Necromancy as a skill

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 9:58 am

How could necromancy fit in as a skill in skyrim.
User avatar
Natalie Taylor
 
Posts: 3301
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:54 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 7:54 am

Necromancy is as useful a skill as Partying would be. Necromancy is just raising the Dead, so basically illegal Conjuration.
User avatar
David Chambers
 
Posts: 3333
Joined: Fri May 18, 2007 4:30 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:28 am

How could necromancy fit in as a skill in skyrim.


The same way it always has- a small subset of Conjuration.
User avatar
noa zarfati
 
Posts: 3410
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:54 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 10:04 am

Necromancy is as useful a skill as Partying would be. Necromancy is just raising the Dead, so basically illegal Conjuration.


Necromancy isn't illegal. I would love to have Necromancy as a skill :)
User avatar
Alycia Leann grace
 
Posts: 3539
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:07 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:45 am

The same way it always has- a small subset of Conjuration.
There should be no summoning involved in Necromancy, or anything daedric related.
User avatar
Kat Lehmann
 
Posts: 3409
Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:24 am

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:54 pm

It should be more than a subset of conjoration they could add somthing what could they add?
User avatar
Kate Murrell
 
Posts: 3537
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:02 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:37 am

I think it would be cool to use actual necromancy as a skill. Say you kill a bandit, then cast a spell that brings him back to life for a certain amount of time. Or you can cast a spell that makes them a temporary follower, but when they die again you cant bring them back to life. Conjuration is pretty close to necromancy, you can summon skeletons and zombies which are technically dead people.
User avatar
Jaki Birch
 
Posts: 3379
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:16 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:16 am

The problem is necromancy isnt bound to one type of magic as it involves conjurattion, and maybe restoration (maybe by using dead corpses mana? :shrug: ) or many other things like that. Pretty much what I think is that there should me necromantic skills as parts of the types of magic.
User avatar
Red Sauce
 
Posts: 3431
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:35 pm

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 9:15 pm

How could necromancy fit in as a skill in skyrim.

I don't know about a skill but it could be a faction in the game that you could join as opposed to joining the mage's guild and have them fight each other.
User avatar
Aliish Sheldonn
 
Posts: 3487
Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:19 am

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:58 pm

No point really >_>, it's useless as a full skill.
User avatar
Stacy Hope
 
Posts: 3391
Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:23 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 1:49 am

There should be no summoning involved in Necromancy, or anything daedric related.


^

You should only be able to summon ghosts, wraiths, ect. Non-corporeal beings. You should have to use dead bodies to actually make skeletons, zombies and the corporeal undead. Thats how I would think Necromancy should differ from Conjuration if they added a Necro. skill.
User avatar
Nick Swan
 
Posts: 3511
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:34 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 3:52 am

if necromancy does become a skill it should cause some people to become hostile when you use it
User avatar
Alan Cutler
 
Posts: 3163
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 9:59 am

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 11:29 pm

I believe it would fit better as a Faction, some kind of Necromancer Guild, with its own specific spells integrated into the other schools of magic :)
User avatar
Miranda Taylor
 
Posts: 3406
Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:39 pm

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:26 pm

Why? It's legal. There disposition should lower a bit, but I wouldn't exactly want to start a fight with a guy who is making some bandit's corpse dance around for us to laugh at.
User avatar
Bones47
 
Posts: 3399
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:15 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:45 am

The problem is necromancy isnt bound to one type of magic as it involves conjurattion, and maybe restoration (maybe by using dead corpses mana? :shrug: ) or many other things like that. Pretty much what I think is that there should me necromantic skills as parts of the types of magic.


that makes sense like necromancy spells in each disicpline like a destrution spell that has a blood cost when you use it
User avatar
Heather M
 
Posts: 3487
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:40 am

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 8:51 pm

It could prove extremely useful and fun if it were expanded upon enough, but I'm not counting on it at all. It's one of those thing where if I really want it, I can mod it. To an extent at least.
User avatar
D IV
 
Posts: 3406
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2006 1:32 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 7:27 am

Why? It's legal. There disposition should lower a bit, but I wouldn't exactly want to start a fight with a guy who is making some bandit's corpse dance around for us to laugh at.


yeah i forgot it was legal in oblivion the mages guild made it seem illegal but now i remember its not
User avatar
Jade Barnes-Mackey
 
Posts: 3418
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:29 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:58 am

If they where to make it a separate skill alongside illusion, destruction, alteration, etc there are tons of spells it could have.

