Necromantic Melee Class

[Planetus]

By in-game lore, blight isn't the opposite of nature. It is a corruption of nature from an outside influence. Magic is the opposite of nature. The vim-based classes are banned from the anti-magic path (as I reason it at least) because they use fundamentally magical abilities to manipulate the new blight element.

By this reasoning, a blight-based wilder would make more sense than a magic-wilder cross. The undead, animated by magic at the core of their nature, are banned from using ANY equilibrium-based abilities (even those gained from items). Blight, therefor, has no inherent connection with undeath. Like I said, I'd love to see blight and disease separated in terms of damage and the like. Undead could do a lot with disease, such as the ghoul's retch or some necromancer decay spells. The Corruptor's disease spells would still be reasonable, as a corruption of nature would also corrupt disease, but these come from two different sides, just like the fearscape and the grave are not linked in this game.

[Wolpertinger]

By in-game lore, blight isn't the opposite of nature. It is a corruption of nature from an outside influence. Magic is the opposite of nature. The vim-based classes are banned from the anti-magic path (as I reason it at least) because they use fundamentally magical abilities to manipulate the new blight element.

By this reasoning, a blight-based wilder would make more sense than a magic-wilder cross. The undead, animated by magic at the core of their nature, are banned from using ANY equilibrium-based abilities (even those gained from items). Blight, therefor, has no inherent connection with undeath. Like I said, I'd love to see blight and disease separated in terms of damage and the like. Undead could do a lot with disease, such as the ghoul's retch or some necromancer decay spells. The Corruptor's disease spells would still be reasonable, as a corruption of nature would also corrupt disease, but these come from two different sides, just like the fearscape and the grave are not linked in this game.

Eh - I've been under the impression that 'blight' is an outside corruption of magic itself. And magic and nature come from the same source, as far as I can tell, it's just that nature magic has it given to them and use it as it was 'meant' to, while arcane users take it and reshape it as they will.

The opposition is from the apparently at least somewhat sentient Nature not liking magicians taking without 'asking' and messing with the fabric of reality, not that they are inherently polar opposites and are incapable of coexisting without destroying each other. Nature may not like magic but doesn't seem to be completely unwilling to give gifts to magic-users who aren't /too/ bad.

Thing is, 'blight' is this horrible vile thing that is pretty much completely anathema to nature (I mean, you do lose equilibrium when using a vim ability, and you don't when using mana). And equlibrium is how well you are attuned to the whole 'nature' deal. A blight wilder wouldn't be using equilibrium any more in the ordinary sense, everything you do would be pissing off nature even more. And taking nature's magic without asking is no longer a wilder, you're now an arcane magic user.

There ARE give a few interesting possibilities though - a 'corrupted' blight wilder could have their own 'anti-equilibrium' wherein they attune to some corrupted, blighted part of nature that was twisted by the Spellblaze. Or, they could use magic in a perverted way that deliberately pisses off nature, somehow using and steaing wilder-like magic that relies on high equilibrium instead of low.

[PureQuestion]

Allow me to quote the code of the game:

Nature & Blight: Opposing damage types

Blight and Nature are counterparts. Magic is neutral. Nature can be made to put up with magic. Blight is the destruction of nature. This is why as of a recent update, using vim talents causes your equilibrium meter to jump up if you use them, while using mana doesn't, as mentioned above. You want to know what's even better? I'm the reason that exists at all

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Blight is death. Nature is life. Vim is powered by death. Necromancers are powered by death.

[bricks]

Just throwing this out there - I think the original plan, prior to Burb's suggested class, was to have the Necromancer subclass under the Defiler (then called Corrupter) class.

Personally, I perceive Blight as the magical aspect of corruption, which can be applied to many things, but most commonly as a corruption of nature or life. The Afflicted classes are conceptually similar, but deal more with mental "corruption." Regardless, it's an interesting metaphysics discussion you have going here. Maybe there should be some in-game lore arguing over what Blight is.

I think it would be better if Planetus took the reins here and tacked down what the class should be. Asking for suggestions is great, but I don't think you can create a new class by committee. I will say that the idea of summoning intangible spirits and an undead horse both sounded really cool, especially if you went with a heavy "Death Knight" theme. In that case, Afflicted would probably be the best place for the class.

[Wolpertinger]

As far as I can tell, the lore reason for necromancers not being defilers is that necromancy is very old, while blight and defilers are a relatively new thing that came with the Spellblaze. I wonder if that note was added before or after necromancers were put in the 'mage' category instead of 'defiler'

[Planetus]

Pure, I've never had a necromancer with equilibrium, so I don't know the answer. Do necromancers raise their equilibrium count when animating dead?

