Logan, Twin spell only works on single target spells. Clearly this is an AOE with a range as far as youtube signals go. As a DM i would totally rule that this was an abuse of metamagic smh But seriously I love your episodes!
One of my favorite characters was a necromancer businessman. Sold zombies and skeletons as maids, farmhands, etc; raised fireflies from the dead and put them in jars to make lights; communed with demons and other beings haunting places, learned what they needed to free them into our realm, and proceeded to destroy what I could and toss the rest in the ocean. Oh, and I had a skeletal snake familiar I used as a cane.
My party’s Necromancer has a history of scavenging battlefields for new minions which resulted in him having to kill soldiers that were returning to retrieve the dead. There are characters who were on either side of the conflict in the party as well.
"Not all Necromancers are evil" Thank you! I'm playing a true neutral necromancer in a planescape wizard game for 5e and my entire plan for the game is to just constantly subvert the player's expectations of a Necromancer. "I won't allow the Necromancer to join us at the lodge, he can't be trusted" *Necromancer willingly offers his arm to be severed to avoid being corrupted by somethingm then is the only one to save the party from being trapped in the Astral Sea* "I just want to study life magic guys, leave me alone"
When I made my character, I did so with Anakin Skywalker in mind. I had a fiance whose life was threatened by some illness, so I began to learn magic to try to prevent her death. I was seduced into the art of necromancy when my fiance's condition worsened. There was no way to prevent her death, but perhaps I could bring her back from the dead. During my studies, I came across a genie which granted my wish of having her back from the dead. As you may well know, it wasn't really as I had wanted. She was a mindless husk of what she once was. She did not long for deep thought and discussion. She did not want to enjoy my company. She only wanted to see my insides on the outside. I decided that I could somehow fix this. Deeper into the necromancy rabbit hole I went. I don't think of myself as an "evil" necromancer. More of a chaotic neutral. This magic is merely a means to an end, and I by no means have any ill intentions.
I'm going to play a Neutral Good Necromancer soon :D She basically never had friends since her parents never allowed her to go outside due to her "delicate constitution". So she read every book she could find. Later in Mage-College all the other kids avoided her, because of her weirdness hence her lack of social skills. So she started to study every sort of magic and stumbled upon Necromancy. Based on that knowledge she raised the dead, so at last she can have friends that never ever leave her.
One of the things I never understood was why enchantment, the school of manipulating, controlling, and destroying someone own will is not seen as evil but necromancy, manipulating inanimate corpses is evil... (if the spell doesn't disturb the passed soul)
Because people don't want to see the corpse of their sister, father, children... used. And what is Enchantemebt? It doesn't exist. A magic that can manipulate our emotion and will? What a strange idea. Can they also change your memory?!? Ahaha...
Also conjuration, summoning planar entities (*including fiends*) with their own agenda to the mortal plane, binding them to your will and then risking them going haywire and killing everybody, is perfectly fine, but creating an evil creature such as an undead from scratch using necromancy is evil. Actually this makes me wonder whether summoning an undead entity from the shadowfell would be conjuration or necromancy.
I guess because depending on the lore Necromancy does affect the soul. I remember that in Skyrim most raised undead say things like "Thank you" and "Free at last" when killed (for the 2nd time).
Inspired by Puffin Forest "I am NOT chaotic evil" "You're a necromancer. You have a zombie slave you use for triggering traps and want to revive more zombies for slave labour" "First of all, this is the medieval era, slavery is legal. 2nd of all, zombies have high con, and I'm going to use these zombie slaves to sell to others so farms can get more work done and more structure is built. 3rd, stereotyping much?"
ChangelingTale the commenter True, also zombies don’t retain their soul and/or sentience. Plus they most likely don’t even feel pain due to being undead.
I like his take on Necromancy, It's great to finally hear someone, besides myself and my current group, say Necromancers "tend" to be evil and not Necromancers ARE evil. The second sentiment annoys me it never acknowledges the few souls who are strong willed enough or compassionate enough to resist the pull of the selfish desire to just become the Lord of the Undead and eat the living. Thank You Runesmith. You have just become one of my favorite if not my favorite D&D channel on that statement alone.
I m currently playing my first campaign, and i m playing a necromancer. He s neutral good, and sees necromancy as a way to understand life and death. He was saved by a necromancer sa a child, and she taught him magic. He sees using the dead as a way to save lives, as in:"Why sending people to die in a war when we could raise a graveyard?" I worked around the evil implications of creating undead by not making them souls i take forcefully from the afterlife, but lost fragments of souls stuck in the material plane. After they help me in my quests, i help them cross to the other side
OrangeManBad He doesn't really care about balance. It s more of a I want to save as many lives as possible. He thinks that Necromancy is a powerful tool that can be used for good. He s also pretty young, so maybe he doesn't really understand the gravity of his type of magic. I told my DM to do whatever he wishes in terms of the morality of necromancy and corrupting power
I mean, necromancy is literally the study and manipulation of life and death. And according to the lore, what fuels an undead is the residual “soul energy” called animus, making it technically not evil, just extremely taboo (just like how physicians were prohibited from studying cadavers to learn anatomy)
According to D&D lore undead are evil by nature because they are animated using Negative Plane Energy, which comes from the evil planes. However, there used to be another creature type called deathless which were the same as undead except they were animated by Positive Plane Energy and as a result were good (or at the very least non-evil) aligned. This is why in the Forgotten Realms an archlich is a non-evil alignment.
@@Sara3346 Maybe the connection to the positive plane was overused and damaged in the process, so while it repairs itself it's far easier or far safer for necromancers to channel the negative plane?
DragonHeart 12 it kind of is, seeing as the Raven Queen is somewhere in the Shadowfell, and that’s the in-between for the negative plane and the material plane.
still am of the belief you can use necromancy for "good". the magic defines itself as "manipulating life energy" but healing magic does the same, and that is seen as "good" but necromancy is by and large seen as "evil"
agreed manipulation of the mind is by it very nature a tool to control other so why is enchantment not included as Evil and i mostly play mind controllers all the time.
@@bookworm3696 Any spell that brings someone back after they were killed and spare the dying are all necromancy. The only reason healing spells aren't is because you don't need to manipulate life energy to seal a wound. You aren't strengthening or restoring their life force, you are repairing the shell that contains it. For those reasons healing spells should probably be considered transmutation. You are manipulating the matter of the human body.
I’m currently playing playing a Necromancer right now, but even though they are good in will, many see his magic as evil, so I’m currently on the run with my party.
Im currently playing one right now. Using both total concealing clothing, masks, basic perfumes, and training with the creatures. Playing a good act to pass them off as mute helpers/minions
I used to play a necromancer whose whole goal was to use his magic to prevent the living from being overrun by an army of the dead brought back by an even more powerful necromancer however despite doing this he was often run out of towns and shunned til one day he saved a single village on the outskirts of a small kingdom and was finally seen as good albeit in one insignificant village that barely operated on it's own but even with this I was still unable to stop the final necromancer just slow him down till the village and party escaped and barely escaped death myself
I'm playing one in ToA but so far I'm too low level to do anything more provocative than animate a hummingbird (it died of unrelated causes). I get some weird looks, but for the most part people haven't objected strongly.
I had a necromancer who used it to create friends. Conner was her best friend and the name of whatever the most powerful undead at the time she could raise.
Necromancy is only forbidden cause the people on power fear the common folk making armies against them. Enchanting is not forbidden cause they use it on their political plans and plots
I think another reason is because it is seen as right to put someone to rest and be undisturbed, but necromancers need corpses, so it’s like back when doctors would pay graverobbers to get corpses so that they could help further things by teaching their students how to operate on a body, because it turns into a matter of perspective.
I am playing a Necromancer "Hitman" in Dragon Heist right now. I have played many, many necromancers before, both super cliche and others trying to defy the stereotypes. But this one, I am having such a blast. He's just a killer for hire that one day stumbled upon a spellbook and just so happened to have a knack for magical studies. It was his practical mind that pushed him to specialize in necromancy.
Client: You need to confirm that you have killed our target. Necro: Alright, bring him in. *Literal corpse shambles into room* Client: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!
At least in the case of D&D, the term “Diabolist” is explicitly *not* a synonym for necromancer. Cavorting with devils rarely has anything to do with undead at all.
