Vision of Necromancy

Covers features found in Kvatch Aftermath but is also a useful read for The Necromancer that have since been moved to the Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack. This Guide remains accurate but the features are now available to all my mods and appear on all Necromancers in my mods now.

Includes a chat about spells and where the Necromancer Vision comes from and how its ballanced.

First lets set the scene.

My Necromancers are all Professor Frankenstein types. With some added benefits for game play reasons. Even Necromunda if approached at night will have an odd "Frankenstein's castle" effect if seen from the stairs. And yes it is always stormy and raining there and yes grave yard is always a little foggy.

That in a nut shell is what my Necromancers are, only in this case, there are some spells thrown in for good measure. But dont expect Frankenstein to be smiting those villagers with lightning bolts, thats not the Necromancer way. Why ruin the material when a knife is so much cleaner.

Important things for Necromancers


The most important thing to have as a Necromancer in my Guild is a high Willpower. So if you want to play a pure Necromancer, make sure Willpower is one of your primary stats or make sure you plan on raising your Willpower during your game.

The next two are equality important. Thats Intelligence for summoning and Strength because the Mark of Lich drains Strength to make you a more powerful Necromancer spell user, but as a Necromancer with no fireball type attacks, you will need some sort of weapon and Strength controls the damage of those weapons.

So that is were your compromise will take place, combat vs spells. Which way will your Necromancer go ?

A Typical Necromancer


Your Average Necromancer tries to Master as many Summon spells as possible and adopts either Hand to Hand, Blade or Blunt as an offensive skill.

In combat the Necromancer casts several shield type spells on him self that should last through out the entire battle. Even health can be cast on the Necromancer to make sure it remains topped up but if you allow your self to be hit, you can still die.

Between the shields and the health spells, the Necromancer is a hard person to kill but pretty weak in attack and those spells do not last forever. All it does is by you some time to kill the enemy before they kill you.

So a good summon spell mixed with some more traditional types of combat are needed. Armour and to some degree enchantments are obselete for Necromancers. This means Necromancers take full advantage of their speed in combat with no armour to slow them down.

Also, the better your willpower, the more spells you can maintain at the same time. My own Necromancer with a Willpower around 50 can support about 4 perhaps 5 spells running in combat.

But cannot cast other spells such as fireballs due to the Magicka being used up by defensive spells, thats one of reasons Necromancers do not use those destruction types of spells. The other reason is, they just does not work right as a lich spells, so my fictional reason works well with the actual reason for not using them lol.

But needless to say, a Lich version of a fireball would be extremely unballancing to the game anyway.

Also Necromancers who know they are entering combat can use the Corpious Summonus device found in all Guild Branches to create an Undead Army first. Though these creatures will not enter an Oblivion gate. Each Guild offers different creates to summon and all summoned created last until they are killed.

Over all, the Necromancer is a powerful magic user with some limitations. Definately hard to kill, definately able to make use of spells such as burden, drain fatigue and others to slow down a fast attacker and definately open to some unique forms of attack only Lich spells can provide because only Lich spells last long enough to make them worth casting.

Spells


All Necromancer Spells leach Magicka off the player over time and mostly last longer than normal spells, I call these Lich Spells. Some spells appear available earlier than they do for normal mages too. Such as reflect spell and similar items.

Necromancer spells tend not to be destruction type spells such as fireballs etc, these are not the Necromancer way. They are instead mostly Defensive with Summon spells used for Offensive combat. You will find it easier to summon powerful creatures for longer as a necromancer for that reason.

Also Necromancers can cast several shield spells on them selves to protect them selves from attack. Normal Mages will find it difficult to protect them selves without enchantments but for the Necromancer, this is standard practice.

Being able to caste Resistance to normal weapons, spell resistance and shield all at the same time is part of the Necromancer way.

For this reason, you will not find Fireball spells or similar for sale in the Necromancer Guild and if you did, you will find your defensive spells using up your magicka during an attack, making it difficult for you to cast fireball spells.

