Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

[deleted]

Delbaeth

Learned
Joined
Nov 21, 2013
Messages
320
Devs don't let gamers playing necromancers to let necromancers' threads rot so forumers will be able to necrobump those treads.

So meta.
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,765
Are any of the Dungeon Sieges good anyway?

Dungeon Siege 1 - AI is so effective it lead to terrible conclusion that you, as a player, are no longer needed. Game play by itself. Shallow gameplay too. Game is WAY too long for it's own good. Feels like eternity to reach finale. Only use to install Ultima VI & VI mods.
Dungeons Siege 2 - you get more control but all you do is drink potions and press buttons to activate skills like some MMORPG or whatever.
Dungeon Siege - Throne of Agony - average action RPG on consoles, not much to say here.
Dungeon Siege 3 - what a shock, Obsidian made game with almost no bugs! Pity console controllers are alien concept for them so control is shit and kb+m control become retarded when they transfered controls from consoles to PC (you got to be cocaine fueled pianist to deal with it). Trash gameplay with even worse story than DS1 (which was average fantasy pulp story tier) and BIG BOOBS.

There are no other party based Diablo clones AFAIK so that alone makes it interesting.
Throne of Darkness have a word with you.
Icewind Dale 1&2 might count too.
 

anvi

Prophet
Village Idiot
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,530
Location
Kelethin
Get EverQuest. The only good Necromancer class. There was another MMO which had one very similar if not better, but that game died. It may come back eventually as an emulator.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
Arcanum obviously, summons are a bit shit but first two spells more than make up for it, though I think they coulda expanded on Speak wi Dead thing. Really explored well thematically, just wish I were able to join Derian Ka like Geoffrey. Torian Kel is a must have undead companion.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
laclongquan can confirm if the witch from Prince of Qin had any negrodancy skill. Probably not though.

Chinese witch. It's like female wizard but separate skill tree.

China has necromancers in media, who command jumping zombies and ghosts. but they are not too popular either. Detail: their jumping zombie is kinda like voodoo zombies in someways. Dead corpse magically become operational, but unflexible body and move by jumping around.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,242
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Now I want a blobber about a party of chinese zombies.
Reminds of some movie I saw of Chinese vampires. Arms out like regular zombies, and hopping all over the place. And apparently they're blind, so they track people by the air they exhale. Funny as fuck.
 
Self-Ejected

buru5

Very Grumpy Dragon
Patron
Joined
Apr 9, 2017
Messages
2,048
Almost every RPG I've played let's you build a necromancer. Quit playing weeb-trash.

Elder Scrolls, Everquest, WoW (in some capacity), Guild Wars, Neverwinter Nights series, Baldur's Gate series, basically every DnD series, Diablo 2 (and soon 3), and the list just keeps going. Granted, they may not call you a "Necromancer" in all those games, but you can effectively build your character in such a way that you're basically a necromancer.
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
EQ necromancer - best necromancer. They were the model of versatility and self-reliance. You could heal, regenerate mana at an incredible rate and venture solo to places few others could. With a pre-nerf CoS you had instant invisibility against living creatures and with a spell invisibility against the undead, with feign dead you could survive hopeless situations, you could summon your corpse and even resurrect yourself if there was no cleric around. A mighty necromancer didn't need any other class to be fun. (And it fits the idea of necromancers being solitary outcasts (well, not if they are DE) pretty well.)
 
Last edited:

Azarkon

Arcane
Joined
Oct 7, 2005
Messages
2,989
Because necromancers are a "pet" class and "pet" classes are harder to implement in an user friendly way. To make necromancers, summoners, or any minion based class work in a combat system, you generally have to either implement solid AI or force players to control all their units themselves, and since most storyfag developers have a low opinion of the average player and of tactical combat, they just avoid them altogether.

Necromancers, summoners, and minion based classes are fairly common in action CRPGs, MMORPGs, and tactical strategy games. Diablo, World of Warcraft, Path of Exile, etc. all have Necromancers or Necromancer equivalent classes. It's not rare at all in the larger industry.
 
