so, I've decided for my next campaign (very open-world building civilizations from scratch kinda thing) I want to have an evil necromancer show up at some point, I plan on having him being "friendly" at first but eventually betraying the party and becoming a bbeg but I don't wanna try and homebrew a monster so I've decided that a high-level wizard using player class features will be best
Have him carry a bag of rats and have Vampiric Touch running. Really playing up the squelching screams of the rats (whether for comedy or horror is your choice) as he “eats” them like potato chips, draining their life force one after another even when he doesn’t need healing.
Have him name his animated skeletons and treat them as people with full-fledged personalities
Give one of the skeletons a stumpy leg or disability of some sort. Really play up the “plucky little guy” aspect and encourage the players to root for the poor fellow. The necromancer keeps telling this one to “hurry up” and says “let’s go” to it. The skeleton’s name is Brandon.
Are you going to use a stat block or create them like a character? And if the second option, are you open to some homebrew feats? If yes, look into the Necromantic Shadowplane homebrew feat by OmniLich. It helps flesh out a npc Necromancer BBEG.
I'd recommend you go full Wizard and take the shadow-touched feat for inflict wounds. Perhaps RP-wise the shadow-touched feat might be what starts to corrupt their alignment to become the BBEG?
My necromancer had a bag of holding which could store ~ 10 skeletons. If we went into town, he would command them to get into the bag or get them to disassemble each other and put their bones and equipment in to re-cast later. You could keep this bag hidden and if your party turn on him have him reverse the bag and have 10 skeletons pop out to keep them busy.
I'd also have him pre-cast Clone. You could hint story-wise he appears to be immortal and that your party's goal isn't to kill him but to find it Clone safehouse and then kill him. This might not be apparent until they've killed him two or three times...
I'd recommend you go full Wizard and take the shadow-touched feat for inflict wounds. Perhaps RP-wise the shadow-touched feat might be what starts to corrupt their alignment to become the BBEG?
My necromancer had a bag of holding which could store ~ 10 skeletons. If we went into town, he would command them to get into the bag or get them to disassemble each other and put their bones and equipment in to re-cast later. You could keep this bag hidden and if your party turn on him have him reverse the bag and have 10 skeletons pop out to keep them busy.
I'd also have him pre-cast Clone. You could hint story-wise he appears to be immortal and that your party's goal isn't to kill him but to find it Clone safehouse and then kill him. This might not be apparent until they've killed him two or three times...
Look for synergy between spells. For example, undead are very effective inside a Stinking Cloud.
Pay attention to the special effects. of spells. How does a fireball. look when cast by this Necromancer? Perhaps it is sickly green and smells like a charnel pit?
was already planning the clone thing, needs something to do with his high-level spells and I don't want to give him wish (too powerful and I don't want to do my players dirty like that) and my campaign setting is basically my players building up a civilization from scratch, small amounts of combat, roleplay heavy, especially among players (less work for me) in a new land and its gonna start high level. I love the ideas. Also magic is just starting to reach its full potential and the evil that can come from necromancy isn't exactly apparent because it is so new (dark and light live in balance and its gonna be peaceful, so evil isn't a big thing yet
so, I've decided for my next campaign (very open-world building civilizations from scratch kinda thing) I want to have an evil necromancer show up at some point, I plan on having him being "friendly" at first but eventually betraying the party and becoming a bbeg but I don't wanna try and homebrew a monster so I've decided that a high-level wizard using player class features will be best
never built a necromancer before, any advice?
I like character creation!
Have him carry a bag of rats and have Vampiric Touch running. Really playing up the squelching screams of the rats (whether for comedy or horror is your choice) as he “eats” them like potato chips, draining their life force one after another even when he doesn’t need healing.
Have him name his animated skeletons and treat them as people with full-fledged personalities
Give one of the skeletons a stumpy leg or disability of some sort. Really play up the “plucky little guy” aspect and encourage the players to root for the poor fellow. The necromancer keeps telling this one to “hurry up” and says “let’s go” to it. The skeleton’s name is Brandon.
Are you going to use a stat block or create them like a character? And if the second option, are you open to some homebrew feats? If yes, look into the Necromantic Shadowplane homebrew feat by OmniLich. It helps flesh out a npc Necromancer BBEG.
I'd recommend you go full Wizard and take the shadow-touched feat for inflict wounds. Perhaps RP-wise the shadow-touched feat might be what starts to corrupt their alignment to become the BBEG?
My necromancer had a bag of holding which could store ~ 10 skeletons. If we went into town, he would command them to get into the bag or get them to disassemble each other and put their bones and equipment in to re-cast later. You could keep this bag hidden and if your party turn on him have him reverse the bag and have 10 skeletons pop out to keep them busy.
I'd also have him pre-cast Clone. You could hint story-wise he appears to be immortal and that your party's goal isn't to kill him but to find it Clone safehouse and then kill him. This might not be apparent until they've killed him two or three times...
Mine had a portable black hole :)
Look for synergy between spells. For example, undead are very effective inside a Stinking Cloud.
Pay attention to the special effects. of spells. How does a fireball. look when cast by this Necromancer? Perhaps it is sickly green and smells like a charnel pit?
was already planning the clone thing, needs something to do with his high-level spells and I don't want to give him wish (too powerful and I don't want to do my players dirty like that) and my campaign setting is basically my players building up a civilization from scratch, small amounts of combat, roleplay heavy, especially among players (less work for me) in a new land and its gonna start high level. I love the ideas. Also magic is just starting to reach its full potential and the evil that can come from necromancy isn't exactly apparent because it is so new (dark and light live in balance and its gonna be peaceful, so evil isn't a big thing yet
I like character creation!
Thanks for the ideas, it was late at night and I was about to watch anime when I posted this, and I am sorry I couldn't reply sooner. School sucks :(
I like character creation!