The Necromancer

[csperkins1970]

I've copied this over from the Specialist Wizards thread for easier access.
THE NECROMANCER (Intelligence)

The necromancer or death master is a subclass of magic-user that, like the illusionist, specializes in a particular school of magic. As practitioners of necromancy, death masters tend to be evil, though they may initially be of any alignment. Ultimately, however, he will be of an evil alignment, although his early alignment might even be lawful good. The necromancer will change alignment, moving one step closer to evil (if he isnt there already) upon the gaining of every four levels of experience. Thus, a death master who starts out as lawful good will turn lawful neutral upon attaining 5th level and lawful evil at 9th level.

In any event, a death master will be evil by the time he reaches 9th level, and in most cases the switch will not take that long. In this downward spiral, no magic, not even a wish, can move the death masters alignment in the direction away from evil.
LEVEL & SPELL PROGRESSION

Necromancer's use the Illusionist class's experience and spell progression charts
Prime Requisite: Intelligence
Hit Die: d4
Alignment: Any (see class description)
Weapons: Club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, sickle & scythe
Armor: None*
Abilities: Necromancer spells, resistance to enchantment/charm, command undead

* a necromancer may not cast spells in armor.

Necromancers shun armor of all types but may use rings, cloaks and jewelry of protection, including bracers of defense. Otherwise, they may employ all items useable by wizards, except those items that store spells not featured on the necromancer spell list. They can only use arcane scrolls that have spell from their spell list scribed upon them or those that control or protect from the undead.
Necromancer Spells: A necromancer casts arcane spells much like a magic-user but, due to the specialized and inherently different nature of death magic, have their own spell list. Each necromancer can cast a limited number of spells from each spell level per day. The table below lists the number of spells per day a necromancer may cast of each spell level. For example, a 5th level necromancer can cast six 0-level, five 1st level, three 2nd level spells and one 3rd level spell.

A necromancer must prepare spells before casting them by studying from a spellbook. They may only scribe necromancer spells into their spellbooks. While studying, the necromancer decides which spells to prepare. Spell memorization and descriptions are covered in greater detail in the Magic section of THE PLAYERS HANDBOOK. Necromancers gain bonus spells for high intelligence scores just as a magic-user or illusionist does.
Resistance to Enchantment/Charm: At 1st level, necromancers gain a +1 bonus to saving throws to resist all enchantment/charm spells and effects. At levels 5, 10, 15 and 20 this bonus increases by an additional point, to a maximum of +5 at level 20.
Command Undead (Wisdom): At 3rd level, the necromancer gains the ability to effect undead as an evil cleric of 1st level. When making a wisdom check to command undead, a necromancer adds his turning level to the roll, not the characters actual level. This ability improves with each level, so a 5th level necromancer turns or commands undead like a 3rd level cleric.
Spellbook: The number of spells that a necromancer has in their spellbook at the beginning of play is equal to the number of spells they can cast at first level plus read magic. For example, a 1st level necromancer with a 14 intelligence can cast four 0-level spells and three 1st level spells (2+1 bonus). So, the character would begin play with a spellbook containing five 0-level and three 1st level spells plus read magic. The spells in the spellbook are chosen by player and should be approved by the Dungeon Master.
Starting Funds: Necromancers begin play with 10-100 gold pieces with which to purchase their initial equipment.
NECROMANCER SPELLS (Magic-Users)
0-Level

