Raise Skeleton [1], Skeleton Mastery [1], Clay Golem [6], Golem Mastery [12], Skeletal Mage [12], Blood Golem [18], Summon Resist [24], Iron Golem [24], Fire Golem [30], Revive [30]

Minions
Minions, such as Golems, Skeletons, Skeletal Mages, Revives, and Hirelings, may disappear or no longer be under your power if you allow them to get too far away from you. Check the Automap and make sure you stay with your Minions. You can use a Town Portal, Dungeon steps, or Waypoint to collect your Minions. Sometimes Minions may warp in around you if you get too far away from them, although this does not always happen.

Golems
You can only have one Golem of any type at any time. Once you summon a new Golem, the old one will immediately disappear.

You do not need a monster corpse to summon Golems although the Iron Golem requires an item.

Golems have a fixed defense.

The Hit Points and Damage of Golems increase on Nightmare, and again on Hell Difficulty.

Skeletons and Skeletal Mages
The number of Skeletons or Skeletal Mages you can have is only limited by the number of skill points you have. Wearing a magic item that raises Skill levels or using a Skill Boost Shrine also increases the number of Skeletons and Skeletal Mages you can raise. When the Skill Boost Shrine effect wears off the extra Skeletons disintegrate.

Skeleton's and Skeletal Mage's Life increases on Nightmare Difficulty and again on Hell Difficulty.

What are the Attack Ratings for Golems, Skeletons, and Skeletal Mages?
The Attack Ratings don't change but these monsters are generated at the caster's level, and level plays an important part in the "to hit" formula.

Raise Skeleton Required Level: 1 Prerequisites: None

Early on, Necromancers learn to control the skeletal remains of deceased creatures. Invoking this skill causes a nightmarish jumble of animated bones to rise from a fresh corpse. Animated partially through their own will and partially through the summoned spirits of ancient warriors, Necromancers often maintain a small host of these reanimated soldiers to do their bidding.

Effect: Cast on the corpse of a slain monster. This raises a skeleton warrior that fights for you.

Skeletons can work great throughout Normal Difficulty especially with points into Skeleton Mastery (or a point and +Skill Items). Once you hit Nightmare and Hell difficulty, generally Skeletons will die very quickly. You may wish to, once you hit Level 30, upgrade to Revived Monsters and switch to Revived Monsters and Skeletal Mages. However, if you max Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, use an Aura from an Act II Mercenary, and have good use of Curses, you can still continue to use Skeletons in Hell difficulty.

Skeletons, when created, have a 5% chance to spawn with a shield. This shield functions to allow the skeleton to block, although skeletons only have a 3% chance to block

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
# of Skeletons	1	2	3	3	3	4	4	4	5	5	5	6	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	8
Mana Cost	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Damage	1 - 2	1 - 2	1 - 2	1 - 2	1 - 2	1 - 2	1 - 2	2 - 4	4 - 5	6 - 7	8 - 9	10 - 11	12 - 14	14 - 16	17 - 19	21 - 23	26 - 28	31 - 33	37 - 39	37 - 39
Attack Bonus	20	35	50	65	80	95	110	125	140	155	170	185	200	215	230	245	260	275	290	305
Defense	20	35	50	65	80	95	110	125	140	155	170	185	200	215	230	245	260	275	290	305
Life	21	21	21	31	42	52	63	73	84	94	105	115	126	136	147	157	168	178	189	199

Raise Skeleton Receives Bonuses From
Skeleton Mastery
Summon Resist

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Skeleton Mastery Required Level: 1 Prerequisites: Raise Skeleton [1]

As the Necromancer's knowledge of the undead improves, he is able to harness and divert more powerful spirits to inhabit the corpses of the recently dead. A Necromancer who possesses this skill is able to raise skeletons and skeletal mages of a much more powerful variety.

Passive Effect: Improves the quality of your raised Skeletons, Magi, and Revived.

Investing points into Skeleton Mastery will increase Skeleton Hit Points and Damage. Points in Skeleton Mastery will also pay off later on if you use Revive.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Skeleton Life	8	16	24	32	40	48	56	64	72	80	88	96	104	112	120	128	136	144	152	160
Skeleton Damage	+2	+4	+6	+8	+10	+12	+14	+16	+18	+20	+22	+24	+26	+28	+30	+32	+34	+36	+38	+40
Monster Life +%	5	10	15	20	25	30	35	40	45	50	55	60	65	70	75	80	85	90	95	100
Monster Damage +%	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	110	120	130	140	150	160	170	180	190	200
Improved Missile Damage past Level 2

Clay Golem Required Level: 6 Prerequisites: None

While it is fairly simple for a Necromancer to animate dead tissue, it is another matter entirely to instill the spark of life into inanimate objects. The Clay Golem is the simplest form of this complex art, creating a servant directly from the earth to serve the Necromancer. The intense drain this places on the psyche of the caster only allows him to maintain a single Golem of any type at a time.

