Hey everyone; lovely game you have here and I'm looking forward to more involvement as I learn more about it!

Here's the thing: I really like the style and concept of playing as a necromancer, yet I've been told that making your first character ever (yes, new blood!) a necromancer isn't a good idea since lots of people will hate me, caster classes are more difficult, and I can expect to have goody two-shoed paladins - and more! - nipping at my heels at all times.

With all this in mind, I whipped up a dumb brute of an anti-paladin instead, but I still find myself wanting to raise undead hordes and generally be a (more magically-based) Big Bad™.

So if I was to scrap the AP and make a necromancer - bearing in mind that I've barely gotten to level 5 and have only just started to poke my head out of the Academy on my current character - what advice would you give (aside from "don't", which is what I've heard already )?

I understand you want to jump right in and play necro and it probably would be painful, but at the same time it could be fruitful if you can manage to stick it out.

If you're interested, an alternative that might be really helpful, would be to roll a class with good melee and defenses, like an assassin, or good support, like a bard, whose role is something along the lines of they absolutely love necromancers but couldn't be one them self for what ever reason you want to come up with. Then talk to every necromancer you see and tell them you love their work and offer your services to them.

My guess is you'd find a bunch of necro's willing to take on an ally who would be useful to them in doing their necro things (like raising armies) because of their melee or support capabilities and let you tag along with them.

This way you'd get to see how a variety of players play the class and learn the ins and outs of it by watching without having to suffer through the learning pains of CF and the class at the same time.

nt

One thing you want to learn before getting to lvl 11(where pk starts) is to find your way around. Now, learning even half the mud will take a long time but getting between Galadon - Udgaard - Voralia - Hamsah - Arkham - Seantryn would be the bare minimum imo. That includes all the major roads. Try to find a few places along these roads/near these cities where you feel you could hide for a bit. Surviving and running away is going to be quite important as a first time necromancer because of things you already mentioned - everyone will try to kill you.

When you get to lvl 11, make "where" a command you use extremely often. See someone in your area that can pk you, start running. Unless you feel cocky and want to go for a fight. But in most cases, if they are coming towards you, they will be ready to fight.


Cant really give any more specific advice about necromancer because I have never played one past lvl 15 since I started playing CF back in '97 or '98.

Good luck with the necromancer. It wont be easy but can be a good learning experience. Cant start out much more fragile than that.

Even if you want your first "real character" to be a necromancer, I'd still cast my vote for playing something like a ranger or assassin a little bit to start to find your way around the world.

There's broadly a few reasons necromancers are hard as a newbie, which I'll outline not to dissuade you but so you understand the weaknesses you'll be trying to shore up:

1) More built-in enemies than almost anything. (But you knew that already.)

2) Area knowledge is at a premium. Things like: what creatures can you make good zombies out of in a particular set of circumstances? Where should you be hunting for useful wands or greater undead? Which areas have good places for you to set up summon traps, or traps for enemy stealth classes?

3) Aggressiveness is at a premium. In the right situation you have very strong offense; in most cases you have defense ranging from moderate to very poor. How to engineer fights so your enemies slam into the brick wall of your offense rather than the straw hut of your squishiness takes a certain amount of finesse.

4) In most cases, your value to a group that wants to get XP is marginal, so gaining levels can be a challenge.

Onto some advice:

1) Plan to join Tribunal or Empire. Both of these are more much new player friendly cabal options than Scion or Scarab. Having some players that are inclined to not kill you and possibly offer some advice will really accelerate your learning the game over being uncaballed. I mean, Empire's a bunch of evil bastards and not a pile of hugs and puppies, but better to have those evil bastards on your side and in a position where you might be able to barter for some help than not.

Granted, being Orderly limits you in some ways but at this point you need the help more than you'll suffer with that restriction.

2) Situationally, disruption (and earlier, torment spirit) are really powerful leveling tools. They won't always be relevant but don't forget about them.

3) Once in PK range, default to being invis, especially for the first ~20 levels of PK. Some people who want to kill you won't have a way to detect invis, or won't be able to keep it up 24/7.

4) Putting people to sleep and loading them up with maledictions before waking with energy drain or damage spells is probably your main PK tactic before undead start coming out, and often even after. Be aware that dwarves and other races that resist poison and/or disease will be harder to poison or crimson scourge.

5) Be wary of people who can bash or trip you -- successful command denial is hard for a lowbie necromancer to deal with.