Necromancer Class Idea #5,603,442
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:43 am
It's that time again! I thought I'd give this one its own thread, seeing how big and cumbersome it is.
Preamble: How undead minions work (in this idea).
1. Undead minions are created either through the skill "Create Minions" or "Sacrifice".
Explained below.
2. Undead minions last indefinitely as long as you remain on the same level as them.
They do not follow you to other levels however, and on leaving a level any undead minions remaining vanish.
3. Undead minions are dim.
No complex orders, no fancy AI, and apart from one exception, no controlling them remotely. The only order you can give them is to attack a certain target. Otherwise they'll just attack anything they can or, failing that, mass around you.
4. Your necromancer has a "sphere of influence".
This represents the area where your necromancer can sustain his/her undead thralls. If one of your minions ventures outside this area, they will rapidly decay, losing 10% of their max HP per turn, until they perish.
5. Undead minions are incapable of healing.
Necromancers aren't known for their generous medical insurance. Minions cannot heal, and do not regenerate HP. Make more as they drop!
6. Again, undead minions are dim.
While your minions will attempt to remain within your sphere of influence when no enemies are about, they will madly rush out to attack things far away from you if they can see them. It's up to you to either keep close to your minions, or failing that, make more. Undead minions are the definition of quantity over quality after all.
Class Description:
"While most magic is viewed with suspicion since the Spellblaze, the stigma surrounding the black art of necromancy has been around since time immemorial. These dark spellcasters extinguish life, twist death, and raise armies of undead monsters to sate their lust for power and pursue their ultimate goal: Eternal life."
Unlock Method:
Unlock both skeletons and ghouls, and have all the "How to be a necromancer" lore available in Yiilkgur's library.
Hint: "The road to necromancy is a macabre path indeed. Walk with the dead, and drink deeply of their black knowledge."
Resources:
As loathsome as it is, and as unhappy as archmages are to admit, necromancy is purely magic and only uses mana.
The Skills:
(No precise mana costs or cooldowns as of yet. As always, the [x/x/x/x/x] format means what the skill would do at skill level one, level two, etc., and is purely approximate.)
Pre-existing trees:
Magic / Fire [1.00] (locked)
Magic / Water [1.00] (locked)
Cunning / Survival [1.00] (locked)
(Fire and water were chosen since the trees are all attack spells. Necromancers need magic to make corpses as well as use them, right?)
Necromancy / Minions [Class, 1.20]
Create Minions [Activated]
Using this skill activates the effect "Creating Minions", which lasts for [6/8/10/12/14] turns. During this time, the game keeps track of how many enemies you and your current minions kill. Once the effect times out, you gain a number of minions equal to the amount of enemies you killed, with a cap of [2/4/6/8/10]. The undead types that you get depends on skill level:
The level of any created minion is your level minus [6/4/2/0/-2].
Note: Undead that are usually capable of summoning (ghasts, ghoulkings) cannot when they are your minions. No crazy chain-summoning shenanigans like ToME 2!
Aura Mastery [Passive]
Increases the radius of your necromancer's sphere of influence by [1/2/3/4/5], and lowers the rate of decay outside it to [9/8/6/4/2]% max HP per turn.
Surge Of Undeath [Activated]
Doubles your minions' accuracy and attack power for [3/4/5/6/7] turns, as well as granting them [10/20/30/40/50] extra APR and a [5/10/15/20/25]% extra critical chance.
Dark Empathy [Passive]
You share your powers with your minions: Your minions gain [10/20/30/40/50]% of your resistances and saves.
Necromancy / Advanced Minions [Class, 1.20] (Locked)
Sacrifice [Activated]
This skill requires that a dagger is equipped. Strikes an enemy with a single, accurate, armour-piercing melee attack. If the attack kills the enemy, it is raised as an undead minion [2/4/6/8/10] levels higher than you would get if you raised it normally using Create Minions.
Assemble [Activated]
Requires at least three skeletal minions. This skill takes said minions and instantly combines them into a bone giant. The type of bone giant depends on skill level.
1 = Normal bone giant.
2 = Normal bone giant.
3 = Heavy bone giant.
4 = Heavy bone giant.
5 = Eternal bone giant.
6 = Eternal bone giant, with a 20% chance of runed bone giant.
This skill has a large mana cost and cooldown, but the cooldown can be mitigated somewhat by spending further points.