One of the best ideas I've ever created for a fantastical creature is a cicada that is capable of reanimating it's own shed exoskeletons, essentially creating an army of itself. Since their shed shells are technically still skeletons, this would fall under reanimated skeletons, making it justified in the established D&D universe.
I honestly wish necromancy wasn't inherently evil sometimes. Like, this form of magic is just that, magic, the challenge it provides on its own should be enough but nooo of course you can't summon thralls to do good... Rant aside, great vid
Mikhail The Greatest Dragon I feel it can also heavily depend on the DM on how it’s viewed. I’m sure if someone spoke out and mentioned how resurrection is necromancy then many townsfolk would become uncomfortable or try to ignore it. Reminds me of a video by AJpickett in one of his wizard ones where he says that many wizards probably dabble in necromancy way more then they let on. After all, they do live such long lives.
I find it ironic that Necromancy is seen as evil when, in a way, accepted spells like charm, command and suggestion are moreso about enslavement of the mind than Necromancy is. Necromancy uses the remnants of the souls (bodies) that have since moved on, there is no enslavement of the soul or mind if there is no soul or mind
Session Zero: My player "alright my character is going to be a necromancer." Me "alright is he going to be evil or neutral? " "Nah, hes going to be good aligned and people who are scared of necromancy are just superstitious. " "Oook... so what's your characters motivation in this campaign? " "He wants to become immortal" "That sounds pretty evil."
You're implying that desiring immortality is inherently evil? If he's willing to gut a bunch of human sacrifices and rend souls from the innocent to accomplish this - sure. But what if he just acknowledges that within a mortal lifespan, completing all the research he wants to do is impossible. Therefore he wants to circumvent that mortality problem, ethically if possible? His research may even be for the betterment of all, finding countermeasures for undead popping up and causing problems, ways of lifting curses inflicted with Necromancy or generally contributing to the arcane knowledge of the world? I think the search for immortality can be handled without devolving into moustache twirling villainy. That being said, my confidence in the average player, ever jaded by horror stories of all varieties, leads me to believe that such is often unlikely.
LovelyLunarLunacy Well said. People love to pretend that most issues and D&D are black-and-white, when in reality most of them aren’t that straightforward. In a game where killing could be justified as a “good” act, it’s hard to assign “evil” or “good” to anything without having the entire backstory.
Basically his exact reasoning. He said his character believes there is a way to accomplish this without becoming a lich or making a deal with a diety or demon. He also kept putting skeletons he summoned into his bag of holding, and once a big fight broke out he dumped 20 uncontrolled skeletons out of his bag and misty stepped away.
@@Bugbite0656 For the skeletons, I'd think logically there'd be issue with that. I find it difficult to believe a person could chuck twenty skeletons out of the small two foot opening of a bag in 5-6 seconds. It'd likely be one or two at a time, on adjacent tiles, as an action. Which would also lead to bad guys getting a fairly big grin out of AOE opportunities. Being uncontrolled, this likely means that depending on proximity to enemies or allies, it could backfire spectacularly. Even if outright immortality is too difficult to attain by that method, Druids at high levels get their lifespans lengthened extensively. It is possible an arcane caster might wish to study such a development to replicate it. The transmutation focuses Wizard has their nifty little stone which, whilst not extending life, prevents the effects of ageing. There are a number of things that might be pertinent to gaining an understanding of immortality, whilst not being immortality, that may aid in achieving it without resorting to devious means.
@@JordanCrombie it's a shame people often dismiss clone when talking about immortality and lichdom and stuff like that. Like, it's literally the morally acceptable way to obtain immortality since you only need a diamond, a coffin and a little bit of your *own* flesh, rather than someone else's soul *and* you can choose to make your clone a younger version of yourself. It's fucking incredible that everyone neglects this, if you are a necromancer powerful enough to be a lich and cast the 9th level power word kill you are also powerful enough to make clones for days for you, your entire party and even that one npc you really like if you can convince them to give you their flesh which is the only iffy part of the process.
Had a player who had a pretty good reason to be a good necromancer. His character used necromancy because he felt that using those already dead to fight and defend was far better than risking anyone still alive.
I’ve done something different for this in my homebrew setting. In my setting humans have picked up necromantic practices due to their incredibly short lifespans compared to other races, it is considered a great honor to serve someone beyond death for both the servant and the master and is usually rewarded with resurrection once their charge is complete. Most undead in my setting aren’t mindless, they are more like their still living selves having personality and are capable of making decisions themselves if instructed to do so the humans use a large undead horde called the Eternal Agis to defend their country. I personally like this change because it gives humans a culture and interesting traits unlike being “adaptable” like the books say. It also de-stigmatizes necromancy allowing for the caster to be good or evil, not the magic.
One of my favorite characters to play was a naive necromancer soreceress girl. Her grandpa, an elven lich, raised her after he killed her dad (for going against his wishes and elloping with a filthy human woman). She grew up in a tomb filled with undead thinking it was normal, but during her rebellious teenage years wanted to become a famous bard so she left home and joined a group of adventurers as an inspiring bard. She would tragically misunderstand cultural expectations about necromancy, and often get the party in trouble because of her family's traditions.
I've always wanted to play a good aligned necromancer that finds ways around some of the darker components for his spells. "Yes I know it says I need to sacrifice a virgin but a fertilized chicken egg technically works too."
this video came out a couple hours after i started searching for information on necromancy for a player im campaigning with. tahnks a bunch and merry chrisxmas
Jason Wizards in general seem to be barred from anything healing related. So even though it should be something necromancers can cast, it seems to only be available to clerics, druids, bards, etc.
@@sanddry738 yep and i absolutely hate this so i plan on making a necromancer who enter the school thinking he can revive his dead family and find out only clerics and bards can and get mad and take over the world with zombies out of anger or he could pay a cleric or bard to do it for him but who would help a known necromancer?
Jason Depends in context once again. A domain of death cleric would have the power to revive and they’re similar to necromancers so there’s one aspect if you want to focus more on necromancy and healing. Also some societies may be built around being more neutral towards undead. Perhaps where a Lich or other powerful undead resides.
Lol, because the videos came out at the same time, my notification showed illusion, and when I pulled my notifications tab, it magically turned into necromancy
I really love the idea of a Necromancer or anything related to darkness fighting for good. There's nothing like fighting a horde of monsters and it's boss with your very own army of darkness.
I have a necromancer character, she’s a sweetheart. Always willing to help those in need. Has this mentality of “there is no evil magic just evil people” which is why she learned necromancy.
I think its stupid how there is no necromancer subclass for warlock, honestly a warlock is best fit for necromancy yet it seems its the only class that cant actually do anything relating to it, I had a player try to be a warlock necromancer so we tried designing a necromancer subclass but i don't think its the same as having it be in the base game...
RomBomb I mean, the Undying subclass has a bunch of undead synergy with all that unlife and such Edit: Okay I just went and looked it over, and it has just the one ability about redirecting hostile undead, so you do make a fair point
It’s a balancing issues. Warlocks get spells back based on short rest. Based on how one does short rest (say just an hour of light activity) as a warlock necromancer you undead army basically will be made in less than a week
• Warlock Archetype: Undead • The spells false life and ray of sickness are added to the warlock spell list for you • You know spare the dying • You repel attacks by undead • The spells feign death and speak with dead are added to the warlock spell list for you • 1/day you heal 1d8 + Con mod hp when you cast spare the dying or pass a death save • The spells aura of life and death ward are added to the warlock spell list for you • The spells contagion and legend lore are added to the warlock spell list for you • You age slowly and you don't need to sleep, eat, drink, or breathe • 1/rest you can heal 1d8 + level hp as a bonus action Also when you heal with the ability you can reatatch limbs and other parts choped off. Seems lije a decent necromancer 2 me.
They can get Create Undead for their 6th level Mystic Arcanum, but yeah. Kinda blows. I wish Undying had a once per long rest class ability that lets you raise undead or something like that.
