[3.5] The Grey Arcanist (Necromancer PrC / PEACH)

[Cardea]

"Necromancy. You spoke of it as a child, as the weapon of the villain. You spoke of it as a young woman, using it as a fuel to power your crusade. And now you speak of it to me, now, to try and bring back your beloved? Well, child... let us see what I can do." - Naelis Vahl

The Art of Necromancy is a practice that few will take part in, and even fewer that will admit to using it. Those who are more outspoken are those who wish to dominate the living, or have treaded with the likes of Orcus. Conquerers, Rulers, Tyrants, Evil-doers; all of these tags have been put onto these practitioners of the Art. And while there does exist what is known as a 'White' Necromancer, those who use Necromancy in the name of Good and of the Living, they are few and far off in between, and no more trusted than those who wish to rule with the Undead. But there are, however, some who look beyond this Black and White distinction; the Grey Arcanist.

Rather than approaching Necromancy from the view of right or wrong, under the influence or command of some higher power, or even taking it as a form of power to be abused to conquer, Grey Arcanists seek to master the Art of Necromancy by approaching it as merely the manipulation of the Life Force found in living things. By studying the Art with this mentality, with a strict discipline and a strong mind, a Grey Arcanist learns to bend the Life Force of creatures around him... as well as his own.

HD: d6

Requirements
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Neutral or True Neutral
Feats: Spell Focus: Necromancy, Fearsome Necromancy
Spellcasting: Able to cast 3rd-level Arcane Spells; three of which must be of the Necromancy School.
Special: Must have been subject to a drain effect, either of your ability score(s) or level, coming from either an Undead, another Necromancer or a spell from the Necromancy School.

Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill-points per level: 2+Int modifier

The Grey Arcanist
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|

+0

|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

| Necromantic Studies, Teachings of the Undead| +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+3

| Necromantic Studies|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|

+1

|

+1

|

+1

|

+3

| Necromantic Studies, Necrosis Effect|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

4th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

| Necromantic Studies|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

| Necromantic Studies, Granted of the Mind and Body|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class[/table]

Spells per Day: When a new level in Grey Arcanist is gained, she gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of Grey Arcanist to the level of whatever other arcane spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

If a Grey Arcanist had more than one arcane spellcasting class before she became a Grey Arcanist, she must decide to which class she adds each level of Grey Arcanist for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Teachings of the Undead: A Grey Arcanist begins her studies of the dead headstrong; learning more and more about the Art of Necromancy becoming a passion for her. Upon gaining the first level in this class, the DC Saves for all of her Necromancy spells increase by 1.

Necromantic Studies: A Grey Arcanist learns to warp her Necromancy spells, making them function in new and improved ways. At every level of this class, The Grey Arcanist may choose two of the Studies listed below.

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Studies of the 1st

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Backbiter Study -
Cause Fear Study - Your Cause Fear spell now affects creatures up to 1/2 your HD, and can now affect creatures normally immune to fear.
Chill Touch Study - Your Chill Touch spell now deals 1d6 per Caster Level (5d6 Max), and deals 1d6 Strength Damage if they fail a Fortitude Save. You can still use this a number of times equal to your level, but the damage to a single creature's Strength Score cannot go past 6 by use of this spell.
Ray of Enfeeblement Study - In addition to normal affects, a creature struck with this spell becomes Fatigued.

Studies of the 2nd

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Blindness and Deafness Study - When you Blind a creature with this spell, you gain a bonus to spot checks equal to your half of your Caster Level. When you Deafen a creature with this spell, you gain a bonus to listen checks equal to half of your Caster Level. You lose the ability to make the same creature Blind and Deaf with this spell.
Command Undead Study - You form a telepathic bond with whatever Undead you use this spell on.
False Life Study - While this spell is active, for every Caster Level you possess, you gain 1d10+1 Temporary Hit Points (Max: 5d10+10).
Scare - SR no longer applies to this spell.
Spectral Hand Study - The Spectral Hand now has an AC of 10 + Your Int Mod + Your Caster Level. When casting this spell, you roll 1d4 as normal, and lose that same amount of health, but the hand now has an HP equal to the number rolled on the d4, times your Caster Level.

