Hey Veeky Forums any idea how to make a viable necromancer in pathfinder? Also general necromancy thread

im down to post some necromancer art

Fair enough

Would it be too cliche or overplayed for the necromancer to be affable in their quest to resurrect their loved one?

my necromancer's purpose was to raise the dead and return their souls. I wanted to raise a ton of undead then start a cult following to become a goddess of undeath similar to Evening Glory.

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Unless things have changed in the half-year since I last looked at Pathfinder, the best way to make a necromancer is to go cleric with the Death domain and then take all the undead feats.

The most likely alternative is Master Summoner, and ask the DM if you can summon level appropriate undead instead of elementals or celestial lions or whatever. I think there are already a few undead on the list.

But the key thing to remember when you play this sort of character is that you need to pay much more attention to combat. You can't play a minion master and expect people to wait for you to shuffle your ten trillion dudes across the board every turn without wanting to punch you in the face. You need to plan what you are going to do when your turn comes around, and enact it quickly and efficiently. Also, you will break the game over your fucking knee. Minion master builds are bullshit in Pathfinder, ESPECIALLY Master Summoner.

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my personal favorite.

Returning souls to animated skeletons is an awful idea. They'd be unable to feel anything, or even speak.

Your BEST case scenario is a bunch of lethargic goth skellies.

i was going for fresh corpses, but skeletons have a "its magic, aint gotta explain this" motif so the speaking part is covered

That sounds. AMAZING

Any anons happen to remember an old, old post? From around the time of the first memegames, there was an user who was making a custom campaign. It was based around a great walled city in a frozen world, but I can't remember much else beyond that. Is that user still around? Did that ever get finished?

Well, since nobody else posted it, I did some digging on the archives. The relevant stuff is under the name "Evengale Councilman", the last post being over a year ago.

For a Lawful Good, you're the sheriff to a now defunct town. The law of the town was kept by an order of Paladins garrisoned there and a Necromancer with one apprentice. The Nercos were investigators, raising the dead to ask for the killer or similar. While the Paladins were called away on a campaign, you're town was overrun by 'insert convenient villain here'. You now look elsewhere to ply your trade and bring about justice and peaceful rest. Added Plot Hook, the order of Paladins are hunting you. The laws of the town puts the Necromancers to death after a level of training is achieved to prevent riding evil. Do you submit to Lawful Death or call out Evil in the Good.

A Chaotic Good, you were a orphan with dreams. You knew you were meant for greatness, bound in your bloodline, like the stories. A local lord dies and donates some of his library, including a tomb on magic. This is your sign! You train from the book, learning all it can teach until finally, you set out to make your name. Too bad the book was all about necromancy. Plot hooks, you track down your mother's body and contact her spirit to find the destiny of your bloodline! She was a whore who died of STD's and you were a worthless pirate's bastard/ She hates you for the skills you learned. Do you crumble at this truth or gather your power and Make Your Own Destiny in Light!

Or try Neutral Anything. Your a doctor by trade. Some practitioners scoff at four selling o your craft, but you pay them no mind. Fleshcrafting from the dead to the living is more than golems and abominations. Sometimes its limb replacements and plastic surgery. That's right, your the guy who makes the bits bigger with cadaver parts. Sure a church or two hates you for the work, of course a posh lord or lady wants to kidnap you for permanent access to your skills. And maybe, just maybe, your teacher wants your head for insulting his craft. Whatever though, the people love you! Play a healer/crafter with high charisma.

Gonna admit though, I stole that last Neutral bit from a story on Spacebattles.

undead lord archetype is really good for viable necromancer build

>how does a good person become a necromancer?
his culture has no stigma on the use of undead, skellies and ghosts are as common as seeing people
they use "ancient warrior spirits" or just straight up use bone puppets, instead of obligatory edgy screaming souls
as for the person himself, just make him an average joe, who happens to have an interest in the occult
he wants to know about life and death, and admits that life and death are just two sides of the same coin, skeletons are just a twilight zone between the night and day of life and death

they seek to understand the balance of these primal life and death forces, and their research inevitably deals with the raising of the undead, as you study the nature of the life force

skeletons are just a stepping stone to creating life itself, all you have to do is practice

>The "good necromancer" meme needs to die.
if its a 17 year old meme beloved by nearly everyone, maybe its worth reanimating

Can a necromancer city exist and function like a regular city?

"Evil" characters should be affable whenever it makes sense for their character. Looking at your alignment as your first port of call for how your character will react is how you get a boring character.

