12 Games Where You Can Play As A Necromancer

Highlights

• Necromancers are a popular and powerful antagonist in gaming, but some games allow players to pursue necromancy as a captivating and efficient ability in battle.
• Games featuring necromancers often give players the option to choose other classes or specialize in necromancy, allowing them to raise undead armies and use necromantic powers throughout their journeys.
• Necromancy is a specialization or subclass available in various games, including Divinity: Original Sin 2, Grim Dawn, World of Warcraft, Baldur’s Gate 3, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Guild Wars 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, Path of Exile, and Diablo 2.

With the ability to raise the dead, necromancers often defy the natural order of the world to achieve their own goals, making them one of the most popular, fierce, and manipulative kinds of antagonists in gaming. Still, despite how most games cast necromancers in a negative light, some recognize how captivating, beneficial, and efficient their abilities are in battle by allowing players to pursue necromancy.

Since playing as a necromancer can be divisive, games that feature them generally allow players to choose how to devote their efforts and skills by including other playable classes or making necromancy a specialization. Nonetheless, these games let players raise undead armies and use necromancy as a powerful tool throughout their journeys.

Updated on January 4, 2024, by Mara Cowley: There is no shortage of necromancer games on the market, as the raising of the dead remains an ever-popular and loved class. Many RPGs offer this as a class to gamers, allowing them to make use of dead enemies and allies alike, turning them into mindless thralls that will carry out their bidding without question. While this article already includes a plentiful array of games with necromancer class available, it has been updated to include more excellent entries that set themselves apart from the rest with fantastic campaigns and game worlds.

12 The Unliving

Metacritic Score: N/A

• Release Date: October 26, 2021
• Developer: RocketBrush Studio
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S

For those with a touch of RPG fatigue and in the market for something a little different on the side of their necromancer gameplay, The Unliving might just sate that specific craving. As the title suggests, players take on the role of a necromancer, imbued with the power to raise their own armies of undead minions.

Rather than playing through a story-driven campaign, players will instead be out through a rogue-lite challenge, weaponizing their undead armies against villages, mobs of enemies, and even epic bosses. With fun gameplay, and more necromantic gameplay than one could shake a skeleton at, The Unliving is another excellent entry for necromancer fans.

11 Divinity: Original Sin 2

Metacritic Score: 93

Before Baldur’s Gate 3, there was Divinity: Original Sin 2, an RPG of epic proportions that proved Larian’s impressive RPG-crafting abilities. DOS2 follows a rag-tag group of adventurers traversing across a mythical land taking on the dangerous voidwoken monsters that are drawn to those that call upon Source, an energy magic casters can tap into to cast spells.

Players can choose to play as one of the pre-made Origin characters or they have the freedom to make their own, deciding on their appearance, race, and class. Of course, one of the available classes is necromancer, which is unique in the way that they can heal undead with their necrotic powers, as healing spells usually inflict damage on the restless dead.

10 Grim Dawn

Metacritic Score: 83

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Grim Dawn exists in an equally grim fictional land where humanity is almost all but extinct thanks to otherworldly races that wage war. The few surviving humans live in enclaves, watching their enemies for weakness so that they might strike them down and save their declining populace, honing their powers as they wait.

These powers can come in the form of necromantic spells, which were added in a subsequent Grim Dawn expansion. Though most of a necromancer’s abilities will come from weaving vitality-draining spells, they can also imbue their death magic onto ranged weaponry, adding more versatility to their kit.

9 World of Warcraft

Metacritic Score: 93

Blizzard’s MMORPG has endured many long years and still enjoys a thriving player base to this date. In World of Warcraft‘s fantasy world, people can play as humans, elves, gnomes, orcs, shamans, druids, demon hunters, or even the undead-raising necromancers.

Azeroth has endured many evils done by necromantic magic, but that doesn’t stop players from dabbling into the dark arts should they wish. They will gain the powers to bring about festering diseases, harness dark shadows to damage what they touch, and raise those who died to be their mindless thralls. World of Warcraft players who tap into these magics will gain great power but will be saddled with an unsavory reputation.