One of mine favorite characters was a necromancer that wanted to educate the world on way necromancy isn't necessarily evil He was allied with a forgotten goddess of death (yes, a little bit of warlock in his back story), that was forgotten by the mortals, she didn't praise the act of dying, she was more of a friend that tried to give the people some hope that death is not the end, and are worst things in life He would never simply conjure creatures from the after life, but he would always carry a bag with bones of friends that had passed away, when he needed help, he would ask them to come to his help (there was even his old dog friend, and after every battle he would receive belly rubs, because he was a good boy) This character was able to convince about 50+ people, that he wasn't a bad person and many of them stated praying for his goddess After the end of the campaign, the goddess was now known throughout all the realms and the character spent a after life of helping fellow necromancers that prayed for the same goddess
I'm currently playing an Eladrin Necromancer who comes from a city in Fey wilds where necromancy is used to make up for the low birth rate by having skeletons preform manual labor. As a result of all the skeleton farmers and such they produce an over abundance of food. Knowing that there are settlements in the material plane (I'm still learning my lore so I'm not sure of the correct term)that suffer from famine, the leaders of the city occasionally sends out scouts to locate settlements who may be suffering from famine so that they can send them food. This is also an opportunity for members of the city to learn and develop their skills. My character is one of those scouts. Her people strongly believe that the soul and the body are two separate things, thus as long as one does not interfere with soul of the departed, animating a corpse is the same as any kind of magic and is seen as normal and beneficial depending on how you use the corpse. I consider her neutral good as she does take into consideration how others view Necromancy and takes care not to raise the dead in public and wouldn't use city graveyards as a resource, or use Necromancy that manipulates the soul.
I'm making a Necromancer charlatan. He sells organs, cure-alls, zombie heads, etc. He also talks really fast (wether or not he's pitching ideas or not) and like make puns and other wordplay (ie, a heckler is booing him and he'll go "have a HEART!" and pull out a jarred heart). Also, his persuasion and deception are the same, and he NEVER specifies if he's lying or not.
The video was very informative, and the following joke is not meant to devalue it in any way, but Necromancy can be wielded with both hands to potentially deal more damage.
The Necromantic kit,Undead Master has access to the school of enchantment /charm its found in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd ed. "The Complete Book of Necromancers" by Steve Kurtz circa 1995 an excellent source book for kits,spells and magic items as well as general background information! 💀💀💀
I made a Necromancer a long while back who was a scholar. He had an often detrimental interest in anatomy and carried around several skeletons on his person. He had a special pardon from the national government, granting him citizenship. (He was a hobgoblin, and the pardon only recognized his race, but he rolled well on deception to make the pardon seem like it covered his practices, mostly). He was a fun character, I had control of least 2 skeletons at all times.
My current character (Vladrek Ravenbane) is a moon elf noble necromancer with drow ancestry. My alignment is NG and I use necromancy to call upon ancestors and the souls of innocents who wrongly died before their time to animate the dead using energy from the positive plane rather than the negative plane. He believes undeath in and of itself is not evil but rather that undeath via negative energy is easier to use and therefore more commonly practiced. While willing to use skeletons and zombies, he will prefer to use skeletons as they have a lesser chance of carrying diseases or parasites in them. At heart I'm a tactician so having skeleton soldiers to command as defenders and archers as well as have them carry dying party members to safety/covering our retreats is the absolute best. I hate it when many DMs say all undead are evil when in the lore it clearly states that isn't the case. Just that MOST undead are evil due to typically being reanimated by negative energy rather than positive energy. Some non-evil deities in the FR that use undead are Torm, Jergal, Osiris, and Nephthys.
One of the problems with necromancy is that unless you are evil and use spells like raise and control undead it is a subpar magic school compared with the rest. Good or neutral aligned necromancers should have alternative options to undead minions like having healing powers or spells and abilities against undead. Pathfinder has an interesting version in the form of the Life Necromancers, when they cast spells that has targets, affects creatures in an area, or requires an attack roll, they may heal creatures affected by the spell a total of 1 point of damage per level of the spell, this increases to two per level at level 11 and three per level at lever 20. The interesting thing is that this power works with all spells, not just necromancy, making these casters able to patch up a little their allies while they cast buffs on them or use evocation spells that cause extra damage to undead. They also get a power that allows to give their allies temporary hit points at the cost of non lethal damage on them.
I'm currently playing a sneaky tabaxi necromancer in one of our campaigns She's an acolyte, and most closely resemble a grave cleric rather than a necromancer. But she did learn her magic from orc shamans, so... religious necromancers. She's very superstitious and fears her goddess though, she wouldn't really make undead without thinking it really through. It's been really fun playing her, I'm having a blast, I even took magic initiate for some cleric spells for favor, reskining healing word as a necromancy spell, just for emergencies!
my favorite character is actually a good aligned necromancer. he only animates evil people as undead, follows strict rules to safeguard against losing control of them, and only uses them to help people or stop evil people. his goal is to improve the reputation of necromancers
Diabolists and Occultists are VERY different things. "Black magician" is usually a really overarching term so Necromancer does technically fit under that.
If you think about it, necromancy is quite similar to modern medicine (blood transfusions, organ transplants, surgeries, temporarily make someone clinically death, grafting, etc.) Would be nice to see that stuff here. Edit: Also, someone made a nice argument about reclassifying healing spells to the transmutation school, since you're manipulating the body for mending it.
Necromancy:You rip away people from their afterlife just so that they can be your personal slaves. Enchantment:You stop people from wanting to kill you
@@user-vm9xz4kv9z necromancy: you put useless corpses to good use Enchantment: you use otherworldly forces to take control of someone's mind, completely erasing their free will in order to fit your whim.
@@dragonheart1236 enslaving the dead is a common theme of necromancy spells Most enchantment spells can reasonably be used for self defense (Mind Sliver, Calm emotions, Hex, vicious mockery, Animal Friendship, etc) or straight up help people (Heroism, bless)
My character is a necromancer, but she's Neutral Good... She raises the dead to kill those who would do harm to others, heals anyone hurt by evildoers, and she has a soft spot for children- she'll even go so far as to comfort them when they're sad or scared, and she'll sometimes take in orphans to train under her wing. Literally- she's a wereraven. She's basically a goth girl, but on the next level. Her name? Jade Shadowborn. She's sassy as all hell- she's got 6 levels in Bard just for Vicious Mockery. Her favorite insult is when someone does something wrong- They usually say, "Sorry, I did the wrong thing!" And she responds with, "No, [X] years ago your mother gave birth to the wrong thing!" That one stings. But not as much as the Chill Touch spell! She's a 10th level Wizard for her necromancy skills, and she always makes sure that the people she raises make it back to their graves to rest. That's the extent of my character. I'm thinking of getting 5 levels in Way of the Shadow Monk... What do you guys think?)
Me to my DM: dude, believe me. I'm not gonna be evil just because I'm a necromancer. It's just for lore. Look, it will be fine, I will be cool with the party *20 levels later* Party: ok, Bruno. It's your time to patrol while we sleep Me: yeah, guys. Don't worry, I have your back........ Ok, I kill them all I raise their corpses DM: what? Me: nat 20..... Now I will use them to conquer the world
GM: Wonderful, you critically strike one of them with your dagger. Since you never even bothered to get a magic one, since you're a spellcaster... you do 2d4 damage plus your -1 for you strength dumpstat. They all wake up. Just cast cloudkill man. You don't need to roll.
DM: Oh, how unexpected, a party of level 20 paladins shows up, kills you, and casts true resurrection on the fallen party members. Wow, it's amazing how convenient that was considering the timing. Incredible.
Playing a Chaotic Good Kenku Necromancer. The little jabber just wants to take all the forbidden knowledge and either burn it or use it for good ends. Oh, and because he multi-classed into monk he beats any zombie or skeleton that gets out of line by hurting the living. He's pretty nice, and it helps that he uses prestidigitation to cast shadow letters to show what he wants to say.
I once played a necromancer who's ideal was that you must fight evil with greater evil, and would often be wretched between his dark hunger for power and his own light of Justice, often confused and conflicted with himself. (Xd it's midnight yo)
I explained it to a player thusly. Undead are given animation by negative energy, the antithesis of all life, which tirelessly seeks to annihilate positive energy, the foundation of all living things. In order to create undead, you must bring negative energy from the howling void of the its home plane into the world of the living, where it can cause the most harm by attacking and disrupting the natural order. And THAT is why, even if you order your undead minions to do good, creating undead is an evil action. True not all necromancers are necessarily evil, but you'd need one hell of a resume to justify writing good on your character sheet.