Last edited:

Aaron Burr

Educated
Joined
Nov 28, 2015
Messages
15
I feel like a game like Mount & Blade would lend itself pretty well to such a transformation.
You could start as some lowly cultist with a band of thugs and over time develop your powers, and you could end up in a situation where you amass undead and could command them Total War style, while still being on the battlefield. You wouldn't even have to create 2 games in one. More like 1.5.

Hmmm....

Phantasy Calradia is a mod that tries to offer D&D archetypes as viable character builds in Warband. There's a necromancy skill you can level, at level 10 it turns half the enemies killed in battle into low level skellies for you. These skellies ignore the normal party size limit and have fairly low upkeep, so if you fight a series of large battles you'll often end up with a larger army than before. You can also take damage out of battle in exchange for summoning higher level undead troops and/or you can recruit undead from the necromancy faction.
 

Serious_Business

Best Poster on the Codex
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
3,909
Location
Frown Town
This thread is of Interest to me. As a powerful necromancer and lich, I also wish to be represented more in modern media ; all minorities should deserve this.
 

flabbyjack

Arcane
Joined
Jul 15, 2004
Messages
2,592
Location
the area around my keyboard
I actually made a thread about this a while back. It looks like the poll data got wiped though. anywho...

Dominions 4 is your best bet. The necromancy is strong with this one. It's an strategy game with strong RPG elements. For example, you can play a fountain of blood --
dom1.jpg

Fucking metal, dude.
Dungeon Keeper 2 is pretty close
There are several Necromancer modules for NWN, a couple of which are rather good... a couple of which are buggy.
Blood Omen (original vampire Kain story). Not really a necromancer, but dark enough for my tastes.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,949
Pathfinder: Wrath
Wow, I never knew I wanted to play a fountain of blood until now. I guess I'll give Dominions 4 a whirl.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
I actually made a thread about this a while back. It looks like the poll data got wiped though. anywho...

Dominions 4 is your best bet. The necromancy is strong with this one. It's an strategy game with strong RPG elements. For example, you can play a fountain of blood --
dom1.jpg

Fucking metal, dude.
Dungeon Keeper 2 is pretty close
There are several Necromancer modules for NWN, a couple of which are rather good... a couple of which are buggy.
Blood Omen (original vampire Kain story). Not really a necromancer, but dark enough for my tastes.
2evyuk8.jpg
 

RatTower

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Messages
468
The question is really, why there are so few games with good necromancy.
I mean almost every D&D game has the "Summon Skeleton" Spell. The problem is: It's always just one or maybe two undead.
I think in most peoples imagination necromancy is all about massive amounts of units.

And that shit's relatively hard to design/code, since you need some sort of crowd movement/control.
There are a couple of approaches ranging from skeletons just attacking anything in sight, to defensive/offensive modes, to relatively direct control like in Overlord.
If you already have a specified set of character archetypes (warrior/spellcaster/thief), it is relatively hard to fit those controls in there. Unless you build an entire archetype around them.
You're basically building a strategy game within an RPG.

In short: Most developers have a hard time coming up with a control scheme for summoned creatures, that integrates well with the rest of the game.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,949
Pathfinder: Wrath
If you have a mass amount of relatively weak, mass-produce-able undead, they can just go wild and attack whatever they wish. They can give us control over only big and strategically important undead units. This only works in real time obviously. I have no idea how to implement necromancy right in turn based mode. I suppose they can make the smaller undeads take only one "slot" on the battlefield and they move in unison, the more you have the bigger and stronger this clump is (with obvious caps).
 
Last edited:

RatTower

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Messages
468
If you have a mass amount of relatively weak, mass-produce-able undead, they can just go wild and attack whatever they wish.

Maybe in Diablo 2, but I'm not sure if I'd be happy with skeletons pulling everything in sight in a game like Dark Souls or Temple of the Elemental Evil.
You need at least minimal control over the AI like the mentioned aggressive/defensive mode. That could just be one button.

But I think even then your minions could become a major annoyance whenever they attack different targets/aren't focusing on a main target.
You'd need some good aggro management in the background, determining which of the enemies is the biggest threat.

Kinda takes the challenge out of it a bit though.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom