Introduction:
This is the third installment in the Ultimate Character Creation Guide and this time we will be looking at the Necromancer. It is a fabled class, a character obsessed with death or, at the very least, adept at commanding undead forces. They live between the world of the living and the dead, wielding strange necrotic power. For this one I borrowed from popular fantasy concepts and Elder Scrolls lore. Unlike DnD, which provides little insight on Necromancy, Elder Scrolls is teeming with dark magick and the Ordinator perk mod provides a variety of ways to play this class.
Class Description:
Reclusive and dangerous, these spell casters are often seen as evil but, as you will find, that is not always the case. Raisers of the dead and students of necrosis, Necromancers occupy various alignments but their work is always viewed sceptically by outsiders. Their practices are taboo or forbidden and this often finds them cast out by society or shunned altogether. Necromancers are not dissuaded by dark magick and delve into practices and rituals that other mages avoid.
The Necromancer is a reanimator of the undead, a lord of abomination and black death. They often work as loners, and their only companions are usually the zombies they raise from certain death. Necromancers have varied beginnings - they could be a mage who became obsessed with forbidden magick, a gravedigger who practices macabre rituals that one day go too far or they might have a history in medicine and experiment on cadavers. Whatever their backstory, Necromancers raise the undead to fight for them. They reanimate corpses, spread plague and disease and some even build their own personal skeleton army.
The Source of the Necromancer’s Power:
Necromancers become a conduit of negative or dark energy, but not before communicating with the dead or a force from the other side. In this way, all Necromancers gain their abilities by opening a gateway between the living and the dead. This is called a Seance Ritual and it is the source of their power.
A Necromancer may be involved with a Seance Ritual accidentally or on purpose. They may belong to a circle of mediums who routinely attempt to communicate with the other side, it could be that they’re a tomb raider and they tamper with an enchanted casket, branding them with something sinister, or perhaps they’re a mage’s apprentice conducting research and in their readings they utter a forbidden spell, marking them with necromantic evil.
Seance Rituals are successful only when dark forces communicate back. This can happen a variety of ways - by cursing/blessing the medium with immortality, by mysteriously granting them powerful dark magick or by commanding them to build an undead army. Dark forces are mysterious and their motives are hardly quantifiable. A Necromancer may have tried to bring back a loved one from the void and instead they unearthed a deathly plague. Or maybe they offered someone as a sacrifice and get branded with dark magick, fated to carry the power of necromancy with them forever. Regardless the origin, it all starts with the Seance Ritual.
Creating the Necromancer:
Backstory
The first thing to consider in creating your Necromancer is what their backstory will be. Consider what significant events have happened in their life to lead to this moment. What’s their relationship like with death? Do they refuse to accept that someone they loved has died? Maybe they are increasingly fascinated with the macabre and wish to command its power. What is their personality like? How do they feel about their necromantic abilities? Are they thrilled by them or burdened by the need to uncover more, delving deeper and deeper into the darkest magicks known to man? Think about your character’s alignment (from lawful to chaotic, good to bad and, of course, neutral). What master do they serve, if any, and what is their goal beyond just combat? Discover these things and more before choosing your breed of Necromancer.
Seance Ritual
Necromancers get their ability from a link with the forces of death. Reflect on your character’s Seance Ritual and the surrounding circumstances. This is the source of their power and the most important moment in a Necromancer’s life, for better or worse. They may have been forced into a ritual unwillingly or they may have sought out their power. Discover the nature of your character’s power and how they plan to use it now.
Darque Path
Not all Necromancers are created equal. They vary greatly in their abilities, talents and tendencies. Some are exquisite builders and craft the perfect skeleton army - this is the Bone Lord. Then there’s the Death Knight, a once honorable fighter who bears a deathly curse, scourging the living and surrounding himself with a zombified horde. Finally there is the Dread Mage, a spell-caster of the darkest, most unspeakable kinds of magick. They push the limits of what is possible, terrifying all who look upon them, visiting people in their dreams and reanimating corpses to aid in their pursuits.
