Guide: Non-lich necromancer

[Nussbaum]

I noticed almost everyone goes lich with their necromancer. It has its advantages but consumes lots of class points. Most likely a non-lich necromancer should be a minion user instead of a direct damage dealer, because as you don't go lich, you won't get the extra tree with the low-cooldown beam spell. Minions will also be only immune to Nightfall damage spells, so you don't want to invest in spells which hurt your minions.

Also, this build requires no mana so you'll get a Magic/Constitution/Cunning necro. You can use Consume Soul to replenish your mana. This build is pretty simple.

Race
Higher: Good because of Highborn's Bloom racial talent. This racial allows you to get another prodigy instead of Hidden Resources. Extra light radius is good for any summoner-type character.

Shalore: Shaloren are a rather weak race until level 26. Timeless is a nice racial talent once you have 3 points in it, which requires you to be level 26 - it'll usually negate all really detrimental effects. You are a caster with Phase Door and Teleport (5/5 in both) so you should be able to teleport away to safety from most situations, if you also have Timeless to negate detrimental effects AND simultaneously cool down teleport spells, if the detrimental effect added a cooldown to them.

Ghoul: My build has high constitution, so you'll get the most out of ghoul racials. LOTS of hitpoints. Retch heals your minions too!

Cornac: Because of the extra category point and no racials, you can get two extra generic categories. There are many good extra categories for this build.

Stats
First max Magic for spellpower and spell save, then Constitution for hit points and physical save, last Cunning for critical chance and mental save.

Extra generic trees worth considering

Get 1 tree, 2 if Cornac. Preferably Celestial/Light.

1) Celestial/Light from an anorithil escort.
This is likely the best one. Especially Bathe in Light (it'll also heal your minions and escorts) and Providence are useful. Recommended maxing Bathe in Light (unlike with Healing Light and Barrier, its power grows exponentially, since you get more turns, more healing and more shielding as you invest points in it!) and investing some points in Providence too. Your magic/spellpower is high, so you'll get the most out of this.

2) Technique/Conditioning from a warrior escort.
Extra healing which triggers before you get to 50% of your "true" health because of Blurred Mortality is nice in the beginning. Recommended 1 point in Vitality, 5 points in Unflinching Resolve. You have high constitution, so this one works well.

3) Corruption/Vile Life from corrupted heart of sandworm queen.
Since this build focuses, in the endgame, on maxing the Cunning stat, you'll get most advantage from the first talent. You'll deal lots of critical hits which means you'll get lots of free healing. The fourth talent is also useful for removing and transferring detrimental effects. You also have high Magic stat. The second talent shouldn't be used because it also hurts your minions.

Runes & infusions
In the beginning:
1 wild infusion, preferably mental&physical
2 shielding runes or shielding rune+regeneration infusion

Later on:
1 Rune of Reflection - if you can't find it replace with a good regeneration infusion
1 regeneration infusion

Prodigies
Unless you're a higher, Hidden Resources is a must. It will allow you to summon without soul cost. Hoard gear which boosts Willpower stat so you don't need to invest in willpower. The willpower boosting gear can be stored in random vaults and later on in your fortress. You need about 40 extra willpower, but since you have 9 slots for this, it's not that difficult. Just a bit frustrating to check the gear you find before level 30

Another good one is Blighted Summoning. Get it at level 42. It'll give your summons extra attacks; even melee summons get magical ranged attacks. Most of all they get a nice boost to their magic stat, boost equal to your Magic stat - which is high.

Generic points
First, five points in phase door. Then five points in teleport. Then, the rest. Rest depends on many factors, such as your race and choices of extra generic trees. Invest at least 1 in Keen Senses and Precognition. I tend to eventually max them. If you get Celestial/Light or Technique/Conditioning, get Bathe in Light or Unflinching Resolve up early.

