So I spent the whole night typing this up, I spotted a post on the Steam forums about “Alternate Keepers” and saw a link or two that lead me to the Wiki’s ideas page, detailing vaguely about the Necromancer Alternate keeper idea, and seeing as I love playing the necromancer in most games, this felt like no exception, so I started writing up a detailed summary of what I personally (in my opinion) would be good ideas for a necromancer Keeper, written as if it might be implemented as is. I wanted to definitely make it different then the default keeper, but I also felt it would be nice to “Start” as a defaultish keeper and then research into a Necrotic Keeper, replacing structures and such.
Necromancer Keeper
The Necromancer Keeper raises his minions himself, most of them anyways, with the help of his own “Reanimate” spell. He is initially weaker then the normal keeper, but through the use of Golden Fonts of Power (read as Statues) he gains power as each is placed, after 10 are placed or a throne is placed, the Necro Keeper can be killed and resurrects at the Throne or if one does not exist yet, at the furthest Golden Font of power. The Necro keeper focuses on mana for many things, and lots of research to upgrade his skeletons, zombies and assorted undead to become horrifying abominations. May or may not require mana per minion (as oppose to paying gold which the normal keeper is… suppose to? to maintain his minions), so high counts of minions would drain mana more quickly unless sufficiently studying constantly or ritualizing or whatever else, and when mana dries up, the minions will start decaying and dying off until mana flow is at a maintainable level.
Spells are:
Reanimate: Cast on a corpse to reanimate it as a skeleton, zombie, or other undead fiend under the user’s control permanently. (counts towards Pop Cap)
Strip Flesh: MAY kill one enemy based on level/Defense and replace them with a skeleton: if spell is successful in killing and reanimating, nearby enemies have a chance (again based on level/defense) to be Terrified, running away for a few turns. (counts towards Pop Cap)
Blood Siphon: Drains health from targeted enemy and restores health to the caster.
Night Shroud: Casts Darkness over a 5×5 area, blinding living creatures within this area, and allowing undead creatures to survive in sunlight while in the area for the duration of the effect.
Fearful Gaze: May cause target fired at, based on level/defense, to stop attacking and either:
a. Run away in fear
b. drop they’re weapon and run away in fear or in circles.
c. Run around in circles in fear.
d. be stunned an horrified for a duration.
Terror: May cause creatures around caster based on level/defense, to stop attacking and either:
a. Run away in fear
b. drop they’re weapon and run away in fear or in circles.
c. Run around in circles in fear.
d. be stunned an horrified for a duration.
Undead Army: Temporarily summons 8 skeletons around the user.(does not count towards Cap as they disappear after a duration)
Bone Shield: Behaves exactly like Magic Shield except bone Shield.
Death Bolt: Has a low chance (10%ish) to instantly kill a target, if it does not, it simply poisons them instead of dealing flat damage. If the enemy has been debuffed, then the chance of instant death is raised per however many debuffs have been inflicted, (up to max of 50% chance)
Spectral Walk: Allows the caster to travel invisibly for a few turns, upon time running out, the caster is sent back to the point where the spell was cast; if you “attack” an enemy before the timer runs out, you will end the spell immediately, returning to cast point, the enemy will be debuffed in one random stat, which will be listed which when you mouse over them.
Portal: Same as normal Portal Spell
Escape: Same as normal Escape Spell
Corpse Explosion: Causes all fresh corpses around the caster to explode, dealing damage to enemies in a 3×3 around each corpse and leave no remains. Can be researched/upgraded to “Chain Corpse Explosion” causing corpses to explode each other if they are one tile away from each other.
Soul Storm: Casts in a direction and creates a storm in a 2 tile radius circle around the point of impact: Blinds, slows and siphons health from enemies within storm to heal the caster until they die or escape the storm area.
Infection: Curse the enemy with a nauseating infection that poisons them for the duration, and if they are near an ally for 2 turns, the second turn transfers the poison effect to the ally as well, If the victims of the infection die from it, they are reanimated as zombies under the caster’s control.
