Dragon 372 - Secrets of the City Entombed...Includes Many Necromantic Flavored Powers

[catsclaw227]

I am digging the 5th level Warlock Dark Pact power Well of Death.

it does 2d8 and if an ally wants to burn a surge, you can do an extra 2d8. It reeks of necromancy. Sucking the life out of someone to add damage. Like a defiler, kinda.

I wonder how a Warlock / Paladin team would do with this... They have lots of surges, but I'm not sure a Paladin would like his essence sucked out.

 

[Admiral Caine]

After a brief skim.. I liked this article. Let me say that upfront.

However there has been some concern aboout the amount of preview and playtest material versus original content in the magazines lately.

This is not a "preview" or "playtest" article, but yet it is.. somewhat disguised with a nice bit of fluff. They tapped into some future releases and framed into context of a particular theme.

Nothing wrong with that per se. If there hadn't been some issues with the amount of preview/playtest material already, I'd say this was an intelligent way to go. (I enjoyed the look at the Summoning KeyWord)

But that has been an issue with some subscribers.

(Personally I'm of a mixed mind about it. I'm seeing the trend, but don't know if it has gone too far.. yet.)

 

[catsclaw227]

I don't think any of these powers will be in the PHB2, so any preview or playtest stuff are simply references to upcoming classes. With the PHB2 only one month away, this would have been an incomplete article if hey only gave necromantic powers to PHB1 classes.

Kudos to WOTC for already giving us additional options for classes ready to land on the table next month.

 

[Nebulous]

I wonder how a Warlock / Paladin team would do with this... They have lots of surges, but I'm not sure a Paladin would like his essence sucked out.

Good roleplaying potential there, IMO. Mechanically, there's no reason not to do it, but a good aligned paladin might very well balk at the idea.

 

[Sir Brennen]

This is not a "preview" or "playtest" article, but yet it is.. somewhat disguised with a nice bit of fluff. They tapped into some future releases and framed into context of a particular theme.

Well, the powers for unreleased classes are only a "preview" for a few weeks. After the PHB2 comes out, the article actually increases in relevancy as opposed to true preview articles. I don't have any issues with this. Dragon as a magazine has always been a resource which retains value as a reference after reading through it once. Unlike, say, Entertainment Weekly

This might be a bit of a special case which you don't run into with print magazines. With articles coming out on specific days, having something suitably creepy for Friday the 13th may be part of the reason a necromantic article that included support material for PHB2 was pushed up, when otherwise it might have waited 'til next month.

Plus, the article does tie in with this month's release of Open Grave, so it's sort of a "bridge" article.

I enjoyed the article, fluff and all, but was also expecting some rituals. A slew of necromantic rituals beyond those in Open Grave would have been really cool. Hear that, WotC? More rituals!

 

[Sir Brennen]

Good roleplaying potential there, IMO. Mechanically, there's no reason not to do it, but a good aligned paladin might very well balk at the idea.

I dunno. There's an opportunity there for DM or player to create a myth where the paladin's deity won some notable victory through personal sacrifice, likely involving their own blood or body parts. Several of the Dark path powers might work well for a warlock teamed up with a character willing to sacrifice of themselves for the greater good.

 

[Wormwood]

Also most of the summoning powers only allow the summoned creature to make attacks against AC. Without a weapon proficiency bonus, these aren't going to be particularly accurate attacks.

Looks to me like that the summoned monsters simply use your stat + Implement modifier to make their attacks.

 

[Shroomy]

I don't think any of these powers will be in the PHB2, so any preview or playtest stuff are simply references to upcoming classes. With the PHB2 only one month away, this would have been an incomplete article if hey only gave necromantic powers to PHB1 classes.

Kudos to WOTC for already giving us additional options for classes ready to land on the table next month.

I agree with your assessment (as well as Sir Brennen's), and this isn't the first time that WoTC has done this. The first Gladiator article from Issue 368 contained feats that modified at-will powers from Martial Power, which was released a month later.

 

[Shroomy]

Looks to me like that the summoned monsters simply use your stat + Implement modifier to make their attacks.

Though they would still be missing an additional +2 or +3 to attack vs. AC when compared with a corresponding Weapon power. I checked the only other available Wizard and Invoker powers that utilize the Summoning keyword, and they all target Reflex. So either there is a misprint in the article or there are some sort of feats that will augment summoned creatures that target AC.

 

[RodneyThompson]

This is not a "preview" or "playtest" article, but yet it is.. somewhat disguised with a nice bit of fluff. They tapped into some future releases and framed into context of a particular theme.

All of the powers in this article were specifically written for this article by Matt Sernett and developed by me. None of them appear in any upcoming product (at least, that we have planned) and are exclusive to Dragon Magazine.