Necromancer

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

The Necromancer is a magician who specialises in the less pleasant side of magic. Necromantic spells are a varied bunch, but many involve some degree of risk or harm to the caster.

Necromancers are magicians who specialise in the less pleasant side of magic - that involving death and the undead.

Preferred Races

Hill Orc, Demonspawn, Deep Elf, Deep Dwarf, Vampire, and Mummy are the recommended races if you pick a Necromancer Background.

Starting Equipment

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

• +0 robe
• Potion of magic

Available Spells:

• Pain
• Animate Skeleton
• Vampiric Draining
• Animate Dead
• Agony

Necromancers start with the Pain spell memorised, and can also memorise Animate Skeleton from turn 1.

Starting Skills and Stats

These are adjusted by your species' aptitudes.

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

Choosing Necromancer adds 7 to your starting Intelligence and 5 to your starting Dexterity.

Strategy

Necromancers have the fairly useful ability to create allies with Animate Skeleton, and later Animate Dead. They have a few conventionally offensive spells, but they aren't very impressive.

Spell Details

Pain is also a passible offensive spell; one that checks for willpower rather than evasion. Vampiric Draining is particularlly attractive to Deep Dwarves due to its ability to steal HP, though its damage alone makes it an initially strong spell.

Animate Skeleton raises any corpses that drop. For 1 MP, you get a friendly ally that will distract enemies (even to the point of stabbing), that deals almost as much damage as if it were alive. Unfortunately, they don't last long; but don't let that deter you. Animate Dead is much better in combat (raising all corpses in sight), creating overall stronger zombies in the process.

While all four mentioned spells work well enough for dealing damage, there always persists some need to "get the ball rolling" to actually start rising the undead, even as Necromancy's offensive spells dwindle. Therefore, Necromancers are encouraged to develop other means of killing.

Agony greatly softens targets by halving their HP, though also relies on a willpower check to succeed, as well being limited to 1 range. It's one of the few level 5 spells left in a starting kit, so its a heavy commitment. Its extra utility for Necromancers who have other reasons to hone in on their craft, such as Borgnjor's Vile Clutch.

Tips and Tricks

• Pain branded weapons rely on necromancy to deal damage; Necromancers will find them quite attractive.
• Necromancers are somewhat restricted in religious choice, as all three good-aligned gods (and Trog) punish the use of Necromancy. Luckily, none of the three major "magic" gods (Sif Muna, Vehumet, and Kikubaaqudgha) are among them.
  • Kiku is an extremely obvious choice for Necromancers. Kiku relies on Necromancy skill, with Ne having a head start in said school. In turn, the god provides on-demand corpses (one of the biggest weaknesses of Necromancy), along with a variety of higher level spells. However, both the god and background provide many redundant spells. Kiku isn't necessary for Necromancers, and picking Necromancer isn't necessary for Kiku, but they have great synergy.

History

• In 0.29, most backgrounds were buffed; all Mage backgrounds gained a potion of magic.
• Prior to 0.27, Necromancers started with the Book of Necromancy; Necromancers received no change to their spell lists.
• Prior to the removal of Regeneration in 0.26, Necromancers had access to that spell. In addition, the removal of food made Animate Dead less punishing to cast. However, both necromancy spells now create much shorter lived zombies.
• Prior to 0.25, Agony was able to target enemies from afar.
• Prior to 0.24, Fedhas Madash disapproved the use of Necromancy.
• Prior to 0.21, the Book of Necromancy had Control Undead. 0.21 also introduced Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, which was nerfed and removed from the Necromancer start in the following update. The removal of both spells gave Necromancers no way to deal with incorporeal undead using starting spells alone.
• Prior to 0.14, Necromancers started with only 1 level of Spellcasting.