4E Necromancer Woes

[Shnezz]

EDIT: I have my answer, thanks. I guess people didn't see my post buried in the middle.

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So, back when my friends got together and we decided to form a group for our first session, I went online and tried to look for a necromancer, as the player's handbook doesn't have one.

I stumbled across the dread necromancer, and looked up some things about it, finding out that it was the wrong edition.

I moved on, rolled a new character, and proceeded to play until last session when I met my death. As a level one party with all the roles still filled after my demise, re-rolling was easier than trying to get myself revived.

So, anyway, are there any WotC, homebrew, or anything else that has a class like the dread necromancer for 4E? Anything with a summon/control would be fine, but I really wanted something evil.

[dsmiles]

Have you checked out the Demonologist over in homebrew?

[Rake]

Alternately, just play 3.5 (or Pathfinder).

: P

[hamishspence]

I could see a summoner class (wizard, druid, artificer, invoker) being refluffed into a necromancer.

[SuperMuldoon]

The best way to do a Necromancer without using a homebrewed class is to just reflavor one of the classes with summoning. For example, take the wizard and deck yourself out with a lot of the cold and necrotic powers, and take the summoning dailies and instead of summon 'fire warrior' or whatever, summon 'burning skeleton'. You can do the same with the druid. Also, if you are a member of DDI, there was one issue where they featured some necromantic powers, and the wizard ones were by far the most 'necromancer' like, so check it out (I don't remember the issue # unfortunately).

edit: ninja'd!

[Kurald Galain]

I'm sure they'll print one eventually.

Whether it actually lets you control a horde of skeletal minions, or whether it'll be like "you briefly summon a wraith: con v fort, 2d6 damage" remains to be seen.

[Guinea Anubis]

I would say look at a summoning wizard from arcan power and just refluff the powers. Insted of I summon a wolf just say it summons a zombie.

edit: ninjad more then once

[FoE]

There was the article "Secrets of the City Entombed" in Dragon #372, which was about an archaeological dig going on at a city formerly ruled by necromancers. It came with a number of necromantic 'powers' for avengers, bards, clerics, swordmages, warlocks, shamans and wizards. My suggestion is to create a wizard or a warlock, borrow a couple of powers for the article and then select powers from the PHB or Arcane Power based on their necromantic flavour.

But as for a class or a build that resembles the dread necromancer that allows you to summon undead that remain permanently in the game and also take control of other undead? Sorry, bub, no go. Not much love for necromancers in 4E outside of NPC enemies. At least, not yet. The closest we got to a "mostly evil" class is the warlock, who forge pacts with devils/evil fey/starspawn/drow. Actually, the last one is pretty eeeeeeevil, as it lets you siphon life energy off your allies.

[Tiki Snakes]

Worth noting, there is a ritual at level 6 that would make a nice addition to such a reflavoured wizard - Undead Servitor. Can't fight, but is pretty strong, so say goodbye to ever opening doors or carrying your own equipment ever again.

But yeah, looking at it, building around the issue 372 powers and refluffing the summoner wizard powers (when there isn't a 372 option) seems like it will do the job nicely. Shoot for the Archlich Epic Destiny, (Or shoot for another and save up the 100,000gp needed to make you a normal Lich, anytime after level 14 technically.)

Personally, I'd be amused by the idea of talking a player or two into rolling up Revenant's and rping my most powerful undead minions.

[Mando Knight]

In the mean time:
Undead Servitor: Level 6 ritual, summons 1 (max 1) undead servant that can carry your stuff but not fight.

Gravesight: Level 8 ritual, scry through the eyes of an undead creature (that remains within 5 during the casting) for a day, spending a standard action to perceive what it perceives.
(Open Grave both)

Blighting Power: Feat, Shadar-Kai only, adds Necrotic to certain powers
Deathly Disruption: Feat, Shadar-Kai only, ignore some Necrotic resistance
(Dragon Magazine Annual 2009/Dragon #372 both)

Dragon #372 in general: Secrets of the City Entombed has necrotic powers for a good grouping of classes, including the Level 9 Wizard Daily attack Animate Dead, which does exactly that.


...Oops. Ninja'ed while I was reading over 372. Seriously, look it over.

[Jack_Banzai]

Alternately, just play 3.5 (or Pathfinder).

: P

This kind of comment in 4e topics is really, really unhelpful. At best.

[FoE]

The Wizard powers in Secrets of the City Entombed actually don't do a bad job of replicating some of the Dread Necromancer's abilities. It's just a pity there aren't more of them at higher or lower levels.

[Kurald Galain]

The Wizard powers in Secrets of the City Entombed actually don't do a bad job of replicating some of the Dread Necromancer's abilities. It's just a pity there aren't more of them at higher or lower levels.