Pull from your character’s backstory, their Seance Ritual and their personal talents. Consider these things carefully before choosing their Darque Path.
Now that you’ve constructed your character’s backstory, you’re ready to begin! Choose a Darque Path from ONE below.
The Bone Lord
The Death Knight
The Dread Mage
They often start as a physician, a medical assistant or an archeologist digging up old bones. However their fascination with the undead begins, Bone Lords are expert osteologists. They are skillful at building biped hordes, piece by piece. These Necromancers search for the finest bones to patch together their own skeleton frankensteins. They’re mad scientists but their work is important. They will certainly test their patchwork slaves in the field. Bone Lords are always adding to their numbers, dispatching their fine specimens against the critics of their work.
Gameplay
Playing the Bone Lord correctly hinges on the usage of the “Bone Collector” perk from Ordinator. It provides an entire branch of the Conjuration tree where your Bone Lord gets increasingly better at patching together skeletons. Eventually you will be able to create a large number of them and your skeleton followers will be your primary offensive. The Bone Lord can wear light armor but often opts for robes and protects themself with Mage Armor AKA flesh spells. The Bone Lord will reanimate undead as well but their primary focus is unlocking the “Bone Collector” ability and searching for bones to craft their army.
The Bone Lord’s primary spells will be raising the dead, Bound Sword and Flesh Spells. They will be reanimating undead as a means to supplement their more important skill; their skeleton army. The Bone Altar is their most important means of controlling undead forces. Summoning a Bound Sword after activating a flesh spell will be an important tactic before entering the fray, allowing your skeletons to be frontlines attackers while you pop in and out of battle as you wish, healing your undead companions at will. Allow them to thrive in all situations. It is your wish to prove their might and silence your critics. You’re not a “mad scientist”, you are a genius! Share your creations with the world and take what’s rightfully yours.
Bone Lord Skills
Conjuration
Alteration OR Light Armor
Restoration
Enchanting
One-Handed
Bone Lord Starting Setup
(a) Bound Sword Spell & Raise Zombie Spell
(b) Necromancer robes OR leather armor
(c) Necromantic Healing Spell
A dark champion of death. Bearing a curse, the Death Knight is forever doomed to walk amongst the living, a blight on mankind. A once-righteous warrior whose death fell into the wrong hands. The Death Knight was a noble fighter in a past life, but now they wander the realm in limbo, commanding a dark power they gained by crossing death’s door - but the powerful forces weren’t done with them yet! Now zombies rise in their wake and they plague humanity with their curse and disease.
Gameplay
The Death Knight is an infected fighter, a plague of death and pure might. They may be a cursed mortal or a full blown lich, depending on your backstory. The Death Knight approaches his playthrough with any spells that reanimate corpses or raise up zombies. They cannot help it, the undead will flock to their aid. It goes without saying that the Ritual Stone is a must for ANY of these sub-classes, and the Death Knight is no exception.
The Death Knight is the most versatile when it comes to offensive combat. They can unleash the horde, smite foes with their greatsword or unleash the power of the plague on unfortunate foes. The latter is made possible by the Necromanticon, Chalice of Tears and Plague Doctor perks through the Ordinator Restoration Tree. These perks are only afforded to the Death Knight who uses them to learn plague spells and spread disease. Use them heavily in your playthrough. Like typical Knights, this character will work on Smithing and Heavy Armor skills to supplement his playstyle.
Skills of the Death Knight
Conjuration
Restoration
Two-Handed
Heavy Armor
Smithing
Death Knight Starting Setup
(a) Steel Armor & Ancient Nord Greatsword
(b) Dark Hood
(c) Raise Zombie Spell
They may have been an undertaker or a scholar of forbidden texts. They are reanimators who wield the darkest, most frightful magick imaginable. The Dread Mage is a puppet master of dark forces, a lord of horror and nightmares. They strike fear into the hearts and minds of their foes, condemning their enemies to a damning fate. They are master spell-casters allowing nightmares and undead slaves to do their bidding.