Free Reign [Activated]
Necromancers hardly need to be there in person while their minions are wreaking havoc! Using this skill allows you to control a minion of your choice while your character vanishes from the level for [5/6/7/8/10] turns. Beware, while your necromancer is gone his/her sphere of influence is gone as well, and when he/she returns she'll be dazed for five turns. If the minion you're controlling perishes, your necromancer will return prematurely. Long cooldown.
Minion Mastery [Passive]
Adds a small chance of creating high-level, advanced undead when using Create Minions. This chance is calculated before the regular Create Minions chances.
Small percentages? They add up to 15% at skill level 6, and it's checked individually for each minion created... Pulling 10 liches out of your hat could be the ultimate turnaround in a fight. 
Necromancy / Death Mastery [1.20, Generic]
Reanimation [Activated]
Completely drains your mana, turning it into health at a rate of [1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2] health points healed per mana point. This ability has a long cooldown however, not to mention a period of [20/18/16/14/12] turns afterwards where natural mana regeneration stops (or maybe slows to a crawl for manasurge's sake).
Doom [Activated]
Stops all healing, natural or otherwise, on one enemy PERMANENTLY. However, it requires the enemy to have less than [5/10/15/20/20]% of its maximum health remaining. At skill level five, this skill also randomly places a single healing/regeneration infusion on cooldown if the enemy has one, regardless of their max HP.
Blurred Mortality [Passive]
The brother to the Health talent, each skill point adds 40 to your health... below zero. So, with three skill points invested, you die at -120 HP, not zero. However, you cannot see your health when it drops below zero, the bar merely displaying "???", so you can never know just how much leeway you have... unless you're keeping very close track of the amount of damage you're receiving.
Lichform [Sustained]
Here we go, the cheat death ability. Bear in mind that spending even a single point in this ability nullifies the Blood of Life's effect on you ("Your body violently rejects the blood of life!"). Firstly, this ability is sustained and needs to be active when you to die to work. Furthermore, it costs a fair bit of mana to activate and drains mana continually while it's active. The plus side? When you die, you become a lich. The bonuses lichdom grants depend on how many skill points you spent on the ability.
1 Point = -3 all stats, -10% all resistances. Such meagre devotion!
2 Points = No changes, barring regular undead things.
3 Points = +3 magic & willpower.
4 Points = +3 magic & willpower, +10 spell and mental saves.
5 Points = +5 magic & willpower, +10 spell and mental saves, all resistance caps raised by 15%. Fear my power!
Of course, since you're undead as well, you gain the regular undead bonuses/restrictions (no infusions, poison immunity, etc.)
Once you have become a lich, this ability is locked and you cannot spend further points in it.
Note: Necromancers should begin with a cloak of deception, in preparation for their happy day of lichdom.
Necromancy / Death Magic [1.20, Class]
Invoke Darkness [Activated]
A simple spell, casting a bolt of darkness at a single enemy.
At level three, the spell becomes a beam.
At level five, the spell no longer effects your own minions, passing through them harmlessly.
Terrify [Activated]
On failing a mental save. causes a single enemy to flee. They may use defensive abilities or utility spells like teleportation, but they cannot attack you while fleeing. Works on elites, but doesn't work on bosses.
Rigor Mortis [Activated]
Damages a single enemy with both physical and darkness damage, dropping their global speed by [20/30/40/50/60]% for [2/2/3/4/5] turns. Can be cast over enemies, but requires line of sight. At level five, the ability effects a 2x2 square instead of a single square. The slowing effect can be resisted by a physical save.
(If possible, this ability could also increase the damage dealt to the enemy by undead opponents, so your minions can really go to town
)
Foul Aura [Sustained]
Sheathes the necromancer in an aura of darkness, heavily damaging any enemies in melee range. Also, any enemy attempting to attack in melee (skill or regular strike) must make a spell save or they are instead knocked back one square. This ability consumes mana for as long as it's active.
Necromancy / Dark Combat [1.20, Generic] (could be dropped to 1.00 if more melee-focussed necromancers appear)
Necromantic Fang [Passive]
When using a dagger in combat, each successful strike lowers the enemy's resistance to physical and darkness damage by [1/1/2/2/3]%, up to a maximum of [5/10/15/15/20]%. At level three, this ability allows you to use a staff in your alternate weapon slot for spellcasting/spellpower purposes, while holding a dagger in your main weapon slot. Shields are forbidden.
Execution [Activated]
A single strike that immediately kills an enemy if it's stunned, dazed, or disarmed (not frozen). Doesn't work on elites or bosses, etc.. Bear in mind that the necromancer has no way to stun/daze/disarm opponents, and must instead rely upon minions or other outside forces to create the right conditions for them.
