Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

Necromancers
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Necromancy is one of the most restrictive schools of magic. It deals with
Dead things or the restoration of life, limbs, or vitality to living
Creatures. Although a small school, its spells tend to be powerful.
Necromancers are usually seen to be the most evil of spellcasters.
Studying the school of Necromancy requires higher than average wisdom.


Are any spells that deal with the bolded text actually given to necromancers? Every one I come across seems to think the use of this sphere is ultimately evil. I think its just a tool that can be used either way..

It might be in reference to priestly prayer spells. Since some of them are from the necromancy school or sphere. I am not sure though.

False Life(PH p229) – Gain 1d10 +1 per level (max
+10) temporary hit points.

Healing Touch(BoED p100)(MoF p100) – You take up to
1d6 points of damage per

Vampiric Touch(PH p298) – Touch deals 1d6 per 2
caster levels; caster gains damage as hit points.

Clone(PH p210) – Duplicate awakens when original
dies.

Stasis Clone(LoD p189) – As Clone, but if the caster
is still alive, the new clone goes into stasis until
needed.

I would think these have to do with the aforementioned.

Granted, it may be _taking_ vitality to heal, for some of these, they offer healing nonetheless.

Hmm, are those all spells in D&D?

I've only seen vampiric touch on FK.

Along those lines, is vampiric touch considered 'evil' or like I said a tool?
I think it is quite the handy thing to prepare, and I rp as such with my wizard, is he in the wrong?

alot of the mroe powerful necromantic spells aren't in game currently I think because until resistances are fixed they'd be far unbalancing. Since a bit of them can cause instant deaths and the like

Basically, if you pull up the help file for a particular spell, and you see an [Evil] after the school of the spell, then it is considered of the Evil subschool. This subschool applies regardless of what class he is, thus, if you are a good aligned wizard, and you cast Animate Dead, for example, yes you will be frowned upon by some (many?) of your fellows for doing so. There is nothing to physically prevent a wizard from it (though, it's considered abusing a code limitation if you do it as a cleric), but you gets your consequences.

Once upon a time (2nd edition D&D and before) spells like Cure Light Wounds were classified in the school of Necromancy. However, after the ascension of Kelemvor to the throne of the dead, things changed in the cosmos, and with it, many of the beneficial spells that were once in the school of Necromancy instead fell under the school of Conjuration. Some of the above help reference may actually be leftover copy from the old school description.

There are good aligned wizards who specialize in necromancy (though they are rare), who deal in repose - the preservation of the dead, preservation of (NOT prolonging of) life, and the destruction of undead. As said previously, they are few and far between, and the only guild currently in place in FK is an evil aligned guild, with tasks that require evil acts to complete.

I would say, if your aim is to become a good-aligned necromancer (and if your particular goal isn't, just for reference of someone who would) would be to send in an application first, and let the imm staff work with you on an alternative route to guilding, and even possibly sponsoring a guild. We had one white necromancer who was supposed to, over a year ago, but she long ago disappeared.

Non-evil necromancers can find a place among my faith as I am known to sponsor their using that knowledge to comabt undead. However, I apply certain conditions to their entry.

In the main, I expect them to refrain from learning or using the obviously necromantic and evil spells available to them - to whit, Animate Dead and Vampiric Touch.

This subschool applies regardless of what class he is, thus, if you are a good aligned wizard, and you cast Animate Dead, for example, yes you will be frowned upon by some (many?) of your fellows for doing so. There is nothing to physically prevent a wizard from it (though, it's considered abusing a code limitation if you do it as a cleric), but you gets your consequences.

You can't animate dead as a cleric? I haven't read anything about that I must admit.


*EDITED TO ADD IN*

In the main, I expect them to refrain from learning or using the obviously necromantic and evil spells available to them - to whit, Animate Dead and Vampiric Touch.

Just to clarify, is that 'necromantic AND evil' or 'necromantic OR evil'? Because from what I know, vampiric touch is not an evil spell although it's a necromancy spell.

The spell Vampiric Touch is not inherently evil as defined by the player handbook, but I choose to deem it such for the purposes of roleplay on FK.

Kelemvor - Alright, thanks for the clarification!

Zynarc wrote:You can't animate dead as a cleric? I haven't read anything about that I must admit.

You cannot animate dead as a *good-aligned* cleric.

Any spell that is listed in its help file with an alignment descriptor (ie, the school is followed by [good],[evil],[lawful] or [chaotic]. Should not be trained, nor cast by a cleric of the opposite alignment. The reason is that your deity would not actually ICly bestow you with a spell of an alignment descriptor opposite your own even though, code-wise, there is nothing to prohibit you from learning or casting it.

In other words, spells like Animate Dead (which has evil as a spell descriptor), Dispel Evil (good aligned), Dispel Evil (evil aligned), protection from law (chaotic aligned) and etc. should not be used by you if your alignment is in conflict with them.