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How to Fight a High Level Necromancer

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    see317see317 Registered User regular
    Are there any sure tells to look for when preparing to fight a high level necromancer?
    I mean, any clear and obvious ways to determine the being your about to put down with extreme prejudice is a half-undead dark wizard bent on evil and not a goth who hit the makeup kit a bit too hard this morning?
    Would any of this information be a useful defense in a court case?

    Asking for a friend.

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    HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    Tom Waits is a renowned necromancer, so I assume all necromancers resemble Tom Waits to at least some degree

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    JoolanderJoolander Registered User regular
    Can't I just use my Hammerdin for this PvP ?

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    FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Hobnail wrote: »
    Would it be appropriate to hit a necromancer with a truck

    Lo Pan is more sorcerer than Necromancer

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    FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Since trucks fall under the "apply a ridiculous amount of brute kinetic force" it tends to work against most living things. Notoriously unreliable against things that don't need to have their bones/organs intact.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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    DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    SanderJK wrote: »
    I don't mean to alarm you all but I've been told that necromancer despise punning. You are attracting his evil gaze, and may already be in grave danger.

    xgo7tHj.jpg

    :whistle:
    You come to my town and talk some shit
    And expect the Ill-Lich MC ain't gonna call you on it?
    Uh-uh, holy boy, don't try and pray me
    The only turn this undead do's on a table, see?
    It's okay your rhyme game's still weak and lame
    'Cuz I had a thousand years' time to hone my game
    Hey I'm a nice guy, I won't kill you now
    I sense some potential in you, somehow
    We can do this again after you've had time to prepare
    How about three centuries from now, right here, sound fair?
    :whistle:

    DarkPrimus on
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    Duke 2.0Duke 2.0 Time Trash Cat Registered User regular
    I've heard of skeleton-based liches gilding their bones in hard metals like bronze to make them more durable. Not like the bones will be meaningfully affected by being coated in metals and keeping your hands intact after a mace bashes them is vital for spellcasting. Are any specific metals preferable for cladding ones fragile bones, or is this whole exercise less useful than it sounds?

    VRXwDW7.png
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    FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Duke 2.0 wrote: »
    I've heard of skeleton-based liches gilding their bones in hard metals like bronze to make them more durable. Not like the bones will be meaningfully affected by being coated in metals and keeping your hands intact after a mace bashes them is vital for spellcasting. Are any specific metals preferable for cladding ones fragile bones, or is this whole exercise less useful than it sounds?

    Considering that 95% of Liches can cast spells without moving a finger and only using their disembodied voice to do it...yeah.
    For other undead it tends to be easier to just wear armor.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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    Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Final Fantasy has taught me that casting life giving, curative or holy spells on undead critters causes them harm, is this true?

    Phoenix Down potions can be very useful as an offensive weapon, yes.

    Phoenix Down is not a potion, it is a feather.

    It is literally down from a Phoenix.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
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    RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    What if the Phoenix is below you tho?

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
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    Duke 2.0Duke 2.0 Time Trash Cat Registered User regular
    Duke 2.0 wrote: »
    I've heard of skeleton-based liches gilding their bones in hard metals like bronze to make them more durable. Not like the bones will be meaningfully affected by being coated in metals and keeping your hands intact after a mace bashes them is vital for spellcasting. Are any specific metals preferable for cladding ones fragile bones, or is this whole exercise less useful than it sounds?

    Considering that 95% of Liches can cast spells without moving a finger and only using their disembodied voice to do it...yeah.
    For other undead it tends to be easier to just wear armor.

    For easier spells sure, for the grand ritual to make sure nobody questions you or your might again you damn well better be able to complete the ritual physically

    VRXwDW7.png
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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    cB557 wrote: »
    Dear Monster Guide, when trying to kill a necromancer, would you recommend trying to sneak past a their undead forces entirely, or taking out some of their forces on your way to them?

