Dev Journal: Necromancer Class Design!

I like the idea of different mechanics with every race (like you did with the halflings) or in classes like the guys at triumph are intending to do the necromancer, the original races and classes feel a bit like the same gameplay

i dont know how to go for it, i am always a good boy in games 😛

Whhaaaat? The final expansion? Oh, come on! There are still so many features that Age of Wonders 3 can implement… at least, make some DLC-s with more races and campaigns and spells, etc.

But the Necromancer class looks awesome! The idea of slowly turning the population into undead sounds very interesting. Will also the appearance of the towns change? I am really looking forward to more info.

Cool! So no undead as a new race, but that’s ok for me. Thanks for keeping on expanding this great game, and I will definitely buy your further expansions and support AoW3 as good as I can!

Great news!!

But take your sweet time on this necromancer class. I`m loving the halflings and new class right now. Both artistically and when it comes down to gameplay. Would like to see a new (evil) race along with the necromancer + further patching to improve the challenge on single player. A simular expansion like the last one will make me very happy. Ive bought the golden realms and will buy the next expansion if it ads something simalar to the first one.

Oh yes, there’s confirmation! Very excited about this upcoming class. Soooo many new possibilities. It’s gonna be hard enough for you guys to decide on what can and cannot be done.

Effect on races and poulation shoukd be quite radical and destinguishing imho.

Truth be told I’d rather see Frostlings. I don’t like being evil in video games (save for Overlord of course) and I can’t see how you can be good as necromancer.

But yeah I have vision. Necromancers would have another option when they conquer city- raze&resurrect. Take few turns and requires mana. If they simply assimilate the city it suffer high happiness penalty. They cannot migrate alive races and alive units suffer morale penalty under their leadership.

Undead versions could have all undead weaknesses and resistances, losing all their racial. I also think undeads’ morale should be affected only be leader’s allingment. After all reanimated corpses don’t give a damn about stinking monkeys.

I don’t have much ideas for transformation. But let’s say there are three levels. On lowest level leaders look pretty much like corpses. At second level their eyes start to glow. At third magic swirls around them. Similar with units who would look rotten at first, like freshly deceased people at second and at third magic would similarly swirl around them. Every state would empower them, increasing their statistic and lowering their weaknesses, gaining regeneration at third state. Let’s say they would be weaker than their alive counterparts, similar or slightly stronger at second and noticeably better at third.

As of necromancer exclucive units I can see T1 skeletons. They replace irregulars in “killed” cities. Weak unit with weak ranged attack.

Second units would be T2 acolytes (necromancers’ bring-that-clean-here-don’t-annoy lackeys) who have heal undead. If old death damage from older AoWs returns they have death bolts, if not frost or blight and some plague-themed debuff. They would be necromancer’s only support replacing racial support.

Necromancers’ third unit would be T4 summon- grim reaper. And here I see some interesting skill- touch ability that will kill targeted unit within few (2-3) turns if it doesn’t resist. In both cases it would suffer big penalties to both morale and all attributes. Only way to avoid death if affected is killing reaper who used it.

Maybe there could be a few mutually exclusive skills (like Druid’s favored enemy) that allow you to lead your faction towards either good or evil.

Evil – a necromancer society where undead are seen as merely tools and soldiers, populations are subject to dark rituals and sacrificed to increase the size of the undead army. Focus on “zerging”.

Empire tech:

Reaping – racial units get green/gray-ish sickly skin and receive some inherent undead properties (like blight proteciton, etc.) cities no longer dislike blighted terrain, undead class units are 10% cheaper. Generates evil alignment in some way, either via conquering cities, turn by turn or creating more undead.

leads to,

Deathless Horde – racial units receive some symbolic mark of undead transformation like glowing red eyes or a skeletal hand/arm, they’re not fully transformed however. Cities now like blighted terrain but hate fertile, population growth penalty. All city hexes become blighted. Racial units receive further undead bonuses but also weaknesses like spirit weakness and such, they also get the undead “racial” trait. Class units are now 20% cheaper (in total) while racial ones get a 10% cost decrease. Generates more evil alignment, staying good/neutral is virtually impossible at this point. Razing cities generates undead units for the player, amount/quality depends on the size of the settlement.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Good – dead ancestors are revered, populations are not forcibly subjected to necromantic rituals. Racial cities and units do not undergo transformation, focus is on empowering undead class units, not spamming them. Quality over quantity.

Empire tech:

Reverence – Class undead units are 10% more expensive but receive some kind of combat bonus (maybe just bonus rank), their inherent weaknesses to spirit and/or fire are diminished. Generates good alignment as above.

leads to,

Hallowed Dead – Undead units are 20% more expensive (too much with dwarves?) but even stronger (quick learner maybe so they level up super fast?), have no inherent weaknesses. Generates more good alignment. Something “interesting” is missing here but I’ll leave it at that. 😛 Just brainstorming anyway.

