Necromancer

This page is about the player background. For the monster, see Necromancer (monster).

Necromancers are magicians who specialise in the less pleasant side of magic - that involving death and the undead. Necromancy spells are actually a varied bunch, but many involve some degree of risk or harm to the caster. However, since many enemies later in the game have some form of life protection they will probably have to branch out into other schools before they start facing demons.

Starting Equipment

Some species may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.

• +0 robe
• Book of Necromancy
• Bread ration
• 20 gold

Starting Skills

These are adjusted by your species' aptitudes.

• Dodging: 2
• Stealth: 2
• Spellcasting: 1
• Necromancy: 4

Strategy

Necromancers have some extremely useful spells in their starter spellbook, including Regeneration. They are also the only background who start with the skills to make pain brand weapons useful.

Necromancers are more limited in their religious options than other non-religious backgrounds, as all the good-aligned gods (plus Trog and Fedhas Madash) punish the use of Necromancy severely. Luckily, none of the three major "magic" gods (Sif Muna, Vehumet, and Kikubaaqudgha) are among them. Kiku, in fact, offers powers and gifts designed especially for Necromancers, and is a solid choice for capitalizing on their strong start with the Necromancy skill; on the other hand, Kiku offers all 4 Necromancy books in an easy to learn order and therefore any Kiku worshipper capable of Spellcasting could learn Necromancy without having to use their background pick / starting spell book on it.

High Elves, Mountain Dwarves, Halflings, Trolls, Centaurs, Spriggans, Minotaurs, and Merfolk are not recommended to be Necromancers.

Humans, Deep Elves, Sludge Elves, Deep Dwarves, Hill Orcs, Kobolds, Nagas, Ogres, Tengu, Draconians, Demigods, Demonspawn, Mummies, and Vampires are recommended to be Necromancers.