Hexen II/Necromancer

Necromancer once lived in a small village of Thysis (Ancient Egypt) with his aunt since his parents died in a plague soon after his birth. He wished to possess any power to impress his people, but there was nothing outstanding in him. Time was flowing, and the lad grew to a young man, releasing that he had no powers he wished to have. Unable to impress others, he wished to make them suffer instead. He knew there was an old pyramid, which was feared by other people of his tribe. The young man entered the pyramid, found there a set of papyrus scrolls, and left the pyramid being the Necromancer. His dream became true: now he had power to make everyone fear him and suffer. With hordes of undead minions he was terrorizing the village, but with Eidolon’s invasion Necromancer stopped being the most fearsome creature of his lands. Not liking this, he decided to destroy Eidolon.

Surprisingly, Necromancer is pretty much like Cleric from Heretic. He’s at his best in a medium-range combat since his weapons aren’t useful against far-away targets unless you use the Tome of Power. Necromancer also possesses the ability to heal himself by hitting monsters in a close combat. Despite it’s told in the manual, that he was using undead minions to bring fear into peoples’ hearts, he doesn’t have such ability in the game.

Abilities

 * Soul Gathering (level 3) allows to consume souls of the dead. Sometimes when you slay a monster, his soul (a skull in a red sphere) may appear. Picking up one of these soul spheres adds some HP and mana. Souls lose there effectiveness and disappear over time, so don’t hesitate picking them up.
 * Vampiric Drain (level 6) allows you to restore your HP by dealing damage with your melee weapon. When striking, you can sometimes hear a specific sound which means, you’ve just added enemy’s health to your own. This ability helps surviving when you’re out of mana, but works not too often to rely on it when you’re cornered.

Weapons

 * Sickle is your basic weapon. It does a good amount of damage and has a nice reach. Sometimes it can also heal its bearer if you have a Vampiric Drain ability. Tome of Power makes the Sickle deal about 2-2,5 times more damage.


 * Magic Missiles is rather a spell that a weapon. It fires a blue ball which is very precise, but doesn’t fly too far. It explodes on impact, producing a small explosion which damages all foes nearby in an itty-bitty radius. Necromancer himself is immune to explosions made by this weapon. When powered up, three blue balls are created instead of a single one, each of them dealing more damage. If this weapon is active, it takes little time to switch to Bone Shards.


 * Bone Shards is also a spell which works like a shotgun with a great rate of fire. It fires a lot of bone shards which deal damage and even knock the target back in a close combat. Shards fly really far, but because they fly in a cone, this weapon is much less effective in a long range combat. Despite the spell needs 1 green mana for a shot, you cannot make less than 3 consecutive shots with his weapon. When the Tome of Power is active, the spell creates a single blast with increased damage. If this weapon is active, it takes little time to switch to Magic Missiles.


 * Raven Staff consists of 2 parts. When you combine (pick up) both parts, you receive a staff which fires 3 spinning fans with each attack. It takes a lot of mana, and fans fly in different directions, so Raves Staff is used best in a close combat and against closely grouped targets. When powered up, it fires a bolt which breaks into three ravens which attack monsters for 5 seconds just like the most powerful weapon of Cleric in Hexen.

Glyph of the Ancients
Necromancer places this artifact in the air, and it hovers until it spots an enemy. It cannot spot an enemy behind the door or a wall and it cannot spot the enemy too far away, but as soon as it happens, Glyph of Ancients begins slowly flying towards the target, exploding on impact and dealing splash damage. Despite monsters ignore Glyph of Ancients, enemy attack can destroy it. So if you’re standing right behind the Glyph, a monster can shoot at you and accidentally hit and destroy this artifact instead. If you destroy an unaware enemy with a Glyph of Ancients, and other monsters won’t receive damage from the explosion, there is a chance that enemies will still be unaware of your presence.

AC
Necromancer benefits from the Amulet of Protection best, while Breastplate is the worst armor item for him (still, that’s better that nothing).