Effect: Raises a Golem from the earth to fight for you.

Before spending more than one point into Clay Golem consider that you will probably want upgrade to Blood Golem (at 18), Iron Golem (24), or Fire Golem (30), all of which replace the Clay Golem.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Mana Cost	15	18	21	24	27	30	33	36	39	42	45	48	51	54	57	60	63	66	69	72
Damage	2-5	2-6	3-8	4-10	4-12	5-13	6-15	6-17	7-19	8-20	9-22	9-24	10-26	11-27	11-29	12-31	13-33	13-34	14-36	15-38
Hit Points	100	135	170	205	240	275	310	345	380	415	450	485	520	555	590	625	660	695	730	765
Attack Bonus	80	100	120	140	160	180	200	220	240	260	280	300	320	340	360	380	400	420	440	440
Slows Enemies %	11	20	27	33	37	41	44	46	49	51	53	54	56	57	58	60	60	61	62	63
Defense: 20
Heal Themselves Automatically

Clay Golem Receives Bonuses From
Golem Mastery
Summon Resist
Blood Golem: +5% Life Per Level
Iron Golem: +35 Defense Per Level
Fire Golem: +6% Damage Per Level

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Golem Mastery Required Level: 12 Prerequisites: Clay Golem [6]

Developing this skill permits the Necromancer to divert more of his will and energies into his artificial creations. This allows the Necromancer to create more robust golems and control them with greater finesse.

Passive Effect: Enhances speed and life of Golems.

Golem Mastery adds more Hit Points to the Golem's Original Base Life, not the Life shown with more than one point into a Golem skill. Clay Golem: 100 HP, Blood Golem: 201 HP, Iron Golem: 306, Fire Golem: 328

Before placing more than a few points, or more than one point (with +Skills Items), look at the speed of the Golem. If he keeps up with you, that's probably enough points in Golem Mastery. The speed benefit is nice to allow the Golem to keep up with you, especially if you have Faster Run/Walk boots. Another benefit of his increased speed is to allow him to reach his targets more quickly. However if he's able to do both fine at his current speed, additional points for speed reasons are not necessary.

Another benefit of Golem Mastery is to allow your Golem to survive longer. However, if your Golem dies, you can simply make another one. If your Golem is not dying a lot and/or Mana is not a problem, and speed is not a problem, you'll receive no real benefit for having additional points in Golem Mastery.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Hit Points +%	20	40	60	80	100	120	140	160	180	200	220	240	260	280	300	320	340	360	380	400
Velocity Increase +%	6	10	14	17	20	22	23	24	26	27	28	29	30	30	31	32	32	32	33	33
Attack Bonus +X	25	50	75	100	125	150	175	200	225	250	275	300	325	350	375	400	425	450	475	500

Skeletal Mage Required Level: 12 Prerequisites: Raise Skeleton [1]

Dead warriors are not the only heroes that a Necromancer may summon to inhabit his creations. Many a Necromancer regales in raising the corpses of long dead wizards and bending them to his will. The priests of Rathma feel that this is the proof of the dominance of their particular branch of the mystic arts.

Effect: Raises a Skeletal Mage that fights for you with an elemental attack.

You cannot set what type of elemental attack a Skeletal Mage will have. You can keep raising a new Skeletal Mage until you get the type of Mage you want. Skeletal Mages have a high resistance to Magical Attacks, especially when they have the same elemental attack as the monster or player attacking them.

Skeletal Magi are useful throughout the game on all difficulty levels. At the minimum, they provide additional targets for monsters to attack. This is good because you want the monsters to attack your Minions instead of yourself. Skeletal Magi work great with Iron Maiden because melee monsters kill themselves on the Skeletal Magi.

Skeletal Magi are also helpful in "breaking in" to a new area, such as when you first join the game. For those Necromancers that specialize in Revive, their goal is to get together a group of Revived Monsters so that they can start to do damage, take them elsewhere, or feel more secure. At first you will have your Golem and you'll either have to kill the monsters to create bodies yourself or use your Golem (a Curse helps too), to get some good Revive candidates created. Once a body is created, make a Skeletal Mage if the body can't be Revived such as Leapers in the Outer Steppes of Act IV. Next cast Iron Maiden on the monsters. They will kill themselves on your Skeletal Mages allowing you to create more Skeletal Mages or Revive those monsters. Skeletal Magi are very helpful in this situation, especially in the first area of the Outer Steppes.

