Let's talk undead!

[Tias]

So, I'm finding myself with a lot of spare time, and am writing a necromancy source book for my setting!

I'm writing a ton of fun spells for reanimating the dead, and find myself wondering.. Should making undead cause permanent magic point loss? When you look at the Enchantment section in Arms of Legend, you see that the magic points you spend enchanting STAY gone until the item is destroyed or you dissolve the enchantment.

..With this in mind, the same kind of investment seems logical for undead creation.

The primary pro would be that the necromancer feels committed to finding good specimens and spells to make superiour undead, the primary con would be that the classic 'Army of Darkness' strategy of raising armies of the dead is impossible, barring massive cooperation between necromancers, or some other source of power, like raising them with divine magic.

What do you lot think?

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Sacrificing others to gain the necessary power is the way to (evil) hordes.

 

[Prime_Evil]

How about giving Necromancers a choice between sacrificing their own Magic Points to animate undead servitors or stealing the required life energy from sacrificial victims?

 

[auyl]

How about giving Necromancers a choice between sacrificing their own Magic Points to animate undead servitors or stealing the required life energy from sacrificial victims?

I would agree here making the MP needed for the undead creature either coming from the necromancer themselves or some blood sacrifice. I would say that even the necromancer would have to sacrifice some of their own blood to get this to work making necromancy a blood magic system.

But to each their own.

 

[Tias]

..so you all agree that making undeads require a permanent (or at least until the undead is dispelled/killed) magic point expenditure?

 

[auyl]

..so you all agree that making undeads require a permanent (or at least until the undead is dispelled/killed) magic point expenditure?

I wouldn't say that I necessarily agree that it would be a permanent (until ended or killed) MP loss. Just that necromancy would involve blood of some kind to make it work. I deal with this a little bit in my upcoming Skeletons supplement.

 

[Tias]

Neither do I, though it would a good to ensure that one cannot make thousands of powerful undeads, and then start a war.

 

[auyl]

Instead of a permanent MP loss you could say that the necromancer can only raise a number of basic undead (ie. zombies, skeletons) equal to their Power or Charisma, and a number of more powerful undead (ie. to be determined) equal to half or 1/4 their Power or Charisma.

 

[Prime_Evil]

If you require casters to dedicate one or more MP to each undead creature they animate, you might want to let them "withdraw" the invested MP as a combat action - instantly extinguishing the magic that gives the creature the semblance of life. This should only work for non-sentient undead - Magic Points spent on the creation of sentient undead cannot be arbitrarily "withdrawn" by the caster as the creature will actively resist annihilation. (If you want, maybe this could be resolved with a roll of the caster's Sorcery vs the creature's Persistence). However, dedicated MPs used to animate sentient undead might still return to the caster automatically if the creature is destroyed.

 

[soltakss]

If you require casters to dedicate one or more MP to each undead creature they animate, you might want to let them "withdraw" the invested MP as a combat action - instantly extinguishing the magic that gives the creature the semblance of life. This should only work for non-sentient undead - Magic Points spent on the creation of sentient undead cannot be arbitrarily "withdrawn" by the caster as the creature will actively resist annihilation. (If you want, maybe this could be resolved with a roll of the caster's Sorcery vs the creature's Persistence). However, dedicated MPs used to animate sentient undead might still return to the caster automatically if the creature is destroyed.

Or, removing the dedicated MP (DMP) would make the undead inactive, leaving it in a dormant state. Moving the DMP back to that undead would reawaken it. So, harmless looking corpses that would not normally sense as undead could suddenly activate and start attacking.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Ooh...that's a nice option.

Perhaps we also need a variant of Power Crystals that can be used as a specialized Magic Point Store to animate independent undead for long periods of time? Destroy the jewelled amulet and the mummy crumbles to dust...

 

[Tias]

This is what I am gravitating towards. Necromancers must have power items that let them sustain more undeads, and can opt for making low-grade ones of their own by sacrificing the living or beseeching black gods, until they're bad enough to create/quest for better power phylacteries.