JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Fantasy Flight Games has a series of products under their Legends & Lairs line known as the School of X. So far Illusion and Evocation have been covered. They take a specific school and create new materail for those players who really want a specialists that goes beyond the standard d20 mage with evocation as a specialty. These books boast great art and some innovative ideas but there haven’t been any new books in the series in a while.
Enter Anubium with the Dark Arts of Necromancy. Personally, I think it was a bad idea to hit necromancy. Let’s be honest. In 2nd edition, perhaps, just perhaps, necromancy was a weak school with some cool spells and imagery. With numerous sourcebooks though, necromancy is one of the last schools that needs any additional source material. Mongoose has updated their Encylopaedia Arcane book, Necromancy, EN World (some book called Necromancer’s Legacy by Jason Parent) has it’s own entry into the field, Green Ronin has a book (Secret College of Necromancy) out there, and I’m sure that I’m missing two or three other books, not to mention numerous support for the idea in general.
Having said that, Dark Arts does a fair job of bringing a lot of separate elements together to present an interesting take on the Necromancer. Like what? Well, one of the new things from the School books by FFG were the devoted spellcaster. These individuals give up spellcasting in other schools to focus almost exclusively on their school and gain numerous abilities in exchange.
The Devoted Necromancer is no different. These are arcane spellcasters with one good save (will), poor bab, and a fair spells per day table with an unlimited number of spells known. Not too different than the wizard, not counting the lack of schools. To make up for that, they have things like skull familiar, a special type of undead familiar that serves the necromancer as a standard familiar, but with some undead style. They have the ability to augment their necromantic powers, ignoring one level of metamagic cost. They gain bonus feats faster than a standard mage and gain damage reduction and bonuses to saving throws against undead. Toss in the ability to expend spells to turn or command undead, and you’ve got a specialized necromancer.
Now that’s not really enough to base a book on. To help bulk out the pages, we’ve got numerous prestige classes and even a few legendary prestige classes. New classes include individuals like the arcane skrimshander, a master of crafting magic items on bones through the use of scrimshaw. More player friendly, the Magistrate of the Damned is the judge of the undead, working to put them in their place through turning ability and the supernatural ability to smite the damned. It’s an different take on things as most spellcasters are built on augmenting their undead or their ability to command them. The necrophage is a master of crafting different flesh to themselves and gaining some abilities from it. It’s an interesting take but I like Mongoose’s version a little better.
There are some others here, but I’m drawn to the legendary PrC. For those who don’t know, these are five level classes that gain some fantastic abilities but require great quests, numerous feats and high skills ranks to achieve. They are one of the few innovations I’ve seen with PrCs. They are also highly customizable as your power rank is based on the level you take it. For every level you’re in the class, you have a power rank.
Strangely enough, they don’t have the legendary PrC from the Path of Magic. Also strange is that the Corpse Lord can be entered at 8th level, a far cry from the 12th-15th usually required for entrance. Anyway, the corpse lord is a master of battle who commands undead. They have a fighter’s hit dice and bab, with two good saves (fort and will) and gain spells at every level with special powers. Might be a little two powerful as most legendary PrCs offer reduced or no spellcasting advancement in other books.
The high necromancer is for mages, requiring 16 ranks in necrology, spirit lore and spellcraft in addition to numerous feats and the ability to cast 7th level arcane spells. They also gain spells every level and special abilities like enhanced stats, or the ability to drain life energy.
Now I mentioned necrology and spirit lore. Those things you’d expect to find under new skills and while they have some information, it’s a brief section. Instead we get a lot of ideas on how to use the heal skill to torture people and to permanently affect ability scores. I would never allow someone with this skill to reduce an NPC’s ability score, or in turn, to have an ability score lowered through a skill use.
Now one thing they have, is malefic feats. I’m assuming that they’re basing these on necromantic feats but if so, they missed part of the problem with necromantic feats. See, Phil Reed did a nice little free PDF on them that expanded some of the ideas that Mongoose had in their Encylopaedia entry. Those feats though, had massive drawbacks. These do not. I don’t see giving a place the ability to take sinister healing that provides fast healing equal to their wisdom modifier, with no penalty. If they had called these necromantic feats and went with the side effects, there’d be no problem but as it is, many of these seem out of place. Some are useless due to 3.5 changes. Take Unholy Skill Focus. It provides a +3 profane bonus on all skill checks. How is that different than a standard skill focus feat? Would you let them stack? No special notes on it.