    This highly depends on the size of the undead army, proximity, and generally how powerful the necromancer is. If you intend to kill the necromancer getting bogged down in a mire of skeletons and zombies will slow you down to the point that the necromancer could flee or devise some kind of super murder plan for when you show up, however if they're more of a "small elite force" of undead then taking some of them out means less back up for the fight with the necromancer. Basically, standard Warlord Fight Rules, you want to ensure youaren't going to get stabbed in the back during the fight but you also want to ensure they don't have enough time to prepare for you.
    Final Fantasy has taught me that casting life giving, curative or holy spells on undead critters causes them harm, is this true?

    yeah, channeling positive energy at a negative energy fueled being does hurt them but it's no more effective then say, fire.
    see317 wrote: »
    Are there any sure tells to look for when preparing to fight a high level necromancer?
    I mean, any clear and obvious ways to determine the being your about to put down with extreme prejudice is a half-undead dark wizard bent on evil and not a goth who hit the makeup kit a bit too hard this morning?
    Would any of this information be a useful defense in a court case?

    Asking for a friend.

    Typically you will know when you fight a powerful wizard of any kind. things get Weird. Most mages tend for more direct paths in fights, hurling energy, creating or summoning minions, and while high level wizards will do that as well, they're typically warping reality around themselves as well. So, a normal necromancer might summon a pile of corpses that start getting up to fight you, a high level necromancer will also do this, but also the walls around them are turning to flesh and bone.

    As for knowing if they're animating themselves, it's pretty obvious. most necromancers don't have glowing wounds you've just inflicted while screaming about how you've ruined their plans for immortality.

    We advise filming your adventures in the event of a court case, but, reanimated flesh shows up easily in tests and they would partially show up as an undead creature and no court in north america will convict you if that happens.
    Duke 2.0 wrote: »
    I've heard of skeleton-based liches gilding their bones in hard metals like bronze to make them more durable. Not like the bones will be meaningfully affected by being coated in metals and keeping your hands intact after a mace bashes them is vital for spellcasting. Are any specific metals preferable for cladding ones fragile bones, or is this whole exercise less useful than it sounds?

    bronze is kind of soft compared to steel. If you were going to do that, i would advise steel or better. Though if you use fey magic avoid iron and tin.

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    Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Ringo wrote: »
    What if the Phoenix is below you tho?

    It's gotta come up for you to get down.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    i don't recommend handling pheonix feathers with your bare hand. shits like, 300 degrees.

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    Der Waffle MousDer Waffle Mous Blame this on the misfortune of your birth. New Yark, New Yark.Registered User regular
    Apropos of nothing last night I basically cheesed a fight against a nwod demon who's gone loud by using death magic to turn into a 2-dimensional shadow and slowly sapping the life out of it until he decided to leave before the god-machine angels came to get him.

    This was after a few weeks back when I saved a friend from a cross-dimensional sniper in the ghostly plane of shadow that exists parallel to our own.

    Necromancers can be good people, too. Not like those time mages, who are all assholes.

    Steam PSN: DerWaffleMous Origin: DerWaffleMous Bnet: DerWaffle#1682
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    DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    edited April 2017
    Muscle wizard casts FIST

    Darmak on
    JtgVX0H.png
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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    Apropos of nothing last night I basically cheesed a fight against a nwod demon who's gone loud by using death magic to turn into a 2-dimensional shadow and slowly sapping the life out of it until he decided to leave before the god-machine angels came to get him.

    This was after a few weeks back when I saved a friend from a cross-dimensional sniper in the ghostly plane of shadow that exists parallel to our own.

    Necromancers can be good people, too. Not like those time mages, who are all assholes.

    i would argue a rather semantics based stance that there is a difference between a death wizard and a necromancer. Even if they're kind of basically the same thing.

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    Duke 2.0Duke 2.0 Time Trash Cat Registered User regular
    Are there gods out there who are pedantic enough to not allow this flagrant rule brinkmanship. Spirit of the law vs letter of the law gods that don't cotton to wizards that think they can skirt death like this.

