Good evening and welcome to this spooky edition of Build a Better, where we compile a list of mods that make playing the traditional cackling Necromancer a little easier, a little more convenient, and, of course, a little more stylish. All the avenues that Skyrim could have gone down to make a macabre necromancer, a summoner of undead, a master lich, and bane of Arkay, and yet they didn't.
However, modders did.
Core Mods:
* Alternate Start - Live Another Life
Requires: Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
A staple among roleplayers and those who hate the Helgen intro, Alternate Start allows characters to start in any city, town, inn, or guildhall they want, but also has some more interesting options. The “start as necromancer in secret location” will drop you off in Blackreach. Fun times.
* Truly Undead - Reborn
Requires: SKSE, SkyUI
Performance Strain: Low-Moderate
MCM Menu: Yes
You know how undead beasties are only supposed to stay dead under certain circumstances? This mod brings that mechanic to bear in Skyrim, affecting skeletons, vampires, draugr, dragon priests, including your own risen minions, so that they might raise again if not destroyed in the proper fashion (fire, silver, sun, etc.).
* Bring Your Silver
Requires: Dawnguard, Dragonborn, Unofficial Legendary Patch
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Another mod that brings in the traditional tabletop feel to undead, this mod gives the supernatural back their very Morrowindian resistances to normal weapons, with profound weakness to silver, Daedric, and crushing weapons with some extra magical tidbits to round out the mod.
* Forgotten Magic Redone
Requires: SKSE, SkyUI
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: Yes
Adding in a few dozen new spells, FMR gives you chances to upgrade each spell with new effects and bonuses as you use them. The Warlock branch of magic gives access to necromancer-appropriate spells like an undead summon, darkness bolts, poison and disease.
* Vile Art of Necromancy
Requires: SKSE
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
A bit necromantic overhaul, you get the power to imbue your risen undead with dark artifacts and values of your own creation, carve the corpses of your fallen enemies to harvest alchemical reagents, barter the souls of your enemies to foul Daedra, bottle the souls of dragons with ancient Akaviri techniques, and a lot more.
* TDN Necromancer Follower - Xavier
Requires: SKSE, Dawnguard
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
An evil necromancer and Master of Conjuration, Xavier is a bone-white Altmer who summons his own undead zombies and ghosts, as well as death hounds, before raising fallen enemies.
* Tirashan - Necromancer Home
Requires: Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
A spooky home of Elianora that rests in a pocket dimensions of Oblivion, Tirashan has all the trimmings of a home with all the flavour Elianora puts into her work. This one is clearly for evil necromancers who go for a regal, refined style. Comes with witch’s hat.
Gear & Equipment:
* Lind’s Necromancer Robes Revamp
Armor: Clothing
Acquired: Looting from dead necromancers
Compatible: Vanilla body; beast races ok; males+females
Lind has basically remastered all the different colours of robes, turning them into layered, detailed hoods and gowns that feel right with both the humble priest or court wizard and ungodly necromancer.
* Black Mage Armor
Armor: Clothing, Light, Heavy and upgraded Heavy version (Black Archmage)
Acquired: Crafting (Misc / Leather / Steel and Ebony)
Compatible: Vanilla body; beast races ok; males+females
Skyrim is severely lacking in apparel for evil mages or even just dark sorcerers. Repurposing meshes from the Archmage Robes, monk robes, and mage robes, the Black Mage Armors are detailed and dark enough for even well-meaning necros.
* Tribunal Robes
Armor: Clothing, Light, Heavy
Acquired: Crafting (no perks / Glass smithing / Ebony smithing)
Compatible: Vanilla body; beast races ok; males+females
One colour option for each of the magic schools, the armors are foreboding, imposing, and downright dangerous with a reinforced chest-piece and brings bulk and mystique to even the mousiest Breton.
