The Tavern

Running another SpEn of Kiku, and starting to be more selective in my spell choice. I think Vampiric Draining is my favourite, but what else would you learn from the first Kiku book?

I'm thinking Pain and Animate Skeleton are probably a waste of time.

Is animate dead good or should I just wait for twisted resurrection?

I've also found a book of summoning, is it worth investing in summoning too if I have necro buddies? Shadow Creatures can be quite good, I think.

Zombies can be powerful but frustratingly slow even for a normal-speed character.

If you get it (in stable, you will, in trunk, maybe) learn Agony. Agony. Agony.

My favorite Necro spell has got to be Haunt.

I do like Animate Dead since it gives you an extra escape option, but not sure how worthwhile they would be as a Sp.

Animate skeleton is a good utility spell. You can use it to butcher more quickly and skeletons still give you some of the benefits of allies. It's also something you can grab at level 1.

Simulacrum is my new favorite Necromancy spell. Animate Skeleton, wield chunks, Simulacrum. You'll convert up to 8 chunks at once into icy minions.

Sublimation of Blood is great, especially as an spen who isn't using those chunks for anything else, and less time spent regenning MP means less downtime (so get Regeneration as well)

Yeah, but I'm XL 10.

I guess with the speed issue, Recall will be a good utility spell too. I'm not overly fond of minions, mind you. Then you have to do payroll, quarterly reviews, etc...

Yeah, and now in trunk with the way that corpses can crawl all over each other and join their bodies together, you've got some lecturing to do about workplace fraternization.

I'd be more worried about unions

Yes, the union of the snake, for example. It's on the climb. And it's gonna race, gonna break. Gonna move up to the.. borderline.

Generally this is my Kiku set, assuming that I don't want minions or summons (if you are stabbing you probably won't, though having Animate Dead as a backup plan to combine with corpse drops is fine if you happen to have a lot of spell slots):

- Pain
- Vampiric Draining
- Regeneration
- Sublimation of Blood
- Agony
- Dispel Undead
- (Borgnjor's Revivication)
- (Death's Door)

NOTE: some spells are in brackets because I don't want to imply that the Necronomicon is a viable choice

Late in the game, I usually amnesia Pain and Vampiric Draining. However, these spells are very useful early on.

Corpse rot is basically curare but awkward to use. I don't like the spell much. Haunt is pretty good too, but I question the use of it on a SpEn especially considering the -3 apt, as opposed, for instance, to +4 charms for ddoor.