Moar Necromancy questions! Party?
Vallmyr
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,459
So, in line with almost all of my threads being about Necromancy, what sort of party do you guys think in BG1 and BGII would fit with a necromancer charname?
I suppose I'll divide this into two parts.
One party for a Cleric Necromancer that goes for TN and is a Master of Life and Death (Healing and Harming, balance sort of thing)
and another for a NE/LE Wizard Necromancer who's obsessed with Necromancy and improving his research.
I imagine Dorn and Viconia would be two people for such characters as a Blackguard makes a good bodyguard for a Necromancer and Viconia is practically one herself.
Edit: Also, I can never bring myself to leave Imoen behind and I always recruit Alora because she's my favorite NPC.
I'd rather take people more fitting of a black magick party but how do I deny Imoen and the cutest little thief girl to ever exist ever QQ
I suppose I'll divide this into two parts.
One party for a Cleric Necromancer that goes for TN and is a Master of Life and Death (Healing and Harming, balance sort of thing)
and another for a NE/LE Wizard Necromancer who's obsessed with Necromancy and improving his research.
I imagine Dorn and Viconia would be two people for such characters as a Blackguard makes a good bodyguard for a Necromancer and Viconia is practically one herself.
Edit: Also, I can never bring myself to leave Imoen behind and I always recruit Alora because she's my favorite NPC.
I'd rather take people more fitting of a black magick party but how do I deny Imoen and the cutest little thief girl to ever exist ever QQ
Post edited by Vallmyr on
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Xzar, being an Necromancer himself, and Montaron (who has endured the stench of carrion for a long time) are amongst the most likely companions. The same goes for Dorn.
From a RP perspective, Viconia may or may not tolerant another cleric besides her. Depending on your patron deity in question. Though arcane necromantic casters might pose no problem for her.
In BG2, I'd take Hexxat, Dorn, Korgan/Sarevok, Edwin and Viconia for both necromancer characters.
Surely severe brainwashing is easy enough to do with all the necromancy going on
Aside from a single-class Wizard or Cleric, a Cleric/Mage also works well (perhaps even ideally) for a Necromancer PC. Since Velsharoon ascended to godhood the same year as the BG storyline begins (1368 DR), your PC might be among the first of his devotees--albeit in secret, since Gorion and the tutors would most likely disapprove. This is the storyline I've come to use and build upon with my own PC.
As for Necromancer-appropriate party NPCs, most of them have already been mentioned: Xzar, Dorn, Viconia, Montaron, Hexxat, Sarevok, and Edwin. Tiax would be a good addition as well, since Cyric claimed the portfolio of Death (from Bhaal) and the Dead (from Myrkul). Tiax can also summon a Ghast, so that would be an invaluable contribution to a Necromancy-themed party.
A case could be made for Faldorn, since she's a Shadow Druid and can summon Dread Wolves, which are technically undead (the game doesn't classify them as such for some reason). As long as the party's actions don't conflict with her greater goal of protecting nature from "civilization," she might be content to look the other way while the PC raises a few "nature defilers" as undead skeletons.
From an RP-perspective, as far as Imoen and Alora go, I think they'd be very uncomfortable in a neutral-to-evil Necromancer-themed party, especially since many Necromancy spells are "morally questionable," especially draining life, inflicting disease, and animating the dead. Nonetheless, if you're dead-set (pun intended) on having them in your party, I'm sure there are plenty of story hooks you can come up with to justify their presence.
Now I have to decide Cleric/Mage, Cleric, or Necromancer
I think I'll end up going Cleric/Mage since Velsharoon is my favorite deity. Didn't know his ascension was the same year as the BG storyline :O!
Also, I always thought Alora was CN but she's CG @_@
She seems to do what she wants when she wants for the reasons she wants.
Which to me sounds CN >_>
Imoen I think would stick by Charname no matter what.
And maybe she'll be my first apprentice! (Thief/Mage)
As for Alora, my character isn't really a douche. He's a gentleman and really nice. He also just is super fascinated with obtaining immortality by lichdom and unlocking the secrets of life and death. XD
He has his ethics and vices (hence for why I'm prob going to make a LE Cleric/Mage Necro) that hopefully will fit with Alora's randomness.
Also, my character's lawfulness is not the land's laws. It's more of a moral code he follows inspired by Velsharoon's dogma.
Thanks for the idea, @Mortianna!
