someone's dead, and then use the bodies of the dead to attack the still-living. The raise effects may work well as "until the end of the encounter" at-will effects, while the golem could be a per-day effect with no maximum duration. The effect of having a necromancer in your party would be that you have the ability to turn a slight advantage into a cascading victory, as the necro raises the dead to add to his side's power.
Anyway, I just love the concept of a character who relies almost entirely on minion farming, and would like to see it realized in a tabletop environment.