Studies of the 3rd

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Gentle Repose Study - Any corpse affected by this spell is considered weightless when carried by You, or anyone you designate. Additionally, if cast on a living creature, they are affected as if affected by Slow.
Halt Undead Study - You can now affect a number of Undead equal to your Caster Level.
Healing Touch Study - This spell no longer deals damage to you. This spell also heals 1d6 per Caster Level (Max 15d6).
Ray of Exhaustion Study - When you cast this spell, the ray splits off from the main target, even if it didn't hit, and attempts to hit a second target.
Vampiric Touch Study - Temporary hit points gained by this spell now last up to two hours after casting. Additionally, the target takes 2 points of Constitution Damage.

Studies of the 4th

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Animate Dead Study - When using this spell, you now can control 5HD worth of creatures per Caster Level.
Bestow Curse Study - In addition to the main effect of this spell, you may choose an additional curse to bestow onto the target. This secondary curse may not be the same one as the first, and only has 1/2 the effectiveness as it would normally. (-3 to Ability Score, -2 Penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks., or 75% to Act Normally)
Contagion Study - The DCs for all diseases available by this spell is increased by your main spellcasting modifier.
Enervation Study - Any Undead affected by this spell now gains 2d4x5 Temporary Hit Points.
Fear Study - You can now choose to reshape this spell into five 5 ft. squares.

Studies of the 5th

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Blight Study - This spell can now be cast as either a ray (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels Range) or a 30 ft. cone.
Magic Jar Study - You gain a bonus to a number of skills equal to your spellcasting modifier for a number of hours equal to the amount of time you spent inside another body. You may only choose skills that the host body had ranks in. The bonus to the skills selected is equal to half of the modifier the host body had in it. (Example: A Wizard with an Intelligence of 15 may select two skills the host body had ranks in. He chooses Knowledge (Arcana) and Climb. The creature had a +12 Bonus to Knowledge (Arcana) and a +7 to Climb. He gains a +6 bonus to his Knowledge (Arcana) checks and a +3 to Climb checks. He spent 15 hours inhabiting the host creature, so he gains these bonuses to Knowledge (Arcana) and Climb for the next 15 hours.)
Symbol of Pain Study - Creatures affected by a Symbol of Pain must make a Will save or become Frightened.
Wave of Fatigue Study - Creatures affected by this spell that are already Fatigued are now Exhausted.

Necrosis Effect: You gain a bonus equal to your main spellcasting modifier to saves against Ability Drains, Ability Damage, Negative Levels, Negative Energy Effects, Necromancy Spells, Spells cast by Necromancers, and any effects of any Undead. In addition, you gain Cold Resistance equal to your Caster Level.

Granted of the Mind and Body: As your intensive study of the Art grows to a close, it doesn't mean that you cannot continue to learn bit and pieces of Necromantic knowledge. Upon gaining fifth level in this class, at every other level you gain afterwards, of any class, you may switch out one of your Necromantic Studies with any other you do not currently possess. You may treat any Undead as having an Intelligence Score of 2 for the purpose of spells that require a mind (Only applies to Mindless Undead.) You also gain a bonus to all Charisma-based skills when dealing with Undead equal to your main spellcasting modifier.

Additionally, you may scribe a Symbol of Necromantic Power onto every Undead you create using Animate Dead. A Symbol of Necromantic Power grants an Undead. Imbuing a Symbol of Necromantic Power uses up a 5th level Spell Slot. You do not need to imbue a symbol upon Animating a corpse; you may imbue one later on. You need not prepare to cast a Symbol of Necromantic Power, if you prepare spells. You may exchange one of your prepared spells for it.

