Creating the Ultimate Necromancer

[SirArthurIV]

I am working on creating an arch-villain for a short sub-arc between the major story arcs I'm building. The concept is that he's a lich that separated from the Circle of Thorns in pursuit of his own greater power and desire to become a deity in his own right. As far as powerset goes I'm still workshiping the idea of a Necromancer of Necromancers. Master of the flesh and the soul and here's what I have so far:

 

Primary: Necromancy	Secondary: Illusion Control
Zombie Hoard	Spectral Wounds
Life Drain	Phantom Army
Grave Knight	Spectral Terror
Soul Extraction	Phantasm
Lich

 

Powerscaling-wise, How is this for an Arch-Villain? Do you have any other sets recommendations for such a concept? What would be best way to encounter them? What map would be a good villainous lair?

Edited 18 hours ago by SirArthurIV

[Darmian]

6 hours ago, SirArthurIV said:

I am working on creating an arch-villain for a short sub-arc between the major story arcs I'm building. The concept is that he's a lich that separated from the Circle of Thorns in pursuit of his own greater power and desire to become a deity in his own right. As far as powerset goes I'm still workshiping the idea of a Necromancer of Necromancers. Master of the flesh and the soul and here's what I have so far:

 

Primary: Necromancy	Secondary: Illusion Control
Zombie Hoard	Spectral Wounds
Life Drain	Phantom Army
Grave Knight	Spectral Terror
Soul Extraction	Phantasm
Lich

 

Powerscaling-wise, How is this for an Arch-Villain? Do you have any other sets recommendations for such a concept? What would be best way to encounter them? What map would be a good villainous lair?

Since I'm sometimes nasty, I'd custom fit him with a Power Mission_Maker_Secondary.Dark_Armor.Soul_Transfer.  You take him down, he gets back up while stunning you.

Downside is customs like that don't give XP, so having plenty of minions around him to grant XP would be needed. To make it even nastier, if you do use something like this then have "Get to Mission Exit" instead of the Exit Button on the Nav bar, so the player can't just hop out.

 

The how of this should be linked here.

 

Custom Builds for AE NPCs.

 

Maps?  Ah, there's so much to choose from. I can't really advise you on that.

Edited 11 hours ago by Darmian

[VeiledOwl]

I'm not great at balancing, so can't really advise you there. The various Dark powersets are worth looking at though - I quite like the animations from Dark Control. Especially Living Shadows' grasping hands animation and Haunt's ghosts.

 

Map-wise, I'd say maybe the Caves - Mausoleum sets with lots of 'Collect object - Pile of Bones' objectives strewn around (set behind a chain of other objectives so they don't glow the whole time) as decoration. Maybe a few altars with skulls on them too?

 

Another suitable map is the Unique - Outdoors - Graveyard maps, but they may be a bit too 'open' to serve as a lair (and open maps can also be annoying to find objectives). Could be useful if the player's intended to catch them in the act of harvesting souls/bodies from the place, though. Both choices may be a bit too on-the-nose, though. Perhaps the old Cimeroran Cave mausoleum maps could also serve as a suitable lair.

 

I once used Unique - Circle of Thorns - Baron Zoria's Lair as a map where the Circle were harvesting ghosts for their ectoplasm and turning it into street drugs to loosen the tethers between potential hosts' bodies and souls (as well as temporarily giving users with Mu ancestry death powers, which showed the Circle who to snatch and grab for new bodies). The arc itself was overly ambitious and poorly executed (partially due to it fighting me every step of the way during writing and me giving up and deciding 'good enough'), but the idea of a massive, glowing pool of ectoplasm/soul juice inside Oranbega may be of interest to your ex-Circle necromancer. Or the Unique - Circle of Thorns - Vaults of Mu one.

 

Regarding how they appear on the player's radar, there's always being sent to investigate the classic MAGI Vaults theft/other powerful/evil magical items being stolen from collections, all of with troubling histories/implications for what they'll be used for by the thief. The exact nature of the objects would depend upon his intended method of ascension. Mass death ritual to give themselves the sacrifices' life force/power? Piercing the Aether to ascend to a higher plane and reunite with the Circle's goddess?

 

If not that, some sort of mage noticing and becoming concerned about an abnormally high amount of necromantic/soul magic in the vicinity of the villain's lair also works. Or there being graverobbings, or kidnappings of mages/metahumans (for the lich to sacrifice for power/consult/turn into undead slaves), or a variety of other things that would alarm any mage enough to ask the player for help.