Gameplay
Dread Mages aren’t just masters of the undead, they’re masters of fear and all things terrifying. With perks like Dream Thief and Dream Charm they will invade their victims minds as well. They affect their foes even while they sleep, as the Dread Mage is a waking nightmare. Wielding shock magick, they are not without offensive might. They can use shock spells to boon their undead minions as well (Shock to Life perk). People should fear all the Dread Mage can accomplish on the field of battle, a versatile mage who utilizes fear spells to thin the herd, let their zombies chase them down, and will use shock spells to finish people off. They also enchant their gear and are accomplished enchanters overall.
Flesh spells and Necromantic healing round out their magickal skills on the battlefield, in the Alteration and Restoration schools respectively. These talents provide support to their zombie army as well as themselves. When playing this type of Necromancer, think of yourself as a walking horror villain; a creature of horrific and nightmarish appearance. You will raise the undead, invade dreams, spread fear and command shocking, frightening destruction spells that strike terror and death onto those around you.
Skills
Conjuration
Illusion
Destruction
Alteration
Restoration
Enchanting
Dread Mage Starting Setup
(a) Black Magic Robes OR Necromancer Robes
(b) Sparks Spell & Raise Zombie
(c) Ghostwalk Spell OR Pale Shadow Spell
Mods
Apocalypse - An important mod for the addition of spells and the allowance for more Conjuration, Illusion, Destruction, and Restoration spells more than anything. These builds rely heavily on Conjuration and will utilize the addition of spells in the playthrough as detailed in each sub-classes Spell List.
Ordinator - Imperative for the "Bone Collector" and "Bone Altar" perks which allow for a character like the Bone Lord, who builds an undead army rather than raising it. Ordinator also allows for the "Necromanticon" perk for the Death Knight, who will be aided by the powers of plague and deathly disease. The Dread Mage benefits overall, especially in regards to the "Dream Thief" branch of the Illusion tree which allows this terrifying mage to enter people's minds while they sleep and charm them to his cause or just to be a nightmare forever in their minds. Cannot say enough how important this mod is, not just for perks but for the spells and abilities it adds, lending itself so well to a Necromancer class playthrough.
This is the third installment in the Ultimate Character Creation Guide and this time we will be looking at the Necromancer. It is a fabled class, a character obsessed with death or, at the very least, adept at commanding undead forces. They live between the world of the living and the dead, wielding strange necrotic power. For this one I borrowed from popular fantasy concepts and Elder Scrolls lore. Unlike DnD, which provides little insight on Necromancy, Elder Scrolls is teeming with dark magick and the Ordinator perk mod provides a variety of ways to play this class.
Class Description:
Reclusive and dangerous, these spell casters are often seen as evil but, as you will find, that is not always the case. Raisers of the dead and students of necrosis, Necromancers occupy various alignments but their work is always viewed sceptically by outsiders. Their practices are taboo or forbidden and this often finds them cast out by society or shunned altogether. Necromancers are not dissuaded by dark magick and delve into practices and rituals that other mages avoid.
The Necromancer is a reanimator of the undead, a lord of abomination and black death. They often work as loners, and their only companions are usually the zombies they raise from certain death. Necromancers have varied beginnings - they could be a mage who became obsessed with forbidden magick, a gravedigger who practices macabre rituals that one day go too far or they might have a history in medicine and experiment on cadavers. Whatever their backstory, Necromancers raise the undead to fight for them. They reanimate corpses, spread plague and disease and some even build their own personal skeleton army.
The Source of the Necromancer’s Power:
Necromancers become a conduit of negative or dark energy, but not before communicating with the dead or a force from the other side. In this way, all Necromancers gain their abilities by opening a gateway between the living and the dead. This is called a Seance Ritual and it is the source of their power.
A Necromancer may be involved with a Seance Ritual accidentally or on purpose. They may belong to a circle of mediums who routinely attempt to communicate with the other side, it could be that they’re a tomb raider and they tamper with an enchanted casket, branding them with something sinister, or perhaps they’re a mage’s apprentice conducting research and in their readings they utter a forbidden spell, marking them with necromantic evil.
