From:	shadowrn@*********.com (Ahrain Drigar)
Subject:	Necromancy and the fun of Animate
Date:	Thu Sep 20 11:05:01 2001

----- Original Message -----
From: Downtym <gte138j@*****.gatech.edu>
Subject: Re: Necromancy and the fun of Animate


> Okay, so, I've been playing around with true necromantic spells in
> SRun and came to a few conclusions:
>
<SNIP>
> While the skeleton is animated, the necro has an effective essence of
> (Necro_Essence - Donated_Essence). This means that a necro with 6
> essence can have 5 skeletons (Each skeleton has 1 essence and the
> necro has 1 essence). Note that this works off of essence, so the most
> a necro can *ever* have is 5 skeletons.

Since Essence and the Magic attribute are so integraly linked, why not use
Magic insted of Essence? That way more powerful mages would be able to
animate more or have fewer more powerful skeletons. This would have a
double edge where the mage wouldn't be able to use those attribute (and
hence Pool) dice for anything else until they are released from the
skeleton. Just an idea.

> If the necro is knocked unconcious, the skeleton(s) remain for an
> essence based time, then fall back into bones. The essence from the
> skeletons "returns" to the necro.
>
> The base attributes and statistics of the skeletons is based off of
> the amount of essence 'donated' to it. So, a 5 essence skeleton is
> going to be stronger, meaner, and tougher. Note that skeletons have
> almost *no* intelligence. In my design, I've placed an ultimate
> restriction on skeletons that they have 1 intelligence and are like
> watcher spirits in the respect of intelligence. Another thing I stated
> is that skeletons are invincible to mana based spells.

That brings up a good point. Since watchers are not what you would call
"true" spirits why not use Conjuring for skeletons. Treat skeletons as the
Necromantic watcher, much like "Thought Forms" are the spirits for
Psionicists? This would give them varying attributes and a limited
intelligence as well.

> Anyway, these are the basic necromancy rules that I've begun
> developing myself. If you try them out or actually come up with any
> indepth mechanics, please send me a yell to tell me how it came out
> and with what numbers/rolls you actually used.

I'm not exactly playing right now, but if I get some free time I can play
with a few numbers if you don't have any. At least to see how it looks.

Ahrain