Shattered Kingdoms

The other thread got filled with a lot of clutter so I decided to voice this idea separately from it so it won't get passed over.



First off:

Animate dead allows a necromancer to turn the corpse of a player or NPC
into one of the walking dead. The strength and specific type of undead
created depends upon the power of the necromancer and the skill of the dead
person whose corpse is to be used. A necromancer may animate many undead at
one time, but eventually their energy will run out and they will return to
the earth. Animated dead are especially vulnerable to having their magic
dispelled. This is NOT a resurrection spell!

Five types of undead can be created based on the power of the corpse:
skeleton - unnaturally quick and also has a chilling touch
zombie - able to take more punishment than any other undead type
ghoul - these undead bring down their prey with poisonous bites
wight - a bane to populated areas their bite spreads black death
wraith - flying swiftly across the sky with a paralyzing touch

Because of the link between a necromancer and his animated dead, he will
receive a small portion of the experience awarded from their attacks.


Note the Bolded portion. Instead of the opponent you fight selecting the undead, why not make it so the Necro can select the undead they want to raise, and then make it the level of the corpse? Granted, of course keep the animating as it is now somewhat as in an amateur necro can't raise wights etc.

As it stands now, once a necro GM's, all you really see them with is wights because they're literally the most powerful of the undead that they can summon. The others have their uses, but I feel that Necros should be able to choose their own summons, not have them chosen for them. What do you guys thinks? It would be neat to see a variation of undead taken into battle instead of a horde of wraiths..

This would give them several new tactics, and a friend helped me expand on the idea to restrict it somewhat. To keep amateurs etc from raising wraiths and such, the corpses of the fallen will yield like they are now. Ie apprentice level NPC offers say zombies and skeletons, but not ghouls, wights or wraiths, GM NPCs yield all five of the undead and of course, come out as normal etc.

Also, on top of this, keep the concentration costs, but kill the decay of the undead. If they're going to be fed magical energy via concentration, they shouldn't decay. (Also his idea.)

I believe I initially saw this idea submitted by Gremlin, but I feel it was worth reposting.

I voted.

I said yes.

This is a very interesting idea. I like it very much.

I would be happy even if they just got rid of the timer on them, or the corpses stay the same level so when you raise them again it won't lower them to the next tier.

I'm against that. I -love- the fact that necromancy taints the corpse in a very real sense.

Yeah, I tend to agree with Ilky. It shouldn't be too easy for a necro to obtain undead. Multiple undead from 1 corpse, if that's what you're suggesting it is stretching it a bit. Sorry if I misunderstood.

And as it is right now, with the concentration hit AND the decay timer on them..It makes it a tricky class to play. You basically have a set period to suit up, spell up, collect your undead, suit up your undead, and then raid for what little time you have left. One of the two need to go, and I personally would rather see the decay timer go. Other classes, with the exception of warlock don't have timed classes, but the thing with warlock is it's not dependent on a corpse to raise a pet, and in most, note I do say most, is able to summon it back immediately. I dunno cause I've never played a warlock.

All of the undead are great really, it's just a shame that you're forced to use a wraith or a wight because everything would come out to be such a lower level it'd have too low HP to last. Imagine GM zombies (I think the undead come out GM at the end..Dunno. They would be massive tanks, like they're supposed to. Things like that would give a lot of vareity and spice up Necros as you wouldn't see a necro with just 15 wraiths or so.

I don't really like the idea of GM any-type-of-undead, and the timer on undead isn't really in need of changing either.

I think this is a wonderful suggestion. Especially getting rid of the timer on undead. Though, undead should still automatically drop on log out.

These look like some good ideas to me. Wonder how likely they are to be implemented?

You know my views.