Cold Damage Skeletal Magi can be a pain. Monsters, when chilled, may explode leaving no corpse. Necromancers need corpses for Corpse Explosion and for creating Minions. But, Cold Damage Skeletal Magi can be very helpful also if you don't wish to have monsters leave a corpse. While you can't decide what Skeletal Magi elemental type is used, you can Unsummon those offending Skeletal Magi when you see them.

Skeleton Mastery can raise the damage of their attack.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
# of Skeletal Mages	1	2	3	3	3	4	4	4	5	5	5	6	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	8
Mana Cost	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27
Defense Bonus +X	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	110	120	130	140	150	160	170	180	190	200
Hit Points: 61

Skeletal Mage Receives Bonuses From:
Skeleton Mastery
Summon Resist

To calculate the Necromages' damage we need to know the relative skill level of their missiles. This can be done by looking in the following table. You can also [Download a Spreadsheet] on the Skeletal Mage damage created by Jon Y.

Raise Skel. Mage Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Skeleton Mastery Level	Relative Skill Level
1	1	1	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10
2	2	2	2	3	3	4	4	5	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10	10	11
3	3	3	3	4	4	5	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10	10	11	11	12
4	4	4	4	5	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10	10	11	11	12	12	13
5	5	5	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10	10	11	11	12	12	13	13	14
6	6	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10	10	11	11	12	12	13	13	14	14	15
7	7	7	7	8	8	9	9	10	10	11	11	12	12	13	13	14	14	15	15	16
8	8	8	8	9	9	10	10	11	11	12	12	13	13	14	14	15	15	16	16	17
9	9	9	9	10	10	11	11	12	12	13	13	14	14	15	15	16	16	17	17	18
10	10	10	10	11	11	12	12	13	13	14	14	15	15	16	16	17	17	18	18	19
11	11	11	11	12	12	13	13	14	14	15	15	16	16	17	17	18	18	19	19	20
12	12	12	12	13	13	14	14	15	15	16	16	17	17	18	18	19	19	20	20	21
13	13	13	13	14	14	15	15	16	16	17	17	18	18	19	19	20	20	21	21	22
14	14	14	14	15	15	16	16	17	17	18	18	19	19	20	20	21	21	22	22	23
15	15	15	15	16	16	17	17	18	18	19	19	20	20	21	21	22	22	23	23	24
16	16	16	16	17	17	18	18	19	19	20	20	21	21	22	22	23	23	24	24	25
17	17	17	17	18	18	19	19	20	20	21	21	22	22	23	23	24	24	25	25	26
18	18	18	18	19	19	20	20	21	21	22	22	23	23	24	24	25	25	26	26	27
19	19	19	19	20	20	21	21	22	22	23	23	24	24	25	25	26	26	27	27	28
20	20	20	20	21	21	22	22	23	23	24	24	25	25	26	26	27	27	28	28	29

If your Skeleton Mastery and Raise Skeletal Mage level is above 20, use the following formula to calculate your relative skill level:
('Skeleton Mastery'.lvl) + ((lvl < 4)?0:((lvl-2)/2)).
This means: to calculate relative skill level we take Skeleton Mastery level as base for the calculation ('Skeleton Mastery'.lvl), than we add (Raise Skeletal Mage Skill Level-2)/2 provided that Raise Skeletal Mage level is equal or above level 4. If it's on level 3 or less we do not add anything ((lvl < 4)?0).

Below is the table of Necromage missile's damage according to the relative skill level listed in the above table. Level 59 in this table corresponds to level 40 Skeleton Mastery and level 40 Raise Skeletal Mage 40+((40-2)/2) = 59.

Information about skill points:

Poison:

• 7 levels it gains 1 poison damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 2 poison damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 4 poison damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 6 poison damage per level
• All levels thereafter gain 8 poison damage per level
• It gains 10 seconds poison duration per level

• 7 levels it gains 1 cold damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 2 cold damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 3 cold damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 4 cold damage per level
• All levels thereafter gain 5 cold damage per level
• It gains 1 second cold duration per level (norm difficulty)

• 7 levels it gains 2 fire damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 3 fire damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 5 fire damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 7 fire damage per level
• All levels thereafter gain 9 fire damage per level

• 7 levels it gains 3 max light damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 5 max light damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 8 max light damage per level
• 7 levels it gains 11 max light damage per level
• All levels thereafter gain 14 max light damage per level
• It gains 1 minimum light damage per level