i assume when creating custom spells DnD manuals are the go to in terms of finding something feasible..i.e. not too overpowered....

curious if something like this would fly for a necromancer?
"Plague of Undead
(Spell Compendium, p. 158)

Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Cleric 9, Sorcerer 9, Wizard 9,
Components: V, S, M,
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One or more corpses within range
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No


Unleashing a cold rush of necromantic energy, you cause a host of undead to rise from the bodies of the fallen.

This spell turns the bones or bodies of dead creatures into undead skeletons (MM 225) or zombies (MM 265) with maximum hit points for their Hit Dice. If you can control them, these undead follow your spoken commands. The undead remain animated until destroyed (a destroyed skeleton or zombie can't be animated again).

Regardless of the specific numbers or kinds of undead created with this spell, you can't create more HD of undead with this spell than four times your caster level with a single casting of plague of undead.

The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely. No matter how many times you use this spell or animate dead (PH 198), however, you can control only 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level. The limit imposed by this spell and the animate dead spell are the same, meaning that creatures you animate with either spell count against this limit. If you exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your control and any excess undead from previous castings of this spell or animate dead become uncontrolled. Any time you must release part of the undead that you control because of this spell or animate dead, you choose which undead are released until the total HD of undead you control is equal to four times your caster level.

The bones and bodies required for this spell follow the same restrictions as animate dead.

Material Component: A black sapphire worth 100 gp or several black sapphires with a total value of 100 gp."

im not sure how the scaling of the undead would work for amia...

This spell isn't really feasible at all I'm afraid. NWN mechanics dictate 1 Summoned Creature per character at any given time as a maximum.

Totally doable, summon one 120 HD collossol undead.

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Plays Wicket
And Caige!

"No, You're worse the a simple slobbering beast. A simple slobbering beast seldom shows cunning, attempty at manipulation and use of diplomacy. No, You're a far more dangerous beast than that." ~Tuomas

I actually saw this happen before, but instead of 'summons' they were considered henchmen! it allowed multiples to appear and still be controlled and not go away untill they died or a specialty code word was /typed to kill them.

We don't use henchmen and summoning that amount would create an inordinate increase in lag even if we did.

Could do something like the elemental swarm spell. Instead of elementals, have a new undead rising when the first one is killed and so on.

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aaegus battlehammer™

cloak rockhewer

murtaugh gunn

This is actually a pretty awesome idea.

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Remember when I knew a boxer, baby

Yes, mechanically that would work, but we don't do custom summons. So trying to balance 4x of given summons would be a nightmare, not to mention probably leave such a spell as this either underpowered or overpowered (in which case we'd have to move to an option that was underpowered).

i guess it was worth a shot..will there be no plans to give those with necromancy spell focuses an increase in summons (henchmen) like on arelith?

EFU had a cool system of necromancy where you'd animate corpse items to become persistent undead henchmen, much stronger but also much more awkward than regular summons. It worked better in their smaller, low-level setting where you actually had to pass through civilized areas to be safe and where the weight of an ogre corpse was a severe penalty in exchange for the power it had.

It would be cool if necromancy was somehow different from regular summoning, though. There are other big magic updates to do before that's a priority though, I wager.

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Pretty sure a black sapphires are too rare and expensive an item to make this a common spell.

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Elwyn Sabel - Laura Jarshall - Mordoc Ebonhand

Discord: Bhaalorian#5715

I got it!

Get a bunch of friends to make shapeshifters with undead shape, then log on your "necromancer" and co-operatively role-play that your necromancer controls the undead shaped PC's! BAM! Best undead army role-play player run event Eva!

Or just ask around if a DM might be willing to help you with a small campaign type thing for a group of necromancers trying to raise undead en-masse. That way you don't have to worry about some spell being op or not, but actually have some fun with a larger group of people doing it and potentially generating more RP for more people.

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Adair - Druid and part time treant cosplayer

Actually what was done before and is possible, but it is quite a bit different than what you seek. And that is spawning several default NPC from a palette. However they wouldn't really follow you or do anything unless you dominate them or such. They also would ne to be pretty low level to bea feasible. For some RP it could be funny though.

This was done before with a widget of a random amount of generic default NWN chicken <.< It just needs to be undead which are on the palette already. But yeah as said they wouldn't follow they'd just stand aroun as NPC >.> could still be interesting though.

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I had similar idea to my necromancer when I played him. However, instead summoning them under his control. The idea was to in a sense place group of corpses as PLC, once PC would get close enough, the PLC would get triggered and spawning several hostile undead around it. You don't need to control them, they still will try to eat your living enemies... and you if your not careful enough. I actually took this idea to DM, during the time, and was told it was possible to be done.

But the truth is, necromancers don't need to control the undead, their desire to kill works for them. They only need to be able to hide themselves from their senses.

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http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/spells.htm

A custom spell i always thought would be fun, would be to summon say a horde of 10 zombies. The way it would work on Amia though is the Zombies would be part of the Red faction, and attack everything, even your own character. Lore wise it would be a simple as biting off more then you can chew. The power of the spell would be totally dependent upon the type of already created undead that are in the game. Horde of Manner Zombie Children set loose like a grenade upon poor suspecting Bendir Dale, offending Necromancer flees to the hills to watch the chaos!

A fun idea, could be used with Elementals and other things, too. Summon Swarm of Elemental Swarm! 4 Elementals that when they die get re summoned 4 times! Slaad horde, that calls more Slaad! Mwhaha

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House Auvrea'Kan Crafts and Services is now open and prepared to discuss orders.

This reminds me of the very weird, yet very cool eel dragon (!!???!!!???) that is chillin in the abyss right now. It constantly animates a hoard of undead around it, and it's ... well... very annoying to fight the eel dragon because of that, but it's cool cause it's an army of undead! The necromancer's dream! It's an NPC, though... not sure how we can do a PC with that ability...