    VRXwDW7.png
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    FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Darmak wrote: »
    Muscle wizard casts FIST

    1433343673644.jpg

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    Duke 2.0 wrote: »
    Are there gods out there who are pedantic enough to not allow this flagrant rule brinkmanship. Spirit of the law vs letter of the law gods that don't cotton to wizards that think they can skirt death like this.

    It is our official stance that no god exists until they prove otherwise. While unspeakable horrors from beyond the veil are real, they are no more divine than the slumbering world dragon that will one day destroy us.

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    TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    What if a necromancer raised the corpse of an ancient giant superpowerful monster.

    Like Godzilla

    Also do any necromancer study high end possession magic? Allowing them to jump ship when their body dies as it were...

    What if a necromancer possessed Godzilla?

    Tallahasseeriel on
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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    Uriel wrote: »
    What if a necromancer raised the corpse of an ancient giant superpowerful monster.

    Like Godzilla

    such arcane power would require a number of artifacts and probably some kind of hellish nightmare machine that would twist reality and be easily detectable. Those would be the targets to stop the monster. The monster itself would be secondary, because once the unholy device of avarice is destroyed the re-animated monster would fall apart.

    Even the coven of idiot Pyromancers, the Magic Research Association, could stop it. I would be far more worried about a coven of necromancers making a super ghost army.

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    FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Uriel wrote: »
    What if a necromancer raised the corpse of an ancient giant superpowerful monster.

    Like Godzilla

    To animate a giant monster you need an equally powerful spirit. A necromancer that can raise a superpowerful monster is pretty powerful in his/her own right, although a necromancer of that magnitude can be limited by the raw material. A powerful spirit summoned into Joe the Miller isn't a whole lot more powerful than Joe the Miller was when he was alive (this is what limits Necromancers compared to a Demon summoner). A powerful spirit summoned into Hermann the Ancient Hero of the Tribes who was buried a thousand years ago and whose memory is still feared? Pretty powerful.
    A sufficiently powerful spirit can also, to some extent, manifest a version of the magical abilities the body had when it was alive. For example a draconic undead with a sufficiently powerful spirit could fly and/or use a breath weapon of some sort or invoke the dragonfear. A somewhat weaker spirit on the other hand could maybe not even reanimate the dragon at all, or if it did it could be merely a shambling zombie of extraordinary size (and you would have a more effective creature if it had been summoned into an Ogre).

    No human necromancer could summon a spirit powerful enough to revive a Godzilla or any being of that size and power.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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    DerrickDerrick Registered User regular
    In a necromancer versus necromancer fight, will the two be vying over the same minions and effectively have a battle of wills, or is there a "home advantage" to minions raised by oneself?

    Corollary to that, is a half-undead necromancer at a distinct advantage or disadvantage against a fully human necromancer of similar power?

    Steam and CFN: Enexemander
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    FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Melding wrote: »
    I would be far more worried about a coven of necromancers making a super ghost army.

    Don't you need some sort of haunted item tied to the spirit to be able to summon and control incorporeal undead? I've heard of the Horn of Heroes (and we're so fucked if a necromancer gets its hands on that), the mirror of souls and the Dybbuk box...but it's always a select group of spirits tied to each object.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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    MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    Okay. What if a necromancer made themselves mostly dead, creating a ghost of themselves, but then had someone on hand to revive them and teamed up with their own ghost?

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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    Derrick wrote: »
    In a necromancer versus necromancer fight, will the two be vying over the same minions and effectively have a battle of wills, or is there a "home advantage" to minions raised by oneself?

    Corollary to that, is a half-undead necromancer at a distinct advantage or disadvantage against a fully human necromancer of similar power?

    taking control of a minion raised by someone while they are present is supposed to be very difficult, it's not impossible, but unless you are having one of your's taken over at the same time they're likely going to be exerting force to stop you from taking over a minion so if you're on equal footing it will generally be a stalemate in favour of the minion's creator. This is typically true of any created magical being. If the necromancer isn't around it's not too hard to subvert their will for your own, though it is often more taxing than making your own. It's more of a tactic of denial than bolstering yourself.