So. I liked it, and that's how I run my Pathfinder Necros. The OG rules state you have to be evil in Parhfinder if you play a Necromancer... I changed that. My rules say if a cleric is a Necromancer, they can be whichever alignment and so can their Undead. They must gain permission from a god who resides over the dead to do this, however, and the Undead soul is essentially given a "second chance" at being a certain way before they're afterlife fate is determined. It has worked pretty well, but I need to figure out all of the rulings for this homebrew. Now, I do want to point out most of the photos you used were of MTG cards. Idk how fair use rules work, but so you don't get a copyright strike against you, you may want to use different photos. Of course, keep up the good content regardless my d00d.
I once played necromancer in a original setting that wanted to become a god because he sees the gods as apathetic and lazy he used the dead to help people and even develop a few new spells and eventually he does become a god and afterward in a new campaign a theocracy worshipping the necromancer popped up and was considered one the most advanced kingdoms and the necromancer god was active in it's development.
There was a time that me and my party were stuck in a locked carriage. They were transporting us to some prison or whatever, but me deciding to provide the most honorable role in providing our escape. I turned to one of the passengers I deemed not useful; tore into his chest cavity and fashioned a bone lock pick from his ribs. Of course, due to the nature of bone the first couple bones broke. So we had to break off a number of the man's ribs, in order to finally pick the lock. I wager by the time we made out of the carriage, blood was likely pooling out from every corner of the cage. But see! Totally not evil....Totally.
Ok, I while ago I commented on this, but I was wrong, maybe now I have a better understanding to talk on this again. I want to talk about undead, and how they and making them is evil. The PHB says creatures that regularly make undead are evil, but doesn't delve to deep into why is it so. The most easy answer is the respect for the dead, as in creating an undead untails disecrating someone's body, but that is too easy to circumvate, if someone agrees to have their body turned into undead while living then it should be ok. Now if that's a thing you would like for your setting, as many people seem to like, that's awesome, but if instead you are like me and want the creation of undead to be truly evil we might want to redifine undead as a whole. The idea I have is: undeath as a curse. necromancy already seems quite proficient in casting those so it would make sense to me, the idea being that you are bringing the soul back into the body of a creature, but not the mind nor the life force/spirit, replacing the latter with either your own magic or an evil spirit from the shadowfell. The idea is that undead would resemble more hollows from dark souls, being trapped in a decaying, rotting carcass without mind,only an eternal hunger that drives them to attack any living being, until someone sets them free, a restless death, no one would agreeto that, and even if they did it wouldn't be a desireable fate. Inteligent undead would then resemble the Black's Pearl crew from the 1st movie, the mind is there, but no spirit, without feelings, good or bad, only hunger that can never be satiated.
creating undead is not evil if the soul in question wanted to become one, forcing undead on someone is evil as is changing someone into an animal forever.
"Diabolist" is a side title for Conjurers, not Necromancers. Conjurers are THE link to the lower planes and as such have an easier time conjuring devils and demons to do their binding.
Some healing spells are necromancy, some transmutation, some evocation. it all comes down to the spell details, really. How a spell heals you is what determines it's school. Are they transmuting your flesh to make it heal faster? are they pulling you from the brink of death with a little extra health to boot? are they summoning positive energies from nothing with a single word? when it comes down to it, "healing" is a pretty broad term, and limiting it to one school is just harmful for the game.
oh- something I forgot about too. I think every Resurrection based spell is Necromancy. For obvious reasons, but even Clerics and Druids regularly practice Necromancy at a high enough level.
My world's reason for forbidding Necromancy is that its effects are contagious. So even if you use it on someone who absolutely deserves it, you run a high risk of harming someone innocent in the future.
I had a good Necromancer with the typical story. L,ost lover, wishes to bring lover back from the dead. Ends up making her into an abomination and becomes a horror upon the town he lives in. After having to slay his own lover, he vowed that he would not use his power of necromancy for selfish acts, and only wish to help others. I find Necromancy very powerful and really flexible for a school of magic that's all about death. Has some very decent utility spells for role play, good offensive abilities, and you can bunker you're mage down with conjuring minions of the undead. Really good school to play with. No matter alignment thought for the class to be evil, you can actually play a good character with this magic.
Hey Runesmith! The song you use in the beginning of your video is called ‘Ascending the Vale.’ It’s a really fun song in full! Do you think you could credit it in your description for those who aren’t familiar
I cast twin spell! Merry Christmas guys.
Logan sign my kidneys
Woah my Wish spell worked!
sounds like a pretty spoopy christmas
Logan, Twin spell only works on single target spells. Clearly this is an AOE with a range as far as youtube signals go. As a DM i would totally rule that this was an abuse of metamagic smh
But seriously I love your episodes!
Happy holi-... I mean Merry Christmas
I'm going to play a nice little wizard, 20 sessions later, "with my undead army I'll rule the world"
Raver7 try 20 minutes. I made a wizard, after 20 minutes of play I became a necromancer.
Or start a skeleton night club.
@@TardisPilot2004 You went straight for the bone zone?
Brah LOL
*_REPAIR FOR SKELETON WAR_*
What did the Necromancer do to fix his mid-life crisis?
He raised a family!
Mind if I use that in my next dnd session? It would fit my chaotic neutral overly cheerful necromancer to a t.
you're a fucking legend sir! xD i'm dying... help...lmao
Your not wrong.
@@gandradd698 oh no
🏆
Necromancer is just a very late healer.
... "Retroactive Cleric" >)X^D
"We've lost the patient! He's dead."
[Rolls up sleeves] "LIKE HELL HE IS!"
@@moriskurth628 my necromancers are always doctors so this resonates with me. Here is my thumbs up 👍.
L.o.l.🤣
"We lost the patient doctor." "Welp, I didn't get my medical license revoked for nothing!"
One of my favorite characters was a necromancer businessman. Sold zombies and skeletons as maids, farmhands, etc; raised fireflies from the dead and put them in jars to make lights; communed with demons and other beings haunting places, learned what they needed to free them into our realm, and proceeded to destroy what I could and toss the rest in the ocean. Oh, and I had a skeletal snake familiar I used as a cane.
THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout! A bit more creative than the "good necromancer" IMHO.
@@omlo9093 thanks man. Tbh though the idea originally started as a good necromancer but then I decided I wanted to buy fancy shit
This is such a creative spin on necromancy! I think my party might have to run into an NPC like this some time soon.
@@geoffreyprecht2410 sweet! If your group does rub into them, lemme know how it goes or if you need any ideas for it.
My party’s Necromancer has a history of scavenging battlefields for new minions which resulted in him having to kill soldiers that were returning to retrieve the dead. There are characters who were on either side of the conflict in the party as well.
"Not all Necromancers are evil" Thank you! I'm playing a true neutral necromancer in a planescape wizard game for 5e and my entire plan for the game is to just constantly subvert the player's expectations of a Necromancer.
"I won't allow the Necromancer to join us at the lodge, he can't be trusted"
*Necromancer willingly offers his arm to be severed to avoid being corrupted by somethingm then is the only one to save the party from being trapped in the Astral Sea*
"I just want to study life magic guys, leave me alone"
Necromancers are pretty nice once you get to know them. A bit goth for some but cool anyway
Trying the same, but with Neutral Good.
When I made my character, I did so with Anakin Skywalker in mind. I had a fiance whose life was threatened by some illness, so I began to learn magic to try to prevent her death. I was seduced into the art of necromancy when my fiance's condition worsened. There was no way to prevent her death, but perhaps I could bring her back from the dead. During my studies, I came across a genie which granted my wish of having her back from the dead. As you may well know, it wasn't really as I had wanted. She was a mindless husk of what she once was. She did not long for deep thought and discussion. She did not want to enjoy my company. She only wanted to see my insides on the outside. I decided that I could somehow fix this. Deeper into the necromancy rabbit hole I went.
I don't think of myself as an "evil" necromancer. More of a chaotic neutral. This magic is merely a means to an end, and I by no means have any ill intentions.
true neutral necromancers are no subversive, just not so meh as a evil one
now a lawful good necromancer, thats hard to do
I'm going to play a Neutral Good Necromancer soon :D She basically never had friends since her parents never allowed her to go outside due to her "delicate constitution". So she read every book she could find. Later in Mage-College all the other kids avoided her, because of her weirdness hence her lack of social skills. So she started to study every sort of magic and stumbled upon Necromancy. Based on that knowledge she raised the dead, so at last she can have friends that never ever leave her.