Poisonous Coating: Imbues caster’s weapon with flat poison damage and a poison debuff/degen for a couple turns.
Rapid Decay: Casts directionally, increases target’s speed, but inflicts damage for the duration of the speed buff.
Minions:
Skeleton
Purpose: Fast and reanimate-able if slain, is useful meat(less) shield for slower zombies. Is also used for mining like imps, and crafting armor/weapons/structures like Goblins. Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Similar to: combination of Imps and Goblins
Creation: Casting “Reanimate” on a pile of humanoid bones.
Skeletal Beast
Purpose: Fast and reanimate-able if slain, Faster then human skeleton, but may be weaker, varies whether bear, wolf, or whatever, can be upgraded to be a suicidal unit that charges enemies and explodes (remains of suicide unit are destroyed) Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Similar to: Any normal non-flying beast, same purpose as it’s living beast counterpart.
Creation: Casting “Reanimate” on a pile of Beast Bones.
Skeletal Flyer
Purpose: Fast and reanimate-able if slain, Can still fly, and is faster then a Beast Skeleton, can be upgraded to be a suicidal unit that charges enemies and explodes (remains of suicide unit are destroyed) Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Similar to: Raven or Bat
Creation: Casting “Reanimate” on a pile of Flyer Bones.
Zombie
Purpose: Basic combat unit, similar to vanilla zombie really, Zombies move the same speed as vanilla, but can be upgraded with passive upgrade “Blood Frenzy” which makes them move double speed if an enemy is wounded or bleeding nearby. All zombies can recover health by consuming a fresh corpse (turning it into bones of humanoid/creature)
Similar: Vanilla Zombie/Orc
Creation: Casting “Reanimate” on a fresh Humanoid Corpse.
Zombified Beast
Purpose: A slightly more durable version of Skeletal Beast, basically serving the same purpose, while being slower and upgradeable with “Blood Frenzy”
Similar: Any normal non-flying beast.
Creation: Casting “Reanimate” on a fresh Beast Corpse.
Zombified Flyer
Purpose: A slightly more durable version of Skeletal Flyer, basically serving the same purpose, while being slower and upgradeable with “Blood Frenzy”
Similar: Any normal non-flying beast.
Creation: Casting “Reanimate” on a fresh Flyer Corpse.
Abominations
Purpose: SUPER TANKY undead monster that can take a SERIOUS beating, and even dish out brutal amounts of damage.
Similar: Orge/Doppleganger
Creation: Casting “Reanimate” while a single tile possesses two or more fresh corpses on it; the resulting Undead will share traits of all corpses it is made of. Must be researched first, otherwise will just spawn one normal undead per cast.
Liches
Purpose: The caster minion of the Necromancer, they can cast all the necromancy spells research-able, and if they are slain they are automatically resurrected by the Ritual Alter, 1 lvl lower, if they are lvl 1 they are destroyed. As well as performing research with the Keeper, they can also “work” on the graves in the graveyard area and animate new skeletons (with research, zombies as well) from basically nothing, Also good in potion and Jewellery Making. Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Similar: Orc Shaman, Succubus, Vampire(I think?)
Creation: They come to your dungeon when you have a Ritual Alter Room, one for each alter, as if they were beds for them.
Ghouls
Purpose: An undead that stalks enemies silently and sneakily, nearly invisibly; upon attacking, it gets a garenteed hit and turns visible again. The victims of it’s attacks have a chance of being infected and slowly dying and resurrecting as a Ghoul themselves, whether killed by something else or by the infection. Ghouls heal more from eating corpses but leave no remains.
Similar: Nothing like it exists at the moment.
Creation: You can obtain one by torturing a prisoner to death, then reanimating said corpse, it will become a ghoul, then the ghoul can more easily turn attackers into more ghouls.