Dominion [Activated]
A single, brutal melee attack, dealing [120/140/160/180/200]% weapon damage. If the attack kills an enemy that has summoned others, its summons are all immediately killed and replaced by up to [1/2/3/4/5] minions, depending on their amount. The minions are created as if the skill Create Minions made them.
Undeath Absorption [Sustained]
Allows the necromancer to leech the energy from fellow necromancers by fighting enemy undead. Each melee strike against an undead opponent while Undead Absorption is active restores your mana by [2/3/4/5/6]%, but leaving yourself so open to dark energies drops your darkness resistance by 50%. Long cooldown time, so you can't just switch it on and off.
Bonus Idea: Turning Lichform into a quest.
All necromancers could start with a quest: From Death, Life.
The affairs of this mortal world are trifling compared to your true goal: To conquer death.
Your studies have uncovered much surrounding this subject, but now you must prepare for your glorious rebirth.
* The ceremony will require that you are worthy, experienced, and possessed of a certain amount of power. (You must be at least level 20.)
* You must gather the correct reagents to use in the ceremony. (Here would be a list of five monster bits, like the brotherhood of alchemist quests. This shouldn't be so bad, since you'll have the quest right from the beginning of the game. Plus, an extra life shouldn't be something set in stone, should it?)
* The ceremony will require a suitable location, secluded and given to the channelling of energy. (This would be Yiilkgur. On finding it, the next objective appears.)
* Your lair must amass enough energy to use in your rebirth. (Fortress energy. It's a big deal; 80-100?)
On satisfying all the conditions, head to Yiilkgur, use the command orb, select "begin the ceremony", and...
The secrets of death lay open to you! The skill "Lichform" has been unlocked!
Preamble: How undead minions work (in this idea).
1. Undead minions are created either through the skill "Create Minions" or "Sacrifice".
Explained below.
2. Undead minions last indefinitely as long as you remain on the same level as them.
They do not follow you to other levels however, and on leaving a level any undead minions remaining vanish.
3. Undead minions are dim.
No complex orders, no fancy AI, and apart from one exception, no controlling them remotely. The only order you can give them is to attack a certain target. Otherwise they'll just attack anything they can or, failing that, mass around you.
4. Your necromancer has a "sphere of influence".
This represents the area where your necromancer can sustain his/her undead thralls. If one of your minions ventures outside this area, they will rapidly decay, losing 10% of their max HP per turn, until they perish.
5. Undead minions are incapable of healing.
Necromancers aren't known for their generous medical insurance. Minions cannot heal, and do not regenerate HP. Make more as they drop!
6. Again, undead minions are dim.
While your minions will attempt to remain within your sphere of influence when no enemies are about, they will madly rush out to attack things far away from you if they can see them. It's up to you to either keep close to your minions, or failing that, make more. Undead minions are the definition of quantity over quality after all.
Class Description:
"While most magic is viewed with suspicion since the Spellblaze, the stigma surrounding the black art of necromancy has been around since time immemorial. These dark spellcasters extinguish life, twist death, and raise armies of undead monsters to sate their lust for power and pursue their ultimate goal: Eternal life."
Unlock Method:
Unlock both skeletons and ghouls, and have all the "How to be a necromancer" lore available in Yiilkgur's library.
Hint: "The road to necromancy is a macabre path indeed. Walk with the dead, and drink deeply of their black knowledge."
Resources:
As loathsome as it is, and as unhappy as archmages are to admit, necromancy is purely magic and only uses mana.
The Skills:
(No precise mana costs or cooldowns as of yet. As always, the [x/x/x/x/x] format means what the skill would do at skill level one, level two, etc., and is purely approximate.)
Pre-existing trees:
Magic / Fire [1.00] (locked)
Magic / Water [1.00] (locked)
Cunning / Survival [1.00] (locked)
(Fire and water were chosen since the trees are all attack spells. Necromancers need magic to make corpses as well as use them, right?)
