Shattered Kingdoms

In general for necros, deep-elves/humans/sprite/halfling are the prime races (and human is very low on the totem pole). I also listed them in order of offensive capability versus defensive capability: Deep-elf necros (highest INT) have the highest damage potential but have the most weaknesses, halfling necros (lowest INT of the four races) have the least noticeable weaknesses but have less potential damage output. While INT is important for necros, just like sorcerers, the concentration cost on control undead/animate undead is lower, so while having less INT may keep you from holding one or two more controls, it doesn't outright cripple you.

Humans are probably the least desirable of the "non-joking" necro races because they don't have innate magical resistance, meaning they will get 1 shotted by magma spray and take a lot of damage from other damage spells like bolt of glory.

Is there any place to learn that kind of thing in-game outside of personal experience (of others,) Edoras? Those subtleties are something I still struggle with, myself.

If you want to make a pvp-oriented necromancer, I would suggest going sprite, halfling, or deep-elf.

The main reason I would not go human, half-elf, or gnome is that these races do not have innate magical resistance. Magically resistant races take less damage from spells than other races. The magically resistant races are sprite, Halfling, deep-elf, and elf. I would estimate they take 2/3 the damage that other races take. Human, half-elf, and gnome are all playable as necromancers though - there is nothing that makes them horrible. It's just that there are options that are clearly better.


If you want to make a pvp-oriented sorcerer, I would suggest going deep-elf, sprite, elf, or human. Humans aren't magically resistant like the other choices, but they have 1 more intelligence than sprite or elf, which really comes in handy as a sorc, so it's a trade-off worth considering when it comes to the sorc class. Gnome is playable as well, but their int is no better than sprite/elf, and they don't have magical resistance. Their high wisdom isn't a big enough advantage to make up for it, in my opinion. Griffons and half-elves have low enough int that it might just be frustrating trying to play sorcs of those races.

Hope this helps.


There should be a NPC in every newbie school that mercilessly taunts people who made bad race/class choices.
A wizened magic teacher says 'Ha! You think a half-elf like you will ever make a decent sorcerer?! Everyone knows you're not even smart enough to sleep while holding a charm!'
A warlock instructor says 'Not another Giant! You guys are horrible if you're not in the Fists of the White Swan!'

Giant sorcerer mr fist, right Wudan?

Now that MR blocks voodoo, I don't think that advice is relevant. Players chose those races primarily to avoid dying cheaply to voodoo.

Magic resistance is still a really big deal. A caster would still die to a voodoo before, resistant or not.

Huh? Ardith is saying that people chose magically resistant races for casters because it helped them avoid voodoo. Now that MR works against voodoo, an MR-enchanted sorc doesn't have to worry about voodoo, and doesn't have to pick his race with voodoo as a main consideration.

Ardith makes a good point. An MR sorc doesn't have to worry about hostile spells except for magma, and magma is probably not a big enough deal to make someone want to go MR, considering sorcs get access to MI and to a lesser extent, RE.

Did I make my post before the changes to MR/voodoo, or did I just not realize that most sorcs are going to be going MR these days?

Until MR doesn't stack on enchantments, probably yes.

I was saying that magical resistance on races is still a big deal, because MR enchantments are not always the best choice nowadays, especially if you're going up against a decent amount of ranged combat. It's also still pretty frustrating to enchant for MR now, even though it's definitely much more achievable than before.

Ah okay gotcha.

I'm not very familiar with the current enchant system as I haven't played since it was implemented. I enchanting for MR would be the way to go for a sorc most of the time.