What it needs is something like this,

Life Siphon, encounter 1 (implement, necrotic)
Standard action. Range 10. Int vs fort.
Hit: 2d6+int necrotic damage, and you gain an equal amount of temporary hit points.

Withering Curse, daily 1 (implement, necrotic)
Standard action. Range 10.
You place the withering curse on target enemy, and it lasts until the end of the encounter. As a minor action, or as a free action if the target drops to zero hit poits, you may move the curse to a different enemy within range. At the beginning of the target's turn, make the following attack as a free action:
Int vs fort. Hit: 1d10+int necrotic damage, and the target is weakened until the beginning of his next turn.

Aura of Enervation, utility 2
Minor action. Until the end of your next turn, each enemy within 2 squares of you takes -2 to his attack rolls.

Withering Burst, encounter 3 (implement, necrotic, zone)
Standard action. Range 10, burst 1. Int vs fort.
Hit: 1d6+int necrotic damage. Effect: the burst creates a zone that lasts until the end of your next turn. All creatures are weakened while in the zone.

Zombie Horde, daily 5 (implement, summoning)
Minor action.
Until the end of your next turn, you may use the following abilities with a range of 5. Minor action: you sustain this effect.
Immediate reaction: one enemy that is reduced to zero hit points or less is replaced by a zombie under your control. It uses your defenses, has one hit point, and takes no damage from missed attacks. It is immune to necrotic and poison effects.
Move action: you may move any number of zombies under your control up to two squares each.
Standard action: one zombie under your control attacks an enemy. Int vs Ref. On a hit, this deals 1d6 damage for each zombie adjacent to that enemy, plus your int modifier.
Opportunity action: trigger: an enemy provokes an opportunity from a zombie. Effect: that zombie makes an attack as above.

[FoE]

Not bad, Kurald. The only one I'm a bit uncertain about is Withering Curse and the bit about moving it around.

[Shnezz]

Thanks everyone, I think the Demonologist will work just fine.

[Ravens_cry]

This kind of comment in 4e topics is really, really unhelpful. At best.

Agreed. I play Pathfinder, I enjoy Pathfinder. But seriously, tis' not a thing of the helping kind, nor related to the helping kind, nor within sight, from above the horizon on a clear day on a flat prairie while atop a lofty tower, of the helping kind. Such foolery ferments anger and mistrust and should avoided on all civil minded forums. To speak plainly, don't, just don't.

[Awesomologist]

You can easily re-fluff a Dark Pact or Vestige Pact Warlock as a Necromancer. MC Wizard for a daily summon spell if you feel the need to have minions.

[DSCrankshaw]

As others have said, Open Grave and Dragon #372 have some of what you want. Playing a Shadar-Kai or Revenant can also give you something of the feel, and some feats and powers to back it up. And certain powers and abilities scattered across the various classes can be used or re-fluffed to support the concept. Shamans, with their spirit companions and spirit-based attacks, might emulate the idea to some extent. There's no Dread Necromancer build yet, though. Supposedly, it'd be a shadow source leader or controller.

[Asbestos]

This comes under "Anything Else"

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/produc...=0_0_0_31813_0

3rd party product, ahoy!
And its from Goodman, one of the bigger (biggest?) 3rd party publishers of 4e material.

It was under 10 and I've spent remarkably little on D&D products recently so... I decided to grab it and check it out, more class options are always good right?

Looked over the Necromancer in particular. Its a controller, can use a Scythe as an implement (it has an implement mastery that could use some rewording) and has Int as the primary ability with Con and Cha as secondaries (its says Strength instead of Con, but the powers say Con. Looks like they made the class with Strength in mind but put down Con for all the powers? Easy fixes) Encounter class features of Command Undead (1/encounter dominate of a single undead creature, costs you a healing surge) and an immediate interrupt that boosts a single defense at the cost of a healing surge. Looks like either the Summon keyword is outside the OGL (possible, it wasn't in the core books) or they were working on this since before WotC came out with the Summon keyword because all the 'summons' are conjurations. Easy fix if you know what the summon keyword does. Overall, it looks like its exactly what you want.

Looks like most of the classes could use some modifying to limit MAD and some features need minor tweaks (the Spiritsworn marking feature pulls a marked creature and auto-damages it if its in melee range... I'd fix it to 'you may make a melee basic attack if it is in range at the end of the pull', or something to that effect)

[Tiki Snakes]

I'm pretty sure that all it costs is a feat to count a scythe as an arcane impliment anyway, as they are heavy blades. Course, you'd be losing out on the bonus from normal impliments, but if you want to weild a scythe then I figure the weapony side of it is probably a balancer.

Perhaps a good excuse to build a hybrid wizard-swordmage? Not sure how that'd pan out, though.