Necromancers being able to make armies of undead with no cost at all would just be silly.

Requiring a dead body seems like a big cost to me. And there is always the cost of mana and willpower.

Considering it is actually very hard to get a corpse in this game as well.

It would not only be silly, it would be freaking sweet.

*retracks his game-balance destabalizing idea*

Anyone who has seen one of those Night of the Undead movies has to admit it would be kinda cool, though I geuss the fact that it would mess up game balance has to come first.

Perhaps rather than simply have an army of mindless minions walking around after each necromancer, a SINGLE corpse could be reanimated and actively controlled by the necromancer, in addition to the pathetically useless miniions already possessed, with 1/2 strenghth, 1/2 dexterity, 1/2 constitiution (rounded down), no charisma whatsoever, the same intelligence score as the necromancer, and the same size. The corpse would possess no racial regeneration or increased balance/equilibrium , automatically having level 4 balance/EQ penalty and would be harmed by anything than would usually heal it. This corpse must have been killed by the necromancer in order to be raised, as well as be of a lower circle than the necromancer; and as the soul is no longer inhabiting the body, the player could still pray normally.

The necromancer could place his own soul into the body and possess the corpse, or maybe order it to do simple commands. This could give ONE useful minion to the necromancer, and be the ultimate humiliation to a player. The skill would cost ten power and would have insane balance and equilibrium, as well as a casting time of atleast fifteen seconds during which the ritual can be interrupted and made void. The reanimated corpse would have the guild and common skills of the original subject, but not the trade skill, and would decompose within two months IC.

The corpse would be automatically enemied to the organization to which the subject belonged and would be attacked by guards. Killing the corpse would count as killing a tainted denizen and if actively possessed by the necromancer would deal a major blow to his mana and willpower.

Doubtless this is all speculation and will never be actually used in-game, but I think that this would be a great addition to the Necromancy skillset and would work very well for purposes of role-playing. This is me speaking as an aquamancer, and I think that this would not be an overpowered ability and would lead to an even more furious hate towards Magnagora by Celestians who have seen their corpses reanimated; which would also work well for roleplaying

Estarra stated that the necromancers will not ever be allowed full control of the undead they raise - but how about allowing limited time to lead the undead to an area - in which it then wanders and behaves as it currently does?

I see this being similar to the way guards can be summoned then led and left in a given location, but without the possibility of giving new orders later.

If we can't have it as a player rez skill, with the advantages/disadvantages (like lich) depending on the level, it'd be nice if the minion was left as mostly an "rp" skill, but while the corpse is alive, some of the exp of the corpses player is funneled (as it is earned, something like 1%) to the Necromancer who raised it. Or some other piddly disability.

You could always try giving them the brains of a puppetmaster to see if that does anything or not. It might make them smarter since i would assume they wouldn't have a brain, or it could turn them into some super powerful undead type creature.

I'm probably completely wrong, but what would happen if you had like 30 corpses running around,helping influencers in a village influence? Random targetting would remove effectiveness, but still, any corpses you managed to grab you can turn into more troops...

Just an idea, don't flame me if it doesnt work at all.

They would each die in one hit.. how would you get 30 corpses anyways?

The problem really is the high powercost, it can get upto 10 for one person. So anyone who is a good level will cost you alot of power.

Agreed, it is too high of a power cost to actually use.... unless it makes it so Sacrifice wont work on the player it was used upon.... at least until someone kills the undead that rose from it.

I like the idea of killing people in key locations and just having these undead corpses as fixed guards, sort of thing. Sure they are weak, but it's cool! Imagine a few undead corpses standing along the roads into Magnagora, or 'camping' outside Celest just causing a little trouble. It makes me giggle.

Yeah, I thought it was cool too. untill nobody was willing to do it, and then the undead starting killing newbies, and then... *sniffle*

Ptsh who cares about newbies..*cough*. I thought they only attacked personal enemies?

They only chase personal enemies. also mind you, this was before they changed the skill to have different costs for different corpses.