Best necromancy/skeletons in RPGs

[Trans-Financial-Man]

"0167","HD Pondfish",24731,"https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/24731"

"0168","HD Rabbit",25280,"https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/25280"

Are you really that supprised that there are HD mods for specific objects? There are all these little shitty looking meshes and textures that most graphics overhauls miss. It's not that noticeable when playing Skyrim normally but in VR every little shitty thing can be held right up to your eyes and they can look quite jarring unmodified.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Any game where "necromancy" allows you to summon undead from nothing doesn't actually have necromancy, it has summoning with an undead flavor.

Necromancy = raising the dead, not summoning undead creatures out of thin air. There has to be a dead guy (or girl (or monster)) somewhere nearby for it to work. You animate the mortal remains of a deceased living being.

If you summon skellingtons out of thin air, who exactly is getting raised??

????????

are there even any (good) games that have this kind of necromancy?

As usual it's roguelikes that have all the best mechanics. Necromancers in ADOM are decent, with different types of undead being unlocked as you level up, skeletons being faster but more fragile than zombies, reducing your actual spellpower stat when raising the dead (small amounts can be retrained pretty quickly, but the large amounts required for major undead is a significant price) and lots of quirks to each type instead of wights and ghouls and vampires just being generic melee guys.

Crawl probably has some of the coolest stuff. As an example of what you can do with the right spells; you can temporarily take on lichform to ignore hunger costs and get a bonus to the power of necromancy spells, cast a buff that turns any valid monsters you kill into spectral minions as you slay them, leaving their corpses behind. You can then raise a skeleton out of the corpse, leaving still the flesh behind to eat or use with other spells. And all these zombies/ghosts/skeletons/simulacra carry over the relevant physical properties (speed, melee attacks, weapons if you left them with the corpse, resistances too iirc) without any of the shit they'd logically lose like breath weapons. I'm a bit fuzzy on what you can currently do with just meat chunks, you used to be able to create simulacra (ice/necro hybrid spell) out of them, turn them directly into mana with sublimation of blood necro spell that can also run off your own hp) and I think there used to be an abomination spell that combined corpses and meat chunks into one big monster. Some other spells include cursing a creature to constantly spawn incorporeal undead around it to attack it, instantly rotting a corpse into a tiny cloud of miasma that hurts even poison immune creatures, and conjuring grasping hands to hold creatures in place and damage them for a short while in an area (which is also earth elemental.) The major downside to Crawl is that for 'balance' they've made all this stuff temporary. Which is fine thematically, but a weird gap to leave gameplay wise. Should have allowed for some kind of permanent minion. Oh, also one of the two gods of necromancy will deliver you about half a dozen location appropriate corpses in exchange for a small amount of favour, which makes it much more reliable and is rather amusing as a concept.

 

[Citizen]

Not really RPG, but necromancer class in Conquest of Elysium 4 is very fun. You run around the map trying to find tiles where battles took place and ressurect fallen units with rituals. Those rituals cost your sanity, so you have to use disposable apprentices for the rituals, because they turn into useless imbeciles very fast

 

[luj1]

Best necromancy on RPG's

 

[Deadyawn]

Not sure if it counts, but the Elder Scrolls mod for Crusader Kings lets you do some rad things. I remember becoming an undead as the king of Daggerfall which made my whole court hate me and start plotting rebellion. Not that it mattered since I could raise undead armies like nobody's business.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Makes me think about this chess-like browser strategy game i used to play, was really great, with some daily challenges (like chess challenges) to beat in x moves for rewards, leader-boards, upgraded units to buy with some in-game resources, very well rounded around the chess game-play and some new units with unlimited (one per turn) pawn-like unit summon ruined the game because waiting + summoning + trading units made these overpowered.

Still, as long as it's not multiplayer necromancy is fun.

 

[Serious_Business]

This is possibly the very best thread of all time

 

[luj1]

Makes me think about this chess-like browser strategy game i used to play, was really great, with some daily challenges (like chess challenges) to beat in x moves for rewards, leader-boards, upgraded units to buy with some in-game resources, very well rounded around the chess game-play and some new units with unlimited (one per turn) pawn-like unit summon ruined the game because waiting + summoning + trading units made these overpowered.

Still, as long as it's not multiplayer necromancy is fun.

Sounds like Pox Nora?

 

[Darth Canoli]

luj1

Chess Evolved Online

Video of the daily challenge :

 

[DraQ]

Any game where "necromancy" allows you to summon undead from nothing doesn't actually have necromancy, it has summoning with an undead flavor.

Necromancy = raising the dead, not summoning undead creatures out of thin air. There has to be a dead guy (or girl (or monster)) somewhere nearby for it to work. You animate the mortal remains of a deceased living being.

This. Not that that raising a human skeleton from the remains of an insect swarm (you dropped all at once by hitting it with a sword (and then a suit of plate fell out of it)) counts as an improvement, for the same reason voice-acted dialogue while zoomed in on NPCs face wasn't in Oblivion.

For this reason Diablo 2 has really shit necromancy, as the only actual necromantic spell it has is Revive (credit where credit is due, though - the golemancy OTOH is cool).

Anyway, other than probably bazillion or so roguelikes that I haven't played even though they probably have autistic amounts of depth to raising undead:

• TES V Skyrim: Yes, Skyrim. You raise actual dead complete with their stats and inventories, with no arbitrary restrictions (you can even encounter a budding necromancer practicing on a chicken). You can put stuff in corpse's inventory to be used in combat. Mechanically it's pretty barebones but it does the most important things most other games don't, and those are the things that have the most impact. Vampirism is also a staple of TES and on top of that you can trap someone's soul and use it to enchant a pair of skivvies. You can add plethora curses and whatnot via mods (like Apocalypse Magic or Requiem) if you need to - teleporting someone's heart out of their chest as they charge definitely adds some extra flavour.
• Arcanum (narratively): I haven't played much of it, but you can speak with the dead which permits additional quest solutions.
• PS:T: No necromancy mechanically speaking, but a lot necromantic flavour around and speaking with the dead.
• Divinity 2: Having a necromancer putting together an undead creature for you, from collected, possibly disparate body parts, is fun.
  