When looking at the magic section, spells and magic items, I was a little disappointed. One of the other things that the various School of books by FFG did, was introduce mundane equipment that helped devoted spellcasters. Illusionists for example, were now able to use numerous types of fireworks and magnifying lenses, different types of mirrors and vision powders, to augment their natural abilities. Here, we get runes, another type of scroll.
There’s nothing wrong with another type of scroll. It’s just not a very new idea. We’ve seen similar efforts by numerous publishers. Like adding another type of ability to scribe and use a spell is necessarily a necromantic action to begin with. And for magic items, the rest are at the back of the book. It’s a short section and includes a few like Ghost Compass, a compass that allows you to detect undead or Ring of FastHealing, a ring that can casts some of the new spells in this book on the user.
For spells, they break it down into a standard sorcerer/wizard list, with only three spells there, and then provide the devoted necromancer spells. Now here’s the problem. For a devoted necromancer, there are so many spells in so many sources that even the nice section here is at best, weak. For clerics, there is, much like the wizard list, a much smaller selection. Thankfully, we have some new domains like dead, fog, gloom, pestilence, slaughter, spirit, torture and vermin. Each one has a granted power and appropriate spells. Many of them work off of the new spells here.
I feel bad for the Aura of Discomfort on page 28 as the title starts there and continues onto the next page. One of the problems with some of these spells is that they are list spells. Take Awaken The Dead. It brings forth an undead creature. How about the various Gaze spells? Anything that goes as Gaze of with a different spell effect could probably be handled under another type of spell like a symbol spell.
Some of the spells look real familiar to me and if I could find my older edition books, I’d double check some like Skull Watch, Spectral Mount, Spiritwrack and Feign Death. Others though, have their place in almost any game. Take Unholy Fang. It’s a higher level spell, 4th, that allows you to grant a natural weapon the evil descriptor, allowing it to bypass the corresponding damage reduction and doing an extra 2d6 points against good targets.
If it were up to me, I’d get rid of the black borders with its opposing red. It doesn’t look good printed and is not printer friendly. I’d also put some art in there. One of the jobs of the various FFG books was the art by individuals like Patricio Soler and Ed Cox, among others. I’d also put in the Death Lord legendary PrC from Path of Magic and I’d probably note somewhere that this Necrophage is different than the one from Mongoose. I’d expand the prestige classes here into organizations, much as was done in the various FFG Path of books. I’d add some standard items and increase the number of magic items and add some requirements for the legendary PrCs and reduce or eliminate their spellcasting abilities.
It’s not a poor book though. It’s just that a book of crunch on necromancy isn’t really needed and there are numerous other books that probably do it better in some direction. Take the various Path of books. They include numerous organizations for their prestige classes. Take Hollowfaust, a city of necromancers, but most of them are good and like those from Secret College of Necromancy, more intent on advancing their art than taking over the world, unlike those from Necromancer’s Legacy, with a great background and ideas.
Those are a lot of little factors that bother me. Art may be a no-brainer for some. If you’re not printing the book, the black sections won’t bother you. If you don’t own a ton of books like I do, the lack of things here and there won’t be noticeable. For me though, all of these things are present and are reflected in my score. If Anubium updates this product and wants to pass that copy on, I’ll be glad to look it over again. Perhaps Dark Arts of Necromancy Deluxe?
In the meanwhile, what does this book offer that warrants the three stars? The devoted necromancer will see some use in my campaign. I love the Magistrate of the Damned. The legendary PrCs would probably get some tweaks for my personal campaign, but they have some solid ideas. Numerous spells are offered and while not all are my cup of tea, I’ll be snagging some of them right away.
For any publisher out there who wants to cover the undead, I suggest a very detailed scrounging of the following: Necromancer’s Legacy by Jason Parent, published by Mystic Eye Games. Secret College of Necromancy, published by Green Ronin. Encylopaedia Arcane Compendium Volume 1, published by Mongoose Publishing, Necromantic Feats, revised and updated by Phil Reed, Hollowfaust, published by Sword & Sorcery Studios, Undead, published by AEG, and Relics & Rituals 1, published by Sword & Sorcery Studios. These books will give you a sound grasp of the wide variety of necromantic powers out there and allow you to either compile or build on the concepts present within them.