But yeah, Necromancers are the best and my biggest dilema in BG has always been choosing between Cleric/Mage, Necromancer, and Cleric.
Also, with mods that add things like the pale master and white necromancer as sub-kits for Necromancer mages(Tome and Blood) or one of the many mods that adds a death themed deity for Clerics it makes the choice all the more painful QQ
Also, I've never actually played with Edwin in either BG1 or BG2. Guess I'll take him for a new experience.
Also, doesn't he and Alora actually become good friends or something?
Or I could finally get the BG2 Alora NPC mod working.
but that requires work.
/blech
XD
I think quarterstaff would fit but not sure what else to go with.
Also, looking for more of an RP-themed thing. So while I'll eventually pick up sling proficiancy I want my primary weapon to scream necromancer and throwing rocks doesn't seem to do that >_>
Unless there's a sling that animates the things it kills. That'd be cool. XD
As for the sling, you could always throw Jan's Bruiser Mate skulls. >:D
I thought Jan's Bruiser Mate skulls were shot from a crossbow?
There is a sling that sonic booms everything once a day (chance of making things stunned) and it is named after the goddess of the halfings, sling of Arvoreen... sooo maybe that would work.
Failing that, you can dual, which can be fun. Or demanding, if you dual to cleric in BG2... Better than dualing to Fighter really means very little, and besides, why not max out arcane anyways, its got the goods High Level anyways. Then again, Lathander and Helm are kinda off limits, and Talos to Mage is really not that awe-inspiring, but Talos DID cause Velsharoon to ascend... so you could RP that after you found out Talos double crossed Velsharoon, you could dual out to Mage, and just pretend you converted. Or something.
You know what? Just multiclass it and Keeper to Necromancer.
For melee, I reckon a necromantic C/M would like Mace proficiency, especially in BG2. The Mace of Disruption (especially after Cromwell has improved it) is perfect for keeping your protagonist safe from his own creations and destroying enemy undead. The Rod of Smiting +3 (using Quarterstaff proficiency) is also a necromantically-flavoured weapon, designed to destroy golems.
You know, not that you *should*, but the Rod of Terror is pretty fitting for a necromancy obsessed caster imho. Maybe you can edit it a bit to remove that gawdawful charisma thingy, because that totally sucks and can kill you I think. Can you heal that somehow?
Also, what should my stats be? I normally set the standard to a total roll of 87 at the beginning for my Bhaalspawns so that I can have one stat at 8, a few moderate stats, then one or two at 18. My favorite stats are Cha and Int and would have those as high as I can get them.
I know Cha is kind of useless but if I become a prophet and deity eventually I want to be the most inspirational leader from an RP perspective.
I think if I enjoy Cleric/Mage a lot on my next run of BG I might try the same in other D&D games that allow it.
I've also always wanted to try the True Necromancer in an IRL 3.5/Pathfinder game but never have. I know they kind of suck but the flavor is soooo goood.
I'm usually useless in parties because I play the face character and just hide when combat begins in my IRL groups XD
I would recommend a low str since you won't be hitting things ever if you go the staff a magi route. If you go the mace of disruption route that would make things a bit trickier if you actually wanted to hit things. Staff of magi dispels things on attack i think so you might want to hit things sometimes with that as well.. Still strength belts are abundant if you ever need one. So low Str and low Cha is what i would do since they can be easy fixes. Low dex is trickier since there is only one item that increases that and you probably will find another party member needing that as well. I can never have lower than 16 Con personally even for a back row character but thats your call to make.
I wish alignment shifted like NWN2. XD
Also, it pains me IRL to think of Alora as dead
She is my favorite NPC out of BG1 and BG2 >_>
NPC wise... I've always liked the idea of zombiefying my companions... a mod with Zombie Minsc would be great.... BoooRAINS!!!
As for uour BG necromancer, low Strength shouldn't matter, you have Cleric Buffs. For powergaming, 10 18 16 14 18 8 you can boost ing with potions. If you go from BG1, you will have hellagood Wisdom, so worth considering.
The normal Wizard 3/Cleric 3/True Necro X is meh, but there are things like the Ur priest that makes the build work well. Never played it in an IRL game though.
I'd like to RP a character who's a student to Velsharoon as opposed to a worshipper. Re-flavor Ur priest to rather be like an arcane class where Velsharoon is directly teaching me the spells as opposed to the character praying for them.
I prefer to play the game vanilla but BG NPC mod and Tome and Blood are too good for me to pass up <_>