Necromancy / Minions [Class, 1.20]
Create Minions [Activated]
Using this skill activates the effect "Creating Minions", which lasts for [6/8/10/12/14] turns. During this time, the game keeps track of how many enemies you and your current minions kill. Once the effect times out, you gain a number of minions equal to the amount of enemies you killed, with a cap of [2/4/6/8/10]. The undead types that you get depends on skill level:
Code: Select all
Skill Level - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
D. Skeleton Warrior - 55% - 31% - 24% - 9% - 9% - 0%
Skeleton Warrior - 10% - 15% - 15% - 20% - 20% - 25%
A. Skeleton Warrior - 0% - 2% - 5% - 10% - 10% - 15%
Skeleton Archer - 10% - 15% - 20% - 15% - 10% - 10%
Skeleton M. Archer - 0% - 2% - 4% - 6% - 8% - 10%
Skeleton Mage - 5% - 10% - 10% - 10% - 15% - 15%
Ghoul - 20% - 20% - 15% - 15% - 10% - 5%
Ghast - 0% - 5% - 5% - 10% - 10% - 10%
Ghoulking - 0% - 0% - 2% - 5% - 8% - 10%Note: Undead that are usually capable of summoning (ghasts, ghoulkings) cannot when they are your minions. No crazy chain-summoning shenanigans like ToME 2!
Aura Mastery [Passive]
Increases the radius of your necromancer's sphere of influence by [1/2/3/4/5], and lowers the rate of decay outside it to [9/8/6/4/2]% max HP per turn.
Surge Of Undeath [Activated]
Doubles your minions' accuracy and attack power for [3/4/5/6/7] turns, as well as granting them [10/20/30/40/50] extra APR and a [5/10/15/20/25]% extra critical chance.
Dark Empathy [Passive]
You share your powers with your minions: Your minions gain [10/20/30/40/50]% of your resistances and saves.
Necromancy / Advanced Minions [Class, 1.20] (Locked)
Sacrifice [Activated]
This skill requires that a dagger is equipped. Strikes an enemy with a single, accurate, armour-piercing melee attack. If the attack kills the enemy, it is raised as an undead minion [2/4/6/8/10] levels higher than you would get if you raised it normally using Create Minions.
Assemble [Activated]
Requires at least three skeletal minions. This skill takes said minions and instantly combines them into a bone giant. The type of bone giant depends on skill level.
1 = Normal bone giant.
2 = Normal bone giant.
3 = Heavy bone giant.
4 = Heavy bone giant.
5 = Eternal bone giant.
6 = Eternal bone giant, with a 20% chance of runed bone giant.
This skill has a large mana cost and cooldown, but the cooldown can be mitigated somewhat by spending further points.
Free Reign [Activated]
Necromancers hardly need to be there in person while their minions are wreaking havoc! Using this skill allows you to control a minion of your choice while your character vanishes from the level for [5/6/7/8/10] turns. Beware, while your necromancer is gone his/her sphere of influence is gone as well, and when he/she returns she'll be dazed for five turns. If the minion you're controlling perishes, your necromancer will return prematurely. Long cooldown.
Minion Mastery [Passive]
Adds a small chance of creating high-level, advanced undead when using Create Minions. This chance is calculated before the regular Create Minions chances.
Code: Select all
Skill Lvl. - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
Vampire - 02% - 02% - 03% - 03% - 03% - 02%
M. Vampire - 00% - 01% - 01% - 02% - 02% - 02%
F. Wight - 02% - 02% - 02% - 02% - 02% - 02%
G. Wight - 00% - 00% - 01% - 01% - 02% - 02%
B. Wight - 00% - 00% - 00% - 01% - 01% - 02%
Dread - 00% - 01% - 01% - 02% - 02% - 03%
Lich - 00% - 00% - 00% - 01% - 01% - 02%Necromancy / Death Mastery [1.20, Generic]
Reanimation [Activated]
Completely drains your mana, turning it into health at a rate of [1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2] health points healed per mana point. This ability has a long cooldown however, not to mention a period of [20/18/16/14/12] turns afterwards where natural mana regeneration stops (or maybe slows to a crawl for manasurge's sake).
Doom [Activated]
Stops all healing, natural or otherwise, on one enemy PERMANENTLY. However, it requires the enemy to have less than [5/10/15/20/20]% of its maximum health remaining. At skill level five, this skill also randomly places a single healing/regeneration infusion on cooldown if the enemy has one, regardless of their max HP.
Blurred Mortality [Passive]
The brother to the Health talent, each skill point adds 40 to your health... below zero. So, with three skill points invested, you die at -120 HP, not zero. However, you cannot see your health when it drops below zero, the bar merely displaying "???", so you can never know just how much leeway you have... unless you're keeping very close track of the amount of damage you're receiving.