Enter Anubium with the Dark Arts of Necromancy. Personally, I think it was a bad idea to hit necromancy. Let’s be honest. In 2nd edition, perhaps, just perhaps, necromancy was a weak school with some cool spells and imagery. With numerous sourcebooks though, necromancy is one of the last schools that needs any additional source material. Mongoose has updated their Encylopaedia Arcane book, Necromancy, EN World (some book called Necromancer’s Legacy by Jason Parent) has it’s own entry into the field, Green Ronin has a book (Secret College of Necromancy) out there, and I’m sure that I’m missing two or three other books, not to mention numerous support for the idea in general.
Having said that, Dark Arts does a fair job of bringing a lot of separate elements together to present an interesting take on the Necromancer. Like what? Well, one of the new things from the School books by FFG were the devoted spellcaster. These individuals give up spellcasting in other schools to focus almost exclusively on their school and gain numerous abilities in exchange.
The Devoted Necromancer is no different. These are arcane spellcasters with one good save (will), poor bab, and a fair spells per day table with an unlimited number of spells known. Not too different than the wizard, not counting the lack of schools. To make up for that, they have things like skull familiar, a special type of undead familiar that serves the necromancer as a standard familiar, but with some undead style. They have the ability to augment their necromantic powers, ignoring one level of metamagic cost. They gain bonus feats faster than a standard mage and gain damage reduction and bonuses to saving throws against undead. Toss in the ability to expend spells to turn or command undead, and you’ve got a specialized necromancer.
Now that’s not really enough to base a book on. To help bulk out the pages, we’ve got numerous prestige classes and even a few legendary prestige classes. New classes include individuals like the arcane skrimshander, a master of crafting magic items on bones through the use of scrimshaw. More player friendly, the Magistrate of the Damned is the judge of the undead, working to put them in their place through turning ability and the supernatural ability to smite the damned. It’s an different take on things as most spellcasters are built on augmenting their undead or their ability to command them. The necrophage is a master of crafting different flesh to themselves and gaining some abilities from it. It’s an interesting take but I like Mongoose’s version a little better.
There are some others here, but I’m drawn to the legendary PrC. For those who don’t know, these are five level classes that gain some fantastic abilities but require great quests, numerous feats and high skills ranks to achieve. They are one of the few innovations I’ve seen with PrCs. They are also highly customizable as your power rank is based on the level you take it. For every level you’re in the class, you have a power rank.
Strangely enough, they don’t have the legendary PrC from the Path of Magic. Also strange is that the Corpse Lord can be entered at 8th level, a far cry from the 12th-15th usually required for entrance. Anyway, the corpse lord is a master of battle who commands undead. They have a fighter’s hit dice and bab, with two good saves (fort and will) and gain spells at every level with special powers. Might be a little two powerful as most legendary PrCs offer reduced or no spellcasting advancement in other books.
The high necromancer is for mages, requiring 16 ranks in necrology, spirit lore and spellcraft in addition to numerous feats and the ability to cast 7th level arcane spells. They also gain spells every level and special abilities like enhanced stats, or the ability to drain life energy.
Now I mentioned necrology and spirit lore. Those things you’d expect to find under new skills and while they have some information, it’s a brief section. Instead we get a lot of ideas on how to use the heal skill to torture people and to permanently affect ability scores. I would never allow someone with this skill to reduce an NPC’s ability score, or in turn, to have an ability score lowered through a skill use.
Now one thing they have, is malefic feats. I’m assuming that they’re basing these on necromantic feats but if so, they missed part of the problem with necromantic feats. See, Phil Reed did a nice little free PDF on them that expanded some of the ideas that Mongoose had in their Encylopaedia entry. Those feats though, had massive drawbacks. These do not. I don’t see giving a place the ability to take sinister healing that provides fast healing equal to their wisdom modifier, with no penalty. If they had called these necromantic feats and went with the side effects, there’d be no problem but as it is, many of these seem out of place. Some are useless due to 3.5 changes. Take Unholy Skill Focus. It provides a +3 profane bonus on all skill checks. How is that different than a standard skill focus feat? Would you let them stack? No special notes on it.
