Been playing around with an idea...for 10mins. The Necromancer.

[Osteichthyes]

Necromancer (Healer)

Weapon: Skull Totem.

Every battle has casualties, and while most healers cure the physical wounds the necromancer takes it one step further and draws upon the injuries of alive teammates and the spirits of the dead to exact unholy retribution upon their foes.

Primary Mechanic: All healing contributes to a hidden pool of damage that maxes at 1/2 the necromancer's health. This pool can be drawn upon to create defensive shields for team members or used to damage enemies.

Secondary Mechanic: Should the necromancer prove to be outnumbered, they can draw upon the bodies of the dead to form undead constructs to preoccupy enemies (similar to egi's). Constructs do not add to the damage pool.

I don't really know what the point of this is, figure someone might have some fun with it before it gets buried somewhere in page 5.

[rawker]

Is it just me or that a job that is themed around death will take the role of preventing it.

I don't have anything against you but this is just too outrageous for me.

[AskaRay]

I like the sound of it but that just may be because the image I get is to just control dead DRGs in my party...

[Nekotee]

Necromancer sound more like a DPS than a healer...

But it can be seen as a SCH...
Creating sort of ward on people that will absorb/reflect damage
and sort of heal with life sharing... Absorbing life of ennemies or allies to give it back to himself or allies.
Same for mana (mana channeling, transfert some from NIN/DRG/MNK to healers or tank)

I don't like the system about dead bodies becoming sort of pets...

...

Every battle have casualties... but the most perfect fight have no death (except the ennemies)

[nexas506]

I can see this working. Using the energy of lives that have passed on to maintain the living.

Logically, Controlling death makes sense for a revive spell.

Attack magic would be ghost/spirit themed. (I.e. spectral cut. A ghost appears, slashes an enemy, and disappears )

Reviving enemies to fight for you sounds silly. Maybe make it into a debuff, so that an enemy dies while under its effect, it enters a "charmed" state for a few seconds. I also thought of an ability that could undo the last attack recieved.

[CGMidlander]

Edda as job master? ;D

[Anova]

Necromancy has traditionally been the practice of using body parts to foretell the future. The more fantastical elements of using the dead as a weapon were added in the medieval ages. It's hard to separate the two elements now, but there is a basis for necromancers as a healer or as a sort of shamanistic figure.

Anyway, I'm not sure about the mechanics, especially since the necro would need a separate bar for the primary mechanic and the second mechanic seems dicey especially since one death usually means such a loss in dps, tanks, or heals that a raid group would wipe. The feature would be useless and the class would be in the same position as AST was prior to patch 2.7

There's also nothing to separate it from the other healers, although it does have a shield/hp recover mechanic. I would much rather have the necromancer syphon off souls from slain enemies (maybe when a DoT is active on them) and use them to power their spells. The necromancer would have another resource to manage, but they'd have a fairly consistent strength as the fight goes on if they can substitute souls/ghosts for mp or more healing power. You might need a mechanic that lets you do the same when there's no adds too probably, but I have no idea how that might work.

[Roxas_Andrade]

In theory, SMN is kind of a Necromancer, with attacks like Bio, Miasma, Fester, Energy Drain and such.
Also, Resurrection is a way to 'control' death. If you consider that you only summon versions of primals you've defeated, you have a skill to bring an ally from the dead...

I guess SE only named it Summoner because of the appeal the name has, and because a death-related class wouldn't suit well to a 'warrior of light'. But now we have DKN, so I don't know what to say... I'd like to see this job either. ^^

[dejiko_san]

If you read up on 1.0 lore or was around to play it, there were actual necromancers.

They tried to resurrect a spy in Ul'dah to get to the information he learned before he died.