A character who is pleasant, helpful, charismatic and thoughtful but still absolutely willing to slit the throats of an entire village to power his necro-ritual because in the end, that's just how the ritual works, sorry guys, is far more interesting as a character than Raven McSkullfucker, who broods in every corner of the tavern at once and talks constantly about his dark power.

The 'affability' doesn't even need to be an act. Petting the dog is a time honored villain tradition. Everyone sees themselves as the hero of their own story anyway.

An evil character should have a goal. If evil acts advance that goal do them. Where an evil character gets interesting is whether they start resorting to evil acts even when they aren't *directly* related to that goal.

I just wanted to say that the lack of nuance people have when playing necromancers is starting to irritate me. Nowadays there are like 2 schools of thought. The special snowflake good necromancer socialist idea and the stereotypical dark lord raising skeleton army. Necromancy is the magic of death which is just as natural as life. Raising the dead as soulless husks is evil but that's not all necromancers do. So good necromancers are perfectly reasonable but if you start raising skeletons you're at best neutral. I guess that's just my opinion but that's what I think of necromancers.

>The "good necromancer" meme needs to die.
I played a specialist wizard, necromancy.
Took ranks in healing, medical knowledge, anatomy, etc.
Didn't really cast many spells, never even made an undead until lv 12 or so.
Spent my time healing the sick in our small farming community.
Neutral good...not edgy. The concept of a wizard healing/herbal guy, could have been better done with druid or cleric , but the necromancer worked great.

> Lift in setting where city is built on corpses
> Nice place, ignoring that one dark detail, used to belong to some strange cult centuries ago but these days it's pretty much just as normie as anywhere else
> Place gets attacked by mongol-esque tribe
> feelsbadman.jpg
> No one knows how to do shit
> Any men who go fighting more likely than not have families and don't really have the skills anywho to be worth sacrificing
> Shit tons of skeletals around though
> Enough to drive off the assailing force if utilized in a good fashion
> Old books and shit left from the cult full of necromancy shit
> Only other option is to let the city get raped and pillaged

When used for a good cause, any kind of power is entirely justifiable

Why not someone cursed to be a necromancer?

Hey you stumbled into the ritual circle meant for the big bad? Well jokes on you now you inherit all the powers

Necromancy is just magic that calls on the dead or spirits. I have tribal societies with shamanist ancestor communion spells that are clearly necromantic, but don't seem at all evil.

>you're literally warping the natural order

Natural law is a philosophically indefensible position.

You know, I've decided I'm making a semi-lich like necromancer transformation that involves the necromancer severing their own head and replacing it with an animal or human skull. Party will slowly clue in to this as they are sent to deal with necromancer but find their severed heads. They'll think that someone else is doing the dirty work until the truth comes out.

Can someone help me think of puns and jokes for my necromancer to make? I'm running one for 5e

this is more or less what i was going to post. the 'good necromancer' idea i always had was it's more like a medium or something. someone who naturally channels the dead one way or the other rather than forcibly raising or enslaving them.

a good aligned necromancer could, for instance, be something of a spiritual vigilante. like say you have some kind of mobster who always murders people by throwing them into a river, that river's gonna have a lot of tormented souls. and so the good necro would help those spirits get their vengeance and willingly channel them to bring the mobster to justice.

making that work in an actual campaign would be a headache but it's not something i'd do in a big group. maybe if you had a small group and the story was built around it?

Especially when you're a fucking Wizard. Nothing Wizards do is in keeping with the natural order, it's just that other specialists have better PR, especially those Enchantment fucksticks.

>o good necromancers are perfectly reasonable but if you start raising skeletons you're at best neutral
i will rail against whatever god dares pigeonhole me
the more they say i cant be good, the more poor orphans i will save from death

>Raising the dead as soulless husks is evil
if they have no soul;, then no one is getting hurt, right? they are just bone puppets

I guess it's just because the system requires a quantification of good vs evil. I personally would be happy to be an evil character cause I'm a necromancer but help people with my undead should they let me. might even dress them up in robes with masks as to not scare the less enlightened of our age.

Suck on that when you find out the construct I sold you is a skele-man! you're crops have been better than ever due to his tireless work you god damn peasants!

why was the diablo 2 necromancer so cool, and probably the only good necro people actually accept here?

are there other necromancers who embrace the spooky nature of death while being good, instead of being emo goths?
faust from shaman king I guess, who went from bad to good, but not sure if he totally counts

found the salty druid

Yknow, there's other ways to be a necromancer aside from the skeletal horde option. Communing with spirits of the dead, making deals with the lords of the underworld, tearing the souls from foes, fucking with the cycle of life and death to create some kind of infinite loop of unliving vigour, that kind of thing. Don't limit your options.

