Necromancers in your setting

>>49287448
>How relevant are necromancers in your setting?
pretty rare, while magic is common, it's also fairly weak and mostly either reinforces or shifts forces that already exist.
The only way to do it is with a very precise Godworking

>Do you have house rules for them
technically, it's a heavily modified FATE system.

>On a scale of generic to Solid&Shade, how badass are your necromancers?
no idea as to the reference, but pretty badass in terms of the setting.
The only way to do it is by being able to do an extremely complex Godworking (using the power of one of the three primal forces Creation, Preservation, Destruction to augment your will), and maintaining control of it.
Which is hard because the Primal forces have wills of their own, and the more you pull in more their will takes control.

The undead not the raised, but those prevented from dying or living by overwhelming application of Preservation. Are insane, extremely powerful, and ancient.

>Do they worship a god usually, or are they usually atheists?
they 'worship' particular version of Preservation over the other primal forces to the point it's seen as blasphemy by some, and madness most everyone else.

>>49287448
>Relevance
Not very. They basically stay on an island far off the coast of the mainland to the point where few people even interact with them. They make go to the mainland to trade for supplies sometimes, but no one's really strong enough to risk attacking them, so they just let them do their business so they leave ASAP. Some will try to steal souls to take back to their island, but the island's nature means they don't have to gather souls as often as the rarer mainland necromancers.

>Houserules
None really, aside from needing trapped souls to raise the dead and control spells to bend the soul to your will, unless your on the Dead Islands, where trying to raise the dead just seems to have a soul pop out of thin air to inhabit the corpse, though unless they can control it, it will mindlessly kill living things around it No control spells just means the soul gains control of the corpse, and typically will just run away or try to kill the necromancer

>Badass?
People fear them, so I guess. The island necromancers are led by the only Lich in existence(normally impossible since your soul has to be in your body to move it and cast magic, which is at odds with how Liches work. How this Lich did so is a secret he guards very closely, especially from the other necromancers).

>Gods?
They're atheists, but in the sense that gods existing are an absolute fact, they just choose not to worship them. The gods despise necromancers because they claim ownership of deceased souls, and take that ownership VERY seriously. The Dead Islands special properties keeping the gods or their angels from going there are the only reason it hasn't been nuked off the map yet. Any angels venturing near there seem to get pulled out of existence, in a way that looks like they're getting pulled through a hole the size of an eraser, and about as painful as it sounds, with no trace of them remaining.

>>49287448
>How relevant are necromancers in your setting?
Not terribly. They're just people who practice necromancy.
>Do you have house rules for them
Nope, got stuck with people who only want to play friggen blandest Pathfinder.
>On a scale of generic to Solid&Shade, how badass are your necromancers?
Generic, usually.
>Do they worship a god usually, or are they usually atheists?
We're really vague on religion in my group.

I've started to re-fall in love with "always evil all the time."

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>>49287448

>How relevant are necromancers in your setting?
Not very.
>Do you have house rules for them
No
>On a scale of generic to Solid&Shade, how badass are your necromancers?
They're mostly all liches, so a little badass
>Do they worship a god usually, or are they usually atheists?
They're edgelord atheists

Necromancers in setting are all that's left of the elves. They're a bunch of hermits living on islands near the South Pole who occassionaly raid for fresh corpses. They long since became liches to focus on their research. There is no racial camaraderie as each one is an island in of themselves who vies the others as rivals who only want to steal their secrets.

>>49287448
>How relevant are necromancers in your setting?
it varies, some are evil BBEGS that owuld definately be a concern, others are 2-bit mercenaries, some are mere scholars edicated to learnign the secrets of life and death
>Do you have house rules for them
only when they "order off menu" like wanting a skeleton warhorse
>On a scale of generic to Solid&Shade, how badass are your necromancers?
they run all over, with some being pale weirdos, to other being full on green lightning and fire, surrounded by skeleton horde, laughing maniacally as they try and take over the world or save it
>Do they worship a god usually, or are they usually atheists?
they usually align themselves with a god of death, one of the PCs admits that gods are omnipotent within their domain, and are powerful beyond scope, but does not recognize them as deities

>>49287448
>How relevant are necromancers in your setting?

