As of The Color of Madness patch, all of the Necromancer's summoned minions are life-linked to him and will expire when he does. On higher difficulties, the Bone Soldiers summoned by the Necromancer have Stealth for 2 rounds. The Necromancer notably has no weighted skill selection or targeting, making his series of attacks effectively random. Corpses do not block this ability either they will simply be replaced by newly summoned skeletons. His attacks do not have to hit a hero in order to trigger this ability - therefore the only way to stop him summoning a minion in a turn is either to stun him, or for there to be 3 of them existing already. Each time he uses an attack, he creates a skeleton enemy in rank 1, steadily pushing himself back until he is in position 4, where his attacks no longer spawn anything. The Necromancer will always start in position 1. After the Ancestor's death, the Necromancer and his Apprentices took over the Ruins, using their magic to bring the corpses buried there back to life as their servants, continuing their unholy experiments with necromancy. He is one of the reanimated scholars that collaborated with the Ancestor, murdered and then brought back with much of his intellect intact, but with little to no humanity remaining.

The Necromancer is an Unholy/ Eldritch boss that appears in the Ruins. Freed from the trappings of their humanity, they plied their terrible trade anew: the dead reviving the dead, on and on, down the years. I brought my colleagues back with much of their intellect intact - a remarkable triumph for even the most experienced necromancer. Having learned all I could from my visiting guests, I murdered them as they slept. I entertained a delegation of experts from overseas, eager to plumb the depths of their knowledge and share with them certain techniques and alchemical processes I had found to yield wondrous and terrifying results. Who could have divined the prophetic import of something as unremarkable. I began in humility, but my ambition was limitless. Mastery over life and death was chief among my early pursuits.

Necromancer boss darkest dungeon