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Originally Posted by eleventh  But it is not guaranteed to work; you have to land an attack on an enemy. Also, it takes healing surges away from your enemies (although monsters don't really use this mechanic in my experience). |
It's been stated that enemies have a number of healing surges which scale with their tier, you can find that on page 7 of the Monster Manual. They have one surge per tier, but most monsters have no way to spend their healing surges. I'll admit that will be of limited detriment to most monsters, however it does work.
The part you're missing though is that you only need to make an attack roll against an unwilling target. Your (presumably) willing allies will let you use the power on them, and in turn you may either spend one of their healing surges to heal yourself or spend one of your healing surges to heal them.
The ability to use this type of healing offensively (healing yourself at the cost of an enemy's surges) is a different take on the healing mechanic than we've seen with other leaders. It also is a risky way to use the ability since it can only heal the necromancer herself, you must be within melee range and you must land the successful attack roll. However that was meant to be almost a secondary usage for the ability - the primary use remains being within melee range of allies and spending your surges to heal them or vice-versa.
Edit: In addition, in reference to the Shadow Power Source, it hasn't officially been released yet. I am also trying to make this necromancer harken back to the sort of classic necromancer archetype we've seen in previous editions of the game - which has meant a wizard who delves too deeply into life and death. This take on the necromancer is based around the study of arcane mysteries and secrets, which may seem similar to the shadow power source, yet I feel stands apart from it since the necromancer isn't drawing his power directly from the Shadowfell but rather his studies and own willpower.
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