When looking at the magic section, spells and magic items, I was a little disappointed. One of the other things that the various School of books by FFG did, was introduce mundane equipment that helped devoted spellcasters. Illusionists for example, were now able to use numerous types of fireworks and magnifying lenses, different types of mirrors and vision powders, to augment their natural abilities. Here, we get runes, another type of scroll.
There’s nothing wrong with another type of scroll. It’s just not a very new idea. We’ve seen similar efforts by numerous publishers. Like adding another type of ability to scribe and use a spell is necessarily a necromantic action to begin with. And for magic items, the rest are at the back of the book. It’s a short section and includes a few like Ghost Compass, a compass that allows you to detect undead or Ring of FastHealing, a ring that can casts some of the new spells in this book on the user.
For spells, they break it down into a standard sorcerer/wizard list, with only three spells there, and then provide the devoted necromancer spells. Now here’s the problem. For a devoted necromancer, there are so many spells in so many sources that even the nice section here is at best, weak. For clerics, there is, much like the wizard list, a much smaller selection. Thankfully, we have some new domains like dead, fog, gloom, pestilence, slaughter, spirit, torture and vermin. Each one has a granted power and appropriate spells. Many of them work off of the new spells here.
I feel bad for the Aura of Discomfort on page 28 as the title starts there and continues onto the next page. One of the problems with some of these spells is that they are list spells. Take Awaken The Dead. It brings forth an undead creature. How about the various Gaze spells? Anything that goes as Gaze of with a different spell effect could probably be handled under another type of spell like a symbol spell.
Some of the spells look real familiar to me and if I could find my older edition books, I’d double check some like Skull Watch, Spectral Mount, Spiritwrack and Feign Death. Others though, have their place in almost any game. Take Unholy Fang. It’s a higher level spell, 4th, that allows you to grant a natural weapon the evil descriptor, allowing it to bypass the corresponding damage reduction and doing an extra 2d6 points against good targets.
If it were up to me, I’d get rid of the black borders with its opposing red. It doesn’t look good printed and is not printer friendly. I’d also put some art in there. One of the jobs of the various FFG books was the art by individuals like Patricio Soler and Ed Cox, among others. I’d also put in the Death Lord legendary PrC from Path of Magic and I’d probably note somewhere that this Necrophage is different than the one from Mongoose. I’d expand the prestige classes here into organizations, much as was done in the various FFG Path of books. I’d add some standard items and increase the number of magic items and add some requirements for the legendary PrCs and reduce or eliminate their spellcasting abilities.
It’s not a poor book though. It’s just that a book of crunch on necromancy isn’t really needed and there are numerous other books that probably do it better in some direction. Take the various Path of books. They include numerous organizations for their prestige classes. Take Hollowfaust, a city of necromancers, but most of them are good and like those from Secret College of Necromancy, more intent on advancing their art than taking over the world, unlike those from Necromancer’s Legacy, with a great background and ideas.
Those are a lot of little factors that bother me. Art may be a no-brainer for some. If you’re not printing the book, the black sections won’t bother you. If you don’t own a ton of books like I do, the lack of things here and there won’t be noticeable. For me though, all of these things are present and are reflected in my score. If Anubium updates this product and wants to pass that copy on, I’ll be glad to look it over again. Perhaps Dark Arts of Necromancy Deluxe?
In the meanwhile, what does this book offer that warrants the three stars? The devoted necromancer will see some use in my campaign. I love the Magistrate of the Damned. The legendary PrCs would probably get some tweaks for my personal campaign, but they have some solid ideas. Numerous spells are offered and while not all are my cup of tea, I’ll be snagging some of them right away.
For any publisher out there who wants to cover the undead, I suggest a very detailed scrounging of the following: Necromancer’s Legacy by Jason Parent, published by Mystic Eye Games. Secret College of Necromancy, published by Green Ronin. Encylopaedia Arcane Compendium Volume 1, published by Mongoose Publishing, Necromantic Feats, revised and updated by Phil Reed, Hollowfaust, published by Sword & Sorcery Studios, Undead, published by AEG, and Relics & Rituals 1, published by Sword & Sorcery Studios. These books will give you a sound grasp of the wide variety of necromantic powers out there and allow you to either compile or build on the concepts present within them.