No more or less so than any other magical school.

>Do you have house rules for them

Sort of.
1) Healing spells are Necromancy, since Necromancy is the magic of life, death, and the dead (or, more broadly, the manipulation of positive and negative energy).
2) Absent any orders to the contrary, animated skeletons and zombies will seek out the nearest living thing they can perceive and attack it, since negative energy is innately Evil (hence why unthinking skeletons and zombie are nevertheless Evil). If you want non-evil, non-killer animated corpses, use Animate Objects instead.
3) However, Necromancy itself is not evil since it involves the manipulation of life/positive energy just as much as negative energy. It does have a bit of a bad reputation, though. For obvious reasons.

>On a scale of generic to Solid&Shade, how badass are your necromancers?

Depends on the Necromancer.

>Do they worship a god usually, or are they usually atheists?

No particular tendency one way or another as compared to any other wizard. Preferred deities include Ankara (LN goddess of death), Cira (CE goddes of pestilence), Kasan (NE god of pain), Nualla (N goddess of magic), and Orthos (NE god of darkness).

>>49287448
What's up with your filename

>How relevant are necromancers in your setting?

Undead have long been used by evil forces, the world has numerous shattered remains of their stromgholds which were destroyed by High elf griffon riders and the knights orders.

Most necromancers are/were notoriously chaotic and few ever work together. A cult of gravediggers and madmen usual congregate around a lone master,though there are rumors of a once noble family that embraced necromancy in the far west.

>Do you have house rules for them

When a mortal is suitably desperate,or maniacal, they are buried alive and empowered by the Demon god of undead to become a necromancer,then they rise from the grave.

>how badass are your necromancers?

They are nominally aligned to demons in the chaotic fashion, and receive instructions(via dreams) from their Demon lord.
Many human necromancers are pathetic and cowardly individuals but the monsterous shamen version are a dangerous foe.

>Do they worship a god
The Demon lord of Undead gives them their powers,worshiping and providing enough sacrifices way allow the necromancer to become a powerful undead (Vampire,Wraith etc) in the event of their eventual demise.

Necromancers are rare, as to be expected, due to cultural norma and the complexity of communing with the dead. But all magic in my setting is communing with something, and functions in one of two ways, convincing something to return to what it once was or normally would be (healing, counter-spells, etc.) or convinging it to become something it is currently not or opposed to being (making water errupt as flames, animating a corpse-puppet, etc.) and not just an effect of incantation or gesture. Magic is often a force of personality and foci and rituals are just ways to make entities more agreeable to your requests.

My system doesn't have rules attached per se. So no house rules.

I haven't any specific necromancers. So none to be judged. But I'm sure it would depend on story need.

Deity worship would be cultural and will vary by the individual. Powers are not granted by deities. But they are often powerful natural forces that can have magic acts "requested" of them.

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>>49287448
>Relevance
Fairly. One of the more influential individuals in the setting is a Necromancer, so they have some clout, but are regarded with apprehension due to classical stigmas.

>House Rules
Not really.

>Badass
Fairly? It really depends on the Necromancer in question. The most influential ones? Badass, though in their own ways. The rank and file? Might make for a decent magic slinging enemy, but they'd get their shit pushed in by a competent party more often than not.

>Worship
There are no real 'Gods' to speak of in the setting. At least not as commonly understood in D&D terms. Closer to Dark Sun where they worship aspects of creation, or concepts of a higher understanding. Think more real life religious equivalents where the doctrine is the most influential portion of it. So in a way, they are a religious order in that the Necromantic craft is sort of its own religious concept, but for god worship, not terribly. At least not one that's actually present and listening.

Though that does give me a twisted idea for a campaign line focused on the Necromancers...

