For a while now I have thought that getting a army going was a crucial part of necromancers. I have done a fair ammount of exploring , hoping that the army would prove usefull, only to discover that they are only half usefull. There are situations where they become totaly useless.

The Gripe I have is that this is not a rare occasion. Many mobs are either immune to a necromancer in almost all ways, excluding perhaps chill touch, normally when they are immune to negative. Worse still is those mobs that are immune blunt, which there seems to be a fair ammount of, can be near unkillable.

I have put in a suggestion for allowing armies to follow the necromancer under certain cirumstances that you said you are allready discussing. I would like to put in another suggestion one that would not grant extra power to a necromancer but it would allow it to utalise more spells it currently has as well as improving it's utility.

I recenlty actually managed to get an appendage that I could use whilst animating a lesser golem (claws, from a felar player)The golem's damage attack changed to claw damage. It was this that sparked the idea;

If you could specify the damage type and nickname of the zombies you animate would be nifty.

cast 'animate dead' smash/punch/bite/claw NICKNAME

Smash: 1 attack per zombie, but the attack is considerably harder to parry/dodge, perhaps 25% more damage.

Punch: zombies have more attacks, current difficulty of parry/dodge, less damage 25% less damage.

Bite: I've watched to many zombie movies where they "grab" & bite. This is to be a copy of Smash, 1 attack and hard to avoid, slightly more damage.

Claw: Similar to Punch, more attacks, 25% less damage.

NICKNAME: This would be used so that you could specify which zombie you want to use by nickname. I really do hate having to look at each zombie to find the one I want to use, which changes each room I enter, when it would be easier to just use their nickname.

The other usage of the nickname would be to summon your zombies back were they to disapear.

It would also be usefull if you could dismiss, banish NICKNAME. This would mean that if someone summoned just one of your pets away you would not have to nofol pets (wasting HOURS of time spent building the army) just to be able to replace that one zombie.


A Few extra suggestions:

Allow embalming of a players corpse to produce a rot_death , when the necromancer dies, apendante that can be used for golems. So far when I've killed or been around when others die I've seen 3 and used 1 part in a lesser golem. It's something to strive for..

If a mob isnt DEAD , or UNDEAD, then you should be able to vampiric it. Drow's in the underdark being immune to vampiric is just, well another immune to negative crap. If it is DEAD or UNDEAD, then you shouldnt be able to vampiric it , but you should be able disrupt it.

Surely is should depend on what you are raising?

A standard humanoid corpse should be capable of all of the aforementioned damage types. Exceptions might need to be made for other body types, but that shouldn't be too dificult to work out.

As far as the actual numbers go on damage/attack frequency go, I think the IMMs would probably do their crunching and balance it all out on their own.

The idea of giving necromancers a bit more utility with zombies is something I can get behind. The same thing goes for nicknaming zombies, which will allow necroes better control and protection over their army.