[PureQuestion]

No, they don't, but ehhh.

I think the best way to look a blight is the "rotting" damage type, if that makes any sense?

[Planetus]

Pure, it does and it doesn't. Rotting and disease are natural processes, just like poisons and venoms. I can see corrupted diseases dealing blight damage, so corruptors can still use their disease talents and deal blight damage, but I'd like to see natural diseases as well. I think the only thing that comes close to that in the game at the moment is the ghoul's retch ability, but I still don't see a pure connection between fearscape/blight and necromancy/undead, especially since necromancy has existed for a long time before the Spellblaze, unless the blight actually came to Maj'Eyal long ago through Sher'Tul experiments (vaguely implied by the second dwarf dungeon). Still, I don't see a direct connection, as necromancy doesn't use Vim.



As for the class as a whole, I've put together the following:

The Death Knight is an undead warrior of great power. Raised from the dead, his eternal rest disturbed, he brings the fury of the grave with him to ravage the mortal world. He feeds on the souls of those he slays to fuel his power. Some death knights fight to cling to their unlife, while others fight to curse the world that disturbed their death.
Primary stats: Str, Mag
Race restriction: Undead only

Automatic talent: Death Aura (sustained/passive): Similar to Necromantic Aura, but frightens foes in it instead of slowing the decay of undead outside of it. Frightened foes have a small % chance to be frozen in place in fear every turn (take no action). It also produces negative energy for every enemy in it every turn.

Talent Trees:
Combat training
Survival

Unlife (magic based):
Soul Stealing (passive): Increase the radius of your Soul Aura by (1/2/3/4/5) and increase the chance of inaction from fright by (2/4/6/8/10)% (base of 2%).

Soul Host (sustained, free, 20 cooldown): Instead of immediately absorbing the souls of those you slay, this talent causes a maximum of (2/4/6/8/10) souls to hover around you for (2/3/4/5/6) turns each before being absorbed. Each soul hovering around you will automatically attack a melee-ranged enemy for X cold/darkness damage. When deactivated, half of the souls surrounding you are let loose, immediately doing Y cold/darkness damage per soul to all targets in radius 1 of you, while the other half are absorbed.

Soul Shield (passive): The host of souls surrounding you now also shield you from attacks, increasing physical and spell saves by X per soul and armor and defense by Y per soul.

Magic Dead (sustained, -3 soul max, 50 cooldown): You use the power of the souls to maintain your unlife even after your body has been critically damaged. Your HP can be reduced to -(200/250/300/350/400) without you dying, but you cannot see health below 0. Additionally, at level 5, if you die while Magic Dead is active, you will be resurrected with Magic Dead on cooldown, with 0 souls, 0 negative energy, and 30% HP +10% hp for every soul you lost in the resurrection. Souls in orbit are lost without benefit.


Undead Strength (strength based):
Dead Rush (activated, 1 soul): You use the strength of a slain foe to rush (5/6/7/8/9) tiles toward a target. If you reach the target while rushing, you deal a blow at 200% normal damage and have a (50/55/60/65/70)% chance to daze the target for 3 turns. (Differences from Rush: no minimum range, only a chance to daze, low cooldow, extra damage, costs 1 soul.)

Soulforged (passive): You have learned to tap the magical powers that forged the link between your tortured soul and your undead body. You gain +x% physical damage, +y% physical resistance penetration, and +x armor penetration.

Disturbed Rest (passive): Your single-minded dedication to your purpose grants you +(20/30/40/50/60) resistance to daze, confusion, and slow.

Vampiric Blows (sustained, -3 soul max): You feed off the blood loosed on every attack, gaining (30/40/50/60/70)% of the damage you deal as healing.



Deathblade (strength based, locked, lvl 10+):

Death Frenzy (activated, 1 souls): You enter a short frenzy of attacks, hitting all targets in radius 1 of you for (200/240/280/320/360)% normal weapon damage.

Lifeseal (activated, 2 souls): You deal a blow that seals the lifepower of the target. The attack deals (150/175/200/225/250)% normal weapon damage and drains all HP regeneration or healing from the target to you for the next (3/4/5/6/7) turns.

Rend Soul (activated, 3 souls): You attack your target with a blow that strikes both body and spirit, attempting to rend the soul from their bodies. Has a (30/35/40/45/50)% chance to instantly kill normal targets, deal a +300% critical blow to elite or rare targets, or a +200% critical blow to boss targets. If this chance fails, it will still do 200% normal weapon damage.

