Editing Norrathians: Trade Skill (Arcana) (section)

===Necromancer===

The undead creatures that necromancers summon come from the plane of Decay, ruled by Bertoxxulous.  There the flesh formerly on their unrecognizable bodies remains, and continues to decay perpetually, constantly renewed by the power of the plane.  On the material plane, all that remains are the dried and brittle bones underneath, continuing to move thanks only to the power imbued by the Plaguebringer.  

Necromancers don’t just pick up bones and turn them into servants.  Bone chips must be crafted.  Usually this is done by taking pieces of bones and inscribing arcane markings into them, using special inks.  While the component is traditionally made of bone, it need only be a very dead and dry item that was once alive – the substance is just a symbolic link to the absence of life.  An old carapace, a fossil, petrified wood, etc could be used as a substitute.  It must be a substance that was once alive, but is now at the end of the decay cycle, and devoid of life; also it must be large and solid enough to allow for writings.  This writing includes special bonds which tie the skeletal corpse to the caster.  Larger bones are required for stronger servants, with the most powerful spells requiring bones as large and heavy as a human skull.

During the summoning process, the creature takes a generally humanoid form, borrowing traits that were once inherent in the type of bone used as a material component.  These are only superficial traits that change the appearance of the creature, but grant no special abilities or penalties.  For example, a necromantic pet summoned on an iksar bone will look exactly like an iksar’s skeleton (because the iksar are humanoid), but will not otherwise carry over any traits that iksars have.  A skeletal pet summoned on a hill giant’s bone will look just like a hill giant’s skeleton, but will otherwise be the same size as if it had been summoned on a human bone.  A skeleton summoned on a sabertooth tiger’s bone will have the tusks, and perhaps a feline-like head and tail, but will not have any real ability to use either of these to its advantage, and will remain humanoid.

Only 10% of the raw material cost in making bone chips comes from the actual bone.  The other 90% is the very rare and costly inks and stains.

When shadow knights cast animation summoning spells, they use the same material component as a necromancer would when casting the same spell, regardless of the spell level for the shadow knight.