>>49287448
>relevant?
In the setting, only a handful exist. They're not really known of in common households.
To the story? Basically the main focus
>house rules?
They're entirely house ruled. I'm using a basic d6 system so I'm fudging everything as I go.
>badass
Overall, they can be pretty badass, but usually they're just using the bodies for cheap, extra workforce or other pretty bland things.
The ones in the story are just a cult of gross Goblin goons working for a powerful government, trying to resurrect someone who was thought to be a great demon. So not badass.
>faith
All the races tend to have a vaguely superstitious "don't mess with the dead" sort of attitude, whether atheists or not. It's just a part of common culture. But the ones who do raise dead are on both extremes - some do it for hyper religious reasons (these people are /suffering/ in the afterlife! I need to bring them back so they can be at peace!) or literally don't care about any of that (hey, why let these bodies go to waste? Not like they need their bodies any more)

>>49287448
>>How relevant are necromancers in your setting?
Well there once was an empire ruled by Necromancers, a cult of aristocrats overthrew their king and tried to conquer the world. They were eventually killed in various battles and their empire collapsed. The core region is still an uninhabited region filled with undead. Besides that Necromancy is incredibly rare since most political entities have a horrible punishment for necromancy (mutilation and execution, burning at the stake, impalement, interred in a tomb while alive).

>Do you have house rules for them
They have never really come up as individuals although the PCs had to go through the remnants of the necromancer empire in order to retrieve an artifact. Made up rules for the various undead and still existing flesh golems wandering the ruins.

>On a scale of generic to Solid&Shade, how badass are your necromancers?
Almost all necromancers are killed at a (relatively) young age and thus aren't really badass, but older more experienced necromancers can easily collapse entire kingdoms alone (well with their undead and flesh golems).

>Do they worship a god usually, or are they usually atheists?
Varies, some are effectively atheists, some follow the very basic mandates of a religion to avoid suspicion, some worship the ancient leaders of the necromancer empire. The necromancer empire worshiped a monotheistic god of undeath who they believed gifted them with the ability to bring back the dead and believe that when they ruled the entire planet they would collectively ascend to godhood and each receive their own planets to rule as gods.

>>49287448
My necromancers are weird, since they are followers of the god of life, not manipulators of death magic. Its just that the magic is imperfect due to the limited interaction the god can take without upsetting the balance and drawing the attention of his sister, the goddess of death. So most beings are resurrected into their current form, no matter the condition.

There's 2 types of practitioners; the Lich Priests, the original followers, taught directly by the god himself at the beginning of time. Decrepit, ancient tumor-ridden creatures, they work from the shadows, manipulating events for their master. And the Vampires, those taught imperfect magic from the Lich Priests. Enhanced physical power, they must feed on the vitality of the living to fuel their flawed spells and enchantments.

The current majority of Vampire activity is of a small group of escaped goblin slaves, seeking any power they can to fight against their former elven masters and to free their people. Their efforts are fueled by the risen corpses of loved ones and kin.

>>49287448
There's two things denoted by "necromancer" in my setting:

Type 1 is mediums and spirit guides and the like, whose Speak With Dead and Grave Fear and Exorcism and similar abilities technically fall under necromancy. They are generally very reasonable people because they take great pains distinguishing themselves from type 2s, but can theoretically

Type 2, sometimes also called "sarcomancers", are raising the dead, binding ghosts, hordes of zombies, curse of hunger, lichdom, horrible monstrosity sort. They're thoroughly evil, no ifs, ands or buts. There is no channeling the speed force of evil for a greater good here.

No particular house rules for them; I reserve the general right to have any of my NPCs not be built strictly by the PC progression rules. (Still the same interaction mechanics, though.)

Type 1 are frequently outright priests and usually worship a god or head-ancestor-spirit or functional replacement; type 2 are more likely to have just a token affiliation with some evil god whose portfolio involves death, undeath, or both.