Skip to content

Necromancer

Necromancer

AX.GHW.13.04.07

Type: Cursed/Possessed, Champion

Power Package: Champion (12D)

Nature: Deliberate practitioner with Shadow entity backing and undead servitors; campaign-level threat

Size: Medium
Attributes: Body 2D · Speed 2D · Wit 5D
Talents: Athletics 1D · Deceive 3D · Lore 4D · Resolve 2D · Resonance 3D · Mediumship 2D
Health: 47 (20 + 2 + 25)
Defense: 2 (1 + (2+0)÷3)
Saves: Body 3D · Speed 3D · Wit 9D

Attacks

  • Death Touch (Primary Action): Wit + Resonance vs Body Save, 6 necrotic damage; cannot be healed until the target takes a Long Rest or a Mediumship practitioner spends a Primary Action clearing the necrotic effect (Wit + Mediumship vs Threshold 2).
  • Command Undead (Free Action): Wit + Lore, directs any undead within Far range as free actions; each commanded undead acts before the characters on its next initiative.
  • Soul Rend (Primary Action, 1×/scene): Wit + Resonance vs Wit Save, 8 damage; if the target is reduced to 0 Health by Soul Rend, their body rises as a Zombie under the Necromancer's control at the start of their next turn.

Special Abilities

  • Death Ward: The Necromancer maintains a standing ward against death, the first time they would be reduced to 0 Health in a scene, they instead drop to 1 Health and immediately use Command Undead as a free reaction. This ward resets on a Long Rest.
  • Undead Retinue: The Necromancer does not fight alone. They maintain a retinue of 2–4 undead servitors appropriate to the scene (Zombies or Vampire Thralls from the Undead category). These act on the Necromancer's initiative if commanded.
  • Liminal Mastery: The Necromancer has extensive knowledge of the Liminal layer and the dead who occupy it. Mediumship attacks against the Necromancer take -2D (they know the countermeasures). They can also read the death history of any location they stand in (what deaths occurred, rough time frame, emotional resonance) without rolling.
  • Shadow Sponsorship: The Necromancer has a Hollow entity patron. The patron's involvement varies by campaign context (passive support through Liminal access, active intervention or compact obligation that limits the Necromancer's choices). A Hollow Pact practitioner can sense the sponsorship and potentially use it as leverage, the patron has terms the Necromancer must satisfy, and those terms may create exploitable constraints.
  • True Name (Known): The Necromancer's own true name is known to their patron. This is a vulnerability, if characters can learn the name from the patron or through extreme research, they can impose a Threshold penalty on the Necromancer (all Wit-based rolls at -1D while name is actively invoked against them).

Tactics

The Necromancer fights from the rear, behind their undead retinue. Command Undead as a free action means the retinue is always acting in support. Against characters who penetrate the retinue, Death Touch and Soul Rend are the primary tools, the goal is to create more undead as the fight progresses. The Death Ward buys time when the battle goes badly. The Necromancer will retreat rather than die, they have prepared escape routes and safe houses, and their patron does not want them destroyed.

The Necromancer will negotiate if a negotiation position that benefits them exists. They are not irrational; they made cold calculations to get here and will make more. Identifying what they want (what the Hollow entity patron needs from them, what their original motivation was) may provide a non-combat resolution path, though the characters should carefully consider what negotiating with a Necromancer and their patron implies for their own position.

Destruction/Addressing

Death ends the immediate threat but does not resolve the shadow compact or release the undead the Necromancer controls; those continue acting autonomously for the remainder of the scene, reverting to basic threat behavior. The patron may seek revenge.

True resolution requires: dismantling the undead retinue, severing the Shadow sponsorship (Hollow Pact practitioner, Threshold 4), and either killing, imprisoning, or binding the Necromancer to departure. Full resolution is a campaign arc endpoint.

Scene Materials

Investigation: pattern of missing bodies or disturbed burial sites, death resonance accumulating in a specific location, records of impossible knowledge about the dead, shadow compact trail. Scale: Necromancer encounters are campaign finales or major mid-campaign turning points. Do not deploy casually.