Official Discussion Thread for "Don’t Get Caught! Necromancy in The Elder Scrolls Online"

ZOS_SarahHecker

This is the official discussion thread for "Don’t Get Caught! Necromancy in The Elder Scrolls Online."

The Week of the Necromancer starts here! Learn about the practice of the dark arts during Tamriel’s 2nd Era and what it means for your Necromancer character.

VaranisArano

I'm curious. With the expansion of the Justice system to include Necromancy, are there any lore updates to the base game or Chapter quests?

Example:
Does Grandmaster Tanval Indoril happily send my known necromancer into his ancestor's tomb to get answers about Balreth?

Does Queen Maryah happily ask my known necromancer to go investigate rumors of necromancers in Sentinel?

Does Ritemaster Iachesis grit his teeth at the neccessity of enrolling a known necromancer into the Psijic Order, after he expelled Mannimarco?

Or are all the NPCs just going to shrug, ignore our status as known necromancers, continue on with the base game quests like nothing is wrong at all? (Given that I doubt you'll be redoing voice actor work, I suspect this is the correct, but IMO unsatisfying, answer.)

Maybe I just tell each NPC that I pinky swear that I'll never do necromancy again, cross my heart, hope to die... >.>

How I imagine certain NPCs working with a known Necromancers:

dazee

Maybe they don't know were necromancers unless we summon some undead near them? I assume once they knew they wouldn't be happy though.

Xeroxed

Considering that flagrant Necromancy will be integrated into the justice system, will you also be making updates to make obvious lycanthropy/vampirism bounty worthy as well? That's always been a big hole in the justice system so I'm curious if with this stance on Necromancy the rest will be brought in line as well?

Vercingetorix

The Necromancer seems like an interesting class and I like the idea of there being criminal penalties to casting certain abilities, but I'm worried about some of the more specific scenarios such as questing interaction with forced NPC companions. I have some questions for those of you that have tinkered around with this new mechanic:

1. Are criminal penalties confined to ONLY major cities or are smaller towns with lots of side quests also affected?
2. Do quest NPCs essentially bar you from using your criminal abilities because they'll always witness your crimes?
3. What about quests that take place in cities under siege with stranded/rescue target NPCs - do they tell on you, too?
4. Can criminal abilities be cast without penalty in places like the "Smuggler Sewer" areas or Coldharbour?

Vercingetorix

Xeroxed wrote: »

Considering that flagrant Necromancy will be integrated into the justice system, will you also be making updates to make obvious lycanthropy/vampirism bounty worthy as well? That's always been a big hole in the justice system so I'm curious if with this stance on Necromancy the rest will be brought in line as well?

I'd imagine casting Vampire abilities and Werewolf transformation will be introduced as penalties. Unlike the Necro or a Werewolf who can simply not use their illegal skills, the vampire can't "turn off" their vampirism so limiting their crimes to casting their abilities seems reasonable.

Mudcrabber

Vercingetorix wrote: »

1. Are criminal penalties confined to ONLY major cities or are smaller towns with lots of side quests also affected?
2. Do quest NPCs essentially bar you from using your criminal abilities because they'll always witness your crimes?

I've accumulated necromancer-related bounties inside of a delve with friendly quest NPC's, and the bounty didn't appear until I exited the delve.

Anhedonie

VaranisArano wrote: »

I'm curious. With the expansion of the Justice system to include Necromancy, are there any lore updates to the base game or Chapter quests?

Example:
Does Grandmaster Tanval Indoril happily send my known necromancer into his ancestor's tomb to get answers about Balreth?

Does Queen Maryah happily ask my known necromancer to go investigate rumors of necromancers in Sentinel?

Does Ritemaster Iachesis grit his teeth at the neccessity of enrolling a known necromancer into the Psijic Order, after he expelled Mannimarco?

Or are all the NPCs just going to shrug, ignore our status as known necromancers, continue on with the base game quests like nothing is wrong at all? (Given that I doubt you'll be redoing voice actor work, I suspect this is the correct, but IMO unsatisfying, answer.)

Maybe I just tell each NPC that I pinky swear that I'll never do necromancy again, cross my heart, hope to die... >.>

How I imagine certain NPCs working with a known Necromancers:

Don't forget the whole main quest thing.
"Oh, we'll make a necromancer of you yet" - A. Tharn.

Galwylin

Pretty sure forced quest NPCs don't recognize criminal acts any longer as I've looted thieves troves with them without any reaction. I'm pretty sure you'd get a bounty for looting them once upon a time with witnesses. Haven't tried actual stealing in front of any but wouldn't be surprised if that no longer adds bounty.

Much like your race and class, it seems most NPCs just don't recognize your characters as anything. Khajiit explain things to a Khajiit character that obviously they should know as that race, etc. Yet you get the same dialog no matter the race even if the race should know what's being explained. Nords explaining Nord gods to Nords and such. I wish NPCs recognized things like race, sex and class but I guess to them our characters are just big blobs of nothing. As they seem to be in all TES games. This seems like it will be handled the same. Don't steal or cast necromancy spells in front of non-quest NPCs.

If they make vampires have a similar experience I will definitely make one then since the one thing I hate about vampires is the lack of interactions you get from being one. What stage you are currently doesn't matter but if stage 2 and above had some bounty cost to it, it makes keeping the stages in mind. This current system of whatever makes if feels less interesting to me. It could make it more annoying to play but this is partly a RPG. For me it makes playing one more than just some stat increases. Hopefully the necromance will be more interesting to play when you have to be aware of your actions in certain areas. So the fastest they add more to the justice system the better.

Olauron

Anhedonie wrote: »

Don't forget the whole main quest thing.
"Oh, we'll make a necromancer of you yet" - A. Tharn.

In Elsweyr he admitted that he is not an expert on necromancy.

Zacuel

I'm just curious about law enforcement coming after necromancy stuff while ignoring the guy who can breathe fire or that other guy with the deadra or that one chick with the bear.

You get it.