The Necromancer Arises! (Patreon)

Patrons got a glimpse of it a few weeks ago, but the Necromancer class is now in full, proper development! And first off, I've got to ask you all for some feedback. I have three different drafts built on three different spellcasting and resource models — only one will survive and be developed further. This poll is not binding, but will be a data point about which version has the most promise.

3/4-caster: The newest experiment has an explicit 3/4 spellcasting progression: it gets 2nd-level spells on time, but all its other spell levels come a bit late, and it tops out at 8th-level spells.

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-OQt-3vTm_R5b8dr6fCV

1/2-caster: The first sketches of the class began as a half-caster. In this version, it gets access to high-level spells via a similar mechanism as the 2024 UA half-caster warlock. That is to say, it can optionally take a necromantic rite which grants access to high-level spells, but this comes at the expense of any other rite you'd want.

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-OQkgnpJXdbhOGJIRpxn

Full caster: Last week's experiment, designed to enable high-level casting more naturally. It compensates for that extra power by requiring you to burn spell slots to do your necromancy (the other two have a purely-separate resource for that). In order to make this work, it has a much larger pool of spirit points, but also everything costs more. https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-OJzCKCXLroIdcTDqOCK

Aside from the casting progression, differences between the three are fairly minor. Don't focus on power or how many toys each one gets; that's all going to be balanced later.

The Overview

The basic design:

1d6 HD, Int-based ???-caster (see above)

Minions are created via necromantic rites and powered by spirit points, a long-rest resource.

Necromantic Rites ultimately are going to aim to be about half minion abilities, half other stuff.

Subclasses kick in at level 2; each subclass enables at least 4 rites that are specific to that sub, on top of its features.

Commanding minions generally requires you to sacrifice an attack. In levels 1-10, you can command a minion as a bonus action INT times per day. Level 11 and up, that feature no longer has a usage limit.

This makes for a lot of bonus action cramp; I may remove that BA cost at some point, but for now I'm trying to account for it in the subclasses.

Included subclasses at this point are the Soul Master (basic subclass) and the Death Knight (melee-focused).

Now, a few notes.

This is an early draft, and very much subject to change and feedback. It has received some mathematical balancing yet but minimal playtesting.,

Five minion types are currently included: skeletons, zombies, shadows, specters, and corpse colossi. Rites exist to modify those into ghouls, ghasts, knights, mages, etc.

Yes, there's a way to become a (partial) lich.

Spell List: Most necromancy, some transmutation, a little enchantment and illusion. Damage spells are generally limited to necrotic, poison, and cold. Decent utility options but not top-tier. Generally stays away from eldritch and fiendish things. The numbers listed there are the target counts for each level; most levels need a few more spells written to fill them out.

(Note that I ran the same poll on Discord yesterday; people can vote in both if you want, but don't feel like you have to.)