Has anyone ever played an RPG campaign as a necromancer?
I really want to play a game as a novice necromancer and slowly build power and influence, establish a cult, raise undead, craft dread magic items, take over the world, and become a lich. Maybe something like the events of the initial stages of the Warcraft III campaign but as an RPG.
Anyone ever played in a game like this, or run a game like this?
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Look up Hollowfaust: City of Nevromancers.
Best take on neutral, and good necromancers ever.
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I played a not-evil necromancer once. But since you seem to be looking at probable wanting to go the evil necromancer lich route, I don't know if my story-time would be relevant or not.
Go for it. I'm not settled on being evil. I'm mostly curious about people's experiences playing necromancers, if they ever did any sort of empire-building, and how they accomplished it.
ya. I played a ng necromancer that worked to bring the living back to life to allow the dead their chance to finish their affairs. After a local monastary's new leader decided i was a threat to all mankind, he murdered my characters daughter and desecrated the body to the point that i couldn't bring her back to life. i then went and became more powerful than he could fathom (this was an epic progression game) and brought hell down upon his religion. the other pc's wer a death knight, a blackguard/cleric or kelemvor and a rogue that had fallen for my charcter's daughter. My minions had a direct order not to harm innocents and i broadcast a message that rang throughout the city declaring all but the followers of the faith that did not lay down arms would be killed. a 50'000 strong army of undead was enough to convince them that i had the stronger argument. I brought the head of the faith to kneel and face judgement as an avatar of kelemvor was called to provide witness in my characters death. his god released all bonds holding him as i took his soul as mine. Kelemvor maked me and my group as his chosen and left without another word. My army was laid to rest where they belonged and there was exactly one death. We were allowed to take his mansion and helped re-direct the faith into a more prosperous future.
Righteous. Was there any kind of grand strategy or geo politics going on?
during the buildup to the final "battle" there was a lot of maneuvering, quite a bit of intrigue convincing different surrounding territories to let us use their graveyards, etc. This part of the campaign took my guys from level 10 to level 40.
after that, the city state became a theocracy honouring justice in life, death and undeath. Many patriarchs of family joined the undead ranks to protect their future decendants. By this time, My character had become a lich and was generally seen as the leader of the city. Many surrounding kingdoms became needlessly feared of us and our current arc is leading our characters into a neighboring kingdom to assist with an entire part of the country getting leveled. So far, we think it is a godfall of one of the greater gods. There are a couple possible options, but we are building an army to confront it as we go. we essentially control the eastern half of a continent through political allies and such.
>level 40
What system are you guys running with?
Ive actually been tempted to ask one of my DMs if I can run a necromancer in one of their campaigns, where I play more of a support role. Talking to ghosts to conduct investigations, communing with the dead to know if a person can be trusted or if they're lying, and only if I absolutely have to, getting involved in combat. But I feel like I need a few more non combat uses for necromancy. thoughts?
Well technically I think a lot of direct healing spells are necromancy ? And you could branch out in all that concerns ethereal magic, ghost-walking, scrying in the past, stuff more related to ghosts than to skellies
More like Vitalomancy
My forever GM won't allow me to play a necromancer unless I'm evil aligned. I think I just need to play with other people when I wanna necromancer.
I call bullshit. Maybe as a backstory/fluff, but a 50,000 strong undead soul army? Come on...
I'm playing a pretty powerful necromancer in our current game. It's superheroes though so it's not really the same as fantasy equivalent.
healing itself isn't necro, but if 3.5 there are a number of necro spells that deal damage and heal. Vampiric touch and another one where the caster heals a target for twice the damage he takes as part of the spell.
Healing USED TO be necro, but WotC changed it for some retarded reason.
D&D epic level system from 3/3.5. it allows for up to level 30 in the actual book, but gives data for as high as you want.
try epic level shit in D&D. once you hit level thirty, you are nothing short of a demi-god with a +5 vorpal/speedy/brilliant energy weapon. there were a lot of rituals, wish spells and permanency shit going on too, as well as alliances with clerics and other wizards. i dont have the actual notes for that army anymore, but we did the mathematics on it over the course of a year or so every session. it adds up.
Has anyone ever played an RPG campaign as an abjurer?