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Symbol of Necromantic Power - Undead you control imbued with a Symbol of Necromantic Power become more tuned in with you. You may telepathically communicate simple commands to them. Specific commands (Ex: "Attack the Bandit, but avoid the Farmers, and salvage any weapons you find") still require verbal communication. You are aware of the location of any Undead you control with the Symbol of Necromantic Power on them, as well as their current HP. There is no limit to the distance of your telepathic communication. In addition, any Undead you control with the Symbol of Necromantic Power on them, can give you short messages via your link. They are usually three or four word descriptions (Ex: "Big room with dragon").

Comments/Changelogs

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Hopefully this won't be wrecked too badly.
Considering adding Studies for spell levels 6 - 9. Just... don't know how to make them balanced.
Not sure if this is balanced, either.
Debating to make this a ten level class, to add some more abilities, and to spread them out more.
Edit One: Editing this is a nightmare.

[Dante & Vergil]

Very neat idea. You take all aspects of necromancy, not just undead animation, and enhance it. I like that such a necromancer class has finally been done, because there are not enough debuffer necromancers in the game.

[JoshuaZ]

I like this a lot. But I'm very much a fan of necromancy, especially the sort that isn't obviously evil.

For the Necromantic Studies, I'd require that the ones that refer to any specific spell should require you to have access to that spell. Given the phrasing of the Necromantic Studies, I presume that you aren't supposed to be able to take studies of the nth level unless you are at least level n in the class. This should be stated explicitly.

The Granted bit needs work:

Additionally, you may scribe a Symbol of Necromantic Power onto every Undead you create using Animate Dead. A Symbol of Necromantic Power grants an Undead.

Words are missing here. Also "Granted of the Mind and Body" sounds very awkward as an ability name.

I think that extending this to 10 levels is probably a good idea. If so, I'd have only one use of Necromantic Study at each level, and increase the number of options.

I'd consider also adding some number of cleric spells which they can treat as necromancy spells on their arcane caster lists. Raise Dead would be the most obvious such spell, just to fit the flavor of your initial quite. I'd also consider adding Death Knell, the various Inflict spells, Harm, and Speak with Dead. Spreading these out over the 10 levels would help make this a decent 10 level PrC.

[Iituem]

Awesome stuff, well worth extending to tenth level. Only criticism with the capstone is that you should make that 'telepathy is unlimited by distance within the same plane'. It's one of those little things that seems to be required.

[Benly]

Out of curiosity, why is Chaotic Neutral disqualified? Despite the bad reputation Chaotic Stupid players have given it, CN is just as morally neutral as LN and TN and seems just as suitable to the basic fluff given so far.

[Cardea]

Very neat idea. You take all aspects of necromancy, not just undead animation, and enhance it. I like that such a necromancer class has finally been done, because there are not enough debuffer necromancers in the game.

Thank you.

I like this a lot. But I'm very much a fan of necromancy, especially the sort that isn't obviously evil.

Same here. I played a Necromancer in a party of mine forever ago. Me, the Paladin and the Cleric of Pelor went at length about how I'm not evil, I'm just using life forces. The Fighter, during all of this, spent his time whittling away ten foot ladders to make ten foot poles to sell.

Much to his credit, that is how we afforded all our magical equipment... once their tax for my Tower was taken out.

For the Necromantic Studies, I'd require that the ones that refer to any specific spell should require you to have access to that spell. Given the phrasing of the Necromantic Studies, I presume that you aren't supposed to be able to take studies of the nth level unless you are at least level n in the class. This should be stated explicitly.

Right. Should've put in you need the spell.

Well, by the time you can take this class at it's earliest, you're fifth level, finishing it at 10th level, if you just focus on it. You start out being able to cast 3rd level spells, and then you can cast up to 5th level spells. There isn't a huge gap between when you'd be able to use Studies of a higher spell level than available to you. I'll throw in something for that.

Words are missing here. Also "Granted of the Mind and Body" sounds very awkward as an ability name.

I was running out of ways to throw in 'Necro', without using Philia or Phobia. One can get me potentially banned? The other makes this class irrelevant.

