I took out a 200 goblin siege with 6 cave dragons, flying mounts (giant bats) and trolls (only loosing about 12 dwarfs) but I had to give up the fort thanks to a legendary ambusher necromancer bringing back the same 3 goblins over and over and over...
Worst bug is Bug #5312 in my books.
Actually the necromancers' raise ability isn't controlled by regional raise interactions in evil biomes. Necromancers can use their power almost every turn, and raise a vast amount of zombies in one use of it.
interaction_layer
[OBJECT:INTERACTION]
[INTERACTION:SECRET_1]
[GENERATED]
[I_SOURCE:SECRET]
[IS_NAME:the secrets of life and death]
[IS_SPHERE:DEATH]
[IS_SECRET_GOAL:IMMORTALITY]
[IS_SECRET:SUPERNATURAL_LEARNING_POSSIBLE]
[IS_SECRET:MUNDANE_RESEARCH_POSSIBLE]
[IS_SECRET:MUNDANE_TEACHING_POSSIBLE]
[IS_SECRET:MUNDANE_RECORDING_POSSIBLE:objects/text/book_instruction.txt:objects/text/secret_death.txt]
[I_TARGET:A:CREATURE]
[IT_LOCATION:CONTEXT_CREATURE]
[IT_REQUIRES:MORTAL]
[IT_REQUIRES:CAN_LEARN]
[IT_REQUIRES:CAN_SPEAK]
[I_EFFECT:ADD_SYNDROME]
[IE_TARGET:A]
[IE_IMMEDIATE]
[SYNDROME]
[CE_DISPLAY_TILE:TILE:165:5:0:1:START:0]
[CE_DISPLAY_NAME:NAME:necromancer:necromancers:necromantic:START:0]
[CE_ADD_TAG:NOEXERT:NO_AGING:NO_EAT:NO_DRINK:NO_SLEEP:NO_PHYS_ATT_GAIN:NO_PHYS_ATT_RUST:START:0]
[CE_CAN_DO_INTERACTION:START:0]
[CDI:ADV_NAME:Animate corpse]
[CDI:INTERACTION:SECRET_ANIMATE_1]
[CDI:TARGET:A:LINE_OF_SIGHT]
[CDI:TARGET_RANGE:A:10]
[CDI:VERB:gesture:gestures:NA]
[CDI:TARGET_VERB:shudder and begin to move:shudders and begins to move]
[CDI:WAIT_PERIOD:10]
The highlighted tags are important when considering an interaction's ability to target items to apply an effect to.
1) LINE_OF_SITE in the TARGET string designates that target A can only be chosen from what the AI has LOS to. Adventurers ALWAYS operate under LOS because the player is unable to do anytihng outside their LOS or through a wall, but if an NPC got a hold of an interaction that didn't require LOS they'd drive you bonkers with it and murder you through walls. (because they're cheating bastards)
2) TARGET_RANGE defines how many tiles away a target can be to be valid. Dunno if it includes the tile the caster is standing on or begins with one of the 8 tiles around them.
3) WAIT_PERIOD is the tag that is creating the problem for you with necromancers. 10 is a ridiculously small value. Testing in the arena with my own modded interactions, a value of 50 lets one use it about every 2-3 turns. Necromancers are severely overpowered because they can use this interaction every single turn.
4) Not included in the necromancer raws and the second biggest problem with them is the lack of the MAX_TARGET_NUMBER tag. Implying that the AI can instantaneously select and raise an ungodly number of corpses all at once, if not entirely infinite (I'm sure there's a number big enough the game just can't track it anymore.) Hell, they could raise a literal ocean of bones. The player can do this too, but you'd get cramps trying to select every last one whereas the AI has no such physical limitation.
So, if Toady would just reconsider how often and how many corpses a necromancer can raise, all would be well and you would have a decent chance of surviving against them.