* Sotteta Necromancer Outfit
Armor: Light
Acquired: Crafting (Leather)
Compatible: UNP, CBBE, SevenBase bodies; female only
For the necro with the booty, Sotteta brings glitter, fishnets, cleavage and class to undead-raisers. Teccam forced me to include this one. NO I DID NOT - TECCAM. [But keep it in. ;) ]
Quests:
* Undeath
Requires: Dawnguard, Dragonborn
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Hunt down a rogue necromancer and his followers, but when it comes down to it, when he is slain, do you burn his research or finish it yourself and transcend mortality to become a lich? The quest starts at level 30 and will give the ultimate necromancer form, similar to beast/vampire lord form, with huge gains over the power of death and destruction.
* Undeath Immersive Lichdom
Requires: Undeath, Dawnguard, Dragonborn
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
An updated expansion and bug-fixer, it enhances the lich form offered by Undeath with perks, powers, and Mannimarco’s own Staff of Worms.
Skills:
* Ordinator - Conjuration tree
Requires: SKSE, SkyUI
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Necromancers who raise their fallen enemies are all well and good, but what happens when the bodies dry up? Why, that’s why you saved all those bones from your previous enemies. Build your own skeletal army, upgrade, and bless them with perks from Ordinator’s Conjuration tree.
* Path of Sorcery
Requires: SKSE, Dawnguard, Dragonborn
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
When the maker of Ordinator saw this mod, he dumped his own magic school overhauls in favour of integrating these. The Conjuration tree still has some of the skeleton-making mechanics that didn't carry over, like creating dragon and beast skellies.
* Lord of the Dead
Requires: SKSE, SkyUI
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
A little known mod from Erkeil, it gives many, many perks for your own choice to take up and slowly fall into becoming a lich. Paired with Undeath, you can feel like a lich both in and out of your form.
Misc.:
* Necromancy Undead FX
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: Yes
Although Skyrim introduced reanimation, the corpses look as fresh as when there was a soul driving the meatsuit. With this mod, the meat slowly rots away to expose the skeleton underneath.
* Necromancy 101
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
An incredibly simple tweak to the game, it makes playing as a necromancer in vanilla much more viable. Corpses no longer turn to ash when their reanimation expires and you can give them weapons or armor to equip, but you can add a garlic head to a dead body and then when any attempt to raise it will find it collapses to ash when standing.
* Better Dead Thralls
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
All the little conveniences that the vanilla game left out, it makes thrall usage a whole lot more convenient without having to muck around with glitches: thralls tracked with a misc. quest marker, level cap removed, can thrall any creature, thralls are no longer locked in their “outfit” and you can equip them, moaning has been disabled, and other little tweaks.
* Demonic Soultrap Sound
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Soul trapping is meant to be evil. Diabolical. Incredibly painful to the one who has their soul torn from their body and shoved in a gem. This mod adds screams and a more aggressive wind to help illustrate that.
* Unlimited Ritual Stone Power
Requires: Base game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
If you’re going to use the Unlimited Ritual Stone/Aetherial Crown glitch to revive your army when they die and just use it multiple time a day, why not just go all out and skip Lost to the Ages? This mod makes it usable multiple times a day and gives it an infinite duration.
* Armored Skeletons and the Walking Dead
Requires: Base Game
Performance Strain: Low
MCM Menu: No
Makes the base game a little more interesting by adding in all the skeletons and undead creatures added in by Immersive Creatures, giving a huge variety to the standard draugr and skelly. Expect to find beast skeletons, armored skeletons, draugr in rags, and new undead magicians.
Sample Builds:
In the mood to test some of these mods out on a new playthrough? Instead of browsing the Necromancer tag over at Character Building, take a look at some of our favourites.
- The Necromancer by Henson
- The classic necromancer on-site, it was the first to use the Ritual Stone exploit and intends to raise an army…
- The King of Worms by Raidriar Never Dies (Raidriar and Curse Never Dying)
- A recreation of the infamous Mannimarco, the build makes a valiant lich and merciless undead raiser to terrorize Skyrim.
- The Sorceress by Oneness
- With a synergy so beautiful it could write a symphony, Necromage allows the bewitching Sorceress to be one step above every other necromancer.
Replies
This is a great guide for anyone wanting to play a necromancer character, I really like how you gave some sample builds at the end.
Bloody hell. Thank god I found this before I started a Revamp of Lazareth. The sample builds really do help. I wonder... How many people use mods and is it common to use mods? Let alone Necromancy mods?