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malisteen 11-20-04, 05:59 AM

Necromancy is cool. There, I said it. Oh, evocation may be flashy, divination useful, and transmutation powerful, but necromancy has them all beat for style. What's more moving, more evocative then a hunched, robed figure surounded by a eery fog and a supernatural green glow carving runes of animation into the skulls of felled warriors? Necromancers are a staple of D&D villiany, but after the 15th cleric of Nerul or 30th specialist wizard, they can get a little tired. That's where this post comes in. For the purpose of this thread I divide necromantic magic into three main branchess. These are: -Classical Necromancy- magic that creates, controls, or enhances undead. Named for the classical image of a necromancer animating shambling hordes of the undead. Example: Animate Dead -Popular Necromancy- curses and spells causing disease, hit point damage, ability damage, or energy drain. These are the necromancy spells that still have the spooky feel of necromancy magic, but aren't as condemned in popular opinion because they don't deal directly with the undead. Example: Blindness/Deafness -Reformed Necromancy- Spells that fight undead, or healing spells in campaigns where healing is a subschool of necromancy rather then conjuration. These spells are considered 'good', and a character focused on their use would be welcome at the table of virtuous heroes, even if his class was technically 'Specialist Necromancer'. Example: Disrupt Undead This goal of this post is to list all the various classes and prestige classes that can fill the roll of a classical necromancer. This is intended primarily for NPCs, but could also be useful for PCs that wish to follow this forbidden path. The fundamental act of the classical necromancer, raising shambling hordes of undead, is realized in the spell Animate Dead. No other spell is so necessary to the roll of being a classical necromancer, to the point that a class that gains access to Create Undead and Create Greater Undead but not Animate Dead would not here be considered a 'classical necromancer' class. Shadowdancers, for instance, who have the class ability to gather a few undead shadows around them, are not here listed. Similarly, any class can take the Undead Leadership feat from Libris Mortis to gain a following of undead servents, or can use the Use Magic Device skill to cast Animate Dead from a scroll, but they are not here considered classical necromancers because they cannot make the undead themselves without outside assistance. Ebberon's Artificer is an exception here, since even though they rely on scrolls, they can make those scrolls themselves without outside assistance. The prestige classes listed here are only those that grant classical necromancy to characters who did not already have it. Thus Pale Master is not listed, since in order to take that class you would already have to have access to classical necromancy through the sorcerer/wizard spell list. The classes are divided by source and listed along with the level at which they gain access to Animate Dead. A short paragraph describes the innate advantages of the classes in each source. Classes PHB: -Cleric, level 5 -Wizard, level 7 -Sorcerer, level 8 The cleric has some clear advantages up front, with rebuke/command/bolster, spontaneous inflict spells, earlier access to Animate Dead, domain abilities, Desecrate, Unhallow, the armor and hit points to lead his undead, etc. The wizard, however, has extensive access to what is arguably a more useful spell list, which, in addition to better direct damage spells and utility spells like Invisibility sphere, includes Command Undead. While Command Undead doesn't grant complete and permenant control of undead the way a cleric's rebuking can, its lack of a hit dice cap makes it an increadibly potent spell. Sorcerers, with fewer spells known then a wizard and even further delayed access to Animate Dead seem to make better popular necromancers then classical necromancers, but spontaneous casting still counts in their favor even here, especially when you consider spontaneous casting of Command Undead. Complete Divine: -Favored Soul, level 6 Complete Divine offers the favored soul. As a classical necromancer the trade of rebuking, access to Animate Dead sooner, and armour proficiencies for a weapon proficiency, some class abilities, and spontaneous casting doesn't look that good. Especially when you consider that the Favored Soul has to deal with split spellcasting stats, and the spontaneous casting won't include Command Undead. The limited spells known is even more significant as a shift from cleric to Favored Soul then from Wizard to Sorcerer, since a cleric automatically knows ALL the spells on his cleric list in addition to two seperate domains. However, when played as a sort of Death Knight with magical abilities, the Favored Soul can be more effective when wading into battle along with his undead then a cleric would be (remember, this is a necromancy built cleric, not a 'I fight better then the fighter' built cleric), and is certainly a cool and fluffy change of pace from PHB necromancers, if nothing else. Complete Arcane: -Warlock, level 6 -Wu jen, level 7 Complete Arcane has a couple new paths to classical necromancy. The warlock is a very interesting class that has lately been the talk of the town. His options for classical necromancy are fairly limited, granting him access to Animate Dead (creating either temporary or permenant servants), but, like a Favored Soul, no rebuking, and no access to Command Undead. The Warlock also lacks any way to heal or buff his undead servents, and cannot create any undead other then skeletons or zombies, putting him a peg below the Favored Soul on the classical