Best necromancy/skeletons in RPGs

[Damned Registrations]

Dominions is the direction I wish strategy games had taken en masse. It's the roguelike model: fuck graphics whores, fuck the retards, go all in on mechanics.

I haven't played the earlier games, but Dom 5 has some awesome necromancy stuff. Asphodel is a nation where necromancers have taken over the former forest kingdom of centaurs and dryads and satyrs, with all sorts of cool unique undead and corpse puppets animated with vines. Also, has the best freaking hero in the game. There's a bunch of necromancy focused nations like that with their own unique mechanics. There's an underwater ghost empire, one ruled by mummies, demonic monkey necromancers and even normal nations all have access to very powerful necromancy spells and can be ruled by a lich or some other sort of undead if you so desire.

 

[flabbyjack]

It's not an RPG, but Total War: Warhammer does pretty good. You can recruit undead, but also if units have died in a region you get to raise those as additional troops, they're also the only faction that has heal spells that reanimate figures into a unit.

And I mean, once you start getting powerful enough as a necromancer, if you're not leading an army you're doing it wrong.

Absolutely. Playing as the Vampire Counts in Total War: Warhammer: The Warhammering War of Totality is incredibly satisfying.

 

[DraQ]

Anyway, purchased the TESO new map DLC only due the massive discount. I hated it. Only DA:I managed to implement a worst type of """"necromancy""""

How does it work in TESO?

 

[Cryomancer]

If i had more money, i would actually make a game ONLY about necromancy. Diablo 2, M&M VIII, Arcanum, etc had amazing necromancies, but are not perfect. Exactly because they need to implement all types of magic, firearms, technology, melee, etc Will pick the most immersive novels about necromancers and myths involving undeads from all over the world and try to make the game mechanics close as possible to the myths about necromancy and literature. The PC will be able to reanimate dead, craft custom pet minions, bargain with evil "outsiders" to learn spells that few people in mortal world can know, fight hordes of enemies from the "inquisition" and etc. Just like Thief focus on the "Rogue" archetype and is extremely in depth on it, "the necromancer" would be extremely deep and will make the player feel like a necromancer of a fantasy universe just like Thief does to the Thief/Rogue class.

Will be no BS mechanics like cooldowns BUT some "rituals" will only be able to deal during solstice for eg, others will require expensive reagents.

How does it work in TESO?

I don't know how to explain how bad is but he looks more like a "BONEMANCER" that copies skills from Diablo than a actual necromancer( https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Necromancer+Skills ) Imagine if on Dark Souls, Pyromancer had only the 'fog/mist" skills. It would be silly. Fog manipulation can be a part of pyromancy but not everything, the "smokemancer" in that example is what """"necromancer""" in TESO is. A Bonemancer and everything on ESO revolves around tanking with a bone Scythe, throwing flame skills and ZERO skills about manipulating life and death itself. Even sorcerer and nightblade felt more necromancer than the necromancer... But DA:I is worst than even TESO. Necromancer is a "spiritmancer" that can only CC with long cooldowns

Active

• Even SORCERER has more curses than the necromancer and still only one curse
• Sorcerer also has more perma pets(2 vs 0)
• Necromancy is not lore friendly. Conjuration on Skyrim allow you to reanimate corpses and the strength of the corpse that you can reanimate varies with perks and the spell. On ESO, most skills that should consume corpses are in fact generating corpses(eg - skeleton mage)
• This skills that generate corpses, there are ZERO reason to why bone armor would generate a corpse after few seconds.
• And all corpses felt the same, is not like D2 where the corpse explosion scales with corpse hp.
• There are no progression on anything "non damage" related. Instead of starting the game with a single weak skeleton and ending with an horde, you always can summon a temporary skeleton mage or suicide skeleton

Awesome thread, best thread.

*Necromancer enemy creates hundreds of permanent zombies/skeletons to protect and serve*
*Player character necromancer summons 1 skeleton warrior with short duration and long cooldown*

Ughl....

Yep. Warlocks on NWN2 are that way. On the OC they can raise demoniac armies, on your party are useless without the warlock reworked mod that makes then more P&P likes.