One of the things I never understood was why enchantment, the school of manipulating, controlling, and destroying someone own will is not seen as evil but necromancy, manipulating inanimate corpses is evil... (if the spell doesn't disturb the passed soul)
Because people don't want to see the corpse of their sister, father, children... used. And what is Enchantemebt? It doesn't exist. A magic that can manipulate our emotion and will? What a strange idea. Can they also change your memory?!? Ahaha...
Also conjuration, summoning planar entities (*including fiends*) with their own agenda to the mortal plane, binding them to your will and then risking them going haywire and killing everybody, is perfectly fine, but creating an evil creature such as an undead from scratch using necromancy is evil. Actually this makes me wonder whether summoning an undead entity from the shadowfell would be conjuration or necromancy.
This so much
I guess because depending on the lore Necromancy does affect the soul. I remember that in Skyrim most raised undead say things like "Thank you" and "Free at last" when killed (for the 2nd time).
@@matteussilvestre8583
How is literal mindrape any better tho
Inspired by Puffin Forest
"I am NOT chaotic evil"
"You're a necromancer. You have a zombie slave you use for triggering traps and want to revive more zombies for slave labour"
"First of all, this is the medieval era, slavery is legal. 2nd of all, zombies have high con, and I'm going to use these zombie slaves to sell to others so farms can get more work done and more structure is built. 3rd, stereotyping much?"
ChangelingTale the commenter True, also zombies don’t retain their soul and/or sentience. Plus they most likely don’t even feel pain due to being undead.
Legal =/= good.
As long as undead are kept tame, they're as useful as golems (constructs, made from flesh)
@@CitizenCain1 yeah, but I’d say that it doesn’t make him chaotic.
@@CitizenCain1 Illegal =/= bad. Just “frowned upon from the general direction of Law.”
These videos are so educational!My parents didn't abandon me,it was just an illusion!Now I can just raise new ones from the local graveyard!
Basically Luna from a card game called Shadoverse
That is LITERALLY Master Sasori
I like his take on Necromancy, It's great to finally hear someone, besides myself and my current group, say Necromancers "tend" to be evil and not Necromancers ARE evil. The second sentiment annoys me it never acknowledges the few souls who are strong willed enough or compassionate enough to resist the pull of the selfish desire to just become the Lord of the Undead and eat the living. Thank You Runesmith. You have just become one of my favorite if not my favorite D&D channel on that statement alone.
I m currently playing my first campaign, and i m playing a necromancer. He s neutral good, and sees necromancy as a way to understand life and death. He was saved by a necromancer sa a child, and she taught him magic. He sees using the dead as a way to save lives, as in:"Why sending people to die in a war when we could raise a graveyard?" I worked around the evil implications of creating undead by not making them souls i take forcefully from the afterlife, but lost fragments of souls stuck in the material plane. After they help me in my quests, i help them cross to the other side
Of course, during his journey the power could corrupt him, but who knows
OrangeManBad He doesn't really care about balance. It s more of a I want to save as many lives as possible. He thinks that Necromancy is a powerful tool that can be used for good. He s also pretty young, so maybe he doesn't really understand the gravity of his type of magic. I told my DM to do whatever he wishes in terms of the morality of necromancy and corrupting power
Btw undead are never the original souls, just you recycling the corpse
I mean, necromancy is literally the study and manipulation of life and death. And according to the lore, what fuels an undead is the residual “soul energy” called animus, making it technically not evil, just extremely taboo (just like how physicians were prohibited from studying cadavers to learn anatomy)
According to D&D lore undead are evil by nature because they are animated using Negative Plane Energy, which comes from the evil planes. However, there used to be another creature type called deathless which were the same as undead except they were animated by Positive Plane Energy and as a result were good (or at the very least non-evil) aligned. This is why in the Forgotten Realms an archlich is a non-evil alignment.
Also the Undying Court of Aerendal in Eberron
....why is it more difficult to use positve enegry thoug, the negative planes don't seem any closer than the positive ones to the material.
@@Sara3346 maybe the negative plane is closer to the plane of the dead?
@@Sara3346
Maybe the connection to the positive plane was overused and damaged in the process, so while it repairs itself it's far easier or far safer for necromancers to channel the negative plane?
DragonHeart 12 it kind of is, seeing as the Raven Queen is somewhere in the Shadowfell, and that’s the in-between for the negative plane and the material plane.
Glory to glitch the Warforged necromancer who just wants forever friends
Girlol oh god that’s adorable
I play it as a dog bringing a dead bird to it´s owner
"Look what I got you master!"
still am of the belief you can use necromancy for "good".
the magic defines itself as "manipulating life energy"
but healing magic does the same, and that is seen as "good" but necromancy is by and large seen as "evil"
agreed manipulation of the mind is by it very nature a tool to control other so why is enchantment not included as Evil and i mostly play mind controllers all the time.
and yet the healing spells are evocation.
Healing was always just a form of Necromancy
Frankly healing should be necromancy.
@@bookworm3696 Any spell that brings someone back after they were killed and spare the dying are all necromancy. The only reason healing spells aren't is because you don't need to manipulate life energy to seal a wound. You aren't strengthening or restoring their life force, you are repairing the shell that contains it. For those reasons healing spells should probably be considered transmutation. You are manipulating the matter of the human body.
I’m currently playing playing a Necromancer right now, but even though they are good in will, many see his magic as evil, so I’m currently on the run with my party.
Im currently playing one right now. Using both total concealing clothing, masks, basic perfumes, and training with the creatures. Playing a good act to pass them off as mute helpers/minions
I used to play a necromancer whose whole goal was to use his magic to prevent the living from being overrun by an army of the dead brought back by an even more powerful necromancer however despite doing this he was often run out of towns and shunned til one day he saved a single village on the outskirts of a small kingdom and was finally seen as good albeit in one insignificant village that barely operated on it's own but even with this I was still unable to stop the final necromancer just slow him down till the village and party escaped and barely escaped death myself
I'm playing one in ToA but so far I'm too low level to do anything more provocative than animate a hummingbird (it died of unrelated causes). I get some weird looks, but for the most part people haven't objected strongly.
I had a necromancer who used it to create friends. Conner was her best friend and the name of whatever the most powerful undead at the time she could raise.
She's _cuuute_
Necromancy is only forbidden cause the people on power fear the common folk making armies against them.
Enchanting is not forbidden cause they use it on their political plans and plots
I think its just forbiden because its not in the livings intrest to have their dead relativs walking around xD
"Hey grandma, lookin extra dead today"
"Grauhahagaaaah...."
"Heh heh heh, love you too grandma"
I think another reason is because it is seen as right to put someone to rest and be undisturbed, but necromancers need corpses, so it’s like back when doctors would pay graverobbers to get corpses so that they could help further things by teaching their students how to operate on a body, because it turns into a matter of perspective.
I think people in power are far more capable of raising an army of dead than a farmer.
Intresting perspective
See! YOU get Necromancy! It's easily the most well rounded school of magic in 5th edition D&D and its become one of my favorites.
I am playing a Necromancer "Hitman" in Dragon Heist right now. I have played many, many necromancers before, both super cliche and others trying to defy the stereotypes. But this one, I am having such a blast.
He's just a killer for hire that one day stumbled upon a spellbook and just so happened to have a knack for magical studies. It was his practical mind that pushed him to specialize in necromancy.
To be fair though, we all are playing arcane...ish...spellcasters. Which is nice
Client: You need to confirm that you have killed our target.
Necro: Alright, bring him in.
*Literal corpse shambles into room*
Client: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!
You just gotta have your skeleton buddies do the dirty work, then you walk in the room once it's done and make more skeleton buddies :) easy money
At least in the case of D&D, the term “Diabolist” is explicitly *not* a synonym for necromancer.
Cavorting with devils rarely has anything to do with undead at all.
Cian Oakheart Yeah, those are all Conjuration spells with only one applicable Divination spell: Contact other plane.
1:26 so THAT'S how the fighter carries all those health potions!