I think that extending this to 10 levels is probably a good idea. If so, I'd have only one use of Necromantic Study at each level, and increase the number of options.

I was limiting this to PHB spells for the most part, since, if I included things outside of it, some people wouldn't be able to use them properly.

I'd consider also adding some number of cleric spells which they can treat as necromancy spells on their arcane caster lists. Raise Dead would be the most obvious such spell, just to fit the flavor of your initial quite. I'd also consider adding Death Knell, the various Inflict spells, Harm, and Speak with Dead. Spreading these out over the 10 levels would help make this a decent 10 level PrC.

I'm hesitant with this one. A bunch of Cleric Necromancy spells are iffy with this, and some spells wouldn't mix with this class, in my opinion. In addition, Clerics get Animate Undead as a 3rd level spell, while Wizards/Sorcerers get it as a 4th level spell.

Awesome stuff, well worth extending to tenth level. Only criticism with the capstone is that you should make that 'telepathy is unlimited by distance within the same plane'. It's one of those little things that seems to be required.

Aw. But I wanted to communicate with him while he's in the Elemental Plane of Fire.
"Mort, how is it?"
"HOT. HOT. HOT. HOT."

Out of curiosity, why is Chaotic Neutral disqualified? Despite the bad reputation Chaotic Stupid players have given it, CN is just as morally neutral as LN and TN and seems just as suitable to the basic fluff given so far.

I disqualified CN because I was making this along the lines of a Scholar; someone who needed extreme dedication to the Art of Necromancy. Chaotic, being somewhat flighty, doing whatever it fancies, did not seem to fit.

[JoshuaZ]

I was running out of ways to throw in 'Necro', without using Philia or Phobia. One can get me potentially banned? The other makes this class irrelevant.

Hmm, how about just "Imbue Symbol"? Or "Telenecrotic Bond" ?

I'm hesitant with this one. A bunch of Cleric Necromancy spells are iffy with this, and some spells wouldn't mix with this class, in my opinion. In addition, Clerics get Animate Undead as a 3rd level spell, while Wizards/Sorcerers get it as a 4th level spell.

Well, so just use a limited set maybe? But it isn't unreasonable to give an arcane necromancer PrC the ability to cast Animate Dead as a 3rd level spell. It doesn't break anything. The only reason why I brought this up, and it is a tiny one, is that the flavor quote at the beginning is awesome, but makes no sense if they don't have access to raise dead or something similar.

I was limiting this to PHB spells for the most part, since, if I included things outside of it, some people wouldn't be able to use them properly.

Ok. So pick higher level spells. There are around 15 or so additional arcane necromancy spells of level 6 or above. So make stuff for some them maybe?

I disqualified CN because I was making this along the lines of a Scholar; someone who needed extreme dedication to the Art of Necromancy. Chaotic, being somewhat flighty, doing whatever it fancies, did not seem to fit.

Hmm, that's not obvious to me. A fair number of "scholars" seem to be chaotic neutral in behavior, flitting from task to task, researching whatever strikes their fancy. Moreover, given that in many nice societies much of necromancy is frowned on or outright illegal, people who didn't like government control would be a natural group to consider taking stuff.

[Benly]

I disqualified CN because I was making this along the lines of a Scholar; someone who needed extreme dedication to the Art of Necromancy. Chaotic, being somewhat flighty, doing whatever it fancies, did not seem to fit.

Being CN doesn't mean you can't be a dedicated academic. (If it did, you couldn't have CN archivists, wizards, Loremasters, geometers..) For example, a researcher who believes that "forbidden knowledge" must be unearthed, researched, and propagated in the name of free thought would be CN. So would an obsessive fanatic who disregards all laws and social mores in the name of perfecting his mastery of necromantic knowledge.

Chaotic Neutral doesn't have to be Chaotic Stupid and it doesn't have to be flitty or dimwitted.

[Cardea]

Hmm, how about just "Imbue Symbol"? Or "Telenecrotic Bond"?

Perhaps. But the Symbol isn't the only feature of the current Capstone; just a large part of it.