Class point investment by level, a suggestion:
1: Create Minions 1, Invoke Darkness 2, Blurred Mortality 1, Consume Soul 1
2: Invoke Darkness 3
3: Invoke Darkness 4
4: Create Minions 2
5: Aura Mastery 2
6: Create Minions 3
7: Aura Mastery 3
8: Create Minions 4
9: Aura Mastery 4
10: Circle of Death 1, Blurred Mortality 2
11: Fear the Night 1
12: Fear the Night 2
13: Fear the Night 3
14: Fear the Night 4
15: Rigor Mortis 1, Fear the Night 5
16: Create Minions 5
17: Surge of Undeath 1
18: Dark Empathy 1
19: Dark Empathy 2
20: Open the Advanced Necrotic Minions tree! Undead Explosion 1, Assemble 1
21: Sacrifice 1
22: Minion Mastery 1
23: Minion Mastery 2
24: Minion Mastery 3
25: Minion Mastery 4, Dark Empathy 3
26: Minion Mastery 5
27: Blurred Mortality 3
28: Consume Soul 2
29: Consume Soul 3
30: Blurred Mortality 5
31: Dark Empathy 4
32: Circle of Death 2
33: Circle of Death 3
34: Circle of Death 4
35: Circle of Death 5, Dark Empathy 5
36: Animus Hoarder 1
37: Animus Purge 1
38: Essence of the Dead 1 (you can use this to create 1 extra bone giant and 2 extra minions!)
39: Rigor Mortis 2
40: Rigor Mortis 3, Surge of Undeath 2
41: Surge of Undeath 3
42: Rigor Mortis 4
43: Surge of Undeath 4
44: Rigor Mortis 5
45: Surge of Undeath 5

From now on, you can boost your Consume Soul, get Bone Giants boosted etc. Up to you. You also get extra class points from alchemist quest and sandworm heart, so you'll actually be here a couple of levels earlier.

How to play? Very simple.
Summon minions as meatshields, blast behind them with nightfall spells. If the enemy seems too strong or gets too close, cure your possible detrimental effects and teleport to safety. Have a shielding rune set to be auto-used when enemy visible, so you can autoexplore more safely.

Always wear some gloves of dispersion once you get those! They're not rare. Fearscape can come as a surprise and it will kill you, but with those gloves you can get out of it.

Rarely, tought fights may drain you empty of souls, before you have ways of summoning without using souls. You can get extra souls from killing your non-minion summons. Use Crystal Shard staff and beat the crystals to death with your staff, conjuration wand or such. Or leave some honey tree alive somewhere, so you can kill the bees and bears for their souls.

Try to get the artifact sets: Crown of the Eternal Night, Mummy Wrappings of the Eternal Night & Ring of the Archlich, Sceptre of the Archlich. Those boost your summoning and damage dealing abilities.

During fights, use Bathe in Light to heal&shields your minions, acting as the "support" of the team when your Nightfall spells are on cooldown!

Surge of Undeath is good for really tough fights such as unique eternal bone giant enemies, as is Essence of the Dead as it allows you to get two more minions. First cast Hidden Resources, then Essence of the Dead, then Create Minions.

Your favorite summon is probably the Lich. Often you don't even get to see the enemy before your Lich minion has killed them. You'll only see strange spell effects and soon see piles of items/gold on the ground.

If you get dazed or pinned, you can still move to spots with your minions, which often offers you an easy escape from the enemy.

In the beginning the summons will be only meatshields and you'll be playing like a weaker archmage (note that even a weaker archmage is still not bad!). You'll be summoning only when tough enemies appear. Mostly you'll use Invoke Darkness. In the end, it gets reversed. You'll be casting spells only if tough enemies appear or if you just want to end the fight fast.

[svnhddbst]

i had a decent amount of success early on by just dumping into straight minions and aura mastery.

probably faster and less prone to friendly fire (caster minions...) with your build though.

[Faeryan]

I've always felt Chill of the tomb makes early game Necros a cakewalk. I would suggest speccing for it until you start reliably summoning your minions to do the dirty work.

Also I noted how you suggested boosting CON and getting items for WIL. I feel the WIL returns better rewards (mental save) while HP items give better results than WIL items.
Also some DEX won't hurt for extra Defense for early game and Crit shrug off for late game.

Also a mention for Staff Combat would be good in case you have no luck with escorts. You will have to spend those generics somewhere. The staff blast goes through your minions and the defense/armor boosting skill won't hurt either.
Some generics should be saved for Thick Skin and possibly one or more for armor proficiency in case you want to use gauntlets or heavier boots, if not even full armor.