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Given that we have details about the first four levels of Necromancer here, I think that's enough to go ahead and get this thread rolling with!
What Necromancer characters are you thinking about playing, or at least keeping around in your back pocket until a suitable game comes along?
First off, Vin, a kholo with a knack for object reading. He used his psychometry on destroyed undead skeletons, tracking the bones back to where they were raised and stealing the necromancer's secrets. He uses his own skeletons to do all sorts of menial work for him, and delegates more complex tasks to the few intelligent undead he's managed to put together. I'll be looking to get the undead creation rituals, subtle casting, and at least one "scarier thrall" focus spell. Definitely the bone subclass for clean thralls that move faster.
I was recently thinking about the expansions to the Snarecrafter archetype and how it allows making magical snares and detonating them. Necromancer is also pretty keen on making something temporary only to detonate it later, so I began thinking about combining the two. I came up with a bog dragon kobold who makes shoddy imitations of proper bog mummies, and uses his necromancy and bits of bone and sinew to set up half-magical snares. Since there aren't a lot of smaller creatures for a kobold to trap and force to tell him stories, I was thinking of giving him a cage on his back with a trapped sprite. (That would probably be by taking Undead Familiar and asking the GM to waive the "undead" part for flavor reasons.) Obviously needs to be the flesh subclass for shoddy bog mummies.
During the playtest, I played a tanuki Necromancer gal, Ira, who used Teakettle Form to turn into a talking skull. With the new version of the class, it's possible for her to to cast Create Thrall, turn into a skull, and direct the thrall to carry her around for the next minute. It seems pretty reasonable to ask a GM for a bit of leeway to maintain a single thrall while in skull form in order to keep up the gimmick when needed. (Could I just play a skeleton? Sure. But this is funnier.) She's definitely specialized in skeletons, having teeth sewn into her clothing that open to extradimensional maws containing all her raised skeletons. I'd probably be picking up Body Shield or Bony Barrage for her, and looking into Necrologist.
I also wanted to have something for the new blood subclass. Blood is produced from bones, so I was thinking about making a skeleton Necromancer with the blood focus instead. Make a party of fake clergy of some deity or another, always transporting the alleged bones of a saint in a fancy glass reliquary coffin on pilgrimage. She lies still and looks stately whenever they're passing someone on the road, but opens the lid and chats while there's nobody around. If there's trouble, though, blood starts flowing from her bones and forming into thralls. Conceal Spell allows performing "miracles", and Invert Harm allows for some blessings if Soothe doesn't cut it.
My friend is fond of necromancers in general, and wanted to make a flesh-specialist poppet that makes mindless zombie "friends", having tea parties with them, getting pulled around in a wagon by them, and so on. Grabbing the Undead Creator feat to eventually be able to make an actual intelligent zombie friend, as well as Body Shield so their "friends" can look out for them.
Your bloody skeleton idea immediately made me think of the skeleton of a mighty sorcerer, killed stripped and reanimated by a rival mage, but some stain of their old bloodline-driven magic remained and eventually grew into a different kind of power the undead can barely control.
My first thought when I read about the blood subclass was an Orc sworn to the cult of Nulgreth, the Blood God, Orc god of rage. When Orc gods started getting replaced left and right in the lead up to Godsrain, he realized he had been hoping his own god would get got, and abandoned the church to explore the wider world beyond mindless bloodshed, and what part his sanguine magic could play in it.
I also think it's fun to play with different cultrually-specific undead. A Golden Road/Fantasy Arabic Necromancer with Ghoul-like thralls and minions. An Osirian embalmer who conjures pseudo mummies drawn from the memories of his long career. A minatan jangling with jars of blood to contain their myriad polongs. Once again I lament the lack of a Fantasy Ireland in Golarion, but I suppose a dullahan conjurer could turn up anywhere (maybe Andoran for the Ichabod Crane vibe). Fun fact, some historical Korean kingdoms conceptualized royal heridity as a factor not of blood, but of bone -- perhaps a Tian Hwan noble exhibiting the might of their legacy?
A Samsaran who's gone and dug up their own former bodies for bones, figuring who could be a more consenting donor than themselves?
An Awakened Parrot or Tidepool Dragonet who's become the fulcrum of a crew of ghostly pirates to which she was a pet in life.
A Holy Nagagi who weaves the shed skins of great Naga overlords into Hollow Serpent-like servants.
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My first thought is a dhampir blood reaper, going full Castlevania with the vibes and making a nuisance of myself on the battlefield
My idea so far is "Reaper". I know I want that subclass, but I can't really decide on anything else yet.
I'm considering some sort of "white Necromancer", probably Human to grab The Hallowed Dead via Natural Ambition. Might go Aiuvarin and so I can Multitalent into Champion later to be the holy warrior who throws undead at the evil guys. Would also need to find a fitting Deity.
Decisions, decisions.
