Ysuran Auondril (Dropped)

The bulk of Ysuran's magical knowledge and skill, Ysuran is skilled in raising the corpses of fallen creatures, both monster and humanoid. He can quickly raise corpses to defend him in battle (Raise Dead), but these are relatively weak, with only claw and bite attacks. They also only stick around for about an hour before the magic that holds them together decays; further, he can't do this unless there's a corpse in the area for him to raise. Owing to his abilities with the Shadow Weave, he can also summon shadowy minions where there are no corpses for him to raise (Shadow Conjure); however, these too are relatively weak, humanoid horrors that crawl on their hands and knees and use nothing but claw and bite attacks. Either type of "minion" can absorb damage and keep an enemy busy while he prepares a spell however. He can raise undead or shadow minions more permanently, but this requires much more time and effort, and cannot be done in battle. It requires a corpse (in the case of an undead minion) or a great deal of magical reagents (in the case of a shadow minion).

Raising the dead is not all he can do with necromancy. The necrotic energies required to raise the dead itself can also be turned to offensive purposes itself. It can sicken an enemy (Contagion), weaken an enemy (Enervation, Ray of Enfeeblement, Ghoul Touch), siphon life from enemies (Life Drain, Vampiric Touch), or cause his opponent to become panicked for a short time (Fear).

Ysuran does not remember the pact he made with Shar in his past, to amplify his powers. However, he does remember a degree of his former pactbonded magic. Shar is a goddess of shadows and evil, and this reflects in the powers he has received from her. Besides being able to dominate and control weaker beings (Dark Possession; does not work on PCs), he can pull shadows from around him to reflect some damage (Shadow Shield), or fire out a "spray" of pure shadow from a hand (Shadow Spray). Finally, he can empower his hands with shadows to both increase the effectiveness of his touch-based spells and attack with normally to inflict cold damage (Claws of Darkness).

Ysuran's skill with conjuration is small, as as such he only knows a couple of spells from this school. He can transmute arrows and crossbow bolts into flaming projectiles (Flame Arrow), or conjure an "arrow" of acid at an enemy (Melf's Acid Arrow).

Aside from necromancy and invocations, Ysuran has at his disposal a variety of support spells to assist himself and his allies in a number of situations. He can temporarily speed movement (Haste), give a quick burst of running speed (Sprint), slow enemies (Slow), attempt to freeze a creature in place (Hold), or protect himself from a bit of damage (Shield).

With the right ingredients, Ysuran can create potions with the same effects as the spells he can cast (however, offensive potions need to be thrown to have their effects, and he can't make potions of most of his necromancy spells). He is also able to enchant weapons with various elemental and support effects; however what these effects are depend entirely on the materials used. While he can make these potions and pieces of equipment for himself or other PCs, this process is energy-intensive and time-consuming, not to mention the expense of the materials and the likelihood that they would be wasted if the quality of the equipment or ingredients isn't high enough. Definitely not something he's going to be able to do on a whim.

While not even close to being as well-developed as his magical abilities, Ysuran does know how to use a few melee and ranged weapons, though the latter mainly for his Flame Arrow spell. Ysuran actually tries to stay out of melee, since he's a spellcaster and many of his spells either take too long to cast for him to reliably cast them in melee range, or otherwise they do their damage in a ranged area and he's liable to catch himself or allies in their effect radius. When he does need to close the distance, it's usually for a touch spell, or Claws of Darkness. However, if he does find himself unable to use his magic, he does have some minor melee capabilities... as long as he has a weapon.

Ysuran has a near-overwhelming compulsion to help people who need aid that he comes across. It's hard to explain why (particularly given his past), but regardless, he's usually seen trying as well as he can to assist, even in dire situations. Unfortunately, he's rather easily taken in by false pleas for help too, so it's not too difficult to dupe him this way. Even when it's not a false plea for help, he's far too willing to get himself into danger to help someone else, and the only "acceptable" sacrifice to him is either "none" of "only his own".

While most of the formulas for his spells were ones that he wrote -- as even wizards have some variation in their spellcasting methods -- due to his memory loss he doesn't always remember them on the fly when he needs them. If he loses his book, he's liable to forget them entirely. Then he'll be near-powerless while he works out the formulas again.

Magic in Faerun is much like science -- there are hard facts and principles that are at work behind it. Magic-users -- wizards especially -- study these facts and principles, and often run experiments on how these principles work together, and what they create. This is how most magic is discovered -- a wizard was screwing around in a sanctum and discovered it. This approach calls for scientifically-minded people... and more than that, a deep curiosity about the world around them. Ysuran is no exception to this, and often follows leads or suspicions, even when they lead him down dangerous paths. He doesn't mind the consequences -- it's for SCIENCE!

Ysuran spent most of his 100+ years training for magical combat, not melee. While he can hold his own in melee for a while, he's definitely no great combat master, and without his magic, he loses much of his combat potency. Heavy weapons are completely outside his ability to use, for their sheer weight. For the same reason -- and because he must carry his tome -- he prefers not to use shields. And he has ABSOLUTELY no hope of surviving a melee-heavy engagement alone. If he IS forced into melee, he's going to lose energy quickly, and be overwhelmed. Thus he chooses to avoid it as much as possible, even if this means he must retreat from combat.