8 Baldur’s Gate 3

Metacritic Score: 96

Larian’s hit RPG based on the famed TTRPG Dungeons and Dragons comes with a plethora of options for players, allowing them to choose their appearance, race, class, and subclass. Among the standard fare of wizards is the Necromancer subclass, a Baldur’s Gate 3 wizard that isn’t afraid of tapping into some darker magics and raising minions to do their bidding.

Necromancers in Baldur’s Gate 3 have access to necrotic magic that drains the vitality out of victims as well as the capabilities to communicate to the dead and raise them from their graves as mindless thralls.

7 Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura

Metacritic Score: 81

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a high-fantasy steampunk role-playing game known for its complex character builds and immersive world where magic and technology go hand in hand.

To make their character a necromancer in Arcanum, players will need enough willpower to learn abilities from the Necromantic Black or White Spell Colleges. While Black Necromancy involves skills more commonly associated with necromancers, such as summoning spirits, raising the dead, and draining life energy, Necromantic White spells help heal wounds, prevent the poison from spreading, and otherwise restore life force. Still, no matter what kind of necromancer players wish to be, Arcanum gives them ample time to appreciate its world and story.

6 Guild Wars 2

Metacritic Score: 90

In the free-to-play online multiplayer game Guild Wars 2, choosing a character’s profession is an important decision since each class comes with its move set, passive abilities, and equipment requirements. With nine different classes available, including necromancer, the game has something to offer everyone.

Necromancy is one of the most welcoming professions in Guild Wars 2. Every nearby death provides them with the life source they need to use their unique skills, making them a powerful and destructive force, even when working alone to complete quests, explore the world, or enjoy events.

5 Dragon Age: Inquisition

Metacritic Score: 85

In Dragon Age: Inquisition, necromancy is a specialization available for mage inquisitors after reaching Skyhold. Among other abilities, it allows players to spread panic, use fallen enemies to their advantage, and temporarily revive themselves as a spirit in battle while waiting for a more strategic time to heal.

Although necromancy can’t be used by rogue or warrior inquisitors, fans of Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s other classes can experience the specialization’s power by adding Dorian to their party and switching to him during battle. As the Inquisition’s resident necromancer, Dorian uses the magic others would prefer to avoid to support the Inquisitor’s ideals.

Metacritic Score: 96

Unlike other Elder Scrolls games where necromancy was outlawed or otherwise limited, Skyrim marks a shift in the series by allowing players to become necromancers as part of the Conjuration skill tree. At first, players will only be able to conjure familiars or raise zombies from the dead to help them in battle. However, as they develop their magic, Conjuration will empower them to summon more formidable allies.

For those who decide to master its techniques, Skyrim Anniversary Edition makes necromancy a more powerful tool by adding new grimoires, accessories, and spells to the game.

3 Warcraft 3: Reign Of Chaos

Metacritic Score: 92

As a predecessor to World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos is renowned for its compelling story about a prince named Arthas as he tries to save his kingdom from a lich’s plague and falls into madness, prompting uneasy alliances between other races.

Considering their role in the plague and Arthas’ downfall, necromancers are just as essential to Warcraft 3‘s plot as they are to its gameplay. They may be vulnerable to flying units, but in battle, necromancers can be unmatched forces of destruction for players with ample resources to help manage their units’ mana and summons effectively.

2 Path Of Exile

Metacritic Score: 86

Often considered a spiritual successor to the Diablo series, Path of Exile is known as one of the best action role-playing games available. With hundreds of ways to customize a character’s active and passive abilities, comparing the seven main classes with their specializations, or Ascendancies, is essential.

In Path of Exile, necromancy is aligned with intelligence and witchcraft, but it is considered one of the best and most well-rounded Ascendencies for players to enjoy. With the proper build and supplies, necromancers can raise formidable armies or set the world ablaze with the power to turn the undead into bombs. Either way, mastering their abilities makes them an impressive force to be reckoned with.

1 Diablo 2

Metacritic Score: 88

Of all the Diablo games, many fans consider Diablo 2 the best. Its story was a natural successor to the first game while improving combat and filling its dark fantasy world with more compelling enemies. The game also introduced more classes, allowing fans to play as barbarians, necromancers, and more.

With the ability to create golems, raise minions, and poison or otherwise curse enemies, necromancers are some of Diablo 2’s most popular and versatile magic users. Their magic also makes them a fitting character for the game’s darker elements, considering how their pure motives contrast with their deadly methods.

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