I’m thinking two population bars: the ordinary one, and the “undead” one. Essentially, the undead bar will load from rushed productions, population losses, battles fought there, and regenerate slowly from the Necromancer’s class building (A charnel house, or something morbid).

production undead units will be rushed/take time from the undead population and other existing production upgrades. undead population would also let you cast certain battlefield or strategic enchantments.

For example, lets say a strong enemy is coming at one of your good cities, but you don’t have a strong enough garrison to resist them. You would then cast an “instant garrison” spell that would, for a price in undead population, raise up defenders.

On the battlefield, you might want to also raise up troops, curse the enemy, or have the dead limit their motion by grabbing them from bellow.

normal racial units will be produced more or less normally, except that they will get some undead benefits from empire upgrades and spells.

I think the more ethereal undead units (such as a Dread Reaper) ought to be summoned, while the earthly ones (Bone Horror) should be produced.

Undead units could be class spells and units in ways similar to other classes. A ghost for a basic scout summon, a zombie for a basic cheap irregular class unit, and so forth. Instead of summon spells they could have abilities that reanimate units that fell in combat. For a unique twist in combat itself, perhaps even in-combat summons, an ability no other class has right now. This could give them a feeling of having hordes of cheap weak cannon fodder to slowly drown opponents, especially if their low tier units get back up after dying. They could still have potent higher tier units of course, but those would be harder to produce like any other class.

“Crappy units that just don’t stay dead” is very much the classic necromancer style. Perhaps the low tier zombies can be slow and overall pretty bad, but have a combination of abilities that make them obnoxious. Some combination of abilities like disgusting stench, regrowth, reviving themselves a few turns after dying in combat, cursing or doing damage to units that hits them…..basically something that is annoying and difficult to get rid of if you focus on it, but not a direct threat because of mediocre stats and speed. Shadow magic pretty much did them perfectly I think.

If you want to really play up the “turn your own people undead” aspect you could have higher tier unit research give access to very powerful units, but apply drawbacks to your economy. Whether this is empire wide based on the research or only in the city with the upgraded necro production building is mostly a balance issue.

As for good vs evil turning the populace undead doesn’t have to be an evil act if they aren’t reduced to mindless zombies. Giving someone eternal life and immunity to disease, hunger, pain…not even a theocrat can offer that. Just say that in order to do it right it takes a lot of work for the rituals and the magical upkeep of their new bodies, so it reduces city economy/population but allows for units like liches, vampires, deathknights, or whatever else you decide to include.

For interesting spells, besides reanimation and summoning there are plenty of related spells that could be added. Two things necromancers tend to specialize in is stealing life and damage over time with curses and plagues in other settings. No class really has spells that fit either of those so that opens up plenty of options for nukes, debuffs, aoes….. DoTs that are much more efficient than a nuke but take time to work and can be wiped off, lifesteal spells that are less efficient for damage but heal the caster. A battle wide enchantment that buffs undead and debuffs the living? A hero “lich ritual” skill that gives some kind of buff but also makes them undead? A hero commander skill that gives the army lifesteal? There was even a very unique and interesting death spell in shadow magic that infested an enemy with a parasite and did damge and debuffed, and if the unit died the parasite came out to fight.

@Lennart Sas
I still think of Shadow Magic as an expansion, not a separte game. Yes, you probably think “and here we go, with yet another SM talk…” 🙂

What’s difference between expansion and premium content you mentioned?

BBB had some nice ideas in his linked document, some of them corresponding to a thread I made a while ago ( http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/the-necromancer/ ) which, though from before we knew of Golden Realms, is still pretty up-to-date IMO.

For those who think that thread to long to read, (31 replies, come on…), basically spells that animate undead from the fallen in battle, a vampire with life steal/seduce, a death adept support units starting with heal undead, maybe an buff for undead, and an animate dead ability at Elite that would animate units persisting after combat. since all undead require mana to sustain, you could raise huge armies quick, but face upkeep wrath if done to much. T4 would be either a Dread Reaper Summon or an Animate Bone Horror, made from multiple corpses.

I personally disagree with killing of your cities, cause I just don’t see the reason, and it also never happened before in AoW.

@up
There was note in this article stating this is the last expansion for Age of Wonders 3. It was deleted by Lennart after some first comments that focused mostly on that instead of necromancer class idea.

ed57ve wrote:

from where do people imply that is the last expansion? :/

Apparently, Lennart had written it in the news and then edited it when people’s attention was focused on the “final expansion” instead on the Necromancer class :/