Necromancers

[asdu]

I'm used to play necromancers (usually DDNe of Makhleb) mostly as vampiric draining spamming melee characters, but right now I'm trying to play them with more emphasis on spellcasting. I have a VpNe of Kiku who's doing fine so far (just finished clearing the Lair); Agony is wonderful, Vampiric Draining is godlike as usual and for the first time I'm actually bothering with animating corpses (I used not to because I never found Recall on my previous necromancer games, but luckily it's in one of the books Kiku gives).
However I'm not sure where to go from here.
So,
1 I've only heard good things about Haunt and I absolutely want to spam it all the time as soon as I get it, but is it powerful enough to carry me through the endgame, or even a somewhat extended endgame?
2 should I pick up some conjurations? Bolt of draining perhaps (I'm guessing I can fire it through my minions without them taking offence)? Ice magic? Airstrike (if I happen to find it)?
3 are weapons of pain obtainable outside of Kiku's gift or the slaver unique with a whip of pain? I _think_ I've found them before as regular loot, but I'm not sure. Or should I learn Excruciating Wounds? Giving up 5 spell slots will be painful. On the other hand, I could get a weapon branded by Kiku and gamble on finding the Necronomicon somewhere else (even the Book of Demonology would do, since the only spell in the Necronomicon I care about is Haunt). Ah, decisions, decisions...
4 I'd like to make use of Kiku's corpse delivery to get blood for feeding, recharge MP via sublimation of blood and possibly undead minions. But raisng Invocations looks hopeless when the only power I can use for that purpose costs 2 points of piety and vampires have -2 to invocations. How high should it be to have useful corpses like giants and such?
5 what other necromancy spells should I get? In general, what are necromancers supposed to do in the endgame apart from spamming Haunt?

[joellercoaster]

3 are weapons of pain obtainable outside of Kiku's gift or the slaver unique with a whip of pain?

I just found a pain-branded randart quarterstaff, so... yes

[Kate]

As well as Pikel's chance of carrying one, Grinder always has some weapon of pain (the base type varies, usually a hammer, whip, club or dagger). Having pain weapons be so common in the early game actually rather annoys me; when you can almost always rely on finding a pain weapon early it completely destroys the brand's rarity and uniqueness, and removes the interesting choice between taking the Necronomicon and a pain weapon when worshipping Kiku.

As for Haunt: it'll absolutely carry you through the endgame and most of the extended endgame too (with sufficient channelling you can kill Antaeus with it, for example. It's a bit trickier on the Hell/Pan lords with abjuration though). I often like to branch into ice magic as a necromancer, but then again that's because usually I'll start as an IE then get my necromancy books from worshipping Kiku at the Temple. If you do choose to do that, you can also pick up Simulacrum which is pretty powerful and very fun.

Invocations actually doesn't have much effect on Kiku's corpse delivery, it's been very buggy for a long time. Essentially, if you use it anywhere in the regular dungeon you'll mostly get junk like rats and goblins regardless of your invoc skill. If you use it in side branches you'll get great stuff (in Crypt, for example, I would get iron dragons, giants, etc) even with almost no invoc skill.

[asdu]

As well as Pikel's chance of carrying one, Grinder always has some weapon of pain (the base type varies, usually a hammer, whip, club or dagger). Having pain weapons be so common in the early game actually rather annoys me; when you can almost always rely on finding a pain weapon early it completely destroys the brand's rarity and uniqueness, and removes the interesting choice between taking the Necronomicon and a pain weapon when worshipping Kiku.

As for Haunt: it'll absolutely carry you through the endgame and most of the extended endgame too (with sufficient channelling you can kill Antaeus with it, for example. It's a bit trickier on the Hell/Pan lords with abjuration though). I often like to branch into ice magic as a necromancer, but then again that's because usually I'll start as an IE then get my necromancy books from worshipping Kiku at the Temple. If you do choose to do that, you can also pick up Simulacrum which is pretty powerful and very fun.

Invocations actually doesn't have much effect on Kiku's corpse delivery, it's been very buggy for a long time. Essentially, if you use it anywhere in the regular dungeon you'll mostly get junk like rats and goblins regardless of your invoc skill. If you use it in side branches you'll get great stuff (in Crypt, for example, I would get iron dragons, giants, etc) even with almost no invoc skill.

Thanks! As it happens, I did have Grinder chilling somewhere in D:6 where I had left him (my early encounters with Grinder tend to be pretty dangerous, so this time I just skipped past). I didn't even think of going back for him, but you gave me a reason to
I eventually also found a Book of Demonology, so now that my Haunt needs are covered I'll go ahead and have Kiku brand me a sabre (Grinder had a hammer).