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sure, why not, comrade?

Of course, sounds like some good rp opportunities.

Why wouldn't a GM allow it?

Yes, Id allow it.

Sounds like a fun character to run for. I say yea!

I never run good guy campaigns or play in them, so yea.

Definitely. Necromancers don't have to be that evil, and there are certainly more powerful character types out there, so it shouldn't be a balance issue.

Yes. They are just fine as long as everyone is not playing Vagabonds.

Allow it? I've played that character before, though I did have to deal with more then a few 'Semisonic' style mobs that wanted to burn my character when they saw behind the curtain in the cargo container of our Big Boss ATV.


Daniel Stoker

I'd absolutely allow it -- if that's what the player want's, I'd even encourage it! Like everyone's said, that's got loads of RP opportunities.

Id allow it 90% of the time. Remember at 1st level a necromancer dosen't have any real offensive/defensive powers (though that "one magic weapon of choice" in the equipment section can get a bit broken)

On the other hand getting raw materials like corpses, dragon skulls and the like can cause some problems. is he going to rob graves for corpses? is he just going to animate the dead of his foes? what does he do with a half dozen dead bodies when he arrives at the front door of Arzno or whatever? and killing that Diabolic Merc Soldier won't bother his brother the principled Cyber Knight (would have done it myself in your place) but "Big Brother" might be a might ticked at you using his corpse as undead cannon fodder

So if your player is up to the challenge, go for it, but make sure he knows a necromancer is more than a mage with a cool sounding name

Yay for Russian necromancers.

I always wanted to try the fire sorc myself but I ended up being an ectohunter somehow.

Remember though that if your a necromancer in russia, regardless if your good you'll still most likely be hunted by Slayers and mercs hired by Warlords as all of them hate Necromancers and practitioners of dark magic (1 of them, I think Orloff, has a few necro's but he claims there just seer's or some other kind of thing so his people and soldiers don't go bonkers). The warlords have also been known to ally with each other to slay dragons or other magical and supernatural "menaces." So be careful if your a necromancer in Russia...your life is always in danger...which is why most of them try to gain control of small villages and build up an army of undead body guards so they can perform their dark magic without having to worry about people trying to kill them every 5 seconds.

Would you allow a Player to Run a Unprincipled Russian Necromancer who hides his abilities and tries to pass himself as a Vampire/Demon Slayer?

Yes, but he would be limited in the types of spells he'd be able to select and he would have to be careful about using his augmentation or animate abilities. If I was playing a good necromancer I would probably choose one of the varients out of Rifter #8 like the Cursebringer and be a travelling healer since you get access to Spoiling and Curse magic, your role in a party would be a de-buffer when in combat so you could still take the "evil" spells plus you'd have a variation of Bio-Manipulation you could use for extreme situations.

If you just want to be a normal Russian Necro you could always pose as a priest who hunts demons/vampires...have your character say some sort of prayer before each fight and when he's casting since all spells require some sort of verbal and physical action (occasionally regants, which you could say if their bones that they belong to some long dead saint of so and so who did such and such.).

Id allow it 90% of the time. Remember at 1st level a necromancer dosen't have any real offensive/defensive powers (though that "one magic weapon of choice" in the equipment section can get a bit broken)

On the other hand getting raw materials like corpses, dragon skulls and the like can cause some problems. is he going to rob graves for corpses? is he just going to animate the dead of his foes? what does he do with a half dozen dead bodies when he arrives at the front door of Arzno or whatever? and killing that Diabolic Merc Soldier won't bother his brother the principled Cyber Knight (would have done it myself in your place) but "Big Brother" might be a might ticked at you using his corpse as undead cannon fodder

So if your player is up to the challenge, go for it, but make sure he knows a necromancer is more than a mage with a cool sounding name

If he was going to use his animate abilities then he could always have a few bodies out fitted with some midevil armor after he does accellerated decay on them to make sure when he animates them that their not rotting chunks of walking flesh. "Oh great spirits of light! Please send aid to your humble servant and smite those before him that are tainted by the darkness!" Bam, throw out a bag of bones and instant reinforcements...when people ask where you got the bodies just say that your "order" only allows the most skilled to carry a body or bodies of long dead saints in order to assist in the cleansing of evil.

Since this thread is still moving, here is my idea for an Unprincipled or Maybe Anarchist Necro.

Think about a Doctor (body fixer) who finds out that he can readily and easily learn and control Magic. He thought that he was just an ordinary doctor. After an encounter with a Magic User (say LLW, or Mystic), he finds our that he himself can learn magic with extreme ease. But due to his Body Fixer background (say Necro OCC but has M.D. Skill), finds that his control over normal magic isn't so great (like all Necro's, they are limited) but his control over magic related to Death, is super high. The character would be a little older in starting age, say 25-30, and is just discovering his abilities.


Here's a question: Could an Atlantean be a Necromancer? And would the ability to "attach dead stuff" to themselves work? Hmmmm.

Think about a Doctor (body fixer) who finds out that he can readily and easily learn and control Magic. He thought that he was just an ordinary doctor

Necromancers are unfortunately unable to learn all but the most basic of the medical skills (first aid and maybe paramedic...but I think thats a no no as well). Though its really a GM call if your going to push the issue but still all the variants for Necromancer are unable to learn anything other than first aid and paramedic. I personally wouldn't allow it but thats just me.

Here's a question: Could an Atlantean be a Necromancer? And would the ability to "attach dead stuff" to themselves work? Hmmmm.

Yes he can be a necromancer.
Yes he can use augmentation abilities.

I'd allow the attaching, but he couldn't turn himself into a vampire either

They wouldn't be able to be bitten and transformed into a vampire because of the necromancers natural immunity to vampires, though if he used the Ritual spell that allows you to turn into a master vampire after you die (as long as you meet the requirements) then yes that is 100% possible.

The reason for this is because your dead, a rotting corpse and not a living being, basically your given a second chance or extra life provided you sucessfully completed the ritual and have met the requirements up till the day you died. Another reason, or well my reasoning anyways is, that say a dragon dies...the dragon is a magical creature, so when its slain or passes away from old age or what have you, my thinking says that the magic which gave the dragon its special qualities basically evaporates and is recycled into the planet in much the same way as the body will decay and eventually return to the earth (that or the magic is absorbed back into the environment). So the magic that once granted this mighty beast its incredible powers vanishes and causes the body to revert to "normal" making it just like every other corpse, in the case of body parts or fragments being used as components in spells, like the augmentation ability is explained by the caster having to spend his own personal PPE to make the body part once again magical for the duration of the spell.

So an atlantean who is killed basically dies like any normal creature and leaves a rotting corpse behind, in addition the spell takes a full 24 hrs for you to turn into the master vampire, so its not...bam! dead...then Bam! alive the next second. The fact that the spell is also a ritual that is above 10th level will also have to account for the fact that its fairly power and also requires that you expend permanent PPE and HP to make the spell work.

sawg138 wrote:

Ahulane wrote:

Think about a Doctor (body fixer) who finds out that he can readily and easily learn and control Magic. He thought that he was just an ordinary doctor

Necromancers are unfortunately unable to learn all but the most basic of the medical skills (first aid and maybe paramedic...but I think thats a no no as well). Though its really a GM call if your going to push the issue but still all the variants for Necromancer are unable to learn anything other than first aid and paramedic. I personally wouldn't allow it but thats just me.

I rather like that angle and would allow it. Hang the rules.

If you want to "legally" get around the issue, you could always use the optional mutation/quirks table from Lone Star and "roll" the ability that gives you access to every skill

There is a way around everything...

But really, if you have a good character concept, don't let it go to waste. That's just silly.