Seriously, dude has a shit ton of potions on him xD Lol
One of the best ideas I've ever created for a fantastical creature is a cicada that is capable of reanimating it's own shed exoskeletons, essentially creating an army of itself.
Since their shed shells are technically still skeletons, this would fall under reanimated skeletons, making it justified in the established D&D universe.
This is basically the pokemon shedinja
Until Fireball happens.
@@evannibbe9375 Such is the natural way, unfortunately. Where there is strategy, counterstrategy follows close behind.
I honestly wish necromancy wasn't inherently evil sometimes. Like, this form of magic is just that, magic, the challenge it provides on its own should be enough but nooo of course you can't summon thralls to do good...
Rant aside, great vid
Mikhail The Greatest Dragon I feel it can also heavily depend on the DM on how it’s viewed. I’m sure if someone spoke out and mentioned how resurrection is necromancy then many townsfolk would become uncomfortable or try to ignore it. Reminds me of a video by AJpickett in one of his wizard ones where he says that many wizards probably dabble in necromancy way more then they let on. After all, they do live such long lives.
I find it ironic that Necromancy is seen as evil when, in a way, accepted spells like charm, command and suggestion are moreso about enslavement of the mind than Necromancy is.
Necromancy uses the remnants of the souls (bodies) that have since moved on, there is no enslavement of the soul or mind if there is no soul or mind
Can't spell "necromancer" without "romance" 😘😘😘
necromancers are those who romance necks.
To the bone zone
just like vamps
Bone wizards
Comment, name, and picture are all cursed? Well, you've earned a like!
Session Zero:
My player "alright my character is going to be a necromancer."
Me "alright is he going to be evil or neutral? "
"Nah, hes going to be good aligned and people who are scared of necromancy are just superstitious. "
"Oook... so what's your characters motivation in this campaign? "
"He wants to become immortal"
"That sounds pretty evil."
You're implying that desiring immortality is inherently evil? If he's willing to gut a bunch of human sacrifices and rend souls from the innocent to accomplish this - sure. But what if he just acknowledges that within a mortal lifespan, completing all the research he wants to do is impossible. Therefore he wants to circumvent that mortality problem, ethically if possible? His research may even be for the betterment of all, finding countermeasures for undead popping up and causing problems, ways of lifting curses inflicted with Necromancy or generally contributing to the arcane knowledge of the world?
I think the search for immortality can be handled without devolving into moustache twirling villainy. That being said, my confidence in the average player, ever jaded by horror stories of all varieties, leads me to believe that such is often unlikely.
LovelyLunarLunacy Well said. People love to pretend that most issues and D&D are black-and-white, when in reality most of them aren’t that straightforward. In a game where killing could be justified as a “good” act, it’s hard to assign “evil” or “good” to anything without having the entire backstory.
Basically his exact reasoning. He said his character believes there is a way to accomplish this without becoming a lich or making a deal with a diety or demon.
He also kept putting skeletons he summoned into his bag of holding, and once a big fight broke out he dumped 20 uncontrolled skeletons out of his bag and misty stepped away.
@@Bugbite0656 For the skeletons, I'd think logically there'd be issue with that. I find it difficult to believe a person could chuck twenty skeletons out of the small two foot opening of a bag in 5-6 seconds. It'd likely be one or two at a time, on adjacent tiles, as an action. Which would also lead to bad guys getting a fairly big grin out of AOE opportunities. Being uncontrolled, this likely means that depending on proximity to enemies or allies, it could backfire spectacularly.
Even if outright immortality is too difficult to attain by that method, Druids at high levels get their lifespans lengthened extensively. It is possible an arcane caster might wish to study such a development to replicate it. The transmutation focuses Wizard has their nifty little stone which, whilst not extending life, prevents the effects of ageing. There are a number of things that might be pertinent to gaining an understanding of immortality, whilst not being immortality, that may aid in achieving it without resorting to devious means.
@@JordanCrombie it's a shame people often dismiss clone when talking about immortality and lichdom and stuff like that. Like, it's literally the morally acceptable way to obtain immortality since you only need a diamond, a coffin and a little bit of your *own* flesh, rather than someone else's soul *and* you can choose to make your clone a younger version of yourself. It's fucking incredible that everyone neglects this, if you are a necromancer powerful enough to be a lich and cast the 9th level power word kill you are also powerful enough to make clones for days for you, your entire party and even that one npc you really like if you can convince them to give you their flesh which is the only iffy part of the process.
Half of runesmith vids: super serious voice
Other half of runemsith vids: funny haha comedian vids
Had a player who had a pretty good reason to be a good necromancer.
His character used necromancy because he felt that using those already dead to fight and defend was far better than risking anyone still alive.
Parents: Raising a family is hard work!
Necromancer: Not if they are buried together!
I’ve done something different for this in my homebrew setting. In my setting humans have picked up necromantic practices due to their incredibly short lifespans compared to other races, it is considered a great honor to serve someone beyond death for both the servant and the master and is usually rewarded with resurrection once their charge is complete. Most undead in my setting aren’t mindless, they are more like their still living selves having personality and are capable of making decisions themselves if instructed to do so the humans use a large undead horde called the Eternal Agis to defend their country.
I personally like this change because it gives humans a culture and interesting traits unlike being “adaptable” like the books say. It also de-stigmatizes necromancy allowing for the caster to be good or evil, not the magic.
Am I the only one who would summon a skeleton to see if they could eat something?
like could they eat a hot pocket, or would it just fall out?
One of my favorite characters to play was a naive necromancer soreceress girl. Her grandpa, an elven lich, raised her after he killed her dad (for going against his wishes and elloping with a filthy human woman). She grew up in a tomb filled with undead thinking it was normal, but during her rebellious teenage years wanted to become a famous bard so she left home and joined a group of adventurers as an inspiring bard. She would tragically misunderstand cultural expectations about necromancy, and often get the party in trouble because of her family's traditions.
I've always wanted to play a good aligned necromancer that finds ways around some of the darker components for his spells. "Yes I know it says I need to sacrifice a virgin but a fertilized chicken egg technically works too."
I love this.
"Hi, I'm NecroLarry, and I'm here to put the 'romance' back in 'necromancer'."
Not all necromancers are evil, huh? *The Millennial King wants to know your location…*
*… to thank you for your understanding*
this video came out a couple hours after i started searching for information on necromancy for a player im campaigning with. tahnks a bunch and merry chrisxmas
Hey so how come a pure necromancer can't learn resurrection but some fucker with a lute or tree hobo can even though it says it's a necromancy spell?
Jason Wizards in general seem to be barred from anything healing related. So even though it should be something necromancers can cast, it seems to only be available to clerics, druids, bards, etc.
@@sanddry738 yep and i absolutely hate this so i plan on making a necromancer who enter the school thinking he can revive his dead family and find out only clerics and bards can and get mad and take over the world with zombies out of anger or he could pay a cleric or bard to do it for him but who would help a known necromancer?
Jason Depends in context once again. A domain of death cleric would have the power to revive and they’re similar to necromancers so there’s one aspect if you want to focus more on necromancy and healing. Also some societies may be built around being more neutral towards undead. Perhaps where a Lich or other powerful undead resides.
Lol, because the videos came out at the same time, my notification showed illusion, and when I pulled my notifications tab, it magically turned into necromancy
same
One could say it was an "Illusion!"
I really love the idea of a Necromancer or anything related to darkness fighting for good. There's nothing like fighting a horde of monsters and it's boss with your very own army of darkness.
I houseruled that Cure & Inflict wounds are the same spell (under the Necromancy school) in my table: you either give life force or you pull it
and now Necromancy is the ONLY Wizard School to be able to heal!
I have a necromancer character, she’s a sweetheart. Always willing to help those in need. Has this mentality of “there is no evil magic just evil people” which is why she learned necromancy.
underrated channel
I think its stupid how there is no necromancer subclass for warlock, honestly a warlock is best fit for necromancy yet it seems its the only class that cant actually do anything relating to it, I had a player try to be a warlock necromancer so we tried designing a necromancer subclass but i don't think its the same as having it be in the base game...