    If one necromancer is clearly the magical superior of the other, than as a power play taking over a section of their minions to show "no, i'm going to win here, step off" might be employed, but it's typically going to end in a wizard duel, because wizards are jerks but love wizard dueling.

    If one necromancer isn't a wizard though, I'm not actually sure this has come up.

    As for the state of of the self animating necromancer, being at a physical advantage can prove useful while fighting other wizards, but i would estimate they are of roughly equal footing still.

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    MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    Can a necromancer reanimate your dinner?

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    MetalbourneMetalbourne Inside a cluster b personalityRegistered User regular
    Madican wrote: »
    Can a necromancer reanimate your dinner?

    You don't want to know what happened to the necromancer who reanimated spam

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    PLAPLA The process.Registered User regular
    Pronounce it "knee-crow" to rustle him.

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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    Melding wrote: »
    I would be far more worried about a coven of necromancers making a super ghost army.

    Don't you need some sort of haunted item tied to the spirit to be able to summon and control incorporeal undead? I've heard of the Horn of Heroes (and we're so fucked if a necromancer gets its hands on that), the mirror of souls and the Dybbuk box...but it's always a select group of spirits tied to each object.

    short answer, no. ghosts aren't the spirit of the people they seem to be, there can be multiple ghosts of the same person in fact. Ghosts are more an echo of a person with strong ties or emotions to an object or place. but you can sever that connection and keep the ghost. spirits do it all the time. So a necromancer could go into a haunted house, steal all the ghosts and then start empowering them to make a small troop, it would be a lot of effort, but fighting ghosts is real hard without the right equipment so it is often worth the effort.
    Madican wrote: »
    Okay. What if a necromancer made themselves mostly dead, creating a ghost of themselves, but then had someone on hand to revive them and teamed up with their own ghost?

    that's not how any of this works, and I doubt anyone would want to do this. If a necromancer was to say, turn themselves into a wraith while having their body re-animated as a vampire, the vampire wouldn't really be them, but a new entity with the same memories and what not as them, but a vampire. It would be like if you made a clone of yourself, put your memories in the body and then left it out in the jungle for a few years and then picked it up again. Sure, you started off the same, but clone you is a very different person now.

    Also, you just made yourself vulnerable to other necromancers, and suffer the unending pain of undeath. not a great deal if you ask me.
    Madican wrote: »
    Can a necromancer reanimate your dinner?

    only if you're eating like, most of an animal. like a roasted chicken or turkey with the legs intact, sure, but a side of beef? no.

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    TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    We have a real corpse of thesues situation here.

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    BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    do you think Dr. Frankenstein qualifies for the title of necromancer? I can't decide.

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    do you think Dr. Frankenstein qualifies for the title of necromancer? I can't decide.

    nah, he's a mad science guy. he basically jump started a car. a car he built himself.

    Also the monster he created isn't undead. either it is is a flesh golem, or a living composite human. Sources don't agree.

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    BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    flesh golems are usually animated by necromancy though aren't they?

    BahamutZERO.gif
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    PLAPLA The process.Registered User regular
    What kind of selfrespecting necromancer can be tired out?

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    MeldingMelding Registered User regular
    flesh golems are usually animated by necromancy though aren't they?

    they can be, but a normal golem maker can make one out of flesh if they're a weirdo.

    golem making is more engineering than magic. If you have the right magical battery you can make a golem even without magical skills.

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    PLAPLA The process.Registered User regular
    flesh golems are usually animated by necromancy though aren't they?

    Could be a stone golem under stone-to-flesh.

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    BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    I guess that gets into more of a classification argument about whether necromancy is simply any magical means of animating dead flesh or a specific subset of magical means of animating dead flesh.

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
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    FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Golemistry is pretty simple. You build a construct, then you pump that construct full of magical energy and you guide that energy by inscribed words of power. The source, the choice of controlling spell. Pretty open-ended.

    Bone golems though, are Bone Golems actual golems or undead? Why are necromancers the only guys making them?

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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