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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nogray" data-source="post: 5939918" data-attributes="member: 28028">I'll give it a shot.I suppose reversing the K(Religion) and Spellcraft required ranks makes some sense to play up the undead aspects of K(Religion). This keeps the minimum level 7 before entering the class. Not much of a balance change, if any. It does make it less likely that a totemist will qualify. (Easy in the default, not in your set-up.)The level for your class only goes to 10, so you get your last features sooner, and you will have the option to return to incarnate (or whatever) at the latter levels. This, of course, needs some analysis.This is a pretty big change from the Harvest Soul ability in the book. Yours seems to be a quick power-up (with one round duration), whereas the default ability is a longer power-up that takes longer to enact. I am inclined to think that yours is a considerably better ability, though how significant remains to be seen.You seem to be giving the binds twice. Once from this meldshaping benefit, and again from your level 2 and 9 features, below. That seems to be a bit redundant. The fact that you continue to gain essentia contributes to potential balance issues, especially with the easily-enhanced essentia total given by easy soul harvesting.So, six secrets, meaning six points of essentia off the standard incarnate. You will regularly be boosting that by half the hit dice of each enemy as it falls. (Little should go to waste, as the souls can be stored if you don't really need the essentia right then.) Okay, the first big versatility power-up. Since each zombie has its own capacity and its own enhancement to that capacity, that is an area for delicate balance, too. Is one zombie with 12 hit dice better or worse than two with six each? The Profane Might and other secrets boost that considerable. The Horde one plays a key role, as does the class feature with the same effect. I like the inclusion of the corpsecrafter, but I think that should be the default, anyway.Rebuke also potentially means command, right? Your command level is going to be varying (based on how much essentia you invest in this ability), meaning you can't command to your highest capacity or you'll have undead go uncontrolled when you shift essentia away from this ability. There is also no mention of whether this essential is invested like the feats (so once per day) or like a soulmeld (swift actions). Confusing ability. Maybe just make it full meldshaper level and leave no essentia component to this ability.I'm really not a big fan of changing ability score emphasis midway through a class. Also, you make no mention of totemists, who use Constitution and not Wisdom by default. The second part is really unclear. I am not sure what you are going for.This is considerably more potent than any of the necrocarnate's abiities. You are saying you can have, as a 14th level character, up to 21 hit dice in zombies, and you could have (if you could find the corpse) a single 21-hit-dice zombie. That is more than most cleric-based animators, if I am not mistaken. (How, exactly, this interacts with the horde secret should be explained. I would assume it is like all other 3e stacking. At level 18, for example, the 1/3 would be +6 hit dice, this would be +9 hit dice, so a level 18 necrocarnate with one "horde" would have 33 hit dice available, and the biggest would be 27 hit dice.The healing feature seems dependent on the necrocarnum touch soulmeld (and maybe some of the other secrets/class abilities?). Is it too much to let you heal your undead at will? Maybe, but I think one of the Dread Necromancer abilities is similar, so perhaps not. It is powerful, though.Not too bad for a capstone ability, but it rather negates the desire to have any necrocarnum soulmeld bound to your soul chakra. Also, you have the ability granted by a chakra-bind to your soul two levels before an incarnate could do so, and three levels before the default necrocarnate would.And now, on to the real review, the Secrets. Whooo-boy. That is a lot to go over. Let's see....some are good, some are way overpowered, and some are really confusing.Can't say too much against this. It seems pretty good, making it more predictable with the amount of essentia that the necrocarnate will have available. I can't see someone not taking this at least once, though maybe not more than once. Then again, you are already starting with a larger essentia pool than standard.Borderline overpowered, I think, given the hit dice available to you. Your zombies will be way better than cleric-necromancer zombies. Bonuses to attack rolls and damage rolls should be more expensive than to AC and saves. Perhaps 1/2 the invested essentia? I might be off in this, though.Not much to see here. Kind of a combination Evasion/Mettle, but based on using up a stored soul.This increases the power of the zombies considerably. Especially with multiple selections, the interaction among this, the larger number of zombies, and the other receptacles, you have a multiplicative set of increases going on here that may synergize too potently.  