Lichform [Sustained]
Here we go, the cheat death ability. Bear in mind that spending even a single point in this ability nullifies the Blood of Life's effect on you ("Your body violently rejects the blood of life!"). Firstly, this ability is sustained and needs to be active when you to die to work. Furthermore, it costs a fair bit of mana to activate and drains mana continually while it's active. The plus side? When you die, you become a lich. The bonuses lichdom grants depend on how many skill points you spent on the ability.
1 Point = -3 all stats, -10% all resistances. Such meagre devotion!
2 Points = No changes, barring regular undead things.
3 Points = +3 magic & willpower.
4 Points = +3 magic & willpower, +10 spell and mental saves.
5 Points = +5 magic & willpower, +10 spell and mental saves, all resistance caps raised by 15%. Fear my power!
Of course, since you're undead as well, you gain the regular undead bonuses/restrictions (no infusions, poison immunity, etc.)
Once you have become a lich, this ability is locked and you cannot spend further points in it.
Note: Necromancers should begin with a cloak of deception, in preparation for their happy day of lichdom.
Necromancy / Death Magic [1.20, Class]
Invoke Darkness [Activated]
A simple spell, casting a bolt of darkness at a single enemy.
At level three, the spell becomes a beam.
At level five, the spell no longer effects your own minions, passing through them harmlessly.
Terrify [Activated]
On failing a mental save. causes a single enemy to flee. They may use defensive abilities or utility spells like teleportation, but they cannot attack you while fleeing. Works on elites, but doesn't work on bosses.
Rigor Mortis [Activated]
Damages a single enemy with both physical and darkness damage, dropping their global speed by [20/30/40/50/60]% for [2/2/3/4/5] turns. Can be cast over enemies, but requires line of sight. At level five, the ability effects a 2x2 square instead of a single square. The slowing effect can be resisted by a physical save.
(If possible, this ability could also increase the damage dealt to the enemy by undead opponents, so your minions can really go to town
)Foul Aura [Sustained]
Sheathes the necromancer in an aura of darkness, heavily damaging any enemies in melee range. Also, any enemy attempting to attack in melee (skill or regular strike) must make a spell save or they are instead knocked back one square. This ability consumes mana for as long as it's active.
Necromancy / Dark Combat [1.20, Generic] (could be dropped to 1.00 if more melee-focussed necromancers appear)
Necromantic Fang [Passive]
When using a dagger in combat, each successful strike lowers the enemy's resistance to physical and darkness damage by [1/1/2/2/3]%, up to a maximum of [5/10/15/15/20]%. At level three, this ability allows you to use a staff in your alternate weapon slot for spellcasting/spellpower purposes, while holding a dagger in your main weapon slot. Shields are forbidden.
Execution [Activated]
A single strike that immediately kills an enemy if it's stunned, dazed, or disarmed (not frozen). Doesn't work on elites or bosses, etc.. Bear in mind that the necromancer has no way to stun/daze/disarm opponents, and must instead rely upon minions or other outside forces to create the right conditions for them.
Dominion [Activated]
A single, brutal melee attack, dealing [120/140/160/180/200]% weapon damage. If the attack kills an enemy that has summoned others, its summons are all immediately killed and replaced by up to [1/2/3/4/5] minions, depending on their amount. The minions are created as if the skill Create Minions made them.
Undeath Absorption [Sustained]
Allows the necromancer to leech the energy from fellow necromancers by fighting enemy undead. Each melee strike against an undead opponent while Undead Absorption is active restores your mana by [2/3/4/5/6]%, but leaving yourself so open to dark energies drops your darkness resistance by 50%. Long cooldown time, so you can't just switch it on and off.
Bonus Idea: Turning Lichform into a quest.
All necromancers could start with a quest: From Death, Life.
The affairs of this mortal world are trifling compared to your true goal: To conquer death.
Your studies have uncovered much surrounding this subject, but now you must prepare for your glorious rebirth.
* The ceremony will require that you are worthy, experienced, and possessed of a certain amount of power. (You must be at least level 20.)
* You must gather the correct reagents to use in the ceremony. (Here would be a list of five monster bits, like the brotherhood of alchemist quests. This shouldn't be so bad, since you'll have the quest right from the beginning of the game. Plus, an extra life shouldn't be something set in stone, should it?)
* The ceremony will require a suitable location, secluded and given to the channelling of energy. (This would be Yiilkgur. On finding it, the next objective appears.)
* Your lair must amass enough energy to use in your rebirth. (Fortress energy. It's a big deal; 80-100?)
On satisfying all the conditions, head to Yiilkgur, use the command orb, select "begin the ceremony", and...
The secrets of death lay open to you! The skill "Lichform" has been unlocked!
).