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I've said else where a Human Quick from Geb who showed a proficency with magic, has a Vampiric Patron who helped fund his education. He is now sponsored (mostly just making sure his parents are living in comfort out of the Quick ghettos) to go out adventuring and show the power of the Nation of Geb to help improve the world. he's a good person, and genuinely wants to be a hero, but growing up in Geb has lead him to accept some odd things as "Acceptable"
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a Goblin Duskwalker blood reaper. He was killed in one of the last of the Chitterwood battles, a complete massacre, where his dead body was left submerged in a pool of blood from his fellow goblins. he was sent back to exact justice on the Chelaxian noble who lead the massacre on his people. He slit the nobleman's throat with the broken Dogslicer he'd weilded in the massacre (snuck in, he didn't manage some daring assault). He claimed the noble's saber, and has found the death energies used to bring him back fused with the blood pool he was raised from to grant him necromatic powers.
I went FULL Edgelord in this one.
Might not really count since this is a character I was already running with the playtest rules but...
Street urchin turned minor gang member turned frighteningly good lawyer. He works for one of the more mercenary and amoral law firms on Absalom Station who were sitting on his necromantic talents and legal mind mostly to keep him out of the hands of their competitors without actually investing in him. He's also a father of three and more-or-less amicably divorced from someone distinctly eldritch.
A lawyer/necromancer with a gun and a worryingly broad set of skills. It's a SF/PF hybrid game so he gets access to the much more fun and interesting SF2e simple weapons so his weapon of choice is a reaction breacher. Having Osteo Armaments at a lower level and Necrotic Bomb being rolled into the base class means that in a couple of levels, he'll suddenly get a lot more flexible. Sure the Seeker Rifle doesn't have a lot of kick but it would still be hilarious to turn a thrall into one and start laying down overwatch.
I have at least 3 different Necromancer ideas so far
1) Gonna be playing her in a game soon, using the playtest for now untill the book is out. Her name is Sevram and she is a dhampir in my friends home-brew setting. She had a passion for history and wanted to learn necromancy to understand her own lineage as a dhampir. She then used her connection to the dead to help communicate with restless spirits. She is an Archeologist at heart and is trying to find the settings Atlantis equivalent. She is an adorable bookworm who talks with spirits, rats, wolves, bats and locals to help understand the places she studies. Considering using Vivian from Paper Mario as a reference for her Thralls.
2) A Changeling woman who was ostracized since a young age. She has tried to resist the calling and that and her lack of socialization led her to being a bit of a shut in, and struggle with mental health issues, primarily hallucinations. She eventually did manage to find love with a local man whose love couldn't fix her but was there to comfort and patient with her. They even had a daughter together. Her Hag Mother however manipulated events to try and and push her daughter to follow the Call. She sent a monster of some kind to the cabin where her daughter lived, at first the husband managed to keep it as bay, but he eventually succumbed to his wounds. That is when the woman heard her mother voice tempting her with magic to save herself and her baby daughter. She accepted calling upon her husbands corpse as her first thrall to deliver the final blow. She is still trying to resist the call but no longer feels safe for her own daughter, so she sends her daughter to be raised by her Mother in Law, and now travels the world offering medical services to adventuring parties. She tries to avoid using her magic, but if it means saving a life she will call upon the dead to protect those in need.
3) Pure Vibes, Anime ninja esque abilities via Necromancy and occult spells. Using thralls like Narutos shadow clone jutsu, piercing darts as a wave of shurikens, and using curses and other debuff spells to give the vibe of mystical poisons and stuff like that. Wooden double is also on the occult spell list so also add to the ninja vibes. Will probably be a Reaper Necromancer. Also kind of inspired by the ninja classes and the character that default to them in the Fire Emblem Fates games.
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Speaking of teeth, my first attempt will be a bleeding tooth fungus leshy blood necromancer. Fascinated by meatbag blood assuming a special kinship with their own crimson fluid exudation. They quickly realize it's not the same thing at all. Remains a sanguimancer due to invested time and effort, but mostly for the fitting aesthetic.
Teeth are basically bones right? Sprite with the Bone fascination. The tooth fairy ain't giving out coins no more
Oh that's a fun idea
I can't claim the original idea, but I roughed out a fungus leshy flesh necromancer using the playtest version that (my twist) reflavored the Seed Pod ancestry feat to a "Spore Pod" (mechanically the same, just substituting fungal filaments for the "tangle of vegetation").
I could see a fleshwarp flesh necromancer whose thralls are parts of its own body that it is sloughing off for maximum ick factor.
Riffing off the samsaran idea a bit, a ghoran who has been hoarding their old bodies for fear of them being eaten by others who has taken to animating them to help defend them. Pairs well with the occult charms and enchantments utilizing the lovely fragrances of their old bodies.
Maybe a shisk osteomancer using bone quills? Would need to massage the idea a bit to give it a bit more oomph.