Pogrist the Great's page

A cat has nine lives...eight to be curious and one to live.

... and a tenth or better to be thorough, if your phylactery is constructed soundly... mwahaha....

He sighs, leaves a couple silver pieces to pay for his newly ordered drink (assuming one is brought), and makes his way to the door.
A necromancer walks out of a bar.

A gaunt, pale man with bulging bloodshot eyes stirs uncomfortably at Maldrago's passing close by his table where he has sat quietly listening for some time. He wears a dark, ruddy-colored robe and a necklace made of what appears to be bones and teeth which he smoothly tucks into his tunic.

Ahem, yes- barmaid! I'll be needing another tankard, miss, and perhaps plunk one of those curious mushrooms in as well! This has indeed been a long night...

Now breaking his tense silence:

SZorry to intrude, friends, but I must ask- what have you seen abroad of Absalom? I have traveled from afar to study Osirion magic, and learned a good bit in the Pathfinder's libraries as well, but I hear disturbing rumors...

Animate Dead! Done right!

I am a necromancy student currently on contract from Osirion. I have recently set up a small apothecary in Absalom, which I will also expand into a curio shoppe featuring my taxidermy work. Among the stuffed beasts I shall pose the undead specimens leftover from my necromantic experiments and those animated or commanded on pathfinder outings. Retaining undead within the city is nominally forbidden, but amongst my stitched and stuffed trophies they shall remain well hidden in plain sight, motionless, breathless, tireless, waiting. Perhaps I will even charge admission!
Business: Artisan Shop

I've also had my hound, Dargon, trained to track the undead on our travels. Unable to take him as a true familiar, he may serve by watching our camp by night and rooting out the unliving by day so I may wrest their secrets from them by speech, spell, or scalpel as needed.
Follower: Hunter

I should hope to acquire a small cabal of like-minded, fearlessly curious arcanists to reform the Arcane Research Society we once held in Sarathel, but that was a lifetime ago...

Oh, the possibilities are ENDLESS! What skills are required? Leatherwork? Taxidermy? Yes, yes, and what of using more powerful or unique creatures? Do they retain any extraordinary abilities?

I MUST KNOW!

That is to say, "BUMP"

As a relative newcomer to Golarion, is there any lands or towns in which my coach pulled by animated skeletal horses wouldn't raise a grand inquisition? Besides this Geb I hear of, that is.

Do all of you have funeral arrangements- just in case?

Whereupon someone usually assumes I'm speaking of ressurection costs or burial

Oh, no, not at all! I could bring you back, but you wouldn't be quite...er...right...

Organ donors, anyone?

Necromancers are fun

Sorry, with all the anti-necromancer sentiments flying about in other forums, I felt the need to "resurrect" this thread for some fun undead combinations...mwahaha...

Zombie brain-eating elephant who simply grabs up humanoids and eats thier heads like grapefruit? (Stemmed from a conversation about most horrible zombie animals imaginable)

Ghoul wolves? Their ability to work together, trip, and paralyze...

Swarms of exploding and/or plague zombie rats?

What of a vampiric walrus? A giant, bloated, pinkish-pallid creature with natural fangs the size of longswords! Now imagine the beast uses gasseous form or shape changes into a dire bat (or better, a partial shape change to turn flippers into bat wings...), gains altitude and sneak attacks from above with those massive tusks!
...and they said I was mad...
Mwahahaha!

But enough "fun" ones...

My skeletal quickling archer was extremely useful, as was the advanced bugbear zombie, fast-zombie horses and wyvern... What have YOU animated lately?

In the above situation mentioned, if a necromancer is to be animating undead minions, I feel he should be responsible for them at all times, especially in light of the attitudes already in place. I would have ridden the undead steed personally to the villain. If this were not possible and the ranger slew him needlessly, I'd ask for recompense on the cost of the onyx used, or some simple boon at a later date. Uncontrolled undead are wild cards, even if they're just beyond range (and how far ahead was it that it couldn't heed its master's instruction?)

No one with experience could sensibly argue that necromancers can't be a disruptive influence, the point of my public use of necromancy in the Pathfinder Society is, in part, to reverse this stigma.

I prefer skeletons for the quick, zombies for the strong, and fast zombies for flying mounts to start with. Animating enemy leaders, even into simple zombies and skeletons, is good because their greater strength and dexterity can be retained if their minds cannot. Skeletal or fast zombie horses are a simple boon for a carriage that can move day and night without rest.

