It's been brewing for some time, but is finally finished: my take on the necromancer class. It's a class that's seen many, many interpretations over the years, in all different versions of D&D, so making my own version was really just for fun. And fun it was.
The class is designed explicitly for Labyrinth Lord, though of course that means it's trivially compatible with any other form of pre-d20 D&D or clones. It's worked as an equal to the standard magic-user, having the same XP and spell progression, all the way up to 9th level spells.
You can download the PDF here. Over 50 new spells can be found within (including a couple of re-writes of spells of yore).
One of the players in my on-going LL games is playing a necromancer at present, and the class is playing out pretty well so far, and seems well balanced in comparison to the standard magic-user. The PC is only 2nd level though, so we've not had a chance to test out the higher level spells yet! As usual, if anyone ends up using this class or any of the spells, I'd be delighted to hear how they worked out. And any feedback of any kind (well, ideally constructive ;) is also most welcome.
Sweet! Thanks for compiling everything into one document!
ReplyDeleteYes, THANKS! This is totally AWESOME!
ReplyDelete50 new necromancer spells?! Hell yes! the necromancer was my favorite all-time class to play.
ReplyDeleteIf they're a specialized magic user, why not allow them to choose from the magic user spell list? Can't some magic users be more specialized than others?
ReplyDeleteThanks guys, hope you enjoy it :)
ReplyDeleteslgarret: That's an interesting question. Personally my answer as a DM would be that pre-defined spell lists are what gives each type of specialist wizard their flavour, and that if players could freely pick and choose then a lot of wizards would end up knowing the same few "killer spells". With deliberately separate lists most necromancers, say, will know the killer spells off their list (for example things like command undead, skeletal servitor, animate dead), but don't have access to sleep or fireball. That's just one answer though, and was the underlying concept as I was designing this new class. You could totally use the new spells as you suggest though. Did you have any ideas on how it'd work, or were you imagining just one huge pool with all spells (magic-user, illusionist, necromancer, etc) bundled into one?
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ReplyDelete(Edited to add.)
ReplyDeleteVery cool!
I just linked this on my own blog.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/09/free-necromancer.html
Hope you get some hits from it.
Hey Timothy,glad you like it, and thanks for the linkage! I should have my book Theorems & Thaumaturgy finished in October, which contains an updated version of the necromancer, including quite a few new necromantic magic items, among many other things!
ReplyDeleteI Have a question.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that "Raise Dead" is a level 9 spell for necromancers (which you have to be level 17 to get) while it is a level 5 spell for Clerics (which you only have to be level 9 to get)?
Thanks for asking!
DeleteThe reasoning was that, while I could fully imagine a powerful necromancer being able to raise the dead, I didn't want the class to step on the toes of the cleric too much.
It could of course be house-ruled to be level 7, 5 or whatever, if that would suit the flavour of a particular campaign.
Thank you for the quick reply.
DeletePersonally I think I am going to rule that Raise Dead be a level 5 necromancer spell and then create a more powerful version of it as a level 9 spell.
You could consider allowing necromancers to cast the cleric spell 'resurrection' as well, perhaps.
DeleteYeah I think I will do that. Thanks for the info. Sorry for the trouble as well, I just thought that necromancers really needed to specialize in the dead more than anyone, even if it has to be different to the cleric.
DeleteNo trouble at all, it's always a pleasure to discuss necromancers ;)
DeleteMy vision was that they specialise in the *un*dead, whereas clerics are the de facto masters of healing and resurrection. That's only one possible vision of how the two classes work though, so I can see where you're coming from.
Ah that makes sense. I always though of necromancers being able to bring the dead to life/ specializing in undead - usually depending if they are good or evil.
Delete