An Amateur’s Guide to Healing like a Pro: Part III
By Gerry Chartier
[Editor's Note: to catch up on previous portions of this series, click here for Part I and here for Part II]
Necromancer
It may surprise people to see the Necromancer path equated with the Healer path, but both paths do a fundamentally similar thing – the restore nonfunctional characters to functionality. One may think the main utility would be turning enemies into minions, but in our system NPCs are a resource too valuable to eventholders to allow some PC to turn them into zombie flunkies, so Necromancy is better used keeping PCs going, and it can be very good for that. Again, not all the spells in the path are relevant to our topic, but a surprising amount are, so we’ll discuss those.
2nd Circle: Animate Limb
Animate Limb is the necromantic version of Heal Limb, but it only works on undead, and it has limited (though relatively numerous) castings, though it does reanimate all an undead’s limbs rather than just one. Generally speaking, Heal Limb is better, and unless I’m missing something works on undead anyway, but you can’t buy down for Heal Limb with this slot.
3rd Circle: Animate Lesser Undead
Animate Lesser Undead is basically a more limited version of Raise Dead, with a side of compulsion thrown in. It’s better than being dead, but a lesser undead can’t use armor or cast spells, so it doesn’t restore a character to full functionality, but castings do become handy as they interact with other Necromancer spells. It’s also worth noting that the Animate spells don’t have weapon sensitivity the way Raise Dead does.
5th Circle: Animate Undead
Animate Undead is Necromancer’s version of Combat Raise Dead. It’s not as fast to rattle off, but the subject of the spell can use all their abilities – thus, fighters can use armor, and casters can use spells. They just have to obey the Necromancer when animated.
6th Circle: Animate Undead General
Animate Undead General is Necromancer’s version of Circle of Healing – it’s a source of unlimited lesser undead animation. However, unlike a circle of healing, an undead general can move around, fight/cast spells, and generally do everything a PC can do. Plus, the Necromancer is fobbing off the animating duty to his undead general, rather than having to do the work himself. Finally, the Necromancer can revive their undead general to full undead general functionality with an Animate Lesser Undead spell.
The main downside is that an undead general can only have three lesser undead going at a time. Also, as lesser undead can’t use armor or cast spells, the caster doesn’t get full-functionality minions, but having minions that can be reanimated unlimited times has vast utility. Fighters provide a better return on the investment than casters, but the MC for the lesser undead can be transferred, so if casters are all that’s available, they’ll do till more useful fighters can be obtained.
7th Circle: Embrace Death
Like Power Potion, Embrace Death isn’t strictly speaking a “healing” spell, but it does have relevance due to its interaction with other Necromancer spells. An Animate Undead or Animate Lesser Undead spell with revive a character enchanted by Embrace Death to full functionality. An Undead General can cast Animate Lesser Undead an unlimited number of times, an Undead General, in addition to being able to keep three lesser undead functioning indefinitely, can also heal an Embrace Death-enchanted character an unlimited number of times. In return, the Necromancer can revive their undead general as many times as the Necromancer can cast Animate Lesser Undead, which for a 2-path Necromancer can be quite a lot of times.