Terrible Blow (activated, 5 souls): You focus a massive force of soul-power into a single blow, dealing (300/400/500/600/700)% weapon damage in a single hit, with 100% chance to hit, +50% physical resistance penetration, and +50% damage shield penetration. If the target is killed by this blow, the remaining damage splashes out to all targets in radius 1 of the target. Splash damage does not benefit from the physical resistance penetration or damage shield penetration.



Unending Death (strength based):

Undead Steed (activated, 1 soul): You force one of your stolen souls into the form of a skeletal steed, and mount it. For (4/4/5/5/6)he steed boosts your movement speed by 200%, your physical power by X

Deathlink (activated, 2 souls): You forge a link of death with the target, causing them to share all damage you take for (5/6/7/8/9) turns. This does not reduce the damage you take.

Soul Feeding (activated, 3 souls): You consume the souls of the slain directly, immediately healing X life, and regenerating Y% of your normal regeneration each turn for (3/4/5/6/7) turns.

Dead Already (passive): Having been pulled from the grave, you are less vulnerable to the deadly forces of life in this world. Gain X% resistance to physical, fire, ice, lightning, nature, darkness, and mind damage (excludes arcane, blight, temporal, light).



Boneyard (magic based):

Bone Spikes (activated, 1 soul): You instantly grow sharp horn-like bones all across your body. Any melee attacker takes X physical damage. This lasts for Y turns.

Bone Grasp (activated, 2 souls): Reaver/Corruptor's Bone Grasp, but powered by souls rather than vim.

Bone Shield (activated, 3 souls): You produce a floating field of bones around you that intercept all attacks. The shield can absorb (2/3/3/4/5) attacks, regardless of damage.

Bone Storm (sustained, -3 soul max): You surround yourself with a violent storm of sharp, shattered bones with a radius of (2/2/3/3/4), dealing X physical damage to any target in the field and having a chance to cause bleeding.



Hellrime (magic based, negative energy, locked):

Soulchilling Blade (activated): You infuse your weapon with the cold of the grave. For the next X turns, you deal an additional Y cold damage and have a chance to slow the target by 50% for Z turns. Slow effects may stack.

Bone Chilling Voice (activated): You let out a bone-chilling scream, shattering the will of all targets in a cone of radius (3/3/4/4/5). All targets loose X physical, spell, and mind save, deal Y less damage, and have a chance to be frightened by the sound. The effects last Z turns.

Hoarfrost (activated, AoE): You suck the life-sustaining heat out of all targets around you. You deal X cold damage to all targets in a radius (2/2/3/3/4) and have a chance to slow each target by 50% for Y turns. Slow effects may stack.

Hellrime Frost (passive): All your Hellrime spells now deal unnatural cold damage. They will deal damage as either cold or darkness, depending on which element the target has the least resistance to, and will penetrate (5/10/15/20/25)% of that lowest resistance.



Black Grave (magic based, negative energy):

Grave Touch (activated, cone): Strike an enemy in melee, channeling the power of the grave through your weapon. The target and any targets in a cone of radius (2/3/3/4/4) behind it take normal melee damage +X darkness damage and cannot regenerate HP in any way for Y turns.

Drain Life (activated, AoE): Drain X life out of all enemies within radius (2/2/3/3/4), healing X% of the total damage dealt.

Shadow of Death (activated): Call forth the Grim Reaper itself to shadow the target. The target takes (5/10/15/20/25)% of it's max HP in darkness damage every turn for 5 turns, up to a maximum of X.

Sheol (activated, AoE): All enemies in a radius (3/3/4/4/5) of you suddenly feel the call of death. They must pass a spellsave or be instantly killed. Those who pass the save (or are immune to instant kills) must pass a mindsave against your spellpower or be terrified, either running away or being frozen in place for X turns. Those who pass the mindsave still see all damage reduced by 50% for X turns. Undead are twice as vulnerable to the death call, but immune to the fear effects of this spell.

Some Questions:
Should negative energy produced scale with proximity and/or level of the foe?

Should Death Aura inflict fright? I had originally included this as a way to balance the loss of the necromancer's decreased decay rate, before we incorporated negative energy into the class. Now that the aura also generates negative energy, does it still need the fright effect?

Should Magic Dead put ALL sustains on cooldown, or just itself?

Since 400 HP may be less significant to a high-level melee character, should Magic Dead's negative HP range be a % of max HP? Maybe just make it scale with magic/constitution?

