The Cleric Versus Wizard Necromancer.

Vallmyr

The ultimate duel!
The Divine vs the Arcane!

I'm sure I must have talked about this before but I can never come to a conclusion.
Cleric Necromancy vs Wizard Necromancy

I made that huge post about me going over the spell lists for each in IWD:EE (and BG:EE to an extent) but I couldn't decide which was more fun to play. In your opinion, which makes the better/cooler/more flavorful necromancer? You may include mods that sway your opinion and if you feel the Blackguard or whatever class is a better necromancer than either of them then that is also welcome.

Here's the prior post if any are interested: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41502/an-analysis-on-necromancy-focus-on-iwd-ee-but-may-apply-to-other-games#latest

Also, the obvious answer is probably a Cleric/Mage but I'm more looking for single class stuff. I won't disallow the discussion of the Cleric/Mage so if you feel that's the best necro and want to give your reasons it's also welcome.

deltago

I think he clerics ability to control undead put it above the mage.

Francois

Clerics can turn/control undead and cast restoration, protection from negative energy, chaotic command, etc. They are infinitely better at dealing with any type of undead.

doggy

A high level clerics ability to just destroy undead has no competition in my mind. They also get the best spells, defensive and offensive. Raise dead, heal and harm are pretty neat as well.

And just love that skull button.

Francois

An interesting idea would be a cleric/mage, but limit yourself to learning only necromancy for your mage book. It's a self-imposed handicap, but it would be essentially a cleric with a double portion of necromancy.

Vallmyr

It would seem just like in 3.5/Pathfinder Cleric wins the day when it comes to Necromancy lol

Kamigoroshi

Off-topic, but now I'm kind of interested what an Psion Necromancer a' la Animancer would look like.
Accessing the brains of deceased and animate corpses with neuron impulses? Grasping the hearts of the living via psychokinesis? Reading the lingering memories of the dead with psychometry? Maybe even summoning souls in their bodies through mediumship? Something like that sounds like could be fun.

Vallmyr

Francois said:

An interesting idea would be a cleric/mage, but limit yourself to learning only necromancy for your mage book. It's a self-imposed handicap, but it would be essentially a cleric with a double portion of necromancy.

I'm unfortunately a newbie when it comes to modding but I've always wanted to make a Sorcerer kit that can only learn Necromancy spells from both the divine and arcane list. I'd call it a Dread Necromancer after the 3.5 class. I'd give it some Spell-like abilities as well such as the at-will Charnel Touch and Undead Immunities at 20 since in PnP they are supposed to become a Lich.

Vallmyr

It's also a real shame by default there's no death deity we can worship in the base games. Even in IWD2 there's no Mrykul or anything

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FinneousPJ

I like to see necromancy as a sort of science, so I nominate the wizard.

Roller12

An evil mage necromancer - has "necromancer" written on him, has animate dead on lvl5, haste, but cant learn projected image.
An evil cleric - can subjugate undead to his will with "turn undead" and "smite good", has animate dead on lvl3 and tons of spell slots.
A cleric/mage - has neither the name, nor can turn undead efficiently unless solo/small party and cant summon more than summon limit anyway.

winner - Sorcerer, just fill it with necromancy spells and spam the place with evil power.

Vallmyr

Roller12 said:

An evil mage necromancer - has "necromancer" written on him, has animate dead on lvl5, haste, but cant learn projected image.
An evil cleric - can subjugate undead to his will with "turn undead" and "smite good", has animate dead on lvl3 and tons of spell slots.
A cleric/mage - has neither the name, nor can turn undead efficiently unless solo/small party and cant summon more than summon limit anyway.

winner - Sorcerer, just fill it with necromancy spells and spam the place with evil power.

I like you.

Roller12

round 1
Sorcerer casts projected image
projected image casts improved alacrity
projected image casts Summon Dark Planetar
Dark Planetar casts Insect Plague
projected image casts Animate dead
projected image casts Animate dead
projected image casts Animate dead
projected image casts Animate dead
projected image casts haste
projected image casts Wail of the Banshee
round 2 - fight

The original was even funnier: chain contingency:helpless(3x projected image), projected image, quadruple improved alacrity, 7x4 animate dead, haste = 28 hasted skeleton warriors in 1 second.