Necromantic Index & General Discussion

[Stratovarius]

This is a work in progress system that's under live development. However, most of the material is complete and playable, primarily around the Necromancer and Overlord base classes. That being said, there are still some balance issues that are likely to arise, because the system is based around a week long spellcasting cycle, as well as the permanent existence of one or more cohort style undead.

Begun work on transferring all of the Necromancy content into Vivisection and Resurrection. Very slight updates to base classes and races. As per usual, PDF version trumps forum version.

Rules
Necromantic Rules

Base Classes
Necromancer
Overlord
Vivisector

Prestige Classes
Bombardier
Boncyff Elite
Casglwyr Abomination
Chirurgeon
Deathwaker
Flesh Brute
Gollwyd Suzerain
Hegni Inheritor
Hexer
Mad Scientist
Multifarious
Necrotic Scholar
Numberless
Osseus Legionnaire
Ossified Warrior
Poisoner
Soulwalker
Spiritwalker
Swollen Grotesque
True True Necromancer

Necros
Vein of Bone
Vein of Curses
Vein of Flesh
Vein of Poison
Vein of Spirit

Feats
Feats

Skills
None

Races - Created by VennDygrem
Boncyff
Casglwyr
Gollwyd
Hegni

Magic Items & Artefacts
None

Monsters & Templates
Frozen One
Hailstone Magus

Other
Soothsayer
Alternate Class Features

(click to show/hide)

Other
Using Warforged Classes with Boncyff

Necromantic Companions
Angel of Decay (Flesh, Poison)
Atropal Scion (Curses, Spirit)
Blaspheme (Flesh, Curses)
Bleakborn (Flesh, Curses)
Blood Amniote (Flesh, Poison)
Bloodmote Cloud (Curses, Poison)
Bone Rat Swarm (Bone, Curses)
Boneyard (Bone, Spirit)
Carcass Eater (Flesh, Bone)
Cinderspawn (Spirit, Poison)
Crypt Chanter (Spirit, Curses)
Deathlock (Flesh, Spirit)
Dessicator (Flesh, Poison)
Dire Maggot (Flesh, Poison)
Entomber (Flesh, Bone)
Raiment (Spirit, Poison)
Skin Kite (Flesh, Spirit)
Skulking Cyst (Flesh, Spirit)
Slaymate (Spirit, Bone)
Spectral Lyricist (Spirit, Curses)
Spectral Mage (Spirit, Curses)
Tomb Mote (Flesh, Bone)
Voidwraith (Spirit, Poison)
Wheep (Flesh, Poison)

[Stratovarius]

Added templates for all the base material, and wrote the full ruleset for Necromantic Magic. Companion classes will appear here shortly.

[Gazzien]

Are the Vein of [X] pseudo-spells supposed to have level "Veil of [X]"?

[Stratovarius]

Brain fart. Will correct.

And the first couple Necros are up for your reading pleasure.

[Nanshork]

Ugh, so much for me to go through! 

[Stratovarius]

Ugh, so much for me to go through! 

Finish Rituals first

[Nanshork]

Ugh, so much for me to go through! 

Finish Rituals first

You'll probably be done with this by the time I finish with Rituals.   

[Stratovarius]

Possibly. Goal is to finish Vein of Spirit tonight.

I'll probably also be adding Vein of Poison to the list as well. Think acid, poison, disease, negative levels, and ability damage.

[Stratovarius]

Up to level 6 Necros completed for Vein of Spirit.

Going to have to go back and calculate all of the Grave Token costs, because I don't think the balance is where I want it to be. I need to up the costs on the duration buffs, and lower it on the instantaneous damage spells. A little, anyway.

And I'm sure the Necromantic Companions aren't balanced against one another. Fairly certain some of them (Hello, Wheep!) are overpowered. A War Hulk Wheep would be a terrifying thing.

Edit: Vein of Spirits is complete. Including a couple nasty capstones.

[VennDygrem]

Hmm, this is starting off pretty intriguing. I look forward to seeing more! Maybe some day I'll even get to playtest something from this system.

[Stratovarius]

Hmm, this is starting off pretty intriguing. I look forward to seeing more! Maybe some day I'll even get to playtest something from this system.

At the rate I'm going, this will be playable tomorrow. Or certainly by Friday.

[VennDygrem]

Heh, well I still won't have a campaign to play it in. I'm still invested in taking the Savage for a spin in Arhosa Ascending.

Regardless, I've never really played a dedicated Necromancer-type character, though what I'm seeing out of this system is making it look both appealing and, potentially, quite manageable.

[Stratovarius]

Heh, well I still won't have a campaign to play it in. I'm still invested in taking the Savage for a spin in Arhosa Ascending.

Regardless, I've never really played a dedicated Necromancer-type character, though what I'm seeing out of this system is making it look both appealing and, potentially, quite manageable.

Well, I might start another Arhosa campaign once I get this system up and running.

Currently the goals for this guy is to have the Necromant be the Caster class, Overlord is the Companion class, and Vivesector is the Melee beater.

I'll figure out Feats, Races, and PrCs later.

[Stratovarius]

So, the Vein of Flesh is up to 3rd 5th level necros. Quite proud of Foul Flesh Sanctified, especially.

Also added the Voracious template as the result of a Pit of Sarlacc necros.

[Stratovarius]

And now up to 7th level complete for Vein of Flesh, with ideas jotted down for 8th and other levels.

Almost there...

[Stratovarius]

And done. Vein of Flesh is complete. Vein of Bone will be tackled tomorrow.

[skydragonknight]

And done. Vein of Flesh is complete. Vein of Bone will be tackled tomorrow.

I'm glad that you were able to...flesh things out.

[Stratovarius]

And done. Vein of Flesh is complete. Vein of Bone will be tackled tomorrow.

I'm glad that you were able to...flesh things out.

[VennDygrem]

So, I know the system's not done and the classes may address this, but... there are a lot of necros, especially at higher levels, that target all creatures in a large area, which technically includes you and any of your allies. For instance, Life's Great Peak might just swallow you all up and crush you all into a big, dead minion-ball-of-doom. I would assume that this will be addressed once the classes are written up, but I was curious.


For what it's worth, I'm really intrigued by the long-duration buffs and instantaneous effects, and really want to see how they work in an actual game setting given the 'castings-per-week' mechanic.

[Stratovarius]

So, I know the system's not done and the classes may address this, but... there are a lot of necros, especially at higher levels, that target all creatures in a large area, which technically includes you and any of your allies. For instance, Life's Great Peak might just swallow you all up and crush you all into a big, dead minion-ball-of-doom. I would assume that this will be addressed once the classes are written up, but I was curious.

Yup, it will be. It's the kind of thing I sort out once I've got the system in place and can go through and edit it up. I'm mostly creating these effects by just jotting down cool ideas that come to mind. And once you get to the 9th and 10th level ones, they're going to be on par with low level epic spells or better.

For what it's worth, I'm really intrigued by the long-duration buffs and instantaneous effects, and really want to see how they work in an actual game setting given the 'castings-per-week' mechanic.

Well, first I need to figure out the cost balance, which I haven't yet. Might actually have to break out a spreadsheet to get it all sorted. But I'm hoping it forces the casters to balance between buffing minions and casting offensive spells. I definitely don't want a situation where the Necromant can load up every buff in the book and go to town with supermininons. That's not the goal. But I'm not sure how to balance that out.

I also know the base classes are going to have a ton of class features, because I've more or less left things like having extra undead out of the Veins deliberately. So that's something I need to figure out as well.