4E necromancer player class

[Yomega]

Hello playground I come humbly to your almighty feet once again to plead for assistance in a matter of some urgency. (Not really but it sounded cool in my head)

Anyways long story short I have been tasked with making a necromancer class for a friend to play in another friends game they both like the idea and believe I have the understanding of the system to make it sudo balanced.

So today Im looking for advice on some ideas on ways to limit its power but allow it to stay true to the role of being a necromancer, so far we have settled on a class system similar to the vampire class with some of the vampires disadvantages (radiant vulnerability, limited surges) but certainly without the blood drinker powers or sustainable ways to replenish them.

This campaign starts at lvl 1 and is unlikely to go beyond lvl 11 it is somewhat inspired by the necromancer from diablo 2 so keying the undead it makes off the actual dead creature isnt very good since the dm is odd with monster power lvls.

We have spoken about just playing a cleric and taking the lvl 5 daily servitude in death but we need this to work out of the gate lvl 1.

Anny advice would be great thanks alot playground.

[Arkhosia]

Just so you know, there is a 4e book called heroes of shadow with a necromancer class.
Why would it be a race?

[~Corvus~]

As for races? If you're looking for them? Shadar-Kai, Tiefling, Kalashtar or Drow might go well with the whole "oh, gasp it's a necromancer i hoped i'd never see one of those again" feel.

[Yomega]

Sorry guys mis typed Im building a class not a race

[AttilaTheGeek]

Okay, before you begin, you have to realize that making a 4E class is an absolutely massive undertaking. You need to write so many powers, it's not even funny. Don't force yourself to go in order from lowest to highest, shoehorning powers into order; just write all the powers as they come to you, and get down on paper as many as you possibly can.

Second, think of some major themes. Say, three or four. These might be energy damage, creating undead, summoning recycling the bodies of your enemies, draining life, anything generally necromantic-ish. Now, those are your at-wills. Write between three and five powers, spread across the levels for each major theme. These are the core of what your necromancer can do. They won't necessarily be used very often in combat, but they're important fallbacks that your character always has. However, there are exceptions, like the Warlock's Eldritch Blast.

The easiest way to make encounter powers is like at-wills, but with an added bonus. By bonus, I definitely do not mean numerical- the encounters are the main guns that your players , so each one has to do something interesting and different. Not necessarily unique, but interesting.

The dailies are the big, flashy bombs. You don't have to write many, but ideally every single daily in your class's power list should make a prospective player say "Woah. I want to cast that!" The easy way is combining multiple encounter powers, but it's also the lazy way. Don't ever lose sight of the fact that dailies should be awesome.

[Yomega]

Thanks for the advice the large number of powers was one of the main reasons I wanrted to moddle it after the vampire class they get a single lvl 2 utility choice the rest are locked in.

And I should note this is something of a guilty pleasure both my DM and me want to encourage him NOT to be a necromancer as the social implacations are vast so Im trying to build it along the lines of it "can" work but you would be better off playing something else.

[brutticusforce]

first things first: this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195549) has (http://dungeonsmaster.com/2009/02/necromancer-heroic-tier/) done (http://shadow4e.wikidot.com/necromancer-c/comments/show) so much its a bit funny. The first one is my favorite, but it only goes up to paragon. many third parties have created their own dread necromancer class.

Aside from the obvious difficulties involved in building a 4e class, the main problem with Necromancers is that everyone want s have to have them control their own armies of undead. This doesnt work for a number of reasons. 4th ed is more concerned with hitpoints and positioning: an animal companion is an additional source of both. One dread companion may not bring much to the table. Giving a single player the option to have an army of them introduces problems.

If you forge ahead, Remember the action economy: one attack is okay. Two attacks is ranger territory, and whatever you say about classes, the system boils down to hp damage, and the ranger, being the master of that, is king. So think hard about it. how do the minions act? in what action? whose? how many? can the dread necro still do anything else? good luck

[Surrealistik]

Thanks for the plug brutticus; I think I may devote some time to fleshing out the Necromancer over the next month or so.