Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)
So: having played a few (Human) Necromancers, I find myself with some
questions as to their care and feeding. Specifically, I wasn't ever
sure to what extent Necromancy is supposed to stand on its own as a
spell realm. Anyhow, I figured I could subject y'all to a braindump of
my notes on those spells that I used (or thought about using) and swap
insights. Or at least steal your insights; I'm not sure I have any
worth taking
(there may be some spoilers here, though I haven't done the research as
to exact spell damages or whatnot)
[Book of Necromancy]
Pain - Pretty much has to be an early game staple. Does decently well
in this regard, since nothing much early has magic resistance to speak
of, or is undead (except for player ghosts). I was still using it well
into the middlegame, and was trying to into the late, but the damage
didn't seem to quite stack up near the end of the Vaults (my best necro,
for reference, got to Vaults:7, decided to try the Elven Halls, and
died on Elf:7). Of course, I never found a staff of necromancy, so...
Animate Skeleton - I memorized this once. I regretted the spell level
with that character, and never bothered again. Perhaps I just lack the
patience.
Vampiric Draining - This allows for some combat training, and means it's
not *necessarily* instant death when you suddenly find yourself next to
an ogre. I gather that humans have more HP than many of the races who
might more normally be found playing Necros, though.
Regeneration - I found this to be quite useful, for what I assume are
obvious reasons.
Dispel Undead - I didn't even hesitate before clearing the Crypt from
top to bottom. Even without an enhancer staff, things like curse skulls
and Boris only took two shots (with Necromancy in the 20s, granted).
Boris was hands-down the easiest 7k XP I've gained in a long time; a
shame I only ran into him once. This also wipes the floor with player
ghosts, needless to say.
Animate Dead - By contrast with Animate Skeleton, I did get quite a bit
of mileage out of this, between centaurs, grey snakes, and just lots of
orcs in the Mines (though they seem to like to wander into axe traps).
[Book of Death]
Corpse Rot - I never used this, as it didn't sound like it would
necessarily be all that effective and I feared that I'd want the corpses
for other stuff.
Bone Shards - I assume that this is supposed to be how necros deal with
Imps and other not-living, not-undead monsters early, but I was never
impressed by the damage. It didn't help that I couldn't really be
bothered to carry around skeletons to feed it with, so it didn't see
much use.
Lethal Infusion - I would've tried this if I hadn't already had a
quarterstaff of protection.
Agony - I kept thinking about learning this and then thinking better of
it. I wasn't sure if it's resistable or not (from the sounds of it, it
is), but while I don't know that this isn't the way spells are supposed
to be (as opposed to Brent's view of what conjurations have become),
level 5 seems a little steep. But my experience with other spellcasters
is pretty limited, thus far, so I don't remember what else I could use
those five levels on.
Bolt of Draining - Despite being half conjurations (and my knowing none
at the time of learning), I found this to be very useful. I had been
hoping to learn this for the climactic battle at the end of the Snake
Pit, but it was not to be; instead I gained the requisite spell levels
most of the way through said battle. It's a bit expensive for killing,
e.g., a single Yak, but the damage is more than acceptable. IMO.
[Book of Unlife]
Sublimation of Blood - I found this to be a staple, both for filling
myself up from chunks after a battle, and even for filling SP from HP
in crunchy situations. Regeneration helps to offset the HP loss,
though sometimes the HP loss is surprisingly large...
Twisted Resurrection - I didn't learn this for quite a while, fearing
that I was going to have to work to piece together things that weren't
going to be much more effective than zombies. When I finally did learn
it about midway through the Vaults, I changed my mind. Large
abominations, particularly in groups, wipe the floor with just about
everything in the Vaults, with a little fire support. I didn't do the
acid test of Vaults:8, but I was quite impressed by these guys. At
least with the kinds of enemies you get in the Vaults, you only have to
pile two corpses together to get a large abom (though I did have more
trouble amassing a group in the elven halls). I couldn't tell whether
or not these guys regenerate. If not, it seems poor that they run away
at low HP. The one downside is that as I recall you don't get piety
for things they kill... or am I confusing them with Reapers?
Borgnjor's Revivification - I didn't learn this, because I couldn't
envision a time when I'd actually want to use it. Unless the HP damage
can be cured with !oH or something, this seems like a poor use of spell
slots.
Simulacrum - I don't know how long these guys would last. The spell
intrigues me, and I'll be interested to give it a try at some point,
but I never quite had enough spell levels to do so this game. Anybody
else used this?
[Necronomicon]
Symbol of Torment - I assume that one is supposed to use this with
regeneration active and/or a moderate-sized army of undead meat shields
in order to keep the enemies off of your half-HP self. Somehow that
never struck me as practical.
Control Undead - This seemingly overlaps with the Kikubaaqudgha ability
that I also never used... I preferred to dispel everything that might
have been useful as a pet (it is my understanding that monsters get to
resist, so it's not obvious what I'd try to control, anyhow).
Summon Wraiths - The wraiths don't stick around forever after being
summoned, but otherwise seem pretty cool (no pun intended, even in the
case of Freezing Wraiths). My Summoning was never top-drawer, though
I had practiced a bit prior to learning this.
Death's Door - Didn't quite get enough levels to learn this. I'm not
sure how practical it is.
Necromutation - Nor this. I've heard good things about it, though.
Death Channel - I'm not quite clear on what this does, but it sounded
like it would be worth trying.
At least for human necros, I found that trying to go at least
partially death-knight with them was viable from about level 4 or 5...
mostly the point at which I got Vampiric Draining and some HPs to use
it with. I didn't try any as pure casters, partly because Vampiric
Draining is useless at range, and partly because I didn't find a good
complementary book early enough with any of the ones I tried.