This does not prevent Mage Guild types treating the Necromancer Guild as an extension of the Mages Guild, but I want those players to know that they are NOT NECROMANCERS. To Judge the guild based on how well you can cast Mage Guild spells is stupid. Try and play a pure Necromancer and then tell me what you think.

Necromancer Spell Levels and casting costs


All Necromancer spells cost 1pt of Magicka to maintain for the duration of the spell, with the odd exception. Most cost 50pts to cast, regardless of the spell. This means you can run several spells at once providing your able to cast them.

Total Magicka is based on your Intelligence btw.

A Level 1 spell has the same cost to cast and maintain as a Level 2 or 3 Spell. The difference being a Lvl 2 or Lvl 3 spell is much more powerful than its Level 1 version.

Necromancer spells assume that as you gain in experience, the power of the spell increases but not the cost to cast it. That is why I use levels for spells.

Of course you can only improve a basic spell so far and that limit for shields is 30pts. No Necromancer spell will offer shields creater than 30pts even at master level.

Duration, Cost to Cast and Cost to Maintain are all considered to be part of the spell, changing them makes it a different spell. So those remain consistant at all levels.

Other Necromancer Groups.


There are 2 unique groups of Necromancer these days, one group formed a new guild and battled for their right to exist, the other turned bandit and moved in to caves and ruins. Whilst the Necromancer Guild may be perfectly legal, those Necromancers living in caves are not and will attack you on sight.

Grave Robbing.


Some items cannot be found in Cyrodil very easily and Necromancers must look in questionable places for items they need. The Human Heart is one such item, these can be found in coffins kept in Cathedral Undercrofts prior to burial the next day.

The coffins appear there from time to time but are usually not left there longer than 1 day before they are buried. So if you time it right, you might get lucky. Of course the condition of the body will vary a great deal and you may or may not get the item you need.

You should becareful here because grave robbing is illegal and trespassing in the Undercroft of any Cathedral is also illegal.

But it is there that you must go if you want to gather resources for some Necromancer devices.

Forms of Lich Hood.


Necromancers ultimate aim is to live longer and Lich's are just Necromancers that have under gone treatment so they can live longer. The degree of success is a measurement of how much of their original body was preserved. The easier the path to Lich Hood, the less of the body is preserved, the hardest and most risky paths often save most of the body but cannot stop it rotting away over time. This leads to skeleton like Lich's that are outcast by society generally.

Currently there are 2 forms of Lich Hood that are known to work.

1) The Preservation of the Soul in an Ethereal form.

2) The Preservation of the Soul inside the body in a Zombie like form.

Option 2 usually extends the life by a few hundred years and represents cutting edge research but the Ethereal method is safer for less talented Necromancers and thus more common.

For our purposes, these will be seen in the Guild as members who appear to be Ghost Like, they are actually using the Lich effect and if you look closely they will see their faces have colour and they are surrounded by a vapour. Thats the Lich effect, half dead basically.

The player gets to choose his own effect at Necromunda using some special devices.

Necromantic Devices and what they do.


Corpious Summonus
(Broken in versions before 5.3, well not broken, just not right)

This device spawns undead creatures for it's user, creatures spawned this way stay until killed. There are a few creatures that can be spawned using this device and each requires special items for it to work. Here is a list.

(This list was wrong in versions prior to 5.3)

Skeleton = 1 Full Black Soul Gem, 4 Bonemeal, 1 skull01
Zombie = 1 Full Black Soul Gem, 1 Skeleton Rib Cage, 4 MortFlesh
Wraith = 1 Full Black Soul Gem, 5 Ectoplasm

Markus Enchantus Lichicus

This device provides The Mark of Lich, it is used to test candidates to make sure they are suitably prepared to receive this powerful gift. To pass the test you need to have the following.