Seance Rituals are successful only when dark forces communicate back. This can happen a variety of ways - by cursing/blessing the medium with immortality, by mysteriously granting them powerful dark magick or by commanding them to build an undead army. Dark forces are mysterious and their motives are hardly quantifiable. A Necromancer may have tried to bring back a loved one from the void and instead they unearthed a deathly plague. Or maybe they offered someone as a sacrifice and get branded with dark magick, fated to carry the power of necromancy with them forever. Regardless the origin, it all starts with the Seance Ritual.
Creating the Necromancer:
Backstory
The first thing to consider in creating your Necromancer is what their backstory will be. Consider what significant events have happened in their life to lead to this moment. What’s their relationship like with death? Do they refuse to accept that someone they loved has died? Maybe they are increasingly fascinated with the macabre and wish to command its power. What is their personality like? How do they feel about their necromantic abilities? Are they thrilled by them or burdened by the need to uncover more, delving deeper and deeper into the darkest magicks known to man? Think about your character’s alignment (from lawful to chaotic, good to bad and, of course, neutral). What master do they serve, if any, and what is their goal beyond just combat? Discover these things and more before choosing your breed of Necromancer.
Seance Ritual
Necromancers get their ability from a link with the forces of death. Reflect on your character’s Seance Ritual and the surrounding circumstances. This is the source of their power and the most important moment in a Necromancer’s life, for better or worse. They may have been forced into a ritual unwillingly or they may have sought out their power. Discover the nature of your character’s power and how they plan to use it now.
Darque Path
Not all Necromancers are created equal. They vary greatly in their abilities, talents and tendencies. Some are exquisite builders and craft the perfect skeleton army - this is the Bone Lord. Then there’s the Death Knight, a once honorable fighter who bears a deathly curse, scourging the living and surrounding himself with a zombified horde. Finally there is the Dread Mage, a spell-caster of the darkest, most unspeakable kinds of magick. They push the limits of what is possible, terrifying all who look upon them, visiting people in their dreams and reanimating corpses to aid in their pursuits.
Pull from your character’s backstory, their Seance Ritual and their personal talents. Consider these things carefully before choosing their Darque Path.
Now that you’ve constructed your character’s backstory, you’re ready to begin! Choose a Darque Path from ONE below.
The Bone Lord
The Death Knight
The Dread Mage
They often start as a physician, a medical assistant or an archeologist digging up old bones. However their fascination with the undead begins, Bone Lords are expert osteologists. They are skillful at building biped hordes, piece by piece. These Necromancers search for the finest bones to patch together their own skeleton frankensteins. They’re mad scientists but their work is important. They will certainly test their patchwork slaves in the field. Bone Lords are always adding to their numbers, dispatching their fine specimens against the critics of their work.
Gameplay
Playing the Bone Lord correctly hinges on the usage of the “Bone Collector” perk from Ordinator. It provides an entire branch of the Conjuration tree where your Bone Lord gets increasingly better at patching together skeletons. Eventually you will be able to create a large number of them and your skeleton followers will be your primary offensive. The Bone Lord can wear light armor but often opts for robes and protects themself with Mage Armor AKA flesh spells. The Bone Lord will reanimate undead as well but their primary focus is unlocking the “Bone Collector” ability and searching for bones to craft their army.
The Bone Lord’s primary spells will be raising the dead, Bound Sword and Flesh Spells. They will be reanimating undead as a means to supplement their more important skill; their skeleton army. The Bone Altar is their most important means of controlling undead forces. Summoning a Bound Sword after activating a flesh spell will be an important tactic before entering the fray, allowing your skeletons to be frontlines attackers while you pop in and out of battle as you wish, healing your undead companions at will. Allow them to thrive in all situations. It is your wish to prove their might and silence your critics. You’re not a “mad scientist”, you are a genius! Share your creations with the world and take what’s rightfully yours.
