Since ancient times, scholars and priests have devoted their entire lives to studying, explaining, and revering the final chapter in human life. For some individuals however, death has become an obsession, a source of magical power, or even an object of religious adorations. [...]

He is the macabre sorcerer who roots about in graveyards, searching out moldering components for his obscene spells. She is the evil preistess who calls upon the restless, tormented spirits, of the long-deceased, seeking their immortal arcana. [...] 

These beings are Necromancers, and they are universally feared and loathed as the purveyors of unrelenting evil.

The Dark Art. Forbidden Lore. Devil's Magic. The Dark Path. Various names within the roleplaying communities and fantasy genre given for the term "Necromancy". 

All fanfare aside, Necromancy has finally come to Ultima Online. And it, truly, is a force to be reckoned with. You can summon familiars to do your bidding. You can morph into powerful beings. You can feed off the negative life force of the dead. You can bring about pain and suffering through powerful curses or excrutiating attacks upon your enemies that remove their life force. And you can punish them for their fatigued state. And yes, Necromancers in Ultima Online can also raise the dead to do their evil bidding.

Of all the things added with Age of Shadows, this is probably the most powerful in terms of pure combat.

The anti-thesis of the Paladin is here. And he is taking names.

Necromancy is cast through a book called the "Necromancer Spellbook". You can find, and 'learn' 16 new spells for your new 'school' of magic. Acquiring this book takes merely a trip to Umbra in Malas and purchasing the skill and spell book from an NPC Necromancy Trainer. You can find scrolls as loot off monsters or from other players (or their vendors).

Note: If you do not have the Age of Shadows version of the Ultima Online client, you do not, and cannot have, access to Necomancy. Be warned that you sure can be affected by it from those that do have that client.

Unlike Chivalry, Necromancy is well suited to both Mage or Warrior characters. Battle Focus is recommended for Warrior Necromancers.

Spirit Speak is the companion skill for Necromancy. It makes your Necromancy spells stronger, and the duration of some of the spells last longer. To put it in other words: Spirit Speak is to Necromancy as Evaluate Intelligence is to Magery.

Special Note: You do not need a Spell Channeling Weapon to cast a Necromantic Spell. You do not need to disarm to cast a Necromantic spell. If you have a weapon in hand and you cast a Necromantic spell, you are not disarmed.

Necromancy Reagents and Spell Listing /Top

Necromancy has it's own set of Reagents that are needed to cast Necromancy Spells.

These Reagents can be found sold in Umbra and most NPC Mage shops across the land. You can also find Necromantic Reagents as loot on monsters and inside treasure chests.
 
 

Reagent Name	Spells
Batwing	Corpse Skin, Evil Omen, Horrific Beast, Mind Rot, Summon Familiar, Vampiric Embrace, Vengeful Spirit
Grave Dust	Animate Dead, Corpse Skin, Lich Form, Pain Strike, Summon Familiar, Vengeful Spirit, Wither
Daemon Blood	Animate Dead, Blood Oath, Horrific Beast, Lich Form, Mind Rot, Strangle, Summon Familiar
Nox Crystal	Evil Omen, Lich Form, Poison Strike, Strangle, Vampiric Embrace, Wither, Wraith Form
Pig Iron	Curse Weapon, Mind Rot, Pain Spike, Vampiric Embrace, Vengeful Spirit, Wither, Wraith Form

Necromancy Spell List Detailed/Top
 
 

Spell Name	Min Skill Level	Reagents	Mana Cost	Casting Time (in seconds)	Description
Animate Dead, 'Uus Corp'	40	Daemon Blood Grave Dust	23	1.5	Animate corpses into undead creatures that will wander around and attack any and every creature, except humans.
Blood Oath, 'In Jux Mani Xen'	20	Daemon Blood	15	1.5	Link to a single enemy, handing back a great deal of the damage they inflict upon you. Duration in Seconds = (Caster's Spirit Speak - Target's Resist) ÷ 8 + 8
Corpse Skin, 'In Aglo Corp Ylem'	20	Batwing Grave Dust	11	2	Inflicts necrosis upon the skin of the Necromancer or another target, making them more resistant to poison, cold and physical damage, but extremely vulnerable to fire.  Duration in Seconds = (Caster's Spirit Speak - Target's Resist) ÷ 2.5 + 40
Curse Weapon, 'An Sanct Gra Char'	0	Pig Iron	7	1	Briefly enchant your weapon to gain the power of life drain. While enchanted, the weapon will heal its wielder with 50% of the damage it deals out.  Duration in Seconds = Caster's Spirit Speak ÷ 7.5 + 1
Evil Omen, 'Pas Tym An Sanct'	15	Bat Wing Nox Crystal	11	1	Be it a strike from a sword or the sting of a spell, the next bad thing that happens to the receiver of this curse will be worse. The player affected by this spell:  will receive a +25% increase from the next source of damage.   will receive a +1 boost to the level of poison the next time they are poisoned   will only have 50% of their Resist Spells skill the next time they try to resist a spell.
Horrific Beast, 'Rel Xen Vas Bal'	40	Bat Wing Demon's Blood	11	4	Allows you to transform into a terrifying form that grants great physical strength, at the cost of your mind. No duration. Casting this spell again or casting another transformation spell dispels it. While under the effect of this spell, the caster receives:  +2 hp/sec

Spell Tactics/Top

Normally, you would find information like this in the Tips and Tricks section of any of UOPG's skill pages. Necromancy's spells are so powerful that they deserve special mention within their own section. This section will explain the most powerful Necromancy spells along with what they actually do and how to counter some of the effects of these Necromantic spells.