-raising an undead minion. Different from conjuration but more powerful because it requires a corpse.
-sacrifice minion(s) for magicka or hp.
-potent life leaching spell line.
-ability to use health as magicka
-spell that reduces healing on enemies.
-bone spell line. becomes bone armor if you enchant on self, or damage bone projectiles if ranged.
User avatar
Matt Fletcher
 
Posts: 3355
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:48 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 9:25 am

Neck-romance should have a few spells like in OB, but for the mosst part it shouldn't be made into a skill. The neck-romance guild sounds good though.
User avatar
Darrell Fawcett
 
Posts: 3336
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 12:16 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 3:55 am

The general consensus is that there should be a guild i agree but i still think there should be spells what good is a necromancy guild when you cant preform necromancy
User avatar
anna ley
 
Posts: 3382
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:04 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:29 am

I've got things to do at the moment, so for now I'll just walk in, post my segment on what I'd give a Necromancy spell school, and walk out.

Necromancy
Spoiler
*Necromancy: Revivification
-Revive: The signature skill of necromancy, pulling a spirit from the outer realms and forcibly placing it into a waiting corpse to act as its body. Though it resembles summoning, the skills involved are completely different, and talent at one does nothing to improve the other. Daedra cannot die, while spirits are the remains of a thing that is dead, and the two are almost polar opposites when it comes to magically manipulating their essence. As many ghosts have only partial consciousness and in general much weaker willpower than daedra, it is not necessary to further complicate the effort with binding Command magics; the caster’s will alone is enough. As well, since the caster isn’t temporarily forcing openings in powerful borders that separate Oblivion from the Mundus, spirits may be held for much longer periods. The caster’s Revivification skill dictates the difficulty level of animating a corpse. Novice necromancers are initially only able to animate fresh, intact bodies. As skill increases, in a method resembling how trapped souls are used to fuel the magic in items, the necromancer is able to manipulate the spirit to simulate missing ligaments and tissues, animating skeletons and incomplete bodies The pinnacle of reviving magic is the ability to animate monstrosities cobbled together from separate species. Servants created through reviving can last indefinitely without becoming “unsummoned,” with the failure rate of additional servants climbing the more that the necromancer has, including spirits. The normal method of reviving involves a ritual including the creation and/or preparation of the body. However, in tight situations, the necromancer may directly cast the spell on the bodies of the recently fallen to immediately reinforce their position. Though fast, this method creates a servant that is weaker, short-lived, and applied with a much lower skill level; it takes a more powerful necromancer just to instantly animate even fresh, intact corpses. As well, this damages the body against future use. Almost any previously-living thing that leaves a corpse can be revived or contribute parts to the process.
-Bind Spirit: Pulls a ghost into the world and chains it to the necromancer’s will as with Revive, but leaves it in its incorporeal state instead of sealing it within a corpse. Spirits are far less dangerous than daedra, but easier to maintain. Failure rates climb the more spirits that are summoned at once, and revived undead are included in this equation. Spirits can be given commands as through the necromancer’s Instruction skill. With targeted spells the caster can attempt to take control over free-roaming ghosts, allowing the same commands as with summoned spirits.
-Outer Inquiry: Sends a portion of the necromancer’s consciousness into the outer realms, directly communicating with more intelligent spirits instead of controlling them. Such conversations are more difficult to maintain than normal speech, are further limited by the magical rules of spell failure and magicka drain, and may be confusingly vague or bizarre. However, they can also be a source of rare or unusual information not normally gleaned from the living world. If specific information is needed, the necromancer may select a name to attempt to reach a certain person’s spirit. With a soul gem, the necromancer can attempt to trap the called spirit, and use it to revive the individual’s preserved and restored body, potentially returning them to true life, one of the most difficult and impressive powers of necromancy. Requires a ritual to be cast.
-Necrotic Virus: Raises a virus, one of the simplest types of life, into an undead form. Being dead, the virus cannot multiply and is no longer contagious. However, the body’s natural defenses can no longer destroy it, considerably increasing both its severity and the difficulty of removing it. Rebuke Spirit spells may slow its advancement or remove weaker viruses, but more potent infections may require special treatment, such as medicines containing shavings of enchanted silver. Viruses are maintained within a sample of dead flesh possessed by the necromancer, and the easiest way to spread them is by using the sample as the reagent for a Poison spell.
-Necrotic Organ: The necromancer attempts to raise parts of themselves as undead, allowing them to continue functioning. Though painful, dangerous, and difficult, it allows the caster to openly defy death. The spell has two functions; to negate an injury, and to protect an organ. The former requires that the caster be injured in some way, such as with a broken bone or damaged eye. Upon choosing the target and casting the spell the injury vanishes and that body part is considered undead, and is more difficult to injure a second time. A re-injured organ can be revived again, but this stacks, and is more difficult each time. Protecting the body requires that the spell be cast before combat, and will automatically revive an organ if it is struck. The more times a part is revived, the more it is considered undead. When undead organs are struck the character takes less damage depending on how advanced the state is, to the point that certain locations essentially cause no damage. However, the necromancer must maintain their own life, and the living portions of their body become ever more valuable. Vital areas take more damage the less of them there are, and fatigue/magicka regeneration slowly decrease. Undead organs will not naturally heal, and must be repaired with restoration magic, potions, or other supernatural means to be returned to life. The most powerful and dangerous use of the spell is to protect the heart beforehand; upon death the caster will collapse briefly and enemies will turn away, before the heart is revived and the caster stands with a small amount of health restored. However, this effect is temporary (duration depending on skill level), and if the heart isn't restored to life before then the necromancer will completely die. The Necrotic Organ effect has no use for entirely undead targets (including if the necromancer becomes a lich).
-Cannibalize Dead: Allows the caster to utilize dead flesh to heal wounds. Unlike the Necrotic Organ effect, it does not create undeath or alter living tissue, but instead uses dead tissue to replace destroyed flesh and then uses necromancy to blur the lines between living and dead, letting the replacements heal and become "normal" tissue. The spell must either target a corpse as the source or the caster must have flesh in their inventory. Though it restores health less effectively than restoration spells, and is not instant (the health regenerates more slowly), it allows healing within the necromancer's chosen field. Because it transmits solid matter, higher ranges increase spell difficulty dramatically, working best with On Touch. The spell loses efficiency the further the race of the target corpse is from the caster, with other humanoids being second best, followed by animals, then exotic monsters, and so on. Casts consume flesh according to magnitude, and smaller corpses can be quickly stripped. When health is otherwise full the spell can restore undead organs, but requires large amounts of "meat" as entire parts are being replaced, and healing is another degree slower. With material in inventory the necromancer can cast the spell on target; this is most effective for undead servants, who don't need the tissue to heal, and as such are recovered by it just as effectively as one casting restoration on themselves. Undead servants can be created capable of this effect, and will literally consume the dead to heal themselves.
-Forbidding: Prevents spirits that leave a body from pursuing their normal afterlife, effectively causing ghosts to spawn from the newly dead. Once the duration runs out there is a chance that lingering ghosts will disperse, depending on the skill of the caster (higher skill makes them more likely to remain in the physical world). Can be cast on a target or in an area, effecting any who die within its radius. Spirits created in this way don't have any specific allegiance, and may wander away, attack anything nearby, attempt to resume what they were doing in life, attack the one who killed them, and so on. Very powerful necromancers can combine a Forbidding effect with Bind Spirit, potentially creating a small army.
-Animate Item: A very simple form of undeath is induced into equipment made from organic components, such as bone, leather, or carapace. This allows them to “heal” from damage, essentially repairing material types that are often the most difficult to fully restore with normal means. Likewise, a negative version can be cast on enemies wearing items of the same material, degrading their equipment.