RomBomb I mean, the Undying subclass has a bunch of undead synergy with all that unlife and such
Edit: Okay I just went and looked it over, and it has just the one ability about redirecting hostile undead, so you do make a fair point
It’s a balancing issues. Warlocks get spells back based on short rest. Based on how one does short rest (say just an hour of light activity) as a warlock necromancer you undead army basically will be made in less than a week
• Warlock Archetype: Undead
• The spells false life and ray of sickness are added to the warlock spell list for you
• You know spare the dying
• You repel attacks by undead
• The spells feign death and speak with dead are added to the warlock spell list for you
• 1/day you heal 1d8 + Con mod hp when you cast spare the dying or pass a death save
• The spells aura of life and death ward are added to the warlock spell list for you
• The spells contagion and legend lore are added to the warlock spell list for you
• You age slowly and you don't need to sleep, eat, drink, or breathe
• 1/rest you can heal 1d8 + level hp as a bonus action
Also when you heal with the ability you can reatatch limbs and other parts choped off. Seems lije a decent necromancer 2 me.
They can get Create Undead for their 6th level Mystic Arcanum, but yeah. Kinda blows. I wish Undying had a once per long rest class ability that lets you raise undead or something like that.
@@Necroskull388 same
One of mine favorite characters was a necromancer that wanted to educate the world on way necromancy isn't necessarily evil
He was allied with a forgotten goddess of death (yes, a little bit of warlock in his back story), that was forgotten by the mortals, she didn't praise the act of dying, she was more of a friend that tried to give the people some hope that death is not the end, and are worst things in life
He would never simply conjure creatures from the after life, but he would always carry a bag with bones of friends that had passed away, when he needed help, he would ask them to come to his help (there was even his old dog friend, and after every battle he would receive belly rubs, because he was a good boy)
This character was able to convince about 50+ people, that he wasn't a bad person and many of them stated praying for his goddess
After the end of the campaign, the goddess was now known throughout all the realms and the character spent a after life of helping fellow necromancers that prayed for the same goddess
I'm currently playing an Eladrin Necromancer who comes from a city in Fey wilds where necromancy is used to make up for the low birth rate by having skeletons preform manual labor. As a result of all the skeleton farmers and such they produce an over abundance of food. Knowing that there are settlements in the material plane (I'm still learning my lore so I'm not sure of the correct term)that suffer from famine, the leaders of the city occasionally sends out scouts to locate settlements who may be suffering from famine so that they can send them food. This is also an opportunity for members of the city to learn and develop their skills. My character is one of those scouts. Her people strongly believe that the soul and the body are two separate things, thus as long as one does not interfere with soul of the departed, animating a corpse is the same as any kind of magic and is seen as normal and beneficial depending on how you use the corpse. I consider her neutral good as she does take into consideration how others view Necromancy and takes care not to raise the dead in public and wouldn't use city graveyards as a resource, or use Necromancy that manipulates the soul.
Time to play a CG necromancer with the bubblies and friendliest personality you’ve ever encountered.
I had a bard that multiclassed as a wizard, got into necromancy, and invented "death metal."
I'm making a Necromancer charlatan. He sells organs, cure-alls, zombie heads, etc. He also talks really fast (wether or not he's pitching ideas or not) and like make puns and other wordplay (ie, a heckler is booing him and he'll go "have a HEART!" and pull out a jarred heart). Also, his persuasion and deception are the same, and he NEVER specifies if he's lying or not.
I love how a lot of your images were from MtG and specifically Liliana.
The video was very informative, and the following joke is not meant to devalue it in any way, but Necromancy can be wielded with both hands to potentially deal more damage.
The Necromantic kit,Undead Master has access to the school of enchantment /charm its found in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd ed. "The Complete Book of Necromancers" by Steve Kurtz circa 1995 an excellent source book for kits,spells and magic items as well as general background information! 💀💀💀
I made a Necromancer a long while back who was a scholar. He had an often detrimental interest in anatomy and carried around several skeletons on his person. He had a special pardon from the national government, granting him citizenship. (He was a hobgoblin, and the pardon only recognized his race, but he rolled well on deception to make the pardon seem like it covered his practices, mostly). He was a fun character, I had control of least 2 skeletons at all times.
My current character (Vladrek Ravenbane) is a moon elf noble necromancer with drow ancestry. My alignment is NG and I use necromancy to call upon ancestors and the souls of innocents who wrongly died before their time to animate the dead using energy from the positive plane rather than the negative plane. He believes undeath in and of itself is not evil but rather that undeath via negative energy is easier to use and therefore more commonly practiced. While willing to use skeletons and zombies, he will prefer to use skeletons as they have a lesser chance of carrying diseases or parasites in them. At heart I'm a tactician so having skeleton soldiers to command as defenders and archers as well as have them carry dying party members to safety/covering our retreats is the absolute best. I hate it when many DMs say all undead are evil when in the lore it clearly states that isn't the case. Just that MOST undead are evil due to typically being reanimated by negative energy rather than positive energy. Some non-evil deities in the FR that use undead are Torm, Jergal, Osiris, and Nephthys.
Truly a Christmas-y video.
One of my pcs eventually started making an undead army, just left em in a shed in their town.
They're still there, for now.
This is going to help when I make my Half-Orc Wizard
One of the problems with necromancy is that unless you are evil and use spells like raise and control undead it is a subpar magic school compared with the rest.
Good or neutral aligned necromancers should have alternative options to undead minions like having healing powers or spells and abilities against undead. Pathfinder has an interesting version in the form of the Life Necromancers, when they cast spells that has targets, affects creatures in an area, or requires an attack roll, they may heal creatures affected by the spell a total of 1 point of damage per level of the spell, this increases to two per level at level 11 and three per level at lever 20. The interesting thing is that this power works with all spells, not just necromancy, making these casters able to patch up a little their allies while they cast buffs on them or use evocation spells that cause extra damage to undead. They also get a power that allows to give their allies temporary hit points at the cost of non lethal damage on them.
I'm currently playing a sneaky tabaxi necromancer in one of our campaigns
She's an acolyte, and most closely resemble a grave cleric rather than a necromancer. But she did learn her magic from orc shamans, so... religious necromancers. She's very superstitious and fears her goddess though, she wouldn't really make undead without thinking it really through.
It's been really fun playing her, I'm having a blast, I even took magic initiate for some cleric spells for favor, reskining healing word as a necromancy spell, just for emergencies!
my favorite character is actually a good aligned necromancer. he only animates evil people as undead, follows strict rules to safeguard against losing control of them, and only uses them to help people or stop evil people. his goal is to improve the reputation of necromancers
Diabolists and Occultists are VERY different things. "Black magician" is usually a really overarching term so Necromancer does technically fit under that.
If you think about it, necromancy is quite similar to modern medicine (blood transfusions, organ transplants, surgeries, temporarily make someone clinically death, grafting, etc.)
Would be nice to see that stuff here.
Edit: Also, someone made a nice argument about reclassifying healing spells to the transmutation school, since you're manipulating the body for mending it.
If you wanna talk about an inherently evil magic school, just take a look at Enchanting
Necromancy:You rip away people from their afterlife just so that they can be your personal slaves.
Enchantment:You stop people from wanting to kill you
@@user-vm9xz4kv9z necromancy: you put useless corpses to good use
Enchantment: you use otherworldly forces to take control of someone's mind, completely erasing their free will in order to fit your whim.
@@dragonheart1236
1-using the souls of innocent of people...
2-Otherworldly forces? You mean magic?
@@user-vm9xz4kv9z if you can get overly specific with your descriptions to the point of singling out spells, so can I
@@dragonheart1236 enslaving the dead is a common theme of necromancy spells
Most enchantment spells can reasonably be used for self defense (Mind Sliver, Calm emotions, Hex, vicious mockery, Animal Friendship, etc) or straight up help people (Heroism, bless)
Is no one going comment on the wholesome Necromancer hugging her skeleton buddy? Look how happy she is.
My character is a necromancer, but she's Neutral Good... She raises the dead to kill those who would do harm to others, heals anyone hurt by evildoers, and she has a soft spot for children- she'll even go so far as to comfort them when they're sad or scared, and she'll sometimes take in orphans to train under her wing. Literally- she's a wereraven. She's basically a goth girl, but on the next level. Her name? Jade Shadowborn.
