Look at things from a necromancer's point of view... as someone who is big into death and negative energy...
humble minion said:
Abjuration. Lose abjuration and you lose dispel magic. Big no-no. Even if you can cope with that (how?), you lose almost every single spell that can protect you from area-effects - energy resistances, globes of invulnerability, save boosts - the lot. First couple of low level evokers you face, you're going to be fried.
The necromancer isn't going to try to go toe to toe with evokers, he's going to send out his Legions of Undead (TM) to deal with them first. The evokers will bolow through their area-effect spells mowing down his minions.
A necromancer has undead, animated minions - he doesn't WANT to have dispel magics going off because that will "un-animate" them. Dispel magic is bad for business - causes too much collateral damage to the necromancer's own handiwork.
Illusion. A possibility. Losing invisibility hurts, and the image spells are great utilities, but Illusion can be sacrificed. you lose a lot of your potential for subtlety this way, though.
Of course, illusions - especially smell-affecting ones, are probably a good idea when you're surrounded by the stench of rotting corpses. :-b
Evocation. Losing pretty much all the area-affect blasting spells hurts (shadow evocations notwithstanding) since there is pretty much no other spell in the Wiz spell list that requires Ref saves, but sending is also a deceptively big loss (why is Telepathic Bond, which establishes a lasting mental communication, a divination while Sending, which establishes a brief mental communication, an evocation? Especially considering Demand is an enchantment!). Sacrificing evocation is almost an option for a cunning wizard but the lack of low-level attack spells is a real problem.
Again, the necromancer doesn't get his way by blasting things. The necromancer gets his way by sending out Legions of Undead or dealing personally with his targets. The threat of being withered or level-drained or tortured to death only to rise in undeath is not something most people particularly enjoy. The necromancer's power isn't feared because he can turn the town into ash... he's feared because he can turn the town into his mindless, undead slaves.
Conjuration: very hard to justify sacrificing, given its flexibility. From Mage Armour at low levels, to the summoning and calling spells at higher levels, to teleportation, plane shifts and gates, a wizard giving up conjuration is sacrificing many of the classes most powerful and iconic abilities.
Who needs to conjure creatures when you can animate them? Granted, the teleport and plane shift and demon summoning spells are probably within the flavor of a necromancer, but a good necromancer is never "in the thick of combat."
Enchantment - other than Illusion, this is the subtle school. Optional for a battlemage (though there are some real killers in there), but in a non-dungeon campaign with politics involved, enchantment is vital. Charm is an almost indispensible interogation aid, as well.
Why on earth does a necromancer want to have anything to do with enchantment? He can't use it on his zombies. He (usually) doesn't have other people around to use it on. As for interrogation, a necromancer doesn't need to be your friend - he'll just kill you and then use
speak with dead. Or worse, threaten to kill you and use animate dead so you can't be raised.
Transmutation: A bit like conjuration, there are a few absolutely essential everyday wizard abilities in here. Flight, levitation, lock-opening, stat boosts. Water breathing and polymorph may sound minor, but when you need them you really need them. Transmutation has Passwall, Gaseous Form, Knock, Stone Shape, Ethereal Jaunt and Polymorph. Without these, how does a wizard even get into a locked, unguarded room without blowing the place apart? Forsake Transmutation and the rest of the party will be readvertising your position after the first adventure.
The necromancer doesn't do the dirty work himself. Why cast water-breathing when you can just send some zombies and skeletons (which don't breathe) into the water instead? Why use gaseous form when you can send in an incorporeal wraith or spectre instead?
And then there's Necromancy. There's some great spells in here (Enervation, False life, Circle of Death, Horrid Wilting), but not that many which do unique, vital jobs. Finger of Death? Disintegrate can do the job. Magic Jar? Dominate can fake it. Wave of Exhaustion? If that's your best 7th-level battlespell then you're probably in trouble. You can give up necromancy and not miss out on much, unless you're the build-an-army-of-undead-to-conquer-the-world type (and even then Conjuring and binding fiendish creatures might be a better bet anyway)
Again, you're trying to make the necromancer a "blast mage" - he's not. Necromancers work best behind the scenes, out of sight, until they have their prey in their power.
I mean come on. Evil Necromancers are supposed to terrorise fantasy worlds. How can they do this if they can't summon demons, or teleport, or make their minions look like fair damsels, or put the king under their spell, or level city walls to let their rotting legions in, or even erect spell defences worth a damn. If any of these evil wizards chose necromancy because of the forbidden power it offered, they would probably have been better off getting a good nights sleep, drinking a nice mug of hot chocolate, and having another look at Conjuration instead... [/B]
Again, your problem is that you are equating "necromancer" to "megamage." As I said before, evil necromancers do not terrorize a village by threatening to turn it to ash - they terrorize the village by threatening to "involuntarily enlist" the populace into his unholy undead legions. They don't want to put the king under their spell, they want the king dead - or at least intimidated enough to stay out of their way. They don't need to summon demons - they have vampires and liches that will be happy to work with them. They don't need to erect spell defences - because nothing living should be able to get close enough to make them sweat.
The necromancer is not a crude "blast mage." He's a subtle intellectual who is ruthless, conniving, and has absolutely no reason to place special value on anyone - as he can always just animate their corpses. I get the feeling you want the necromancer to be a "blast mage" and he's just not. That's an evoker.
--The Sigil