Death Frenzy costs one soul but, in the right circumstances could easily generate more souls than that. Should the cost be increased? Damage decreased?

Terrible Blow is designed to be exactly what it says, a horrifyingly powerful blow. If it were coupled with a critical hit, though, it'd be massively overpowered. Should it ban critical blows? Should it count as a critical blow anyway, but not count critical hit multipliers (for the purposes of on-crit abilities)? Should damage increase be based off a critical blow, but then lower bonus percentages?

As a minor question, should Deathlink deal damage to the target before or after resistances? If before, than your resistances would lower your damage, while theirs lowered their damage. If after, then your resistances are effectively applied to both.

Should Soulfeeding heal a fixed amount (which scales with talent level and a stat), or a % of max HP (which only increases with talent level)?

Should Bone Spikes be a passive talent? I'm trying to make the class less dependent on a hoard of activated talents, like mages are, and more on a mix of passives, sustains, and actives. Would this be appropriate for a passive?

Should Bone Shield apply to all attacks or only to a single enemy? If the former, it could protect you from a lot of attacks quickly, or be worn away by little minions. If the latter, it could protect you from a single powerful foe for some time, but leave you vulnerable to a hoard of foes.

Should the slow effects of cold stack? I think it's a potentially powerful synergy for the class, but if Soulchilling Blade applies to multiple melee attacks, it'd be easy for a character to reduce a single target's speed by a substantial amount (50%, then 75%, then 87.5%, etc speed reduction). Maybe the slow effect should just be reduced (25% each time would result in 25%, then 56.25%, then 42.19%, then 31.64%).

Should Hellrime Frost select between darkness or cold resist, or would the coding be too hard? Should it just penetrate cold resistance by more? As a passive, should it reduce cold resistance by less?

I removed all stamina-sourced talent trees, since three energy sources as basic for a class seems too much to me. In doing so, I realized that the class would work equally well for two handers and for sword and shield, and could even work for dual-wielding if the attacks incorporated the two weapons. Should the attacks be restricted to one attack style?



Of course, the above is just suggestion, and something to provide a framework for our ideas.
Sheol is the Hebrew term for the grave. It is considered something like Hell, but without fire, demons, or material existence. The souls of those that go down into Sheol become still and cold as death; it is considered a horrible end. As a Christian versed in Hebrew society, I'm quite familiar with this term and it came to me easily. If the fans of this game would look at this with nothing more than confusion, this skill should be renamed.

[bricks]

Proximity scaling could be weird. I think it should scale with the rank of the enemy, like Hatred. Have you considered making this an Afflicted class? It makes more sense to me. Otherwise, it might be better to just make this a mana-using class. The feel of the magic-based abilities doesn't really seem like a Celestial to me.

I like Death Aura's fear effect.

Generating more than one soul from a successful Death Frenzy sounds like smart play to me, and should be rewarded. If it's imbalanced, add it later, increase the cooldown, or add a negative energy cost. Frankly I think it would make more sense for most skills (those that don't directly reference souls, spirits, reanimation) to use negative energy, and to have another skill that converts souls into negative energy.

Bone Spikes would be an interesting passive, especially if it did something other than damage. As an activated skill, it's pretty boring, and the Boneyard tree itself doesn't seem very far removed from the Reaver tree.

If slow stacks, it should stack to a fixed amount, and only by a small amount per each application, like 10%. Slow is a very powerful effect.

I don't see any reason to restrict the type of weapon used.

I've never heard of Sheol before; I don't even think I would have guessed it was Hebrew. It would be better to remove all real-world references from the class, including the Grim Reaper.

[Planetus]

The negative energy is meant less to be a connection to celestial classes and more a connection to darkness. We could replace it with hate, but that would suggest the class is imbued with certain mindpowers and that the talents that use it are mindpower based rather than spellpower based. As the class is necromantic at it's core, I don't want that. We could also replace it with mana, but that just seems a little boring to me. Maybe not enough to not justify it, though. If so, it would better support the use of fright in the death aura, as I doubt we could justify filling mana off enemies in the death aura.

As for classification, I'm thinking that necromancers and this class can be divided into a new category called Necromantic, or Death, or something. All the other power sources other than mana and stamina (generic fantasy gaming sources) have their own category. Why not souls?

I think Boneyard would be more interesting if Bone Shield were targeted to protect you from a single enemy. That makes it more functional in boss fights and also more distinctive than the reaver/corruptor and necromancer talents.