Give up! Even if you hoard all the onyx in the world, I would use blood money to surpass the deficit. Send in priests? I'll bolster to resist channeling. Burn them, I'll animate burning skeletons.

Why would you want to persecute one of our order who is being cooperative? If he is truly out of hand, bypass his minions and go straight for him, or call in a more powerful necromancer to take {i]command[/i] of his minions and set them against him. I work for a modest fee.

Where do I buy one? I have designs for something similar, but this seems perfect!

Several options present themselves:
1. Leave them outside town and/or bury them.
2. Disguise them as the living, with the techniques listed above.
3. Disguise them as the dead. Unmoving undead could be part of a funerary rite, scientific specimens, or even taxidermy.
4. Remember that undead can wait unmoving indefinitely, and needn't breathe, eat, or sleep. Bags of holding, burial, or submersion are all viable options not available to the living.

Once you can create undead or command intelligent undead you encounter you'll have more or less willing accomplices in these endeavors, probably better at passing for living cohorts, I think.

Ah, yes. I have neglected Illusion and Enchantment in favor of Necromancy. Mirror Image is extremely potent, but a non-option for me unfortunately.
I have played this character to high levels in other campaigns, rerolling him for PFS

My name is Pogrist the Great, Necromancer of the Pathfinder Society. I have just attained the third degree of proficiency in wizardry, specializing in necromancy, of course. My first few missions for the Society have gone reasonably well, but I find myself on the receiving end of unwanted enemy attentions a bit too often, receiving serious injury more than once.

I am considering bringing my faithful hound Dargon along as a bodyguard. He is a sturdy dog, trained in combat and tracking the dead, yet I fear for his safety. Also, I am forbidden by the Society to maintain any undead retainers I may acquire or eventually create, so that avenue of defense is also unsustainable.

I am well versed in Mage Armor and will likely research Defending Bone in the interim, yet these fall short at times. What protection is recommended to wizards of more conventional methods?

Remember that "normal" skeletons lose their minds during reanimation, and thus spellcasting abilities therewith. If the "skeletal" dragons in question are among the exceptions, they would retain the considerable spellcasting potential of their living forms. A simple Fly spell isn't much to muster for such a creature to retain the flight it enjoyed before it assumed room temperature. I'd have to interview and possibly dissect one to answer you better.

Create Undead has it's own obvious advantages, creating very specialized, often intelligent creatures (whom often retain memories and abilities they had in life), but the issue then becomes control. Make sure you manta in it, or you may prematurely join their ranks!

I personally have much more experience with Animate Dead. Such creatures lose their identities and are mindless, therefore are usually effortless to control unless you are challenged by another necromancer or the like. Class abilities fall away, but naturally large, powerful creatures make excellent servants.

Racial hit dice are retained, while class levels are dropped. Remember also zombies get a STR bonus, skeletons a DEX bonus, fast zombies get both. If you memorize or make a note card of all the adjustments needed to convert a creature to a zombie/skeleton, or keep it handily ready on a laptop, you can quickly and easily animate fallen foes without taking forever to do so. Be sure to get the specific stats for boss monsters/NPCs from your GM, as they are likely better than the run-of-the-mill version.

A bit of advice for undead in unfriendly populated areas:
1. Undead can be left outside, even buried, and wait indefinitely till called.
2. Undead are great at playing...dead, and as such, can mimic slain creatures or even taxidermied trophies.
3. Never forget that naturally powerful creatures make unnaturally powerful zombies and skeletons, and can be further empowered by variant animations. Try, for example, zombie bugbears or skeletal quickling archers.
4. Although undead are tireless (making a team of skeletal horses and a coach the safest and quickest way to travel at night), normal zombies cannot run.
5. Flying creatures need to be animated as zombies, not skeleons, to retain flight. If you create a zombie wyvern, for that matter, make sure it's a fast zombie. (See above)

While I am in the camp of banning blood transcription is silly camp, how does not having access to that prevent your concept?!? It's ONE FREAKING SPELL.

It's more the principle of "this is evil, while that glaring evil is not", leading one to wonder when "that" will be banned as well. Our laws work on established precedents, and when the necromancers and Chelaxians are themselves "put to the question", The Deciemverate vs. Blood Trasnscription" being on the books is damning.