She's sassy as all hell- she's got 6 levels in Bard just for Vicious Mockery. Her favorite insult is when someone does something wrong- They usually say, "Sorry, I did the wrong thing!" And she responds with, "No, [X] years ago your mother gave birth to the wrong thing!" That one stings. But not as much as the Chill Touch spell! She's a 10th level Wizard for her necromancy skills, and she always makes sure that the people she raises make it back to their graves to rest. That's the extent of my character. I'm thinking of getting 5 levels in Way of the Shadow Monk... What do you guys think?)
Description says this video is about illusion.
Really awesome video though. Nice job!
fixed, thanks
Nice and festive!
Very possibly my favourite school of magic, despite its lackluster mechanics.
Me to my DM: dude, believe me. I'm not gonna be evil just because I'm a necromancer. It's just for lore. Look, it will be fine, I will be cool with the party
*20 levels later*
Party: ok, Bruno. It's your time to patrol while we sleep
Me: yeah, guys. Don't worry, I have your back........ Ok, I kill them all I raise their corpses
DM: what?
Me: nat 20..... Now I will use them to conquer the world
GM: Wonderful, you critically strike one of them with your dagger. Since you never even bothered to get a magic one, since you're a spellcaster... you do 2d4 damage plus your -1 for you strength dumpstat. They all wake up.
Just cast cloudkill man. You don't need to roll.
DM: Oh, how unexpected, a party of level 20 paladins shows up, kills you, and casts true resurrection on the fallen party members. Wow, it's amazing how convenient that was considering the timing. Incredible.
This is actually very helpful because I just turned my character into a Lich
Best intro I've ever seen at your channel.
Playing a Chaotic Good Kenku Necromancer.
The little jabber just wants to take all the forbidden knowledge and either burn it or use it for good ends. Oh, and because he multi-classed into monk he beats any zombie or skeleton that gets out of line by hurting the living.
He's pretty nice, and it helps that he uses prestidigitation to cast shadow letters to show what he wants to say.
I really do love this power, don't worry I'll try to take it easy as a Necromancer.
Runesmith has two moods and two moods only
Captivating story teller or funny boi with dice!!
Thanks for the Christmas special of 2 videos!
I once played a necromancer who's ideal was that you must fight evil with greater evil, and would often be wretched between his dark hunger for power and his own light of Justice, often confused and conflicted with himself.
(Xd it's midnight yo)
Hell yeah finally whenever I look up necromancy I see real people trying to really contact the dead but I just wanted to figure it out in DND
I explained it to a player thusly. Undead are given animation by negative energy, the antithesis of all life, which tirelessly seeks to annihilate positive energy, the foundation of all living things. In order to create undead, you must bring negative energy from the howling void of the its home plane into the world of the living, where it can cause the most harm by attacking and disrupting the natural order. And THAT is why, even if you order your undead minions to do good, creating undead is an evil action. True not all necromancers are necessarily evil, but you'd need one hell of a resume to justify writing good on your character sheet.
Thumbnail girl looks so genuinely happy. I'd like to "raise" a family with her.
Master both necromancy and blood magic so the body is not wasted at all. Reuse, reanimate, recycle.
It's multiclass time.
Love the video! But a Necromancer and a a Diaolist are not the same thing
So. I liked it, and that's how I run my Pathfinder Necros. The OG rules state you have to be evil in Parhfinder if you play a Necromancer... I changed that. My rules say if a cleric is a Necromancer, they can be whichever alignment and so can their Undead. They must gain permission from a god who resides over the dead to do this, however, and the Undead soul is essentially given a "second chance" at being a certain way before they're afterlife fate is determined. It has worked pretty well, but I need to figure out all of the rulings for this homebrew. Now, I do want to point out most of the photos you used were of MTG cards. Idk how fair use rules work, but so you don't get a copyright strike against you, you may want to use different photos. Of course, keep up the good content regardless my d00d.
I once played necromancer in a original setting that wanted to become a god because he sees the gods as apathetic and lazy he used the dead to help people and even develop a few new spells and eventually he does become a god and afterward in a new campaign a theocracy worshipping the necromancer popped up and was considered one the most advanced kingdoms and the necromancer god was active in it's development.
Wholesome thumbnail is wholesome.
There was a time that me and my party were stuck in a locked carriage. They were transporting us to some prison or whatever, but me deciding to provide the most honorable role in providing our escape.
I turned to one of the passengers I deemed not useful; tore into his chest cavity and fashioned a bone lock pick from his ribs.
Of course, due to the nature of bone the first couple bones broke. So we had to break off a number of the man's ribs, in order to finally pick the lock. I wager by the time we made out of the carriage, blood was likely pooling out from every corner of the cage.
But see! Totally not evil....Totally.
Ok, I while ago I commented on this, but I was wrong, maybe now I have a better understanding to talk on this again.
I want to talk about undead, and how they and making them is evil.
The PHB says creatures that regularly make undead are evil, but doesn't delve to deep into why is it so.
The most easy answer is the respect for the dead, as in creating an undead untails disecrating someone's body, but that is too easy to circumvate, if someone agrees to have their body turned into undead while living then it should be ok.
Now if that's a thing you would like for your setting, as many people seem to like, that's awesome, but if instead you are like me and want the creation of undead to be truly evil we might want to redifine undead as a whole.
The idea I have is: undeath as a curse. necromancy already seems quite proficient in casting those so it would make sense to me, the idea being that you are bringing the soul back into the body of a creature, but not the mind nor the life force/spirit, replacing the latter with either your own magic or an evil spirit from the shadowfell.
The idea is that undead would resemble more hollows from dark souls, being trapped in a decaying, rotting carcass without mind,only an eternal hunger that drives them to attack any living being, until someone sets them free, a restless death, no one would agreeto that, and even if they did it wouldn't be a desireable fate.
Inteligent undead would then resemble the Black's Pearl crew from the 1st movie, the mind is there, but no spirit, without feelings, good or bad, only hunger that can never be satiated.
creating undead is not evil if the soul in question wanted to become one, forcing undead on someone is evil as is changing someone into an animal forever.
or vice versa with the last poitn if the last unicorn is anything to go by?
Sweet a new video at 3 in the morning
another name for a necromancer is a "Malconvoker". doesnt come off as overtly evil, which is helpful for well-intentioned PCs
That thumbnail is adorable!!!!
"Diabolist" is a side title for Conjurers, not Necromancers. Conjurers are THE link to the lower planes and as such have an easier time conjuring devils and demons to do their binding.
I love all the magic art
Nicely edited. I can see that you put a lot of work into your video.
such a different video from the others you make... its poetic good job
Necromancers are misunderstood. They want to raise a family too. It is just difficult to find a whole dead family together to raise.
i would love a part 2 about this.
It's a whole series man, finished too.
Hottest take I've had all day:
Healing spells should be necromancy.
In 5e, they are.
Most of them are Evocation. You've got stuff like false life on Necromancy, but stuff like the spell _literally called heal_ is Evocation.
Some healing spells are necromancy, some transmutation, some evocation. it all comes down to the spell details, really. How a spell heals you is what determines it's school. Are they transmuting your flesh to make it heal faster? are they pulling you from the brink of death with a little extra health to boot? are they summoning positive energies from nothing with a single word?
when it comes down to it, "healing" is a pretty broad term, and limiting it to one school is just harmful for the game.
oh- something I forgot about too. I think every Resurrection based spell is Necromancy. For obvious reasons, but even Clerics and Druids regularly practice Necromancy at a high enough level.
The good guy necromancer trying to be a good friend:
"Hey man, what's wrong?"
"I dropped my hot dog."
"Want me to resurrect it?"
"What?"
My world's reason for forbidding Necromancy is that its effects are contagious. So even if you use it on someone who absolutely deserves it, you run a high risk of harming someone innocent in the future.
I had a good Necromancer with the typical story. L,ost lover, wishes to bring lover back from the dead. Ends up making her into an abomination and becomes a horror upon the town he lives in. After having to slay his own lover, he vowed that he would not use his power of necromancy for selfish acts, and only wish to help others. I find Necromancy very powerful and really flexible for a school of magic that's all about death. Has some very decent utility spells for role play, good offensive abilities, and you can bunker you're mage down with conjuring minions of the undead. Really good school to play with. No matter alignment thought for the class to be evil, you can actually play a good character with this magic.
Hey Runesmith! The song you use in the beginning of your video is called ‘Ascending the Vale.’ It’s a really fun song in full! Do you think you could credit it in your description for those who aren’t familiar