If we remove all real-world references from the Black Grave tree, then perhaps it would be better to develop some lore surrounding beliefs on death in Maj'Eyal. They don't need to be proven or true, just commonly held beliefs. Why did the early Shaloren experiment in preserving the flesh of their dead, making mummies? How do the halflings commonly dispose of their dead? Do people have names for what comes after death? Beliefs? Is it eternal rest, or eternal damnation, some reward based on your life? Do you move on to another world or stay in this one? Have necromancers, over the many millenia, learned anything about this from their minions, or are the minds of the undead essentially blank slates, or maybe they remember their lives, but nothing after.

Also, I was thinking this class could be unlocked by defeating the Master as an undead, or maybe completing the lichform quest as an undead necromancer (who wouldn't actually benefit from lichform anyway).

[PureQuestion]

Souls aren't a "true" resource, is my understanding. They're tied quite directly to the necrotic aura.

[Sirrocco]

Vampiric Blows seems *hugely* overpowered, given the size of the standard HP pool vs the amount of damage that one normally does with a standard attack.

Rend Soul seems almost useless. It costs 3 souls - which means that you basically won't be using it on normal targets even with the instakill. As such, if I'm reading the math right, barring crit-boosting from gear, level 5 will get you a 300% damage blow (200% 50% of the time, or 400% 50% of the time) against rare/elites for 3 souls. By contrast level 5 in Death Frenzy will net you 360% damage to everyone around you for 1 soul.

Undead Steed as described seems best as a 0 time activate, unless the phys power boost is intended to be quite large.

Bone grasp as a two-soul power? Really? Is it normally that expensive or is this supposed to be particularly pricey for the Death Knight? Bone Shield also seems a bit much - though I admit I've never played a class that actually had access to it, so I can't say for sure. Perhaps if it was made 0 time?

Between Bone Storm and Soul Stealing, this guy is getting some very potent always-on, no-upkeep aura effects. Those can be tricky to balance.

Hellrime could use a name that doesn't reference hell.

Given that you can't activate it in combat, I might suggest that Soulchilling Blade be a sustain with a per-hit cost, that remains sustained but has no effect when you don't have the darkness to power it.

The idea that Grave Touch deals weapon damage to the targets past the first seems a bit odd to me. Possibly weapon+darkness to the direct target, and darkness to everyone beyond it? That would also allow you to attack spaces with no enemies - you'd just lose that particularly potent adjacent hit.

Some of those darkness powers had better be very expensive indeed.

Also, I notice that with Drain Life, the aura effects, the gain in Darkness power based on number of nearby targets and so forth, this is straying pretty close to the old Cursed schtick of "the more enemies near me, the safer and more powerful I am". That one was excessive back in the day, and may be difficult (if not impossible) to balance properly.

Magic Dead should totally put all sustains on cooldown. There are some very potent sustains here, and it starts being entirely reasonable to run with a very small soul contingent. Indeed, for this reason, I'd have Death Aura be a sustain with a moderate cooldown, rather than a passive - because otherwise, firing off a Drain Life that gets you all the way back up on your feet might be a bit too easy. Under this system, it would be entirely possible to sustain Vampiric Blows, Magic Dead, and Bone Storm. Sure, you wouldn't, be able to throw around any powers that cost more than 1 soul, but you'd have a whirling aura of bone that fed you back notable amounts of health per enemy every turn.

Also, I think if we're going with Darkness, we should tie it into the celestial classes to some degree - but there's nothing saying they have to get along with the other celestials. This could be a splinter sect that broke off long ago to pursue necromantic power, and who are currently hunted by the Sun Paladins. They use the same pwoer source - but they might have very different ideas of where it comes from or what it means. Perhaps they have some deeply heretical ideas about a war between the Sun and Moon - one which the oppressive sun keeps winning.

I'm only seeing two trees that use Darkness. That seems a bit light - I'd suggest at least one more initially unlocked tree, though I'm not sure what I'd put in it.

[Planetus]

Sirrocco,
The Rend Soul modifiers for the 50% chance were intended to be bonuses to normal critical hit damage, while the 300% was intended to be straight attack damage modifier (i.e. if you have +150% critical damage modifier normally, the 50% chance would be for 350-450% damage, while the leftover would simply be 300%).

I had intended Vampiric Blows to be damage dealt with melee attacks. I'm sorry that I didn't make that clear, looking back at it. You're right, draining life from ALL damage dealt, especially with damaging auras, would be MASSIVELY overpowered. If you think the numbers are too high even for melee attacks, especially considered some of the powerful melee attacks I've given this class, the healing could be reduced. Maybe 10/20/30/40/50? 15/20/25/30/35?

