Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Brennen" data-source="post: 4606651" data-attributes="member: 553">I think CardinalXimenes satisfactorily demonstrated that, with just a modicum of imagination, this is not the case at all (especially if the DM uses some of these tricks to mess with the player's heads. Thanks, Cardinal!)So, your complaint extends to material not yet published? Do you know for a fact that the necromancer isn't going to be a controller like the wizard, able to create more lasting effects in a fight? Do you assume that the necro class will not take advantage of the door opened by the Ranger's pet rules in Martial Power to have more permanent undead creations? Or perhaps summoning abilities like the invoker to conjure shadows from the Shadowfell?Well, that giant maw appearing out of nowhere and vanishing again evokes more of a horror movie feel to me than one which prances around the battlefield like a sock puppet. It's all a matter of perspective, really.You're typical Lovecraftian cultist doesn't summon Cthulhu in combat. That's what rituals are for (which adheres much more closely to the source material you're trying to invoke.) Plus, the warlock's shtick is quick, massive damage, not lingering environmental effects. He's given personal power to rain pain down on his enemies, not to bother the boss to come in and do it for him. Now a wizard... a wizard can crack open the space between the dimensions and let the tentacles of squamous things slip through for a significant amount of time (Evard's Black Tentacles).And really... it's a game - the majority of combat spells in previous editions or even other game systems can be boiled down to their base mechanics of "Damage + Effect". When you get down to it, everything is just an "effect". What's wrong with a side of damage to go with it?The warlock, because of his role, has a larger number of these in his repertoire, sure, but that doesn't mean that it's all interchangeable. The "effects" can vary widely, and the type of damage is still significant, and not just generic - the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has Resist Marshmallow Bits 10, Vulnerable Fire 5, so your Lucky Charms attack won't be as useful. And the different pacts have some nice, consistent effects that add flavor to their powers - fey have more charm, star has more teleports. And that doesn't even get into Utility powers, which definitely have other outcomes than "Damage + Effect".___________________________________Anyway, back on topic, I commented way back when in the thread that my own disappointment with Open Grave isn't that the Zombie ritual described doesn't allow the corpse to attack, just that there isn't also a ritual included to animate a combat-ready undead. I think that's where many of the other complaints stem from, not a comparison to animate dead of previous editions. We're just wondering when the equivalent of that spell will show up.Now it could be that there will never be such a ritual, and having these type of undead is completely a necromancer feature, whether a class ability or a power. It might be that necros have one build focusing on corporeal undead and necrotic spells, and another focusing on shadows and spirits. Who knows?</blockquote>

Verification