Vampire
Purpose: Basically like the zombie, same as it’s vanilla variant, though gains the Lich’s resurrection ability, and possessing a unique spell called “Mesmerize” which behaves like a normal Stun Ray, but if the vampire attacks the Mesmerized victim, they will bite them instead of normal attack, which has a chance of turning them into a vampire as well after a duration.
Similar: Vanilla Vampire
Creation: May Join you when it’s vanilla requirements are met. Can then turn attackers into vampires.
Assimilator
Purpose: Basically the Doppleganger, goes around eating corpses and gains the stats and traits of the corpses it’s consumes, must be fresh corpses.
Similar: Vanilla Doppleganger
Creation: When attempting an Abomination, it may instead spawn as an Assimilator, the more corpses in a single tile the more likely it will be an Assimilator over an Abomination, up to 50/50 chance max.
Legendary Beasts:
Slime Creature
Description: Similar to Vanilla Slime Creature
Bone Spider
Description: Similar to Vanilla Ghost Spider Legendary, but made of bone instead of ectoplasm. Poisons on hit. Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Draco Lich
Description: A dragon made of bones with small tatters of flesh falling off the bone, MUST have a dragon skeleton to be Reanimated after researching Beast Mutations. Has a poison breath attack that does flat damage and poisons in a 3×3 area in front of the creature. Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Legion
Description: A slow moving BUT fast attacking creature made up of 5-10 corpses on top of one another, after Beast Mutations has been researched.
Legendary Humanoids:
Four Armed Skeleton
Description: 4 Armed giant humanoid skeleton who attacks faster then any normal creature(due to having 4 arms after all, also possesses 4 weapon slots) Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Bone Demon
Description: Similar to the Hellspawn but made of bones instead, can have the Poisonous Touch Trait. Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Greater Lich
Description: A powerful spell-caster, whose spells get a damage boost compared to normal and even your keeper’s spells. Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Death Knight
Description: An undead warrior on an undead steed, heavily armored and incredibly durable and nearly impossible to completely put down, as it moves remarkably fast due to being mounted, but attacks relatively slow due to it’s heavy armor and weapon, but also does a lot of damage, which poisons or bleeds out it’s victims. Being a skeletal creature, is immune to Poison or Bleed effects.
Structures:
Eye of Darkness
Purpose: Build-able Structure: Providing a similar service to the Eye of Evil of Vanilla while ALSO applying Darkness Shroud to the area around it, allowing the keeper’s minions to roam around during the day in the shroud of darkness.
Similar: Eye of Evil
Creation: Research Eye of Darkness to transform Eye of Evil into Eye of Darkness instead, converting existing Eyes into EoD’s.
Wall of Bones
Purpose: Build-able Structure: Replaces the Barricade, and can also be cast temporarily as a spell.
Similar: Barricade
Creation: Requires Bones to be placed at the location it is to be erected, the Casted version does not require existing bones. Cannot make normal Barricade, and Wall of Bones must be researched along with Bone Bridge and Bone Door
Bone Door
Purpose: Build-able Structure: Replaces Door, when attacked the attacker takes a small portion of damage from the door in return.
Similar: Door
Creation: Research Bone Door with Wall of Bones and Bone Bridge to craft it with Wood and bones.
Bone Bridge
Purpose: Build-able Structure: Replaces the normal Bridge, and when an enemy unit walks along it, they take a small ammount of damage and move slower.
Similar: Bridge
Creation: Same method as normal bridge, but requires wood AND bones in the storage to create.
Golden Font of Power
Purpose: Build-able Structure: To increase population cap.
Similar: Statue, it replaces Statue for the Necromancer Keeper.
Creation: Same as statue, but also requires mana as well as gold.
Screaming Skull Trap
Purpose: Behaves like Boulder Trap, when triggered it launches a screaming spectral skull in the direction triggered. “You hear a loud screaming in the distance.”
Similar: Boulder, Replaces Boulder.
Creation: Costs Granite AND mana to make initially, but only mana to reset.
Prisoner Head, Torch, Throne, and all other traps besides Boulder can remain Vanilla, as they for the most part still fit the theme of Necromancer.