1 Varla Stone
1 Empty Black Soul Gem
60+ Strength
40+ Personality
40+ Agility
200+ Health

If you are considered worthy, the Mark of Lich Amulet will be given to you.

Mark of Lich


The Mark of Lich when worn makes the following modifications to the wearer. It effectively turns a fighter in to a Necromancer and can be used to improve your existing Necromancer character if you meet the requirements.

Strength -50
Personality -30
Agility -30
Intelligence + 100
Willpower + 100


The Mark of Lich allows the Necromancer to stack very powerful spells on top of each other, this can provide projection, magicka boosts and anything normal spells can provide. It is best used with Lich spells that run for longer periods than normal spells. The Mark of Lich will effectively keep your Magicka regenerating at a higher rate that normal to off set the number of spells you have cast on your self on in use at the time. Lich's often use magical means to increase things like strength that was lost when they became a Lich. In fact it is common for Lich's to run spells to restore common attributes to former levels and to maintain them at those levels using spells through out their life times. Such is how Lich Spells were developed in the first place, the need for longer lasting spells has driven this field of research forward from the very beginning.

Character Customization.


(Artist Licience applied here to give the player some extra choices)

Not every Necromancer wants to look like a half dead ghost, but those that feel the lifestyle is not complete without the Lich effect will be happy to know that Necromunda holds 6 devices offering 6 new looks for the budding Necromancer. Plus a seventh to reset the customisation you have previously added to your character. These are experimental at the moment and may change in the future.

Each custom feature requires you have the following items on your person.

1 Mark of Lich
3 Human Heart
3 Mort Flesh

Providing you have those items you can choose a new look for your self.

Quests


Tip for those who were archmage before doing these quests in previous versions of Kvatch Aftermath 5.2 or earlier. Type this in to the console to restore your Archmate rank. From 5.3 onwards I have removed the code that reduced your rank to zero.

player.setfactionrank magesguild 9

Joining the Necromancer Guild

NPC Offering the Quest = Bert Oddin

Bert offers the player various missions designed to test the players loyalty to the Necromancer Guild and eventually allow entry. The first part makes the player feel like a member, but he is not yet a full member.

Join the Necromancers Guild (Parts 1 and 2)
Guild Trial
Jobs Parts (1 and 2)


You will not see any Part 1 or Part 2 listed in the game but there are 2 parts to those missions. All is not what it seems to be here and the completion of the second part is pretty much a must if you wish to truely be a Necromancer Guild member, the first part establishes your interest in joining the Guild, the second part makes sure you will do whats required for the good of the Guild.

The Trial involved you killing 2 Prisoners, in earlier versions I had this remove the player from the Mages Guild but as of 5.3, that will no longer happen.

Also all prisions in the Necromancer Guild are Kvatch Citizens so you might be arrested by the guards for killing them and some Necromancers might get upset because killing Mages is not what they signed up for, your being given an extreme test here to see if you will do what needs to be done.

If you want to join the guild, you must do what is asked without question and accept what ever happens to you need, if anything. To be honest, you have to be very unlucky to suffer any penality from doing the trial part of the quest, but it is possible. But the mages guild will not react to these killings anymore.

I made this change due to popular demand but I do not happen to believe its good for game play to allow the player to join all guilds in all games. But since allowing that has zero effect on players who choose not to join all guilds for role play reasons, Ive decided to let those requesting it have their way this time.

The First Job is a recovery Job, Bert has found his friends Master Mortar & Pestle is currently kept in the Archmages Quarters in the Arcane University, you have to get it back. This means steeling from the Mages Guild which is a bootable offense.

The Second Job is building a new Guard to Patrol the Guild. For this Bert will ask you to get various bones. These bones appear in the kvatch graveyard for you.

Necromunda Quest

Offering NPC = None, this one arrives via Necromail when you enter the guild.

This assumes you did a mod reset for 6.0+ and are not running a 5.0 game save btw.
From 6.3 Onwards this quest is available 4 times a week to make it easier to get. Previously it was available only 4 times a month.