I don't think Undead Steed, as a constructing summons skill, makes sense as instant. It may be half a turn or something, but it should take some time. Physical power boost can be scaled with the time cost.

Bone Grasp may need to be boosted in effectiveness for the cost of 2 souls, but I'd like to keep up the theme of later talents costing more souls. I think Bone Shield being targeted, and thus enemy specific, would justify the cost, but I agree it should be instant. An all-damage absorbing shield, though, holds incredible potential if used tactically. I've fought a few enemies with bone shields, and it's annoying.

Bone Storm isn't exactly a no-cost sustain in my mind. Yes, it doesn't cost anything every time it does damage, but it reduces you max number of souls by 30% all by itself.

Soulchilling Blade as a sustain would be nice, but I'm worried it may be seen as stealing the Sun Paladin's Blade of Light. Also, the slow effect would probably have to not stack at all if we did that. Otherwise, I'd say make it an instant activated talent that lasts a few turns.

Restricting ranged Grave Touch damage to just darkness makes sense to me, I guess.

For Drain Life, I'm thinking it would have a VERY long cooldown (50 turns min). It should be a powerful one-time heal when you're completely surrounded in a fight and low on health, but not something that could be even close to spammed. It may also have a high negative energy cost, but that may be redundant since it's most useful when you're surrounded (and thus probably have a lot of negative energy).

I was thinking of Death Aura as a sustain, rather than a passive, just like Necrotic Aura is for necromancers. Combined with a high cost for Drain Life and the fact that you resurrect with 0 negative energy (there's a reason to give it high cost!), it greatly reduces the likelihood that you'd be able to throw it out quickly after being resurrected, even if surrounded.

If we restrict the draining effects of Vampiric Blows to melee attacks, it would cut down on the power of the Vampiric Blows/Magic Dead/Bone Storm combo significantly. You'd have all three effects still, but no synergy between them and you'd only resurrect at 40% HP with no options but melee attacks. If resurrection doesn't disable other sustains, you'd still be able to heal some with Vampiric Blows. I'm not sure if that would be overpowered or not, given that you'd only have normal melee attacks to use.

I really don't like the idea of linking this class and the celestial tree. I don't want this to be a far east humans thing. It should be a raised-from-the-dead-and-out-for-blood thing in my mind. I'd rather see the power source changed to mana or hate than see it be an alternate to the Sun Paladin.

[Sirrocco]

I'm not suggesting that you give them any of the existing celestial trees. If you don't like the idea of even having a thematic connection to the celestials, though, I'd suggest going Hate. Right now, the celestial power sources are pretty tightly bound, and it would be a shame to break that. Still, it's a shame, since Darkness really fits what you're doing with the class a lot better from a crunch point of view....

So, what do we know of the celestial power sources? Where do they actually come from? What does it require to channel them? How plausible is it that someone might have learned to channel Darkness independently? Anyone?

Also, assume for the moment that Necromancer is going to remain as a True Mage. (among other things, that's the only way to get natural mana regen). What power-source-grouping *should* this guy be in? (Again, accursed really does fit thematically - it's the physical/mindpower/magic thing that doesn't - unless you make sure that all fo the Hate things they do are melee and strength/weapon-based, and the only real mystic/ranged stuff is coming out of souls. There's also the fact that the Accursed have some fairly strong commonalities between them - particularly in generic trees that we might not want to give this guy, and in hate behaviors that we might not want to tie him to....)

Anyway - the Celestial power sources. Anyone know the lore?

[bricks]

The Sun and Moons, light and darkness, positive and negative, forces present on the world of Eyal but not of it; natural in its presence yet unnatural in its wielding. The reverence for light and darkness is brought by their regularity, their fundamental opposition and their ubiquity in the world. What can be said of the powers wielded by the Celestials? Light can heal, but it can also burn. Darkness enshrouds and deceives, its mystery giving way to primal terror. Do these powers exist in opposition, or can one truly exist without the other? Is light an affront to Nature, a necessary evil, or is it the precursor to all life? Does darkness exist only to deceive, or is it the last safe place for the meek and fearful? The answer to all of these questions is Yes.

Haha, nah, I just made that up. But I don't see any fundamental connection between death and darkness, and certainly none between necromancy and negative energy. Darkness can, of course, be manifest for many reasons, and to a necromancer darkness is quite convenient.