• Divinity: Original Sin 2: Has you raise corpses - without retaining their properties, but puts at least some effort into making what you raise generic in a way; has some nice, flavourful necromantic spells and lifesteal; plus lets you do nasty stuff with people's souls and speak to departed spirits by default (independent of necromancy skill).
  
• TES II Daggerfall: Mechanically no necromancy or even summoning, but binding souls allows conferring original creature's properties to an item and the vampirism is in.

 

[Shadenuat]

This. Not that that raising a human skeleton from the remains of an insect swarm (you dropped all at once by hitting it with a sword (and then a suit of plate fell out of it)

Insect swarms in Diablo 2 Hell are immune to physical damage, so are ghosts; and both are tweaked to only drop small loot like gems and runes. hence sometimes players farm locations like arcane sanctuary and far oasis. also they drain stamina on attack. and ghosts pass through some solid objects.
revive is super useful as most rules apply, so you can raise enemies that remove % of enemy health and beath the shit out of strongest bosses in the game with them.

yeah even when you take 20 yo supposed rpg killer casualisator it is nearly not as bad as modern take on what rpgs are supposed to be. lots of small details making fun game. and diablo is supposed to be dumb.

 

[V_K]

Best necromancy performed on an RPG is obviously BG:EE.

Edit: Or is it Realms of Arkania HD? Such masterful corpse reanimations, both of them.

 

[Tweed]

Not sure if it counts, but the Elder Scrolls mod for Crusader Kings lets you do some rad things. I remember becoming an undead as the king of Daggerfall which made my whole court hate me and start plotting rebellion. Not that it mattered since I could raise undead armies like nobody's business.

 

[Poseidon00]

I think I liked being a Necromancer in Morrowind moreso than any other game. Customizing your summoning spells, sometimes with buffs, and then flying overhead to let the skeletons,ghosts, and zombies take care of things is always entertaining.

 

[DraQ]

I think I liked being a Necromancer in Morrowind moreso than any other game. Customizing your summoning spells, sometimes with buffs, and then flying overhead to let the skeletons,ghosts, and zombies take care of things is always entertaining.

Except necromancy in Morrowind is of summon skellington variety.

 

[Poseidon00]

Yeah, but personally I like the "Necromancer as summoner" cliche. At least gives them a distinct flavor from the mage. Plus you could be a bit more creative with the spellmaker than just summoning. I do miss the spellmaker. Too bad we will likely never see it again.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Arcanum desu.

Have you ever spoken with the dead? Called to them from this side, pulled them from their silent rest? Do you know what it is they feel?

Yes. For fucks sake, all necros ever do is raise skeletons and cast death magic with some gay debuffs.
Forcing a dead NPC to reveal his secrets to you is cool and should be done more often.

 

[Poseidon00]

There really have been precious few opportunities to actually play the role of a Necromancer in a game world. It would be nice if you didn't summon undead, but had to go to the graveyard and cast spells and watched as corpses and skellingtons crawl out of their graves. Even just a small touch like that would go a long way.

 

[DraQ]

Yeah, but personally I like the "Necromancer as summoner" cliche. At least gives them a distinct flavor from the mage.

How about letting necromancers be necromancers and summoners be summoners?
Sure necromancers may do some summoning but that should only apply to incorporeal dead (which may be a very good counter to enemies relying on physical damage).

Plus you could be a bit more creative with the spellmaker than just summoning. I do miss the spellmaker. Too bad we will likely never see it again.

 

[V_K]

Sure necromancers may do some summoning but that should only apply to incorporeal dead (which may be a very good counter to enemies relying on physical damage).

This is basically how Mortis disciplines work in VtM: Redemeption. You need corpses to raise zombies, but can just summon wraths out of thin air. Vampires being undead themselves is an added bonus.

 

[Ranarama]

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.

 

[Ysaye]

Not an RPG, and it sometimes broke the "you have to have a corpse to work with" but Necromancy in Ultima 8 seemed very necromancy-like.

 

[what am i doing]

Any game where "necromancy" allows you to summon undead from nothing doesn't actually have necromancy, it has summoning with an undead flavor.

Necromancy = raising the dead, not summoning undead creatures out of thin air. There has to be a dead guy (or girl (or monster)) somewhere nearby for it to work. You animate the mortal remains of a deceased living being.

If you summon skellingtons out of thin air, who exactly is getting raised??

????????

Guild Wars handles it this way. You need dead bodies to summon minions, and they specifically need to be "fleshy" enemies - you can't summon a Bone Fiend from a stone elemental, for example. You can also use bodies for a variety of other spells, such as creating Area of Effect "well" spells that need a body, using a dead body to regain a lot of health, or teleporting to a body and poisoning all nearby enemies. Each body can only be used for a Necromancer spell once, after which it is marked as exploited and not useful.

 

[laclongquan]

Necromancy in Icewind Dale2 is quite well done.

You can send out a pack of 6 creatures the like of skeleton, boneguard, zombie, shadows

 

[JarlFrank]

Necromancy in Icewind Dale2 is quite well done.

You can send out a pack of 6 creatures the like of skeleton, boneguard, zombie, shadows

It's not necromancy if they're summoned, rather than created from corpses.