Feasability of playing a necromancer

[topcat098]

I have completed 3 play throughs, (1 destruction/summons mage : main quest, college, civil war rebels; 1 heavy armour, 2H beserking orc doing companions, civil war imperials and half main quest; 1 stealth + illusion argonian archer doing thief guild and dark brotherhood. I think the last was most fun).

 

I'm going to wait till the end of January for a 4th run through - give it time for some more mods to come out, as well as catching up with the rest of life that has not existed for the last month). This time I wont be touching the main quest, just all the extras. Misc, Temple, Daedric, Favours, Thane of everywhere but Whiterun (that needs too much of main quest and I don't want dragons attacking me everywhere I go!) I reckon there should be plenty to do.

 

I want to plan it out now so that I can look at all the quest info to plot an itinerary, but forget the details before I actually do it. I've decided I'd like to do a necromancer (zombie raising conjuration and illusion (I'd never played illusion before - I was very pleasantly surprised by how useful it was in my last playthrough). Also I'll use Alteration for skins, mage armour etc. It all sounds fun but I see 2 problems. How do I deal with a mob of undead when I'm far too low a level for the illusion perk that would allow me to calm them? Restoration deals with them but it all sounds pretty useless. Why would I want them to flee - they'll still be there and they'll wake up every baddy around in the process.

Also, I need a way to create corpses before I can raise them. 2 ideas come to find. Summons (I'll be levelling up conjuration anyway) and archery (which is fun and effective. Bound Bow perhaps).

 

So, summary of a long question:

What are people's experience of using restoration to turn undead? Is it any good at all?

What do people think would make a good corpse maker? I'll be concentrating my perks on conjuration, illusion and alteration, with enchantment as a minor. I can only go for one more - restoration or archery.

 

One last thing. I'm not going to touch the main quest, but if I was, how would my necromancer kill a dragon in the early stages? If I go archery that might hurt it but all magic? My first mage blasted them with fire/frost as appropriate but if I'm not going destruction? I guess my summons and companion could give them a hard time but is that enough?

[ddwmk2002]

 

 

So, summary of a long question:

What are people's experience of using restoration to turn undead? Is it any good at all?

What do people think would make a good corpse maker? I'll be concentrating my perks on conjuration, illusion and alteration, with enchantment as a minor. I can only go for one more - restoration or archery.

 

One last thing. I'm not going to touch the main quest, but if I was, how would my necromancer kill a dragon in the early stages? If I go archery that might hurt it but all magic? My first mage blasted them with fire/frost as appropriate but if I'm not going destruction? I guess my summons and companion could give them a hard time but is that enough?

 

For the first few levels... get a demora lord to do the dirty work for you,though its not exactly in line with been a nnecromancer... just pretend dadrea are undead :P when you get dead thrall, kill bosses of dungeons then summon them using dead thrall, for e.g bandit chiefs.

 

 

use dead thrall on either legate rikke after stormcloak quests or "whats his name?" [ulfrics bodyguard] if you sided with imperials, this two have more hp than your average bandit chief

 

[jy02521671]

1) use summon atronoch early game, mid game use dremora lord, late game use dead thrall to perminently summon a dead corpse, low level summon dead only last 60 sec and you have to find the right corpse, i couldnt raise anything better than rabbit till level 10. so you have to rely on atronoch and dremora lord before you get to rank 100 in conjuration

 

2) turn undead is a really bad spell, makes undead flee for a few sec, aggros on everything and then they will come back and continue attack you, its better off use thunderbolt to finish them off

 

3) alteration.....ugh. there is nothing good about alteration. except for mass paralysis but think about it this way, boss cant be paralysed, undead cant be paralysed, deadra(atronoch) cant be paralysed, you dont have much options left, on top of that it cost 900 mana, even if you can paralyse everyone what can you do after that? get a dagger stab them to death?

 

4) mage armor....ugh. never trust mage armor spells, always wear heavy armor. you are thinking dragonhide might be good? let me tell you its stats first, 500ish armor rating, last 30 sec with rediculous cast time (5 sec). and best of all it can not be dual cast. yep unless you invest 5 perks into alteration it will not last more than 30 sec. have you actually tried it in combat? you have to summon an atronoch, dodging arrows/attacks/shots, and then cast dragonhide (cant move during 5 sec cast time), and then return shots. and then re-cast dragonhide again. i mean unless you have 200 APM (which i dont, i am average joe) you will not be able to manage all that effectively

 

5) archery, while it is good and certainly better than destruction magic at late game. you need high level sneak to do more damage, but if you level both archery and sneak, arent you playing a stealth charactor?

 

6) as to what makes your best dead thrall minions. the answer is perminent dremora lords, watch this

Edited December 13, 2011 by jy02521671

[sarnz]

Is the necromancer something that would be moddable? When I think necromancer, I think diablo 2. Because that was awesome. Imagine raiding a city with an undead army under your command, how freakin cool would that be

[Kravick]

I'm really hoping that there will be a mod once the CK comes out that diversifies necromancers from other mages by adding new spells or abilities. As it is right now a necromancer is no different from any other mage.

[TheMango55]

By far the biggest drawback about necromancers is the undead (besides thrall) not being able to go through area transitions. I have to think this is a bug, because Atronochs and Dremora can go through with you.

 

Also I hate them turning to ash after they die or the spell ends. Atronoch conjurers can just cast again, no problem, necromancers are screwed if nothing else is dead.

 

Then there's how long it takes for the corpse to animate. Dremora lords have already killed 2 bandits by the time the summoning "portal" effect closes, while undead take forever and if you really need a distraction you're already dead before they can take any heat off of you.

Edited December 13, 2011 by the_mango55

[stars2heaven]

I disagree with the one who said that turn undead is a bad spell. It is a fantastic spell! For one, it stuns your opponent. (if it is undead and this works regardless of the level of spell and the level of the target) So it basically works as a one handed impact. The idea is to use the lowest level version of it to stun lock the undead target while you hammer on it with your other hand. I haven't tested it, but I wonder if fear works the same way for living targets. It's worth a try... Edited December 13, 2011 by stars2heaven

[justwannaddl]

Dead thrall is probably one of those spells that pays off better at higher difficulties and levels. At low to mid levels and low difficulties, the thralls really are not worth mentioning. Same thing goes for the rest of the necromancy spells. Atronachs and dremora lords beat them every time.