Summary::This is a discussion of how to play a necromancer. Not how to make a weird 20th level build that does something cute, but actually how to play a character interested in the dark arts in real games. There are many ways to build a decent necromancer, and unfortunately many more ways to make a necromantically inclined character that is tragically incapable of contributing to the machinations of their party. Hopefully, this handbook will help you avoid the pitfalls even as it introduces you to the interactions of the bewilderingly large school of necromantic effects in such a way as to allow them to be used for good. Or at least awesome.