Well, so just use a limited set maybe? But it isn't unreasonable to give an arcane necromancer PrC the ability to cast Animate Dead as a 3rd level spell. It doesn't break anything. The only reason why I brought this up, and it is a tiny one, is that the flavor quote at the beginning is awesome, but makes no sense if they don't have access to raise dead or something similar.

Perhaps. I'll see what fits.

Ok. So pick higher level spells. There are around 15 or so additional arcane necromancy spells of level 6 or above. So make stuff for some them maybe?

I was planning on it, then thought that a five level class granting you the ability to make 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th level spells even more powerful would be a little bit... terrifying. But seeing as people are for wishing this to be a ten level thing...

Hmm, that's not obvious to me. A fair number of "scholars" seem to be chaotic neutral in behavior, flitting from task to task, researching whatever strikes their fancy. Moreover, given that in many nice societies much of necromancy is frowned on or outright illegal, people who didn't like government control would be a natural group to consider taking stuff.

But the fluff I gave for this didn't describe a scholar flitting between tasks or carrying on random research; it was someone who was studying Necromancy almost exclusively.

Being CN doesn't mean you can't be a dedicated academic. (If it did, you couldn't have CN archivists, wizards, Loremasters, geometers..) For example, a researcher who believes that "forbidden knowledge" must be unearthed, researched, and propagated in the name of free thought would be CN. So would an obsessive fanatic who disregards all laws and social mores in the name of perfecting his mastery of necromantic knowledge.

Chaotic Neutral doesn't have to be Chaotic Stupid and it doesn't have to be flitty or dimwitted.

No, it doesn't, I suppose.

And I'm not sure why you're bringing CS into this. That wasn't part of my equation.

[Benly]

And I'm not sure why you're bringing CS into this. That wasn't part of my equation.

Mainly because I feel like Chaotic Stupid players are responsible for the perception of CN as always being the flighty vapid nonsense alignment. There really is no reason a CN can't be a serious scholar, especially when nobody questions for a second the idea of a CG scholar-sage.

[Cardea]

Mainly because I feel like Chaotic Stupid players are responsible for the perception of CN as always being the flighty vapid nonsense alignment. There really is no reason a CN can't be a serious scholar, especially when nobody questions for a second the idea of a CG scholar-sage.

I don't discriminate the mass for the fault of the few.

On that note, may we please end this line of conversation/thought? I'd rather not have that become the main thing that keeps people looking at this class.

[Benly]

I don't discriminate the mass for the fault of the few.

On that note, may we please end this line of conversation/thought? I'd rather not have that become the main thing that keeps people looking at this class.

Oh, sure. Sorry, I kind of get bugged about that assumption, and I'll tend to follow a line of conversation as long as someone responds.

Regarding the actual class, I like it quite a bit. It's nice seeing a class that explores the variety of non-skeleton-raising necromancy.

[TheGeckoKing]

I like this class, I do I do I do. You've made debuffers happy today, and the necromancers who arn't going around like cultists eating babies. As I remember a player telling a Paladin;

"It's a corpse, not a un-living horror, like an Atropal. Calm Down."

However, one slight thing - How does Animate Dead Study interact with the Deathbound Domain (Cleric Dip, Planar Touchstone, yadda yadda..)? The domain power ups the creation limit to 3xCL HD, and yours ups it to 5xCL HD.
If anything, it probably should supercede it, but it's your call.

[Cardea]

However, one slight thing - How does Animate Dead Study interact with the Deathbound Domain (Cleric Dip, Planar Touchstone, yadda yadda..)? The domain power ups the creation limit to 3xCL HD, and yours ups it to 5xCL HD.
If anything, it probably should supercede it, but it's your call.

Regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you can’t create more HD of undead than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead. (The desecrate spell doubles this limit)

The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely. No matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can control only 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level.

Assuming someone has Deathbound Domain and Animate Dead Study.
He may create 3xCL instead of 2xCL worth of creatures per casting of Animate Dead.