Audible Glamer

Cause Minor Wounds

Dancing Lights

Detect Magic

Detect Poison

Read Magic

Wizard Mark

Write
1st Level

Alarm

Armor

Cause Fear

Comprehend Languages

Detect Evil/Good

Detect Undead

Erase

Feather Fall

Find Familiar

Identify

Invisibillity to Undead

Nystul's Magic Aura

Protection from Good

Obscurement

Shield

Sleep

Unseen Servant
2nd Level

Blur

Cause Blindness/Deafness

Continual Darkess

Darkness 15' Radius

Darkvision

ESP

Feign Death

Fog Cloud

Invisibility

Knock

Know Alignment

Magic Mouth

Misdirection

Pyrotechnics

Ray of Enfeeblement

Scare

Speak with Dead

Wizard Lock
3rd Level

Animate Dead

Arcane Sight

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

Deep Sleeper

Dispel Magic

Fear

Hold Person

Gaseous Form

Invisibility 10' Radius

Nondetection

Phantom Steed

Protection from Good 10' Radius

Stinking Cloud

Tongues
4th Level

Curse

Detect Scrying

Dimensional Anchor

Negative Plane Protection

Neutralize Poison

Poison

Remove Curse

Scrying

Shadow Conjuration

Solid Fog

Wall of Ice

Wizard Eye
5th Level

Cloudkill

Cone of Cold

Dismissal

Hold Monster

Magic Jar

Nightmare

Permanency

Slay Living

Symbol of Pain

Symbol of Sleep

Teleport

True Seeing
6th Level

Antilife Shell

Death Spell

Enchant an Item

Geas/Quest

Globe of Invulnerability

Improved Dispel Magic

Legend Lore

Move Earth

Planar Binding

Shadow Walk

Summon Shadow

Symbol of Fear
7th Level

Banishment

Ethereal Jaunt

Finger of Death

Improved Scrying

Improved Shadow Conjuration

Insanity

Limited Wish

Plane Shift

Power Word Blind

Symbol of Stunning

Symbol of Weakness

Teleport without Error
8th Level

Clone

Destruction

Dimensional Lock

Discern Location

Improved Planar Binding

Mind Blank

Power Word Stun

Serten's Spell Immunity

Symbol of Death

Symbol of Insanity

Temporal Stasis

Trap of Soul
9th Level

Astral Spell

Energy Drain

Etherealness

Gate

Power Word Kill

Soul Bind

Time Stop

Wish/Alter Reality

Note that some of these spells do not appear in C&C. They are listed in my alternate player's handbook listed here

[Tadhg]

Hey this looks pretty darn cool. I don't have evil PCs in my campaign, but do have evil NPCs. My group has only faced a kobold sorcerer so far, but I'm really liking this class as my next fun NPC to throw at them.
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[serleran]

Quote:
Armor: None*

* a necromancer may not cast spells in armor.

Why the note? If they can't wear armor, they obviously cannot cast spells in it.
Unless you allow anyone to put armor on, but doing so causes the reduction of class abilities....

[csperkins1970]

serleran wrote:
Why the note? If they can't wear armor, they obviously cannot cast spells in it.
Unless you allow anyone to put armor on, but doing so causes the reduction of class abilities....

It's a note for multiclassed casters that can wear armor but really shouldn't...

[phantos]

the Necromancer was always my favorite. thanks for providing the resource.

[Maliki]

Pretty good conversion

I remember the Death Master form an early Dragon magazine. IMC I would change the alignment to any non-good (or more likely any evil) and leave it at that.

Also I'd add more powerful cause wounds spells to his list.
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[Lurker]

Wow, great

I tend to play good campaigns but this will add a good nasty to through up against them!
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Forgive all spelling errors.

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[Jason Vey]

I'm actually working on a Necromancer of my own, for the Bloodlands campaign setting. I'll post it here when I'm done (I'm up to 6th level spell list).

[Maliki]

Lurker wrote:
Wow, great

I tend to play good campaigns but this will add a good nasty to through up against them!

Same here, NPC/villian only.
_________________
Never throw rocks at a man with a Vorpal Sword!

[LordSeurek]

Lurker wrote:
Wow, great

I tend to play good campaigns but this will add a good nasty to through up against them!

You can always retire Alvar and roll one up in my game next month, lol. I dont restrict players from any allignment. Its role-playing. If you wanna do up an evil guy, sure, but beware of the consequences that come with it
L.S.

Oh, and as always cs, you my friend are a god, love your work
And love the Necromancer!
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[csperkins1970]

LordSeurek wrote:
Oh, and as always cs, you my friend are a god, love your work
And love the Necromancer!

It's great to see this thread re-animated after it's been dead for a while.
Thanks for throwin' some love my way!

[The Pugilist]

csperkins1970 wrote:
Note that some of this spells do not appear in C&C. They are listed in my alternate player's handbook listed here.

Might I ask what those spells are and if they should be replaced (due to balance reasons) if one was playing a more "standard" C&C game?

I'm also fairly lazy and not too big on referencing lots of extra books (I have 3.5e and 4e for that, C&C is my simple old school option). Although, if the spells can be used "as is" out of your AD&D3 book then more the better.

[csperkins1970]

The Pugilist wrote:
Might I ask what those spells are and if they should be replaced (due to balance reasons) if one was playing a more "standard" C&C game?

I'm also fairly lazy and not too big on referencing lots of extra books (I have 3.5e and 4e for that, C&C is my simple old school option). Although, if the spells can be used "as is" out of your AD&D3 book then more the better.

Take a look at the spells in the pdf and decide for yourself if they are balanced for your game. I think that they're okay BUT I only used my version of spells in my game. They are based on the SRD and used C&C's method of saves so they shouldn't be too wacky.