The guild have found out that the Mages Guild have found the Ancient tower known as Necromunda and plan to destroy it because it was the home of one of the greatest Necromancers of all time. The Necromancer Guild want it for their own and send you to intercept the messenger at the Ill omen Inn.

The messager and his guards are real Mages Guild members, if you kill them, the Mages Guild will boot you. So to avoid that you will have to Pick Pocket him. The item you need to get is a message to the mages guild. Once you have that you will find Hames marked on your map, this is near Necromunda.

But that step is an optional step, if you have already found Necromunda, you can go straight their and skip that section of the quest completely.

Once you arrive at Necromunda, you be confronted by 5 Battle Mages, these are actually not Mage Guild members, they are Black Bows, this means you can kill them without being booted (I hope you Mage Guild types appreciate these compromises I made for you, its a lot of work for me to support stuff i do not believe in).

After they are dead or if you went straight to Necromanda by passing the Mage Guild Messenger, you must approach the door of the largest tower. You will see a Magic seal in place preventing entry and a firely ghostly figure will appear next to you.

This is an illusion, its Lich Master Kalidic trying to contain you to get you help in removing the seal, Speak with him.

Next enter the tomb near by, be warned the creatures inside are nasty and customized. Mostly for eye candy reasons but they represent Old knowledge of more correctly, that of Kalidic enemies at the time.

At the Back of the Tomb theres a Seal Stone, You need collect that to unseal the door. Once you do, enter Necromunda and find Kalidic.

Kalidic will announce a few things and you will find your self stood in the new Necrommancer Guild HQ. From this moment on, Necromunda is the Necromancer Arcane University and all quests concerning the Guild as a whole will come from here, mostly like from Kalidic him self.

Is Kvatch Aftermath needed for this? Because I already have Kvatch Rebuilt and I don't think they are compatible.

I think that's a pre-requisite yes, else you won't be able to get into the Necromancer faction in this case, i.e. you miss the NPC that allows entrance to the guild.
Maybe having O.M.G. could be beneficial and add to the lore as well... I do not know if the material is still free available though...

O.M.G ?

Origins of the Mages Guild - also by Giskard.

Yes. All of the Oblivion mods made by Giskard are still available. The latest updated versions are available on File Front. Search for Giskard or any of his Oblivion mods. File Front (or File Planet) has organized them into a special group for easy downloading.

And, yes. The Necromancer has the faction (both the hostile and non-hostile groups) but you need Kvatch Aftermath if you want to join the faction and do the quests involved with it. That's because it was set up in Kvatch Aftermath originally and the extra background, etc., was created afterward to support the faction. You will still see them without Kvatch Aftermath, but you can't join them or do the quests unless you have KA installed. Sorry about that.

Also, with Origins of the Mages Guild added, you will get much more of the background lore of the Necromancers and have the option - eventually - of making at least one group of them legal in Cyrodiil. That is one of the advantages of the mods. Each one gives you certain new things, and as you add another of the Cyrodiil Upgrade mods to it, you get more for each of them again. They have a certain amount of interdependency which is not required to use each mod, but makes each one a little better the more of them you use.

The only ones of the Cyrodiil Upgrade mods that cannot be used together is Kvatch Aftermath and Kvatch Rising, since these mod the same areas and would conflict to the point of crashing your game.

How can I get Vision of Necromancy anyway,I can't find it anywhere.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with that name. Perhaps you can google it? I was talking about The Necromancer, a mod in Giskard's group.

This forum is titled Vision of Necromancy,therefore I supposed it was the mod's name.Is it the mod's name? Because I downloaded the Necromancer already and I couldn't find anything.

Oh, sorry. I believe Doom was trying to describe how necromancers are treated in the two mods of Kvatch Aftermath and The Necromancer - sort of a guide so that when you are using the mods you can take full advantage of the necromancer options built into the two mods. Either mod can stand alone, but you only get the full effect when you use both.