Hey may control 5HD worth of Undead Creatures per Caster Level.

[TheGeckoKing]

Control....create.....ah. I've done the same mistake Libris Mortis did when they first printed the silly domain. My bad.

[Cardea]

Control....create.....ah. I've done the same mistake Libris Mortis did when they first printed the silly domain. My bad.

Sa'll good. In the Neighborhood~

[Lix Lorn]

The quote seems to imply resurrection like abilities, but they don't get any. Maybe you could give them Raise Dead added to their class spell list? Those who take life can also give it.

[Kuma Kode]

I don't really have much to add other than that I like it and would play it as-is.

If you want to change Granted of the Mind and Body, you could do some more with the word "Grey", like Scholar of the Grey.

[NOTE] I am bad at naming things. [/NOTE]

[Salbazier]

If only all homebrew have illustration as good as this one...

Never interested in raising undead army but its alwasy nice to see some extra stuff for debuffing.

I don't really have much to add other than that I like it and would play it as-is.

If you want to change Granted of the Mind and Body, you could do some more with the word "Grey", like Scholar of the Grey.

[NOTE] I am bad at naming things. [/NOTE]

Mark/Sigil/Blessing of the Grey? Or Grey xxxx

[Kuma Kode]

If only all homebrew have illustration as good as this one...

Yeeeaaahhh, that picture is pretty much amazing.

[Dencero]

I love any kind of rule or new class that involves necromancy. Don't know why, but it just fascinates me. I personally prefer animation over debuffs, but this does it in just the right way that I love it. The first thing that caught my eye was the picture (Now my desktop :P) The second thing that really got me was the studies. Gives some new bite to reason to those low level spells and new bark to the higher ones.

What I would like to see are more spells listed under the studies, but still balanced. Maybe if it was stretched over 10 levels, it would be easier to balance, I don't know. It's your call.

All in all, I like this and hope to use it at one point, either as a PC or as an NPC my players face.

Keep up the good work.

[JKTrickster]

I agree that adding some Cleric spells into the mix isn't too bad of an idea. If you don't think all of them fit, you could simply limit the options available by forcing a choice between some of them.

After all their fluff is "Grey" and based on raw manipulation of life force so their methods should be much more varied than the traditional Necromancer.

[Cardea]

The quote seems to imply resurrection like abilities, but they don't get any. Maybe you could give them Raise Dead added to their class spell list? Those who take life can also give it.

Necromancers can already sort of raise the dead.
9th level spell called Stasis Clone. Incredibly slow, but still able to raise the dead.

I don't really have much to add other than that I like it and would play it as-is.

If you want to change Granted of the Mind and Body, you could do some more with the word "Grey", like Scholar of the Grey.

[NOTE] I am bad at naming things. [/NOTE]

I'm bad at naming things when I run out of ways to re-use the same word.

If only all homebrew have illustration as good as this one...

Never interested in raising undead army but its alwasy nice to see some extra stuff for debuffing.

Yeah, deviantArt was good this time.

I love any kind of rule or new class that involves necromancy. Don't know why, but it just fascinates me. I personally prefer animation over debuffs, but this does it in just the right way that I love it. The first thing that caught my eye was the picture (Now my desktop :P) The second thing that really got me was the studies. Gives some new bite to reason to those low level spells and new bark to the higher ones.

What I would like to see are more spells listed under the studies, but still balanced. Maybe if it was stretched over 10 levels, it would be easier to balance, I don't know. It's your call.

All in all, I like this and hope to use it at one point, either as a PC or as an NPC my players face.

Keep up the good work.

The problem with having studies for higher levels spells is that... well....
How do I make them better, but still powerful? Necromancy gets scary at high levels.

I agree that adding some Cleric spells into the mix isn't too bad of an idea. If you don't think all of them fit, you could simply limit the options available by forcing a choice between some of them.

After all their fluff is "Grey" and based on raw manipulation of life force so their methods should be much more varied than the traditional Necromancer.

Nice argument. Will think about how to go about this.