Originally Posted by xenn2600

The only curses I would advise are 1 point into Amplify and 1 into Life Tap (for when you party with melee characters). As for summoning skills; what everyone else said about skeletons and mastery applies. You should also put 20 into skeletal mage. If you're playing hardcore, you should put one point into bone armor and all remaining points into bone prison or bone wall.

Here's a good summoner necromancer on hardcore (defensive build):

20 Skeleton Mastery
20 Skeleton
20 Skeletal Mage
1 Golem
1 Golem Mastery
1 Summon Resist
1 Amplify Damage
1 Bone Armor
All left over points should then go into Bone Wall and Bone prison. If you survive until then, you may max both.

On softcore (offensive build):

20 Skeleton Mastery
20 Skeleton
20 Skeletal Mage
20 Revive
1 Golem
1 Golem Mastery
1 Summon Resist
1 Amplify Damage
1 Bone Armor
Rest into Bone Wall, may have some left over for prison.