Rules

System: A Cainite necromancer must learn at least three levels in his primary path before learning his first level in a secondary Necromancy path. He must then master the primary path (all five levels) before acquiring any knowledge of a third path.

As with Thaumaturgy, advancement in the primary path costs the normal experience amount, while study of additional Necromantic paths incurs an additional experience-point cost (see p. 124). Because Necromancy is not quite so rigid a study as Thaumaturgy is, the rolls required to use Necromantic powers can vary from path to path and even within individual paths. The commonly-learned Sepulchre Path is presented first, with the remaining paths presented in alphabetical order.

Statistics for ghosts may be found in Chapter Nine, p. 385.

The rituals connected with Necromancy are a hodge-podge lot. Some have direct relations to the paths, while others seem to have been taught by ghosts themselves, for whatever twisted reason. All beginning necromancers gain one Level One ritual automatically, but any others learned must be gained through in-game play. Necromantic rituals are otherwise identical to Thaumaturgy rituals (pp. 230-240) and are learned in similar fashion, though the two are not at all compatible.

System: Casting times for necromantic rituals vary widely; see the description for particulars. The player rolls Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 3 + the level of the ritual, maximum 9). Success indicates the ritual proceeds smoothly, failure produces no effect, and a botch indicates something has gone horribly wrong.