Are necromancers necessarily evil?

[Nethereal]

Ethics aside do we really trust SE to be able to make a necromancer class?

Necromancer by in large is a pet class and we've all seen what SE has done to the pet classes over the years.
They have no idea what to do with them, how to keep them balanced, so they're gutted constantly, reworked, and essentially the pets have just been made into a sentry gun that you summon.
They don't have any actual interaction anymore.

I think for the most part any excuse SE gives for not making a necromancer class is just a cover for their inability to make actual pet classes and they don't want to deal with that anymore now that they know the precedent.
Even if they did make the class it would effectively be the exact same as the other pet classes but with different visuals.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of gameplay though, it might feel like playing bard & smn put together.

[Thaciscokidd]

They would have to do a 180 in lore in accordance with necromancy. The only "good" necromancer currently in game has been described by the Scions/Ryne and herself to be not pure and/or tainted in Heroes gauntlet. Where she hints that she turned to necromancy for the same reason as Edda did.

People keep bringing up GW2 Necromancy and it doesn't line up with this game lore. If we wanted a close 1 for 1 we should look at ESO's necromancer where its all good in the hood until you summon a bone construct/golem in the middle of town then its "Stop right there criminal scum!" If we ever did get Necros this could line up good with current lore.

And the Dark Knight and Reaper comparison isn't as sound as it seems. Dark knight Pre 50 is like Cecil pally quest in FF4 and the rest is just us doing good stuff with dark element magic which has been done before. And for some reason, first with Unukalhai and Cylva and with the way that 6.1's MSQ is turning out, I think that they might be introducing some good characters/creatures that call the void home.

[Kranel_San]

They would have to do a 180 in lore in accordance with necromancy.

It wouldn't be the first time SE did that. Male viera for example....

[Lauront]

Make necromancers the debuff/buff job with summoning/dots. half of the Dots we put on targets also come with a 3% or a 5% debuff that can only stack up to two times for some reason. The rest of the kit is summoning voidsent of all kinds to aid you. necromancers open up portals to have some flying voidsent do a bombing run on the targets aka our big aoe or have us summon from the void shades of former warriors to run in and do melee combat similiar to what mch get except we can summon up to 3. there are ways to get around the whole raising dead thing. sure in ff you wont be able to raise skeletons (which i wish you could but sadly china), but at least you still can get close to that itch we all have.

Agree, this just takes a little creative thinking.

[Derio]

ESO has a necromancer class. However doing any necromancy in public places is a criminal offense so there is some balance to it. In FFXIV we dont really have guards or police that stop adventurers so it would have to be controlled in a different way.

The biggest thing would be adding a class that cant be played in China. China is really against necromancy so would it be worth it to add a class that wouldnt get the maximum value of development time.

[LeonKeyh]

Is this some DnD bias to presume they are evil?

Surely there is million reasons why someone might go on their way to practice necromancy if it is possible.

If there is necromancy for evil reasons, there could be necromancy for as close to honourable reasons as there can be. Right?

It's no bias; You're "using" other people's bodies to do your bidding. If you want to look at the morality of necromancy using Haidt's Moral Foundations as a guide necromancy is AT LEAST on the negative end of the Liberty/Oppression and Sanctity/Degradation scales. That's why it's viewed to be "evil." Generally, we believe that the dead have been put "to rest." Necromancy is not only bringing them back from that rest but also controlling them to do your bidding.

Agree, this just takes a little creative thinking.

The problem with "creative thinking" is if you have a job that already has a certain set of expectations, if you deviate from those expectations people are going to be disappointed. Even IF the job is incredibly fun, if you start showing off a "Necromancer" job that doesn't have an army of undead pets following it around, people will wonder why it's called a Necromancer at all. You'd be better off calling that job a "Green Mage" since it fits better with the expectation of that job.

[ApsychicRat]

Didnt read the whole thread so pardon me if i missed this being said.

there are in fantasy 2 ways to look at necromancy (ill include a personal 3rd as well)

Creeping darkness: this moniker usually refers to necromancy that requires the use of souls to work, and is therefor considered pretty evil if done to an unwilling person.

Playing with fire: when using this moniker we usually refer to necromancy that doesnt use the soul as fuel, but your still using evil magics to make the undead, and should these undead get out of control they will kill indiscriminately as well as possibly make more undead causing further issues.

Personal 3rd: then there is the options of "Bone golems" that you can make in some games. are they undead? no but only because they are fueled typically by arcane magic alone and not whatever normal power source you use to make other undead. these golems are therefor not typically as dangerous to the world around them as they wont spread more undeath, but might still kill people if control is lost.

[GrimGale]

Reanimating/Desecrating corpses, binding the souls of the unwilling and stealing the vital force of the living to leave decreptid and putrid husks isn't exactly a virtuous representation of a spell caster.

That being said, not every type to magic related to death must be necessarily be construed as evil-

For example, I tried playing a Necromancer that essentially raised the bodies of people that had died of accidents, assasinations or illnesses to help them cope with the process, giving them a second chance to say goodbye to loved ones or more interestingly "get their vengeance" on the people who killed them.

Of course that limits your use of undead, from mindless slaves to "friends" you recruit for shenanigans.

[RubyCirha]

im not sure but i remember reading somewhere that its because of other cultures not being ok with stuff like undead or skeleton's that they don't do it

[Cygnia]

There's a decent basis beyond just general defilement in tabletop and animating rotting meat/bones - the Necromancer pretty much rips a soul from the afterlife, subjecting it to eternal torment and corrupting it via negative energy used to grant unlife. Any soul subjected to necromancy is often permanently tainted. In some settings nothing can be done to save the victim's soul; snuffing it out is the only solution.
At least, what I remember as the general reason why Necromancers into zombies and skeletons tend to be persecuted.