I would like a few necromancy spells, and maybe a way to become "friendly" with Necromancers.. but Necromancy is too obscure, I think there'd either be too much or too little depth in the guild.

Maybe the option to do a few quests for a Necromancer and gain benefits from it, such as resurrection spells or the ability to temporarily summon undead from the ground. (doing so around guards or people should count it as a crime, though)



Thus why these polls are utterly pointless. Who would say no? I only voted no out of principle, I'd rather have some better guilds before they focus on making a necromancer questline. I definitely like a few Necromancer quests, but these are an obscure bunch of people, I don't think ranks and advancement would be fitting... just a few "clans" of necromancers who would offer you a few quests if you get on good terms with them.

What svcks is that I've already outlined why I dislike (hell, I HATE IT) the idea of a necromancy guild. Too bad hardly anyone has been reading them. Not to mention that necromancers are, by in large, lone practitioners if they're not already in another magical organization, like the Mages Guild (pre-Traven) and the Telvanni for example.

Sorry that I like options in my RPG? Even if it doesn't make sense, it's a video game Everyone has opinions.

And where exactly does my idea limit options? If there's one thing I go for, it's a gray area. That has more options than "Grr me evul" and "We're saints, and give money to orphans."

Not to mention there are likely two magical organizations at this point already, the College of Whispers and the Synod.

Play Morrowind sometime, the guilds were neither good nor evil, though there were degrees of being amoral and corrupt, with factions allying and hating each other. Had much more options, and dynamic than these 1v1 stuff we got from OB.

I'd love to see some more dark factions in the game. Better yet, I'd love to see a "dark" and "light" path for each one of the factions.

Ive always played as a necromancer character, so it would be nice if beth actually catered to this.

A thousand times, Yes!

However, its very likely that the Mages Guild and Necromancers both have been succeeded by the Synod and the College of Whispers...

I'm very much hoping that they have one support Necromancy more than the other, and implement it that way. There should be a few die hard necromancers in that faction that you can learn spells from, get training in conjuration from, and some cool necro quests from. One, at the most two, should be borderline evil, but the rest should be chaotic neutral.

Now, for the Necromancy spells themselves. I believe most if not all of these should be a subsect of conjuration - which needed more spells anyway.

Now, I'm sure most if not all of us would find it insanely fun to raise undead armies, but if implemented it has to be done right:
-Some spells should raise permanent thralls. Having minions with a limited time span gets old, its more rewarding to have one you don't have to constantly resummon or reanimate. That being said, permanent minions should require a reagent to create - a black soul gem, perhaps. The quality of the black soul gem could affect the power of the newly created thrall. Secondly, on death permanent minions should be dead for good - permadeath. Lastly, summonable minions should be tougher than most permanent minions, since we're likely to amass quite a lot of them.

-Plague spell. It would be awesome to be able to infect an enemy with unholy plague, that does damage over time. If the enemy dies with the debuff still on, it reanimates.

I definitely want to use necromancy, but more than just capturing souls. I want to actually bring back the dead to fight for me. Imagine, killing a character, then having that character kill his companions.