Evil Omen + Blood Oath

This combination of spells can be deadly. Evil Omen will set a player's resist to 50% of normal, and lowers your item-based resists for 25% more damage for the next hit. A character with 120 resist will be dropped to 60. Blood Oath will make the next thing that happens to the target worse. So, if you cast Evil Omen, lower their resist, then hit them with a spell, it will inflict more damage, or make the results of a curse or other debilitating effect worse (such as mana draining).

Warriors with magery could use magic arrow (high Evaluate Intelligence makes Magic Arrow hurt more). Attacking with a weak weapon will use up Evil Omen's "charge". Also, you can use a lesser poison potion, equipping a wand of magic arrow or harm. 

Blood Oath is said to be relatively easy to counter. Set off a lesser explosion pot and run up next to the Necromancer casting Blood Oath (if you have enhance potion items this will backfire on you). 

Note that a Necromancer mage with 120 Evaluate Intelligence would take 60 mana using the mana vampire spell after hitting their target with Evil Omen. 

The absolute best way to counter this combination is the Paladin's 'Remove Curse' spell. 

Pain Spike

Pain strike with 100 necromancy and spirit speak averages about 40 hit points in damage. A warrior using a double striking weapon and a precasted painstrike could very well kill or put someone very near death.

Even with high physical resist, pain strike could do 30+ points of damage.

Pain spike will take away 40% of the stamina to a target. There is no quick return to that stamina other than regeneration through Battle Focus or items or by drinking Total Refreshes. A Necomancer/Macer using a Macing Weapon/Pain Strike Attack could very well be trouble for anyone.

Strangle

Strangle does damage based on the following ratio: current stamina/maximum stamina. The lower this ratio, the higher the damage will be. This means that casting clumsy on yourself would help reduce damage. Casting Clumsy on yourself 'could' help, but not as much as one might think. Especially warriors who need their swing speed to ensure they hit often. 

Note that at 40 Battle Focus you get 60% of the regeneration rate you would get at GM Focus.

Strangle is primarily Poison damage but it may be a combination of Poison and Physical.

Your goal with Strangle is to lessen the damage. If you do not have access to the Paladin Spell, 'Remove Curse', Total Refresh potions are your best bet. Preventative measures include Stamina Regenerative items and Battle Focus.

Horde Minion requires 30 Necromancy and 30 Spirit Speak. 
Abilities: Pack animal, picks up stuff, decent combat assistant. Great for hunting.

Shadow Wisp requires 50 Necromancy and 50 Spirit Speak.
Abilities: negative energy flare; periodically heals the mana of those friendly to the caster (and the caster) IF they have negative karma. the more negative the karma, the more mana you get back. Great for training Necromancy, and any of the Magery related skills.

Dark Wolf requires 60 Necro and 60 Spirit Speak.
Abilities: +1 stamina every 2 seconds. Wolf mastery; allows you to tame any wolf as if it were a 0 difficulty tameable. 

Death Adder requires 80 Necro and 80 Spirit Speak. 
Abilities: Snake charming; you can command any snake to attack a target to which you can do negative acts. You don't get credit for the kill, however. Death Adders also have the ability to deadly poison a target.

Question: Does this include Silver Serpents? If yes, then this is an incredibly powerful ability in places like the Lich Lord room in Deceit and in the Lost Lands. Paralyze+Silver Serpent... 

Vampire Bat requires 100 Necro and 100 Sprit Speak. 
Abilities: all melee damage it does will heal it's master for an equal amount.

Familiars can't be commanded like pets. They can join in the fight automatically when you're attacked by something agressive. 

If you become invisible, all of the familiars will become invisibile with you. 

While in this form, you are immune to poison levels 1 - 4. It also will enhance your mana and stamina regeneration and your attacks have a life drain helping you gain life back while engaged in combat. 

Be warned that you have lower fire resist and the cure and heal spells will hurt you. And hurt bad. Beware that while in this form and casting those spells on yourself on your character is *not* a good idea. 

It's postulated that this spell is very effective for warrior-necromancers.
 

More information forthcoming.

Skill Training/Top

Skill level  What to cast 
0-30 Buy/Curse Weapon 
30-54 Pain Spike or Wraith Form 
54-71 Horrific Beast 
71-81 Wither 
81-110 Lich Form 
110-120 Vampiric Embrace 

Tips & Tricks/Top
 
 

Starting out as a Necromancer gives you 100 blessed regs and a Necromancer's Spell Book with 5 Necromancy spells.

If you have zero magery, you can still recall using Wraith Form. Turn into a Wraith and recall away.

Lower Reagent Cost, Lower Mana Cost, and Lower items are good for training. The former lowers the use of regs, the latter allows you to use less mana to cast more spells.

Liches, Tentacles of the Harrower, Meer Eternals and Imps, and in Treasure Chests are good sources to find Necromancy Scrolls on.

Information Gathered from: Personal experience, the UO.com Playguide and Age of Shadows Website, UOStratics, and other sources.