I really want to play a game as a novice abjurer and slowly build power and influence, establish a cult, dispel magic, craft protective magic items, take over the world, and become an anti-mage mage. Maybe something like the initial stages of playing Silencer in DotA 2 but as an RPG.
Anyone ever played in a game like this, or run a game like this?
I'm trying to test out a homebrew class based around psionic necromancy in a pbp. Still in selection period, but ideally I'll be looking to play as a tech-support type, having ghosts and spirits run around and haunt machines, possess electronics and occasinally help the party or my PC in a pinch. Mostly just glad to get some confirmation that it's actually ghosts instead of being crazy like they'd thought for the first decade or so.
Fluffing most of my crafted items as possessed by lesser spirits or fragments of dead memories that couldn't collect themselves fully after death.
Hollowfaust is pretty cool for this sort of thing in a more traditional setting.
That's pretty much the cookie cutter necromancer that every single person who's ever rolled a necro + their goals.
It sounds fun and all on paper but it starts getting screwy mid game and above when monsters are immune to a good portion of necro effects more often than not. Or spell resistance/anti magic becomes a thing.
Most high powered evil beings are going to be wary of dealing with em and high powered goo beings are probably going to outright attempt to thwart your every move or just flat out kill you.
Although if your DM is willing to do an evil based edgy campaign then it could be a fun ride.
But
People generally don't take too kindly to their loved ones being rezzed as henchmen.
The town guard doesn't take too kindly to the villagers being killed by their rezzed kinfolk from the local graveyard.
The local lord/baron doesn't enjoy it when his/her tax paying people got killed by some upstart murder hobo.
And on up the chain.
Clerics get a little upset too yo.
Just finished up DMing a game that started at 30 and ended at 33, as well as continuing a 2 to 23 so far in 3.P. 50,000 is well within reach by then, let alone 40 when using Undead Leadership, allies, and the numerous buffs that multiply how many HD you can control at once via Command/Control Undead alone.
Why, hello there.
Has anyone ever played an RPG campaign as an enchanter?
I really want to play a game as a novice enchanter and slowly build power and influence, establish a cult, hypnotize people, craft mind control collars, take over the world, and have a mesmerized harem. Maybe something like the events of the initial stages of the Yuri's Revenge campaign but as an RPG.
Anyone ever played in a game like this, or run a game like this?
Has anyone ever played an RPG campaign as an evoker?
I really want to play the game as a novice evoker and slowly build power and influence, establish a cult, blast people, craft destructive magic items, take over the world, and destroy anyone and anything I don't like. Maybe something like the events of the intial stages of playing a mage in World of Warcraft but as an TTRPG.
Anyone ever played in a game like this, or run a game like this?
>Fire_wizard.jpg
That is just cringeworthy.
>necromancers
>Good
Fuck off.
This is generally never interesting, and a lot of people play Necromancers as a contrarian, spotlight-stealing archetype.
Why is this an issue? Well, Necromancers deal with undead, negative energy and so on. I mean, they usually wear black. These are inherently villainous powers, and NO I know they're not limited by alignment. But generally they're scary people and not well-liked.
Also, undead - Let's assume D&D - are weak. They smell bad, they're individually weak (Except incorporeal undead) and you can't take them anywhere for fear of causing chaos and mass panic. Since Necromancers are more the 'lots of minions', that can bog down the game - Or if you have one powerful, disgusting minion, it's even harder to interact in town.
The only way this could work is as a dedicated Necromancer campaign where the players are all acolytes of the Dark Arts. (Sort of like Way of the Wicked, which accepts that some players might want to delve into that.) But serious Necromancers generally don't fit into a normal campaign too well.
Counterpoint just to present one.
Necromancers (Bar wizard and cleric) are often charisma based casters meaning they tend to be dangerously charismatic.
Negative energy isn't inherently evil, but that's a talking point so well covered that its wearing a Burka by this point.
Undead can be obscenely powerful if you take/use the right ones, which is a danger in and of itself of course because you risk overshadowing the other PCs, the aim on your minions is to find a middle ground, maybe have the army hang out in a dungeon or ruin between jobs, only keep one.
Or, as I found out in playing my own powerful necromancer, in a bag of holding or three.
You throw those bitches inside and leave them there until you need a squad, then turn it inside out and laugh.
Necromancers are Charisma-based casters? Aren't they Intelligence-based casters, like - you know - Wizards? The issue is that they're still studying forbidden lore and so on. This is why Necromancers don't usually have dark charisma, they're scary-looking, bony guys in robes who look like they're the antagonist of a horror movie.
Also, your undead are always less powerful than your current level-threats. Unleashing a swarm of skeletons just means a LOT of rolling to very little effect. By the time you get powerful undead killers, you can actually just curse and blast people with far more powerful debiliating effects.
>Necromancers (Bar wizard and cleric) are often charisma based casters
No, they're not.
Wizard-Necromancers are Int based.
Cleric-Necromancers are Wis based - They also got Cha based command.
Cha based ones?
Oracles of Bones or Juju Oracles.
Sorcerers (Undead Bloodline ect)
Dread Necromancers.
White Necromancers.
Sacred Necromancers.
Death Mages.
Lich motherfucker, do you speak it? The base all their abilities and their HP off Cha.
Basically unless you're doing it for Jesus or hiding out in a library-dungeon somewhere touching yourself to thoughts of Vampirella finding your I-only-cast-necromancy-spells-when-I'm-out-of-fireballs half dedication to the art impressive then you're cha based.
>Unleashing a swarm of skeletons just means a LOT of rolling to very little effect.
D&D 5e's "bounded accuracy" makes a swarm of generic human skeletons with shortbows exceedingly vicious, particularly if the mob rules from the Dungeon Master's Guide (which occupy an odd space between "default rule" and "optional rule") are in play.
This is all the more the case for a 6th-level necromancer wizard, who can add their proficiency bonus to their created undead creatures' weapon damage rolls. I would go so far as to call a 9th-level necromancer who uses their 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-level spell slots on nothing but maintaining a force of 22 skeletons to be overpowered combat-wise.
>Pathfinder
Ignored.
>ignoring anything that doesn't line up with muh argument after getting shit spanked
Ignored in turn.
Will do - but in exchange, you should check out Banestorm: Abydos.
Best take on neutral, and evilish necromancers ever.
>White Necromancers.
>Death Mages.
3rd party
>Sacred Necromancers.
never heard about that one. Propably 3rd party too
>Twillight Sage Arcanist
>Gravewalker Witch
>Reanimator Alchemist
>Spirit Warden Shaman (anti-undead, but that's necromancy too)
>propably a bunch of 3rd party crap
Neither of those is Cha-based
No, but I really want to. Having an undead army and chilling with other members of you cabal sounds like a blast. D&D probably wouldn't handle that too well, maybe something like GURPS would be a better idea.
Has anyone ever played an RPG campaign as a transmuter?
I really want to play a game as a novice transmuter and slowly build power and influence, establish a cult, create chimeras, craft stat-buffing magic items, take over the world, and polymorph into anything. Maybe something like the events of the initial stages of a transformation hentai but as an RPG.
Anyone ever played in a game like this, or run a game like this?
I have a little 2 page story I wrote a while ago and have been re-editing every so often for a long time.
it features a CG Necromancer, and ideally is how I'd retire any character I play(cause I cannot get behind playing a non-good character in my head) with a few variations.
anybody interested?
Go ahead
Necromancy is always fun
>if you say so
He was a cheery man. Whenever anyone asked his name he always responded the same, “Bob, and your name?” He lived by himself on the edge of the village running a good business incinerating people as part of the local tradition of cremation; His house was of moderate size at the front of a large lot backed by a high earthen mound (none remember a time it wasn’t there). Rumors wandered; that he was secretly rich, that he collected magical objects, and that his furnace was magically powered, etc. however no-one could confirm the rumors and he never went to the trouble to deny them. (Another elusive piece of information was his age.) On days when he wasn’t preparing a body he could be depended upon to watch the local children, and from the word of the children it seemed he was quite the accomplished storyteller. On those rare days when no-one died and no children needed watching (and sometimes even then) he could be seen practicing with a massive longbow sending arrow after arrow into target posts he’d driven into the ground near the great pile of dirt. Occasionally he would host archery contests or carve hunting bows for sale in the market. Among Bob’s oddities, one often struck many as the oddest, when merchants came to trade he’d always buy up large quantities of cloth as well as all the iron, copper, bronze, and other raw metals that the blacksmith couldn’t afford or just didn’t buy. It was never very much at a time, for the village was far from any mining settlements, but the odd purchases were as regular as the sunrise. When asked about them he’d just smile and say, “it’s for a little project of mine…
One spring a merchant drove his cart in with the news of a massive band of orks wandering through the land pillaging and razing whole villages to the ground. And that the band was working its way in the general direction the village, this problem was immediately the subject of discussion everywhere. A week passed then they started coming, a steady stream of refugees filed through the town one way and some eight-hundred soldiers of the local noble the other. News reached the town a fortnight later of the staggering defeat of the soldiers in an ambush, along with the three survivors.
When the local children spoke fearfully of this news to Bob (who seldom took an interest in matter outside the village), He told the children wait outside while he went and got some things, when he returned he had belted on an old looking hand-axe, and a quiver of arrows. With the children in tow Bob walked to the home of the mayor and knocked upon the door, The mayor himself answered.
“What is the meaning of this?” his gaze took in Bob’s weaponry, “are we under attack, WHAT IS IT?!?!” it had been a trying time for everyone, especially the mayor whose duty it was to see to town affairs, including the planning and construction of walls and defenses.
“This business with the orks is causing problems and I don’t like it, it’s scaring the children.” the mayor looked confused by this odd statement and was about to speak when Bob cut him off. “I’d like to put a stop to it, but I’ll need the cooperation of the town.” The civic leader looked at him silently for a moment
“You, a lone old man? What can you do, or do you have an army hidden away?” the man just smiled and said.
“Open the main road out of the village an hour before dark, then you shall see.” He turned and left the mayor standing at his door, dumfounded look and all.
Later, the word was given that the road be cleared for important town business. At his house the children watched Bob walk to the back of his lot and start digging out the front of the mound he and others had used as an arrow backstop for years. By evening he had uncovered a large door of aged wood bound in steel; He opened it and disappeared inside; when he reemerged what followed him was a sight that would live forever in the minds of all who saw, for he lead a great horde of undead warriors; First came over a hundred ranks, ten abreast of preserved undead wearing spotless plates of steel armor, each warrior was adorned with symbol of a fire inlaid in copper on their breastplate, or of a silver star, each carried a hand-and-a-half sword and shield. Behind them came the skeletons, over two thousand of them, each one reinforced with banding of iron along the spine and limbs, all of them carried a longbow and quiver loaded with black arrows as well as a menacing hammer, behind them trotted some ten carts pulled reanimated pack beasts loaded greatly with more quivers of arrows. The last and smallest group numbered no more than three dozen, undead again, clad in cloaks of black patterned in silver, from within the ebon shrouds darkened plates of armor glinted faintly, and slung about them was an array of implements of death, all of which glowed a hue of dark nightshade purple visible even to the eyes of the mortals watching.
At the end of town the mayor stood awestruck at the sight of ‘harmless old Bob’ the fixture of the town, the guardian of the children and the dead, marching surrounded by laughing children and followed by a legion.
“See” said one child loudly to his parents “his stories ARE true he even let me help with some of these.”
“Look its great grandpa” said a little girl. One of the undead, without missing a step, drew and waved his sword at the little girl and her family, who promptly fainted. The mayor looked at the child then at the man then back again. The necromancer halted his army before him bow in hand.
“The eternal Legion, at your service all volunteers accounted for awaiting your leave to
how does it stack up for something I initially hand-wrote in 5th grade cause I had no friends and nothing to do but read books?
i've had this same idea. You're pretty much a coroner, using mundane and magic methods to determine cause of death, a medium to provide closure to families who didn't get to say goodbye, and an ombudsman/adjudicator for wills.
You could also be used to get confessions from executed prisoners, just to be 100% sure the town convicted the right guy.
take some cues from Card's "Speaker for the Dead."
Snags: some groups believe you dont conjure souls, just illusions to further your client's ends(or that souls can lie);
some believe a conjured soul is somehow despoiled or damned by your powers