Hello all, I'm struggling with a character concept and I'd love some feedback.
I have a character in mind who is highly intelligent, loves history and archeology, religion from a scientific standpoint, and looks to ancient cultures' worldviews to try to understand the nature of life, death, etc.
I liked the idea of an envoy warforged necromancer, as a created being might question the purpose and nature of life, and an archeologist necromancer who uses his training and experience to resurrect people. Spells like "speak with dead" would be cool, and "dance macabre" could be used with a bag of ancient bones dug from an archeological site.
A high Int would seem to dictate a wizard necromancer. I also thought about a death cleric, but they are typically evil and I envision the PC as lawful neutral. Also clerics would prioritize Wis over Int. For some reason I don't like the feel of a necromancer wizard, and I know summoning a ton of undead thralls will bog down a table and be annoying, but I'm struggling with this. Anyone have some input?
I want him to be useful in combat, but I'm more concerned about staying true to the character. I'm not 100% stuck on warforged if there's a better RP option that will make a class work better.
For a High Int necromancer, Wizard is the obvious choice. I think that you can be a Necromancer wizard without necessarily bogging down the table with a bunch of NPC zombies. I think what I would do is focus on the Summon Undead spell rather than Animate Dead. If your DM is generous, maybe you could swap the 6th level feature that grants you Animate Dead with Summon Undead, and allow the Summoned Undead Spirit to act as though its cast at one level higher than the spell slot you actually used (since the feature normally gives a boost to your Animate Dead spell). The "Summon" spells from Tasha's are largely designed to be simpler to run at the table than the spells in the PHB.
I don't have much in the ways of suggesting things that will help your character - but, your post just gave me the visual of a warforged releasing a bunch of microbots from their arm that crawl into a dead body and "animate" it. Creepy.
Brb, writing my next villain.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
If you are ok with a more loose idea of necromancy...
Battle Smith Artificer, with the steel defender flavored as a host of sorts for a soul of the dead.
Bit of a stretch, I know, but the int main stat/researcher vibes are there.
And as a potential alternative to Warforged, there is the Reborn lineage if you want to be more fleshy than metal. Similar circumstances, but may be easier to explain depending on the setting.
For some reason I don't like the feel of a necromancer wizard, and I know summoning a ton of undead thralls will bog down a table and be annoying, but I'm struggling with this. Anyone have some input?
I want him to be useful in combat, but I'm more concerned about staying true to the character. I'm not 100% stuck on warforged if there's a better RP option that will make a class work better.
If you want someone focused on the more anthropological aspects of necromancy and not necessarily on raising zombies and skeletons, a College of Spirits bard could fit. Bards don't get any of the summon undead-type spells but they do get speak with dead
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Flavor all your awakened spellbook stuff as ghost stuff. Its basically already what it is.
It fits your scholar vibes to a T. Sprinkle in necromancy spell chooces to crank the overall vibe into necromancer and I think it'd work super well.
You can try to always have either like cold or necrotic or poison damage types at each level to modify your normal casts accordingly. So even your fireball is actually a ball of necrotic energy or whatever.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
High int and the fact that the character likes to study death from a more scholarly standpoint does sound very wizard but you could simply set your int at +1 or +2, which makes the character smarter than average and then take cleric and say you have some sort of divine insight on the nature of life and death. On that note, grave cleric is a good option for a less evil cleric type.
Hello all, I'm struggling with a character concept and I'd love some feedback.
I have a character in mind who is highly intelligent, loves history and archeology, religion from a scientific standpoint, and looks to ancient cultures' worldviews to try to understand the nature of life, death, etc.
I liked the idea of an envoy warforged necromancer, as a created being might question the purpose and nature of life, and an archeologist necromancer who uses his training and experience to resurrect people. Spells like "speak with dead" would be cool, and "dance macabre" could be used with a bag of ancient bones dug from an archeological site.
A high Int would seem to dictate a wizard necromancer. I also thought about a death cleric, but they are typically evil and I envision the PC as lawful neutral. Also clerics would prioritize Wis over Int. For some reason I don't like the feel of a necromancer wizard, and I know summoning a ton of undead thralls will bog down a table and be annoying, but I'm struggling with this. Anyone have some input?
I want him to be useful in combat, but I'm more concerned about staying true to the character. I'm not 100% stuck on warforged if there's a better RP option that will make a class work better.
For a High Int necromancer, Wizard is the obvious choice. I think that you can be a Necromancer wizard without necessarily bogging down the table with a bunch of NPC zombies. I think what I would do is focus on the Summon Undead spell rather than Animate Dead. If your DM is generous, maybe you could swap the 6th level feature that grants you Animate Dead with Summon Undead, and allow the Summoned Undead Spirit to act as though its cast at one level higher than the spell slot you actually used (since the feature normally gives a boost to your Animate Dead spell). The "Summon" spells from Tasha's are largely designed to be simpler to run at the table than the spells in the PHB.
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I don't have much in the ways of suggesting things that will help your character - but, your post just gave me the visual of a warforged releasing a bunch of microbots from their arm that crawl into a dead body and "animate" it. Creepy.
Brb, writing my next villain.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
If you are ok with a more loose idea of necromancy...
Battle Smith Artificer, with the steel defender flavored as a host of sorts for a soul of the dead.
Bit of a stretch, I know, but the int main stat/researcher vibes are there.
And as a potential alternative to Warforged, there is the Reborn lineage if you want to be more fleshy than metal. Similar circumstances, but may be easier to explain depending on the setting.
If you want someone focused on the more anthropological aspects of necromancy and not necessarily on raising zombies and skeletons, a College of Spirits bard could fit. Bards don't get any of the summon undead-type spells but they do get speak with dead
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Order of the Scribes subclass.
Flavor all your awakened spellbook stuff as ghost stuff. Its basically already what it is.
It fits your scholar vibes to a T. Sprinkle in necromancy spell chooces to crank the overall vibe into necromancer and I think it'd work super well.
You can try to always have either like cold or necrotic or poison damage types at each level to modify your normal casts accordingly. So even your fireball is actually a ball of necrotic energy or whatever.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
High int and the fact that the character likes to study death from a more scholarly standpoint does sound very wizard but you could simply set your int at +1 or +2, which makes the character smarter than average and then take cleric and say you have some sort of divine insight on the nature of life and death. On that note, grave cleric is a good option for a less evil cleric type.
Keep your friends close, and enemies closer.
use lorehold background in SCC it is basically finding out about long since happened wars