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About MODS, IMO Phantasy Calradia for M&B and Returning 2.0 for Gothic 2 has one of the best necromancies ever.

 

[anvi]

My NWN mage was a badass, I could summon Mordenkainens Sword pet as well as other creatures. Doesn't matter that you are a squishy cloth wearer when you have those bodyguards.

 

[flabbyjack]

Here are some necromancer pics from my /img/ folder...

Spoiler

 

[Cryomancer]

IS not about necromancy but OMG... I purchased Geneforge and the minion mechanics are perfect. In a encounter, with my minions, i lost. Reloaded, tried to have a really good tank(Thahd) and some DPS minions(Fyora), was winning the encounter BUT i lost control over few of my minions and ended slayed by my own minions. Tried again, invested a little more into my minion intelligence and won. The game is perfect in every aspect involving minions. And the writting is also amazing. Is not about "good vs evil" is about the power to create life and how it would result ethic speaking.

A "necro forge" would be the perfect necromancer game IMO.

 

[TemplarGR]

There is no way in hell Skyrim has worse necromancy than any of the OP's titles. Skyrim actually has some of the best necromancy available to the game industry. I love Skyrim's necromancy.

 

[laclongquan]

Vampire mage is too easily suppressed by light-related spells like Sol scorching orb, 3rd circle. With no easy counter to such things.

A recent proposal is to blanket area with Darkness spells.

Obviously, it can be countered by 2nd- light spells. So darkness can be a way to attrition light spells.

Mind you, in that it's more like a mages duel: who has more spell slot (thus more mages) win.

Although 2nd level scrolls can be acquired beforehand.

 

[Cryomancer]

There is no way in hell Skyrim has worse necromancy than any of the OP's titles. Skyrim actually has some of the best necromancy available to the game industry. I love Skyrim's necromancy.

With mods, skyrim necromancy is one of the best. without it, you can only have a single summon and with a master perk, two. Reanimation skills also scale only up to a point where you can't reanimate tougher enemies.

Skyrim has his merits. It has the second best archery on arction games, losing only to Dragon's Dogma. The vampire lord form remembers me of underworld with a lot of cool vampiric powers and if you join in other side, you gain a amazing crossbow with all types of ammo, including explosive bolts. The unique thing which i miss is first person mode on vampire lord form AND the ability to use vampiric powers outside of vampire lord form.

But if we look into mods, Skyrim with mods has a amazing necromancy but nothing like Gothic 2 - RETURNING.

 

[felipepepe]

Since this thread was necro'ed, the best answer IMHO was this one:

Tome4 has necromancers that satisfy all of the OP's requirements aside from NPC interaction.

https://te4.org/wiki/Necromancer

It does have a "conjure shit from nowhere" spell but it is out of the way in an optional tree and just summons bunnies as meatshields you can harvest souls from to fuel your other spells.

To those poor souls that never played Tales of Maj'eyal (TOME4):

- You first need to unlock the necromancer class by collecting 4 necromancy tomes
- The necromancer class has an aura that steals enemy's souls and empower your horde of undead
- You can revive any non-unique enemy as an undead minion, with their stats, abilities and spells preserved
- You can fuse your minions into a bone golem, drain their life or explode them as bombs
- You can consume souls to heal or empower spells
- You can curse enemies and block them from healing
- You can make a shadow clone, and empower yourself so you don't die when reaching 0 HP
- You can become a lich via a quest inside your skill tree:

Spoiler

- To do so, you need to be at a certain level, gather energy, defeat one of the hardest early game enemies in the game and then perform a ritual
- Once the ritual is done, you can activate the lichform ability, which drains your mana but allows you to revive as a lich if killed (thus cheating the game's permadeth).
- If you are killed with Lichform activated, you resurrect as a lich, an undead immune to poison, bleed, stun & disease, that doesn't need to breath and has several other bonus depending on how much power you gathered before dying.