-Andrew ()
So: having played a few (Human) Necromancers, I find myself with some
questions as to their care and feeding. Specifically, I wasn't ever
sure to what extent Necromancy is supposed to stand on its own as a
spell realm. Anyhow, I figured I could subject y'all to a braindump of
my notes on those spells that I used (or thought about using) and swap
insights. Or at least steal your insights; I'm not sure I have any
worth taking
(there may be some spoilers here, though I haven't done the research as
to exact spell damages or whatnot)
[Book of Necromancy]
Pain - Pretty much has to be an early game staple. Does decently well
in this regard, since nothing much early has magic resistance to speak
of, or is undead (except for player ghosts). I was still using it well
into the middlegame, and was trying to into the late, but the damage
didn't seem to quite stack up near the end of the Vaults (my best necro,
for reference, got to Vaults:7, decided to try the Elven Halls, and
died on Elf:7). Of course, I never found a staff of necromancy, so...
Animate Skeleton - I memorized this once. I regretted the spell level
with that character, and never bothered again. Perhaps I just lack the
patience.
Vampiric Draining - This allows for some combat training, and means it's
not *necessarily* instant death when you suddenly find yourself next to
an ogre. I gather that humans have more HP than many of the races who
might more normally be found playing Necros, though.
Regeneration - I found this to be quite useful, for what I assume are
obvious reasons.
Dispel Undead - I didn't even hesitate before clearing the Crypt from
top to bottom. Even without an enhancer staff, things like curse skulls
and Boris only took two shots (with Necromancy in the 20s, granted).
Boris was hands-down the easiest 7k XP I've gained in a long time; a
shame I only ran into him once. This also wipes the floor with player
ghosts, needless to say.
Animate Dead - By contrast with Animate Skeleton, I did get quite a bit
of mileage out of this, between centaurs, grey snakes, and just lots of
orcs in the Mines (though they seem to like to wander into axe traps).
[Book of Death]
Corpse Rot - I never used this, as it didn't sound like it would
necessarily be all that effective and I feared that I'd want the corpses
for other stuff.
Bone Shards - I assume that this is supposed to be how necros deal with
Imps and other not-living, not-undead monsters early, but I was never
impressed by the damage. It didn't help that I couldn't really be
bothered to carry around skeletons to feed it with, so it didn't see
much use.
Lethal Infusion - I would've tried this if I hadn't already had a
quarterstaff of protection.
Agony - I kept thinking about learning this and then thinking better of
it. I wasn't sure if it's resistable or not (from the sounds of it, it
is), but while I don't know that this isn't the way spells are supposed
to be (as opposed to Brent's view of what conjurations have become),
level 5 seems a little steep. But my experience with other spellcasters
is pretty limited, thus far, so I don't remember what else I could use
those five levels on.
Bolt of Draining - Despite being half conjurations (and my knowing none
at the time of learning), I found this to be very useful. I had been
hoping to learn this for the climactic battle at the end of the Snake
Pit, but it was not to be; instead I gained the requisite spell levels
most of the way through said battle. It's a bit expensive for killing,
e.g., a single Yak, but the damage is more than acceptable. IMO.
[Book of Unlife]
Sublimation of Blood - I found this to be a staple, both for filling
myself up from chunks after a battle, and even for filling SP from HP
in crunchy situations. Regeneration helps to offset the HP loss,
though sometimes the HP loss is surprisingly large...
Twisted Resurrection - I didn't learn this for quite a while, fearing
that I was going to have to work to piece together things that weren't
going to be much more effective than zombies. When I finally did learn
it about midway through the Vaults, I changed my mind. Large
abominations, particularly in groups, wipe the floor with just about
everything in the Vaults, with a little fire support. I didn't do the
acid test of Vaults:8, but I was quite impressed by these guys. At
least with the kinds of enemies you get in the Vaults, you only have to
pile two corpses together to get a large abom (though I did have more
trouble amassing a group in the elven halls). I couldn't tell whether
or not these guys regenerate. If not, it seems poor that they run away
at low HP. The one downside is that as I recall you don't get piety
for things they kill... or am I confusing them with Reapers?
Borgnjor's Revivification - I didn't learn this, because I couldn't
envision a time when I'd actually want to use it. Unless the HP damage
can be cured with !oH or something, this seems like a poor use of spell
slots.
Simulacrum - I don't know how long these guys would last. The spell
intrigues me, and I'll be interested to give it a try at some point,
but I never quite had enough spell levels to do so this game. Anybody
else used this?
[Necronomicon]
Symbol of Torment - I assume that one is supposed to use this with
regeneration active and/or a moderate-sized army of undead meat shields
in order to keep the enemies off of your half-HP self. Somehow that
never struck me as practical.
Control Undead - This seemingly overlaps with the Kikubaaqudgha ability
that I also never used... I preferred to dispel everything that might
have been useful as a pet (it is my understanding that monsters get to
resist, so it's not obvious what I'd try to control, anyhow).
Summon Wraiths - The wraiths don't stick around forever after being
summoned, but otherwise seem pretty cool (no pun intended, even in the
case of Freezing Wraiths). My Summoning was never top-drawer, though
I had practiced a bit prior to learning this.
Death's Door - Didn't quite get enough levels to learn this. I'm not
sure how practical it is.
Necromutation - Nor this. I've heard good things about it, though.
Death Channel - I'm not quite clear on what this does, but it sounded
like it would be worth trying.
At least for human necros, I found that trying to go at least
partially death-knight with them was viable from about level 4 or 5...
mostly the point at which I got Vampiric Draining and some HPs to use
it with. I didn't try any as pure casters, partly because Vampiric
Draining is useless at range, and partly because I didn't find a good
complementary book early enough with any of the ones I tried.
-Andrew ()
.
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