*Necromancy: Instruction
-Does not have normal spell effects. Rather, this skill governs the complexity of the orders a necromancer may give their servants. Both undead and spirits may be given orders, but only those created by the caster, as even those not hostile to the player are controlled by another necromancer. For the most part, the order system works the same as with leadership skills and the Request dialogue function, but falls under a different skill as it represents direct mental commands and not spoken orders. All servants can be called to defend the caster at any skill level, and when given this order supercedes all other instructions. Sets of orders may be copied if the caster wishes all of their servants to behave the same way, and may also be written into spellbooks as part of a ritual, to create undead with specific behaviors already built in. "Instruction" itself is cast as a low-cost spell, which brings up a command menu and existing servants, and may be used at any time.
-Hematic Script: The necromancer is capable of using blood to invoke necromantic power through writing. Essentially, by enscribing runes in blood they can enchant scrolls and books without using the Enchantment skill or a soul gem. Instruction skill determines the magnitude of power that the writing can hold. However, because dead blood is being used to power necromantic magic, non-Necromancy skill effects are more difficult to use in this way. Hematic Script is a highly personalized type of magic, and anyone other than the writer or their servants trying to use such an item has a higher difficulty penalty. As well, using such items at all requires comparable skill in Instruction, with higher rates of disastrous failure for those not meeting the requirements. If someone not a necromancer finds and attempts to use a necromantic spellbook written in Hematic Script, they are likely to kill themselves. More exotic or inherently magical types of blood can boost effects, or be used for highly specialized spells; for example, a scroll to animate someone's corpse written in their blood. If the necromancer chooses to grant this ability to an undead servant, they become capable of activating their creator's Hematic Script even if they can't read anything else. Depending on the power of the blood and the necromancer, Hematic Script will have a base level of magical power. If the inscribed effects stay below this level, it can be used repeatedly. Otherwise, the power will burn out on use. For example, a rune in blood might be enchanted with the Lockswitch spell, and used to open and close a hidden door at will.