It's on these precedents (which Cheliax sets pretty far out) that makes the blood ban seem uneven.

Mr. Lemure, Mr. Mayhew, Mr. Sin: You gentlemen take my point near to exactly. he hands them a petition scribed in "red ink" on parchment to sign and a quill

Mr. Saxon: I understand emphatically your friends objection to the necromantic arts. It is clear that their flagrant and irresponsible use, coupled with the general lack of understanding as to how they work amongst the uninitiated, has driven the "witch hunt" thus far. I doubt very seriously your paladin friends would begrudge me the reanimation of my faithful hound, should he fall, or temporarily controlling wild undead to turn against their own kind, or any other use of necromancy that saves the party's skin. I have learned that when traveling, not only with well armed paladins of deities such as yours, but just amongst the uninitiated of any faith, discretion saves lives- MY OWN!*
*and it is this very RP experience that makes this character fun to play

Mr. Pittard: While I cannot commit myself at this time to the bloatmage college, as the drawbacks of corpulence and the uncontrolled rage outweigh the benefits for me, I nonetheless urge you beware this ruling, as it is only a matter of time before they come to your door! (I am currently studying the ancient styles of the Blood Magus of Faerun and the Maho-Tsukai of Rokugan, and hope to find a compatible alternative. This is why I have such interest in your field of study!).

Hail, friends. My name is Pogrist the Great, necromancer in service and study of Osirion. It has come to my attention that many of the uninitiated masses object to the use of necromancy and blood magic, seeing it as evil. This would come as no surprise, were we not living in an advanced age. I ask that we necromancers receive the same rights and immunities as the Chelaxians do.

Case in point- spells with the "evil" descriptor. Many necromancy spells that animate or create undead creatures bear this stigma, yet so do many others:

When you use a summoning spell to summon a creature with an alignment or elemental subtype, it is a spell of that type. Creatures on Table: Summon Monster marked with an "*" are summoned with the celestial template, if you are good, and the fiendish template, if you are evil. If you are neutral, you may choose which template to apply to the creature.

Summoning devils is an evil act, yet this is dismissed.

Blood magic, such as Blood Transcription often requires the use and/or ingestion of a creatures blood. I understand that this is distasteful to the uninitiated, but when used as a means to an end (such as gaining rare spells from a fallen foe) I hardly think it evil in and of itself. The ruling against blood has also removed many of our dhampir brethren's intrinsic racial feats. I hardly see this as fair to them, or aspiring bloodmages of other races. What o the cruoromancer? The bloatmage? Blood restrictions are archaic and superstitious, and no worse I offer than what is already accepted.

Not to berate the Chelaxians needlessly, but why dismiss their worship of Asmodeus ( an admittedly evil deity), their summoning devils, and cloak and dagger conspiracies, while we necromancers seek only knowledge beyond death's door?

I do not speak for any beyond myself, but I ask not to be limited by the actions and opinions of these uninitiated, superstitious...individuals...who cannot even cast a cantrip interfering with my research.

Thank you for your support!

Pogrist the Great

Matthew Morris wrote:

Wait, blood transcription was banned? I missed that. any idea why?

Because it's a form of cannibalism, and cannibalism (in PFS) is an evil act.

Again, blood magic and necromancy are repressed as evil while diabolism and devil-worship are sanctioned- I suppose because the Chelaxians obviously have seats in (or power over) the deciemverate.

The thanatopic and threnodic disciplines of the Osirions can put an unruly thrall back in place, but typically if confronted with undead not of my own design, I take Command of the most powerful of them and turn it against the others.

...or how about Animate Dead? Do you know how annoying it is having your undead horses, and loyal sidekick go stiff each time you enter Absalom from a mission? I STILL have yet to understand HOW this happens... If not for Blood Money, I fear I might have single handedly wiped Golarion clean of onyx by now...

Blood Transcription is AWESOME, and I can only guess banned by the deciemverate for the public relations issues that have arisen when used in front of the "uninitiated" masses. I have, regrettably, had to leave it as well as two of my favored spellbooks* behind at the behest of my employers upon my hire.
*Namely The Book of the Grave and Grandfather's Legacy
Fortunately, there is a vast magical library in Absalom in which a Pathfinder can find nearly any (sanctioned) spell for a modest access fee- well worth the inconveniences of forbidden lore for the time being.