Firstly, thanks very much for the information. I'm really wondering what on earth is going on with the shadow hound, but I do wonder if the level 15 (?) version is better. I know I said I wouldn't ask anything else, but it occurs to me to ask if the Necromancer/Nethermancer get a level 5 daily. Or do their summon powers replace it?
It gets better at level 19 [for some reason the level 19 versions don't even have the melee symbol for their at-will attack]. The shadow brute is large, has reach 2 that sort of grabs the target (it's immobilize save ends, but auto ends if the target ends his turn 2 squares away from the brute).
The only powers in the book at 5/19 are the summons, but you don't have to take it. At 5, it counts as one spell. At level 19, you can give up one of your two spells at that level to instead get access to the better creature for your level 5 summon power.
I am very very disappointed about there not being a feat against necrotic. That was one thing I felt the book could have contributed very much. What a waste.
The vampire being able to get durable goes a long way to making the class viable. Hilariously though, that does mean a shade vampire gets 1 surge to start with. That's awful. Is there at least support for necrotic damage? I'm getting this awful feeling outside of these classes, other wizards for example might as well not bother taking necrotic powers from the book at all.
Featwise, it's just the ignore insubstantial feat that was previewed.
What are the feats in the book? The cold feats sounded interesting I guess. You said they are very "campaign specific", could you elaborate on what you mean by that?
Skipping over the revenant feats and expertise feats:
Ghostwise: 3 feats. Ghost wise: Bonuses against invisible or hidden enemies. Ghost Scorpion Strike: The ignore insubstantial feat. Spectral Step: The action point = insubstantial feat.
Winterkin: The feat I mentioned, and another that gives icewalk (ignore dificult terrain caused by ice/snow) and gives bonuses to endurance checks in cold weather and acrobatic checks on icy surfaces.
Lore of Moil: The reroll against undead feat that was previewed, bonus to shadow summoning that was previewed, getting thp when you shadow summon, and preventing healing when you hit. I think all four were previewed.
Finally, there is a Shadowborn "tree". Basically, you need to take Born of Shadow as a prereq for the other feats. Born of Shadow changes your origin to shadow, and gives +1 to saving throws in dim light or darkness. Shadow Blood imprves second wind, in dim light or darkness. Shadow Control improves defenses, in dim light or darkness. Shadow Mantle gives concealment when you kill a non-minion. Shadow Overflow lets you deal Con mod necro damage when you kill something with a MBA. Shadow Strider let's you ignore difficult terrain in ... you guessed i ... dim light or darkness.
The Shadowborn feats don't give feat bonuses, so if you know you are going into a "gloomy" campaign (or dungeon delving where everyone has low-light/darkvision; or you have means of lowering the lights, etc) they can be quite useful. Ditto that if you know you are going up against ghosts or undead, some other feats can be very good instead of hoping to get to use them.
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As an aside, on the matter of necrotic powers:
In terms of wizards:
There are a number of powers that deal necrotic + fire (mostly encounters). There are necromancy spells that deal no necrotic damage at all (one of the at-wills). Some of the necrotic powers don't do damage to undead anyway (dealing a seperate power instead, mostly dailies). So the number of straight necrotic damage powers are few (one at-will, a couple of encounters at certain levels, and some dailies ... actually the nethermancer dailies have necrotic damage without bonuses against undead, but they do have some interesting riders which still make them interesting.
Tere are lots of powers in the book that wizards can grab and not have to worry about necrotic resistance (or other classes for that matter). There are a few powers that do deal nothing but necro damage, so those are things they have to decide for themselves whether to risk it.