It's not the most balanced class, it kinda suck on the endgame, but whatever, it's really cool to become a lich, you can even customize how you will look like:

Spoiler

The only complain I have is that you look like a goddamn lich but town guards still allow you inside. It's weird, because other undead characters must disguise themselves.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So Gothic has summon /create uber skeletons? That's it? Raining down lightning doesn't seem very necro. Raining down blood or bones would be.

 

[Cryomancer]

So Gothic has summon /create uber skeletons? That's it? Raining down lightning doesn't seem very necro. Raining down blood or bones would be.

Is not vanilla Gothic 2. Is Gothic 2 + RETURNING mod which is bigger than any expansion that i saw. On Vanilal G2, you can only be a fire magician...

That said, necromancers are vastly different on Gothic than in other games. For eg, Demons in most games are associated with fire, on Gothic, fire is demon's weaknesses. Demons are creatures of darkness. Sun and fire are a torment to Beliar and his followers, but lightning based light is not, so Spear of Darkness is a tier 3 spell which throws lightning on the enemy. Returning, in order to become a necromancer, you need to ask for apprenticeship from Xardas, get 30 INT(very hard), and do a quest involving killing a "sheep of innos". After it, you can learn runes. There are no hard caps on how much creatures you can animate BUT each creature that you maintain has a mana upkeep and without the alternative balancing, most low tier summons are banished from boss battles. You can also learn unique skills like a skill who allows you to spend your own lifeforce(much greater than your mana) to maintain your army of darkness. You can also learn demonology. And there are quests involving learning demonic language which is a requirement to read the Necronomicon for eg.

With returning, you can also modernize the graphics, i din't installed because only making ret running was already hard enough. But from sinitar gaming >

 

[luj1]

My NWN mage was a badass, I could summon Mordenkainens Sword pet as well as other creatures. Doesn't matter that you are a squishy cloth wearer when you have those bodyguards.

It's even better to summon the Black Blade of Disaster and cast Greater Sanctuary on yourself, then just watch it rip Mephistopheles two new assholes

 

[deama]

While we're talking about gothic 2 returning, how's the translation? Has the english translation improved yet? Cause last time I checked (last year), the translation was dogshit to the point of having to google quests.

 

[TemplarGR]

Is not vanilla Gothic 2. Is Gothic 2 + RETURNING mod which is bigger than any expansion that i saw. On Vanilal G2, you can only be a fire magician...

Man, you are such a retard. First you say Gothic 2 is better than Skyrim in necromancy, then you admit that it is only modded Gothic 2 vs vanilla Skyrim. Guess what faggot, Skyrim has better necromancy mods as well. We were talking vanilla experience, if we add mods, Skyrim can't be beat by any other game ever made.

 

[Cryomancer]

While we're talking about gothic 2 returning, how's the translation? Has the english translation improved yet? Cause last time I checked (last year), the translation was dogshit to the point of having to google quests.

Still dogshit; in order to create demonology rune, you need some ingredients. The problem is that on crafting help menu and on book that Xardas sells you, shows different reagents and WTF is "resin" and "ore 1 bar" to craft higher magical runes? I had to cheat using marvin to get some runes not because i wanted, just because i had no option.

Returning not only has epic necromancy but also epic water magic

irst you say Gothic 2 is better than Skyrim in necromancy, then you admit that it is only modded Gothic 2 vs vanilla Skyrim.

Wrong. I said about Gothic 1. Also, my OP was months ago, i could have changed my mind. Changing your mind is a sign of 'retardness'? Gothic 2 is a amazing game but has his problems. Xardas which teaches circle 6 magic on G1 by some unknown reason can't teach magic to you on G2. And you can learn Army of Darkness on Innos monastery. It makes ZERO SENSE. Is like having to join Akatosh church on Elder Scrolls to learn how to summon undead.... Pure BS.

It's even better to summon the Black Blade of Disaster and cast Greater Sanctuary on yourself, then just watch it rip Mephistopheles two new assholes

The problem is one summon limit. I don't get it.

On P&P, you have no one summon limit, BUT most DM has rules to not slow down the combat, eg - roll averages and use averages for summons, but a computer can compute dice rolls of hordes and hordes of undeads on a fraction of second. Why put a summon limit in this games?