*Necromancy: Design
-This skill, along with other effects, governs the necromancer’s ability to build and maintain corpses, including stitching, preservation, reinforcing, mummification, and so on. Improved skill increases the stats of servants in many ways, and raises the necromancer’s talent at reconnecting parts. Failure to properly maintain or attach pieces of corpses can drastically weaken the servant, prevent the spell from succeeding at all, or damage the corpse. While experienced necromancers favor composite undead to create more powerful servants, when preserving the original form of a corpse higher design skill can allow it to retain some of the skills it had in life. Bound spirits do not benefit from the Design skill.
-Poison: Rapidly speeds up the decomposition process, turning flesh into a toxic, putrefied mess. This can be directed toward enemies in two forms; gas or liquid. The ease of spreading it makes gas the preferred form of magical poison, and though not as instantly dangerous as other forms of poison it can lead to suffocation and disease over time, as well as crippling those caught within the cloud, sometimes simply from sheer revulsion. Liquid poison is much more dangerous, but harder to apply, often requiring that the target already be wounded, so that the substance has an entry point. Magical creation of poison requires an organic reagent, typically flesh of some kind, with its potency varying by skill and choice of reagent. Either form can be placed into a sealed container for later use, but may lose effect over time.
-Bone Shape: Utilizes the necromancer's skill in physical corpse maintenance and combines it with the same magical connections that replace tendons and muscle to create equipment. The spell can only be cast on self, upon which it opens a page listing bones in inventory and items that can be made from them. Quality depends on skill level and bone type (ogre bones are stronger than human, etc). Though items are of lesser quality and variety than normally crafted equipment, they can be made relatively quickly and easily at any time. At higher skill levels undead servants can be made to use the spell; a powerful servant can kill an enemy, eat its flesh to heal itself, then use the bones to improve its equipment.
-Reawaken: Attempts to modify dead flesh so that magicka once again naturally flows through it. Failure can damage and weaken the target material. This effect must be incorporated into overall revival of high-grade undead in order for them to be capable of using magic. A Reawakened corpse that has not been revived essentially becomes a necromantic power source in a certain radius around it, such as a focus or soul gem. However, the effect is very inefficient by comparison, and the amounts of dead flesh the average necromancer may carry with them cannot provide a substantial bonus, often requiring entire bodies. These corpses are frequently positioned around the necromancer's primary place of work, improving their abilities. When invoked through the Hematic Script ability, Reawaken can draw additional power from the blood writing, trading some of the overall potency of the script in exchange for the ability to better use non-necromantic spell effects.

User avatar
Kelly Upshall
 
Posts: 3475
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:26 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:13 am

^

You should only be able to summon ghosts, wraiths, ect. Non-corporeal beings. You should have to use dead bodies to actually make skeletons, zombies and the corporeal undead. Thats how I would think Necromancy should differ from Conjuration if they added a Necro. skill.


Precisely, and than when you raise the dead, they should be permanently raised until their death.
User avatar
Devin Sluis
 
Posts: 3389
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:22 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:09 am

It would be nice to see, the Damage, Drain and Absorb Health, Fatigue, Magicka and Attribute/Skill spells should be Necromantic (going with a d20 outlook anyway), as would the raising of the dead. Status afflictions (if included), such as Blind would also be Necromantic.

Lots of possibilities there for interesting attack and defense spells, I doubt Bethesda is going to overhaul the magic system too much though.
User avatar
P PoLlo
 
Posts: 3408
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:05 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:22 am

It's already been said - but yeah, necromancy is already included in a combination of the different magic skills. There could be more spell effects related to necromancy, but I don't think it warrants it's own skill.

I see a necromancer as a type of mage, not necessarily a school of magic (in regards to TES.)

For example, a battlemage is a type of mage, and would use spells from several different schools - I feel the same would hold true for necromancers.
User avatar
Phillip Hamilton
 
Posts: 3457
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:07 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 7:15 am

It's already been said - but yeah, necromancy is already included in a combination of the different magic skills. There could be more spell effects related to necromancy, but I don't think it warrants it's own skill.

I see a necromancer as a type of mage, not necessarily a school of magic (in regards to TES.)

For example, a battlemage is a type of mage, and would use spells from several different schools - I feel the same would hold true for necromancers.

i think it's doable if they add very specific spells like raising corpses or sacrificing your blood as magicka. i'm not sure that would fit in any of the current schools.
User avatar
naomi
 
Posts: 3400
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:58 pm

Next

Return to V - Skyrim