Skills/Necromancy

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Necromancy is the dark art of death magic. Necromancers curse their enemies, drain them with pain and poison, raise the dead, summon familiars and take on monstrous forms. It runs on its own spellbook and its own five reagents, and every spell is fuelled by Spirit Speak.

At a glance

Skill cap	100 (Grandmaster)
Spellbook	necromancer spellbook (115 gold at mages)
Reagents	bat wing, daemon blood, pig iron, nox crystal, grave dust
Partner skill	Spirit Speak sets the damage and duration of most spells
Stats it trains	None

How Necromancy works

Drop necromancy scrolls onto your necromancer spellbook to learn them, then cast from the book like any other spell.
Each spell has a required Necromancy. At that level you have no chance yet; your chance rises until it always succeeds 40 points higher. Casting from a scroll always works once you have the required skill.
Each spell uses mana and reagents, just like Magery.
Spirit Speak powers the spells: higher Spirit Speak means more damage and longer effects. Many spells are weakened by the target's Resisting Spells.
Every necromancy spell lowers your karma. Slower spells cost more.

Reagents

	Reagent	Price at mages
	Bat wing	3 gold
	Daemon blood	6 gold
	Pig iron	5 gold
	Nox crystal	6 gold
	Grave dust	3 gold

Spells

Spell	Necromancy needed	Always succeeds at	Mana	Reagents	Effect
Animate Dead	40	80	23	Grave dust Daemon blood	Raises a nearby corpse as an undead servant that fights for you. The kind of undead depends on the corpse and on your Necromancy and Spirit Speak.
Blood Oath	20	60	13	Daemon blood	Binds you to a target: damage it deals to you is also dealt back to it. Lasts 8 seconds plus (your Spirit Speak minus its Resisting Spells) / 8.
Corpse Skin	20	60	11	Bat wing Grave dust	Turns the target's skin dry and corpselike for 40 seconds plus (Spirit Speak minus its Resisting Spells) / 2.5.
Curse Weapon	Any	40	7	Pig iron	For Spirit Speak / 3.4 + 1 seconds, half the damage your weapon deals is added to your health.
Evil Omen	20	60	11	Bat wing Nox crystal	Halves the target's Resisting Spells until the next harmful thing happens to it, and that next blow does 25% more damage. Lasts Spirit Speak / 12 + 1 seconds.
Horrific Beast	40	80	11	Bat wing Daemon blood	Transforms you into a hulking beast whose health regenerates much faster. You can't cast most other spells in this form (You cannot cast that spell in this form.).
Lich Form	70	110	23	Grave dust Daemon blood Nox crystal	Transforms you into a lich. While in this form you lose 1 hit point every 2.5 seconds.
Mind Rot	30	70	17	Bat wing Pig iron Daemon blood	The target's spells cost 25% more mana (double against creatures) for 20 seconds plus (Spirit Speak minus its Resisting Spells) / 5, and twice as long against creatures.
Pain Spike	20	60	5	Grave dust Pig iron	Deals 18 + (Spirit Speak minus the target's Resisting Spells) / 10 damage, 30 more against creatures. A player gets the health back 10 seconds later; casting it again before then adds only 3 to 7.
Poison Strike	50	90	17	Nox crystal	A burst of poison that hits the target for about 43 to 48 damage at 100 Spirit Speak and splashes onto others within 2 tiles, weaker the farther they stand.
Strangle	65	105	29	Daemon blood Nox crystal	Chokes the target with damage that repeats and grows, from 4 up to (Spirit Speak / 10 + 1) × 3 per tick. Lasts about 34 seconds at 100 Spirit Speak.
Summon Familiar	30	70	17	Bat wing Grave dust Daemon blood	Calls a familiar to serve you. See the table below.
Vampiric Embrace	99	120	23	Bat wing Nox crystal Pig iron	Transforms you into a vampire.
Vengeful Spirit	80	120	41	Bat wing Grave dust Pig iron	Summons a revenant that hunts the target for Spirit Speak × 80 / 120 + 10 seconds (about 77 seconds at 100).
Wither	60	100	23	Nox crystal Grave dust Pig iron	Everyone within 5 tiles of you takes cold damage. Targets with good karma take more.
Wraith Form	20	60	17	Nox crystal Pig iron	Transforms you into a wraith that can pass through other people.

Familiars

Summon Familiar lets you pick a familiar from a menu. You can only have one at a time (You already have a familiar.). Each needs both skills:

Familiar	Necromancy and Spirit Speak needed
Horde Minion	30 / 30
Shadow Wisp	50 / 50
Dark Wolf	60 / 60
Death Adder	80 / 80
Vampire Bat	100 / 100

Transformation spells

Horrific Beast, Lich Form, Vampiric Embrace and Wraith Form change your body. Cast the same spell again to return to normal.

Training Necromancy

Every cast is a chance to gain, as long as the spell is inside its range (required skill to 40 above). Fizzles count too.
Cheap spells like Curse Weapon (pig iron only) and Pain Spike carry you through the early levels.
Train Spirit Speak alongside; it powers everything you cast.
Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt, sometimes several tenths at once. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
The harder the attempt is for your skill level, the better your chance to gain. Your chance also drops as you get closer to your Necromancy cap and to your total skill cap of 700.
If you've set Necromancy to go down (the arrow in your skills list), gains elsewhere can lower it to make room under your total cap. Lock skills you want to keep.
Reaching 100.0 adds Necromancy to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
Mages will train you for gold: up to a third of their own skill, at most 42.0, for 1 gold per 0.1 points. Ask them (or use their context menu) to train the skill, then drop the gold on them.

Stats: this skill doesn't raise any stats.

Suggested path

Necromancy	How to train
0 to about 33	Buy it from a mage.
33 to 50	Pain Spike and Evil Omen.
50 to 70	Horrific Beast (cast it on and off) or Mind Rot.
70 to 85	Wither or Poison Strike.
85 to 100	Strangle, then Lich Form or Vengeful Spirit.

Tips

New necromancers start with a necromancer spellbook holding Animate Dead, Evil Omen, Pain Spike, Summon Familiar and Wraith Form, plus a bag of reagents.
Evil Omen first. Open with it to halve the target's resistance and make your next attack hit harder.
Watch your karma. Every cast pushes it down.
Leave Lich Form when you're done: it slowly drains your health.