| abstract | - Necromancer is a class in ADOM. Necromancers are evil sorcerers that have almost exclusive access to the necromancy skill, which allows them to raise the corpses of humanoids to serve as their undead slaves. Whilst any PC can potentially learn the skill by magical means, since necromancers are the masters of it they get additional benefits when using the skill (see Class Abilities). Their talent for learning and casting arcane magic is also very good; they are second only to wizards in channeling arcane magic, though they have a bit more difficulty with clerical spells (particularly those focused on healing). Necromancers practise in an interesting variety of skills related to the areas of necromancy, magic and indeed killing in general. Food preservation greatly helps with their dark arts, as at certain levels it increases the chances of corpse drops. Find weakness and Stealth help them to assassinate monsters, spawning more potential slaves for their undead armies. Concentration and Literacy, of course, help them learn and use magic. Alchemy and Appraising are also useful skills. Necromancers also have some interesting class powers — such as the ability to drain foes' health at level 25, and the ability to potentially cheat death herself at level 50 (for a price). Necromancers are physically weak, but tend to be considerably tougher than other magic-orientated classes. They are still considered difficult classes in the early game, though, since on top of the poor starting gear associated with mages they also start without the Healing skill. They get frustratingly slow skill advances across the board, such as in quite important skills like food preservation, find weakness and literacy. Their chances of survival certainly increase at level 6, though, when they can raise ghuls to paralyze nasty attackers. As far as race/class combos go, gnomes certainly offer some nice advantages as they have high Mana and gain levels quickly (allowing them to raise different types of undead more quickly, and to raise some of their skill levels more quickly). Elves also make good necromancers, though mist elves will use white necromancy if their alignment moves from chaotic. Since high Mana is important for necromancers, trolls, orcs and hurthlings might not be well suited to the job. With the find weakness skill and the chance to be crowned with Vanquisher or Kinslayer, a troll could still win without any magic or slaves, though.
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