I got bored of the necromancer, so I retired him to the tower where he first learned the secrets of life and death. I was practically invincible with nothing to do because I spawned on a continent with a ton of Necromancer towers, but nothing else. So unless I trekked over the arctic, which I could because I don't need supplies, I was stuck on a land of boring nothingness. The one lair I found was empty too. I could destroy everything with an unstoppable army, but I didn't feel like it. I would rather have my zombie horde mega-beasts and whatnot. He's still there, so some day I'll unretire him and reforge the army. There's at least four tomb sites with who-knows-how-many actual tombs at each site, so I'm not low on soldiers.
So I made a Brown Recluse spider [wo]man Axeman. I was caught off guard when I started with 5 shields and a halberd, but it's pretty cool. The human mead hall I started in is run by a goblin that I swore loyalty to, and immediately the guards started beating the shit out of some dancers, including the bowman I recruited. I have no idea what happened, apparently it's very unsafe to be a jester at this time.
EDIT: I have a question though, is it true that a shield's material doesn't make any difference in its ability to block and deflect blows, and therefore wood shields are superior because they're lighter?