necromancy hierarchy. However, the warlock does have a lot of extremely cool and fluffy abilities available to him, allowing him to be a very disturbing and memorable villian. The Wu jen likewise lacks ways to control or create undead stronger then Animate Dead, but his distinctive spell list can help support the undead he can make. The best element for a Wu jen classical necromancer would probably be Earth, for fluff reasons and for Terra Cotta spells to supplement your undead servents. The Wu jen's taboos provide an interesting opportunity to fluff up your necromancer, as well. Unearthed Arcana -Cloystered Cleric, level 5 -Battle Sorcerer, level 8 These are varients rather then entirely new classes, but both have their place in the circle of classical necromancers. The Cloystered Cleric trades a few hit points, some base attack bonus, and med & heavy armor proficiencies for Bardic Knowledge, more class skills, way more skill points, and Knowledge as a third domain, not to mention a few extra spells on his spell list, including a few very useful divinations. This is a very nice trade for a classical necromancer, as she will typically have a nice, solid meat wall between her and direct physical danger. This is arguably a much better choice then the standard cleric in True Necromancer builds, and is very much fitting with the image of a classical necromancer, who is usually a frail, robed, bookish character, rather then a physical powerhouse in spikey fullplate. Unlike a standard sorcerer, the battle sorcerer likes to take the fight to the enemy. Like the sorcerer, the battle sorcerer seems better at popular necromancy then classical necromancy; the battle sorcerer seems much more adept at necromancy's many potent touch attacks then a standard sorcerer or wizard. However, the battle sorcerer does make a very good Pale Master for that very reason, and, like the sorcerer, has spontaneous access to the extremely valuable [i]Command Undead[i], even if he has fewer uses per day then a sorcerer would. Ebberon Campaign Setting -Artificer, level 3 That's right, level three. That is the level at which an artificer is capable of creating and using a scroll of Animate Dead from scratch. Not only that, but an Artificer gets every standard item creation feat for free, along with a few bonus metamagic feats, a limited 'infusion' list, and a pool of bonus experience each level to use in item creation. His many bonus feats free up more of his regular feat slots for corpsecrafter feats that a normal spellcaster wouldn't have room for. As a result, the 'necroficer' is undeniably the best character at making undead, though his ability to control or lead those undead is somewhat more limited. While he has access to Command Undead through wands or scrolls, each use of the spell expends non-renewable resources of gold and experience. Still, you wouldn't want to face even one his creations at later levels, considering that it will have been animated in a zone of desecration by a character with most if not all of the corpsecrafter feats, not to mention the fact that it may be awakened, spellstitched, or possess contingent spells, magical weapons, undead armor, assorted talismans, rings, grafts.... That's it for classical necromancer core classes. Just to refresh, classical necromancer classes, with source: -Cleric, PHB -Sorcerer, PHB -Wizard, PHB -Favored Soul, CD -Warlock, CA -Wu jen, CA -Battle Sorcerer, UA -Cloystered Cleric, UA -Artificer, ECS Did I forget any? Is any portion of my analysis off the mark? Alrighty, then moving on to Prestige Classes. Remember, this is only a list of Prestige classes that grant classical necromancy (read: Animate Dead) to characters who didn't already have it. Each Prestige Class is listed with its source. -Blighter, CD -Divine Crusader, CD -Ur-Priest, CD -Sublime Chord, CA The Blighter is a class for evil ex-druids. While her classical necromancy spells are essentially limited to Animate Dead, her undead wild shape helps pull together the theme respectably. Divine Crusader grants a cleric domain to a fighty character, which can make a potent 'Deathknight' style classical necromancer if the death domain (or some supplementary domain with Animate Dead) is chosen. The much maligned Ur-Priest grants full access to all nine levels of the cleric spell list AND rebuking ability, making it an excellant choice, though the pre-reqs, especially in skills, are pretty steep for a character who doesn't already belong to a classical necromancy class. Sublime Chord gives a bard access Sorc/Wiz spells from levels 4 to 9, which includes Animate Dead, Create Undead, and Create Greater Undead. Combined with the Requiem feat from Libris Mortis, and maybe mixing in levels of the Dirgecaster Prc, this could make for a very origional take on the classical necromancer. Certainly it makes a great one level dip for any character who is already a Dirgecaster to take. So there you have it, a comprehensive list of core classes and prestige classes that can be classical necromancers. Now the next time your players run into a force of skeletons, they may be surprised to find a physically potent Divine Crusader leading them, or a fallen druid, or a morbid bard. Or they may find the undead working for an elementally based Wu jen, or a daemonically powered Warlock, or a tinkering artificer. Your players won't be able to anticipate whether the necromancer in question will be stronger in melee or at range. When set against an enemy party, they won't know whether the undead are in the service of the bookish one, the sneaky looking one, the one with the harp, or the one in fullplate waving a greatsword around. Of course, all of them could be necromancers, each with their own little undead horde! Bleak Academy will never be the same again....