Some abilities that would be neat to see

Summon Spirit - summons spirit to fight for you
Summon Skeletons - summon skeletons to fight for you
control undead - Makes undead creatures fight for you
feed the dead - leech life from target
reanimation - brings back a recent corpse for a short amount of time to do your bidding, if your character is low necromancer level then the reanimated figure has penalties on his skills, if your character is a high level necromancer, then there is no penalties and the reanimated corpse has all his skills and abilities.
infuse the dead - if your character is a higher level than the reanimated, you can increase the reanimated corpse level to the median difference between your character and the reanimated character.
Unchain The Spirit - Allows you to leave your body(your body goes into a lotus position and is defenseless, any attack to the body will end the spell and bring the spirit back to his/her body) and astrally project as a spirit that only undead/spirits/mages can see. Allows you to explore an area for a short time (based on necromancer level) unseen and immaterial.
Possess the dead - Would be used in conjunction with unchain the spirit, allows you to posses any undead body(including recent dead/skeletons/and possibly vampires) and control it as your own. You would have all physical skills/abilities of the body along with all magical abilities if its a mage. If this is a master level, then you can add your own magic/mental abilities along with the possessed bodies abilities. The same rule about if your real body gets attacked you will be forced out and back into your real body, also this applies if the possessed body gets destroyed.
Possess the living - this is a master level and works exactly the same as possess dead except the host is alive. When the body is abandoned, the npc would have no memory of what happened.
Death is not the end - this is a master passive ability, if you die in your real body, you are ejected from your body astrally, you have a chance to posses a HUMAN living target if one is available and nearby. If you are successful, that body becomes yours and you only have access to that bodies skills and abilities. The moment you rest or fast travel, the body transforms into your original body and you lose all skills/abilities that body had.

A few notes:
- you cannot possess or reanimate a character that is 2 levels above you
- you can possess animals, but you can't use your magical abilities
-Possess the dead/living has no time limit, but would have a distance limit from the body(based on level), go to far and you will get yanked back.
-Infuse the dead would work while using possess the dead and possess the living, however if used while possessing a living host, the host instantly dies and is turned into a reanimate


This is just something that has been running through my head ever since oblivion, I would love to see something like this added.

Ah, but it would present such juicy quest possibilities!

Not necessarily.

I'd much rather have a game that's designed as a cohesive whole, that they didn't run out of budget/resources/whatever, because they kept throwing in whatever niche "content" that various vocal factions on the forums have an odd attraction to.


"More Content" does not always = "Better Game"

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Meanwhile, on the specific topic, I wouldn't really get anything out of "necromancy" stuff. Mostly because it would probably, as in OB, be a generic "puppy kicker" group, and I've never really been very good at doing "evil" paths in games. (Only times Lucian's shown up, I've killed him. Never blew up Megaton; tried to make peace between Roy Phillips & Tenpenny - and that went so badly, I now kill Roy the instant I see him; failed to start an "evil" playthrough in FO:NV because I just couldn't side with the Powder Gangers over Goodsprings; etc, etc, etc)

How about "Yes, so my more goodly mage can fight it?"

on a scale from 1-10 I would rate my dissapointment level at 4 if the Necromancer's guild isn't a joinable faction

and 4 is pretty high for something like this IMO. It's just i really think this should be in

True, but sticking with the status quo is not a good idea either. While the setting is different, it HAS to introduce some new elements/schools/factions/whatnots or it will just feel stale and just a rehash of the previous game. Also, this is something that gets asked for a lot, they have nothing to lose and a lot to gain by doing it.

Well, it sounds like you're a bit biased against dark factions. Nothing wrong with that, but just bear in mind that the Dark Brotherhood was easily the most liked faction in oblivion - there's a great deal of us that like that sort of faction.


In any case, I really doubt there'll be a completely separate Necromancer's guild anyway - I think it far more likely to be incorperated into one or both of the two magic guilds, The Synod and The College of Whispers.

Rather than a separate guild, what about an optional association/group you can align to in an existing guild? Perhaps it can open up additional quest lines or just the necromancy capabilities? I like the idea of choices with consequences though; what if you choose to align yourself with those who support the use of necromancy or against them? It doesn't prevent you from rising in the guild hierachy, is optional, but adds more depth to the RP.

A seperate guild? I′m with Hellmouth on this one. Make necromancy a legitimate practice, with maybe some holy-goody-two-shoes opposing it. Just maybe... And the part about being evil? A skill is not something evil, it′s how you use it that makes it evil or not. Swinging a sword might make you evil, if you swing it against innocent villagers...

Also, I would like if we could be rewarded to become a lich as part of Necromancer's Guild just like we could be rewarded to become a vampire in Dark Brotherhood.