Let me do that like Warlocks on PRC mod.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

There is no way in hell Skyrim has worse necromancy than any of the OP's titles. Skyrim actually has some of the best necromancy available to the game industry. I love Skyrim's necromancy.

What's next?
Skyrim has one of the best action combat systems in the industry, and Dark Souls combat is bad?

 

[Cryomancer]

Skyrim has one of the best action combat systems in the industry, and Dark Souls combat is bad?

Skyrim archery is amazing. Magic is servisable and melee trash. Is a R1 spam until you or the enemy is dead.

Dragon's Dogma IMO has the best combat on ARPG's, doesn't matter if is melee, ranged or magical combat.

 

[Norfleet]

The only complain I have is that you look like a goddamn lich but town guards still allow you inside. It's weird, because other undead characters must disguise themselves.

Could you disguise yourself simply by lying down on the cart, though? Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!

 

[TemplarGR]

What's next?
Skyrim has one of the best action combat systems in the industry, and Dark Souls combat is bad?

Dark Souls combat is beyond bad, actually.

 

[Cryomancer]

The only complain I have is that you look like a goddamn lich but town guards still allow you inside. It's weird, because other undead characters must disguise themselves.

Could you disguise yourself simply by lying down on the cart, though? Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!

Does people has ways to detect disguise? I mean, they can try detect magic for eg. I an not saying that the average peasant would be able to detect the Lich disguising, BUT the strongest magicians of a large city probably can detect the Lich.

Dark Souls combat is beyond bad, actually.

Are you joking? Dark Souls except by DS3 has a amazing combat. You can't pause and insta teleport 50kg of food into your belly and insta heal, drinking eastus takes time. Dark Souls 1/2 also has a high lethality combat where the player needs to know when to attack, when to defend, when to dodge, when to block, manage stamina, manage item usage and so on.

 

[Sheepherder]

There is no way in hell Skyrim has worse necromancy than any of the OP's titles. Skyrim actually has some of the best necromancy available to the game industry. I love Skyrim's necromancy.

With mods, skyrim necromancy is one of the best. without it, you can only have a single summon and with a master perk, two. Reanimation skills also scale only up to a point where you can't reanimate tougher enemies.

Skyrim has his merits. It has the second best archery on arction games, losing only to Dragon's Dogma. The vampire lord form remembers me of underworld with a lot of cool vampiric powers and if you join in other side, you gain a amazing crossbow with all types of ammo, including explosive bolts. The unique thing which i miss is first person mode on vampire lord form AND the ability to use vampiric powers outside of vampire lord form.

But if we look into mods, Skyrim with mods has a amazing necromancy but nothing like Gothic 2 - RETURNING.

What necromancy mods for skyrim would you recommend? I have Special Edition.

 

[Cryomancer]

There is no way in hell Skyrim has worse necromancy than any of the OP's titles. Skyrim actually has some of the best necromancy available to the game industry. I love Skyrim's necromancy.

With mods, skyrim necromancy is one of the best. without it, you can only have a single summon and with a master perk, two. Reanimation skills also scale only up to a point where you can't reanimate tougher enemies.

Skyrim has his merits. It has the second best archery on arction games, losing only to Dragon's Dogma. The vampire lord form remembers me of underworld with a lot of cool vampiric powers and if you join in other side, you gain a amazing crossbow with all types of ammo, including explosive bolts. The unique thing which i miss is first person mode on vampire lord form AND the ability to use vampiric powers outside of vampire lord form.

But if we look into mods, Skyrim with mods has a amazing necromancy but nothing like Gothic 2 - RETURNING.

What necromancy mods for skyrim would you recommend? I have Special Edition.

Any which cheb gonaz recommends. He has a playlist of mods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNcCEcnM5gk&list=PLZkSYKr7KRRUbfz5CJOzq5LDY9Qeyc2Sc

I would recommend the Dark Arts and Ordinator

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Was there ever a Doom I/II pwad or mod that let you play as an archie? Because that would be the fucking ultimate necromancy-flavored beer for me.