Bone Lord Skills
Conjuration
Alteration OR Light Armor
Restoration
Enchanting
One-Handed
Bone Lord Starting Setup
(a) Bound Sword Spell & Raise Zombie Spell
(b) Necromancer robes OR leather armor
(c) Necromantic Healing Spell
A dark champion of death. Bearing a curse, the Death Knight is forever doomed to walk amongst the living, a blight on mankind. A once-righteous warrior whose death fell into the wrong hands. The Death Knight was a noble fighter in a past life, but now they wander the realm in limbo, commanding a dark power they gained by crossing death’s door - but the powerful forces weren’t done with them yet! Now zombies rise in their wake and they plague humanity with their curse and disease.
Gameplay
The Death Knight is an infected fighter, a plague of death and pure might. They may be a cursed mortal or a full blown lich, depending on your backstory. The Death Knight approaches his playthrough with any spells that reanimate corpses or raise up zombies. They cannot help it, the undead will flock to their aid. It goes without saying that the Ritual Stone is a must for ANY of these sub-classes, and the Death Knight is no exception.
The Death Knight is the most versatile when it comes to offensive combat. They can unleash the horde, smite foes with their greatsword or unleash the power of the plague on unfortunate foes. The latter is made possible by the Necromanticon, Chalice of Tears and Plague Doctor perks through the Ordinator Restoration Tree. These perks are only afforded to the Death Knight who uses them to learn plague spells and spread disease. Use them heavily in your playthrough. Like typical Knights, this character will work on Smithing and Heavy Armor skills to supplement his playstyle.
Skills of the Death Knight
Conjuration
Restoration
Two-Handed
Heavy Armor
Smithing
Death Knight Starting Setup
(a) Steel Armor & Ancient Nord Greatsword
(b) Dark Hood
(c) Raise Zombie Spell
They may have been an undertaker or a scholar of forbidden texts. They are reanimators who wield the darkest, most frightful magick imaginable. The Dread Mage is a puppet master of dark forces, a lord of horror and nightmares. They strike fear into the hearts and minds of their foes, condemning their enemies to a damning fate. They are master spell-casters allowing nightmares and undead slaves to do their bidding.
Gameplay
Dread Mages aren’t just masters of the undead, they’re masters of fear and all things terrifying. With perks like Dream Thief and Dream Charm they will invade their victims minds as well. They affect their foes even while they sleep, as the Dread Mage is a waking nightmare. Wielding shock magick, they are not without offensive might. They can use shock spells to boon their undead minions as well (Shock to Life perk). People should fear all the Dread Mage can accomplish on the field of battle, a versatile mage who utilizes fear spells to thin the herd, let their zombies chase them down, and will use shock spells to finish people off. They also enchant their gear and are accomplished enchanters overall.
Flesh spells and Necromantic healing round out their magickal skills on the battlefield, in the Alteration and Restoration schools respectively. These talents provide support to their zombie army as well as themselves. When playing this type of Necromancer, think of yourself as a walking horror villain; a creature of horrific and nightmarish appearance. You will raise the undead, invade dreams, spread fear and command shocking, frightening destruction spells that strike terror and death onto those around you.
Skills
Conjuration
Illusion
Destruction
Alteration
Restoration
Enchanting
Dread Mage Starting Setup
(a) Black Magic Robes OR Necromancer Robes
(b) Sparks Spell & Raise Zombie
(c) Ghostwalk Spell OR Pale Shadow Spell
Mods
Apocalypse - An important mod for the addition of spells and the allowance for more Conjuration, Illusion, Destruction, and Restoration spells more than anything. These builds rely heavily on Conjuration and will utilize the addition of spells in the playthrough as detailed in each sub-classes Spell List.
Ordinator - Imperative for the "Bone Collector" and "Bone Altar" perks which allow for a character like the Bone Lord, who builds an undead army rather than raising it. Ordinator also allows for the "Necromanticon" perk for the Death Knight, who will be aided by the powers of plague and deathly disease. The Dread Mage benefits overall, especially in regards to the "Dream Thief" branch of the Illusion tree which allows this terrifying mage to enter people's minds while they sleep and charm them to his cause or just to be a nightmare forever in their minds. Cannot say enough how important this mod is, not just for perks but for the spells and abilities it adds, lending itself so well to a Necromancer class playthrough.