One example that comes to mind is Gravedust from Guilded Age. He's definitely a Good Necromancer, but he never does so much as reanimate a rat. Instead, he communes with the spirits of the dead, imbues them into his weapons, and generally makes it his goal to ease the troubles of any soul he encounters, living or dead.

>Yknow, there's other ways to be a necromancer aside from the skeletal horde option.
thata like saying I want to go to mcdonald without ordering fries, burger, or a soda

its the coolest thing about it

In my opinion, the coolest thing about being a necromancer is fucking the border between life and death with your magically enhanced dick.

Burn your enemies down with banefire, bathe yourself in stygian waters to make yourself immune, tear their souls from their bodies, and then rip what secrets you need from what little remains of their skulls.

>Hey Veeky Forums any idea how to make a viable necromancer in pathfinder?
Spheres of Power 3pp magic rule set

I mean, here's an example.

Let's say, for example, you're a member of the cult of frozen bones. With horrible eldritch abominations devouring your ancestral homeland, you've fled to a horrible land of dead things and ice, and have joined a cult that teaches you to manipulate those things in order to survive. Not only do you have the option of creating a cheap, effective, unlimited, and undying army to use against the insanity-inducing foe, but being well-versed in water, ice, and death magic gives you plenty of other options. Due to being a mage-priest in the cult, having the ability to channel divine power certainly helps your combat prowess. The ability to bathe yourself in Stygian waters for increased protection is definitely convenient, but there's also the option of freezing the blood in their veins, filling their minds with horrific visions of the underworld, turning their flesh to dust, turning your flesh to water, and moving with all the speed of the waves. Being lolskeletons is generic, and is certain to bring every paladin in a 5-kingdom radius after your ass. Find a reason to embrace Necromancy, and don't be afraid to diversify your abilities.

I just like using skellies to save the world

Don't just use bones, then.

Bring back the spirits of those slain by those who would bring about the apocalypse to drown them in a horde of angry ghosts.

Commune with the ancestors and empty the barrows, sending an army of angry great-great-great-great-grandparents to deal with these goddamn whippersnappers.

Bargain with the undying lords of the sunless world for bane-forged weapons, death-sworn warriors, and immortal wraith-kings to serve alongside you.

C.L. Werner wrote a trilogy for WH Time of Legends, I think Dead Winter was the first one, has an "origin story" for a good guy priest of Morr turning psychopathic necromancer. He feels guilt over accidentally causing the death of his nephew and also the plague going on has him totally overwhelmed. He kinda cracks, trying to resurrect the nephew, but accidentally starts raising zombies from the church graveyard. Then he finds out that his nephew was actually murdered, so he starts using his zombies to kill the people responsible and it just spirals downhill.

I personally ran a true neutral necromancer. He was an elf, a scholar above all else and was exiled for looking into necromancy, even though it was purely to gain a better understanding of it. When exiled he basically just stayed holed up, reading old texts and learning with a few skeleton guards and occasionally helping the nearby village by protecting them from bandits and the like without their knowledge.

skeletons are cooler than ghosts

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why are you so against the idea of using terrifying skeletons for good?

I mean, it's certainly an option. If you have enough necromancers and skeletons lying around, you can brute-force your way through most problems. I just feel like there's a more elegant and interesting way to use necromancy than simply throwing a bunch of walking corpses at the enemy.

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This skeleton speaks the truth.

It helped that he was fighting, literally, the fucking Devil. Turns out, if you're fighting the personification of Evil and Fear, whatever methods you're using are ok, so long as they work.

well, beyond that the diablo 2 necromancer was a cool dude off the clock
he never though twice about his craft, his blase attitude towards death meant he could not be driven mad, he had an apprentice who continued his ideals, and he seemed to have a genuine belief in balance and justice
he would have been a hero even in comparison to normal bad guys

I've been thinking about making an undead plague doctor Necromancer who killed and reanimated himself to be immune to diseases and help people. Unfortunately, being undead meant sacrificing his humanity, and became emotionless. His methods would involve grafting skin, organs, and other body parts from corpses to the appropriate patients who need them, as well as other dark necromancer arts to "cure" miasmas by taking them from the afflicted and moving them somewhere else. Who needs morals and feelings when there's sickness and injury to be remedied?