I want to play a necro + physical build but need help

[Alxndr]

I'm confused because I'm playing a 2 handed weapon which deals physical damage so I'm putting points into warfare, but I'm also using necro skills which are physical, but scale from intelligence, so I'm putting points into intelligence too.

But am I splitting my damage type in half by going with both? I don't really understand. I like both skill sets and want to try and combine them if possible.

[amk320]

I wouldn't bother with intelligence. I built Fane that way, with 2H, warfare, and necro just to heal himself. I rarely use his necro skills except bone armor and summon bone widow, and those are perfectly usable with no points spent in intelligence.

[Chaoslink]

Only ever build a character with ONE damage scaling attribute. As you're catching on, it hurts your damage output. You can still use some Necro skills, but ultimately you want them to play a support role if you keep up two hander fighting.

[Bystander]

Nah I'm pretty sure going split into strength and int is wrong if you want to build something strong. Necromancer is op when put on spellcasters to dish out the physical damage to complement your 2H fighter because as you noticed it scales with int. You should really be going for polymoph with your 2H as that has spells that scale with strength

[Alxndr]

Originally posted by Bystander:

Nah I'm pretty sure going split into strength and int is wrong if you want to build something strong. Necromancer is op when put on spellcasters to dish out the physical damage to complement your 2H fighter because as you noticed it scales with int. You should really be going for polymoph with your 2H as that has spells that scale with strength

So based on what you said, I could have a necromancer character with a wand and shield since they will be at range. Dump all my points into intelligence with many necromancer skills.

Then with my other character have them as a 2 handed physical build and pump warfare and poly and constitution?

[baggybaf]

The true necromancer is a mage, not a melee build. It becomes powerful starting at level 12 because it gains a very powerful source spell (or two if you know how to recover source slots quickly, so not via a traditional path).
Before that, necro (mage) is not very interesting because it has limited damage spells.and like you say if you use a weapon you're not really going to hit hard from level 6-7 compared to other builds.
That's why many players play the first 12 levels as a summoner, which allows you to cast spells based on intelligence and deal good damage via summoning. At level 12, summoner points are removed and put into Warfare.
That's why, for me, it's not the most powerful build because without the summoner trick, it's less effective than many other builds for almost a third of the game.
As has been said, either you build a knight with necro support spells or a summoner.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Alxndr:

Originally posted by Bystander:

Nah I'm pretty sure going split into strength and int is wrong if you want to build something strong. Necromancer is op when put on spellcasters to dish out the physical damage to complement your 2H fighter because as you noticed it scales with int. You should really be going for polymoph with your 2H as that has spells that scale with strength

So based on what you said, I could have a necromancer character with a wand and shield since they will be at range. Dump all my points into intelligence with many necromancer skills.

Then with my other character have them as a 2 handed physical build and pump warfare and poly and constitution?

Poly is a sort of side skill, its decent on literally anyone, but there's a few spells that specifically scale off Strength, they're good without it though.

I'd still recommend having a melee weapon on the Necro for using the knockdown skills from Warfare. You only need the Necro skill up to what you need for equipping the spells, Warfare scales your damage still.

Never pump Con on anyone though. Only take enough for equipping a shield if you want to use one, nothing more. Ever. Con is next to worthless. In fact, there's a few moments in the game you can trade Con for other stats and its always worth it unless you use a shield. This game favors damage over defense.

[Alxndr]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Originally posted by Alxndr:

So based on what you said, I could have a necromancer character with a wand and shield since they will be at range. Dump all my points into intelligence with many necromancer skills.

Then with my other character have them as a 2 handed physical build and pump warfare and poly and constitution?

Poly is a sort of side skill, its decent on literally anyone, but there's a few spells that specifically scale off Strength, they're good without it though.

I'd still recommend having a melee weapon on the Necro for using the knockdown skills from Warfare. You only need the Necro skill up to what you need for equipping the spells, Warfare scales your damage still.

Never pump Con on anyone though. Only take enough for equipping a shield if you want to use one, nothing more. Ever. Con is next to worthless. In fact, there's a few moments in the game you can trade Con for other stats and its always worth it unless you use a shield. This game favors damage over defense.

I don't understand though because if necromancer damage scale from intelligence, why am I putting points into strength & warfare instead of intelligence?

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Alxndr:

I don't understand though because if necromancer damage scale from intelligence, why am I putting points into strength & warfare instead of intelligence?

You'd only dip enough Strength to equip a melee weapon so you can use the knockdown CC abilities like Battle Stomp or Battering Ram. This is mostly just an early game thing until your spells start to do most of the work. Early game Necro is a bit rough because of the low number of offensive spells. You'll want to craft a few as well such as Corpse Explosion using a Pyro and Necro book. Melee weapons also typically have crit chance built in, something that is good later on with Savage Sortilege for spell critting.

Warfare is how ALL physical damage scales. If your character deals physical damage, they want a high Warfare score, including characters like archers and Necromancers (don't invest weapon skills for weapon users unless Warfare is capped). Putting points into Necro only increases the amount of lifestealing your attacks do, it does nothing for damage. So early on you'd only need 2 points of Necro to learn the spells for the first half of the game. You don't need Necro 3-5 until level 16 when the strongest spells become available.

A lot of players actually go Summoner for the first half of the game since it falls off later game and then swap to Necro around level 10-12 when Necro starts to get powerful since it can be a bit lackluster early on. Its still viable, just takes a bit of know how to get it going until midgame when you can start really using Source.

[Syrris]

A two-hand weapon user can get some utility out of having necromancy as a skill, but it's done for the passive and for the support skills (which don't scale with Int) rather than for the attacks.

A caster necro can either use a melee weapon purely for the utility as described above, and this is optimal for a purely physical damage party, or play full caster with another element alongside necromancy. The latter splits your focus but it can work in a mixed-damage party.