The only notes I might suggest is that you lower the top hit dice for a single zombie to your meldshaper level and maybe be explicit on how this interacts with the level. (I mentioned this above.)This seems powerful, as it could lead to really high essentia caps in a lot of receptacles. I'd have to crunch a lot more numbers to see just how it measures up.Maximizing hit dice? After you already know what you rolled? That seems a bit much, especially with the high variability of a d12. Also, the removal of the invested essentia is an unnecessary complication. I'd suggest making it a more permanent investment of incarnum. (That is, there is no recovering it until the zombie is dropped or the next day.)This is another potent ability. You can necrocarnum touch for at least 7d8 with no real effort. The last ability also seems to become 20d6+3d8 if you fully max this ability. With taking it three times, you can get +6 to the save DC, so that is pretty extreme.While powerful, this is actually something that I rather like. I'm not sure as to the purpose for the damage taken for animating a necrocarnum zombie, anyway.Umm ... no. Just too open-ended and potentially easy to abuse, especially with the low cost. I don't think I'd let this one go for 10 essentia per ability. Every monster you fight that has any special ability, you can turn that against following monsters. Really, no. It's the same level of power as a Gate or Shapechange spell (well, almost as bad).No problem, here. A little skill goes a long way towards making the necrocarnum zombies more interesting.I'm not sure of the action economy involved with making this part of "any attack." I'd prefer that it be a little more potent (say, a -1 per three or four hit dice of the soul used), but a separate standard action of its own. It is also unclear if there is a save for this power when used on, for example, a normal attack that doesn't involve a save. There should be.I'll note that this secret compares favorably (meaning it is better than) the Hexblade's curse ability. That indicates that it is too powerful, to me. (This one secret is better than a major feature of the whole hexblade class.) I could be misreading, here, but I think this one is too powerful. You are giving up one soul held for sharing some of the best, most powerful stuff you have here. (One soulmeld, all of your "soul effects," and giving the zombie even more essentia to spend? Way too much.)Pretty good, though the wording is a bit unclear. It took a couple read-throughs, but I think I have the gist of it.Too powerful by a fair margin. (1) Don't change the deathwatch range. (2) Pick a save (Fort fits the ability; it is an attack on life force), don't let the necrocarnate choose. (3) Triggering on massive damage is too easy, past a certain level. I'd just make it a daily (or X/day) ability. (4) Action cost: Make it a standard action. An immediate to force a second save or die (to go with the massive damage save or die) when they are already taking damage is just too much. (5) Not really an objection, but no save DC is given.Too complicated, I think, for regular use. May be too powerful, too. You don't have the same abilities of the Lost, so that adds to the confusion. As it reads, there are four abilities that have little to do with the Lost in their functions or purposes. As to specifics, let's see...Range: Just say "30ft" for you and "threatened area" for your zombies.Immunity: You can include a blanket statement of "if you make the save, you are immune ...."DC: Set this per meldshaper level, not based on soul. (It is too often the case that characters kill things of much higher hit dice than their own level, and it also means more predictable save DCs.Despair: You need to have a save, I think.Misery: I don't like referencing another ability, so just state the 50% loss of action. Your leave and save and no immunity is too complicated (especially since I didn't see a general statement of immunity on successful saves in the first place).Hatred: I really don't understand what you were shooting for with the first sentence. Clarify?Fury (should be Wrath): Could be interesting.Pick a type when you invest the essentia, not all energy types. Otherwise, this is good.Too potent without a daily limit, in my opinion. As it is, it reminds me of the old Diablo 2 corpse explosion chain. Kill one thing, cast CE on it, which kills one or more others, allowing continued CE castings.---------------------I hope that helps with some insights. I think you overshot the power level a bit. I'm also interested in why you think the Necrocarnate is broken, as I haven't yet played one or ran one as an NPC.</blockquote>

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