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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009115" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.This is not a playtest review.Secret College of Necromancy is a sourcebook in Green Ronin's Arcana series.At $19.95 for 112 pages, this is just slightly above average for this type and size of sourcebook in terms of price. However, there is good use of space with little wastage.The internal artwork is suitably dark and grim for the subject matter, and is mostly of good quality. The front cover is a well-rendered but bizarre image of a necromancer with his eyes sewn shut and a variety of macabre creatures erupting from his cloak. Maps are clear, scaled, and with compass direction.I found the style of writing a bit verbose yet strangely informal occasionally, whilst in most sections it was concise and professional. I can only think that this reflects the styles of the two different authors, or maybe just the subject matter in each section. Editing is good.Secret College of Necromancy is really a book of two halves. The first half is devoted to game rules, whilst the second half presents a college of necromancy for inclusion in any standard fantasy campaign.Chapter 1: The Paths of Death, begins with the introduction of two new full classes - the Necromancer and the Death Knight - both designed for villainous NPCs.* The Necromancer is limited in arcane spell choice, but gains access to some divine spells. They cast spells in the same manner as wizards. They can create undead familiars, control undead from 5th level onwards, gain some relevant bonus feats, and gain various touch attacks (channel negative energy, paralyze an opponent, drain energy) as they gain levels. Finally, at 20th level, they can transform into a lich. There are detailed rules for creating undead familiars.* The Death Knight is an unholy warrior, similar to the blackguard, with a number of resistances and immunities as he gains levels, also gaining powers such as an unholy steed, a negative energy touch attack, control undead and other similar abilities until at 20th level he is granted undeath by his dark patrons. He also gains bonus feats similar to a fighter, and some spells from 4th level onwards.In the next section, several new craft, knowledge and profession skills are described relevant to necromancy, such as embalming and grave robbery. Thirteen feats are also offered such as fearful gaze, sense life and sense undead.  In Chapter 2: Spells And Dark Magic, the spell lists of the two new classes are given and 72 new spells introduced. Some examples include blood golem, call undead, drain life, immortality, incorporeal, legion of zombies, lich, maggots, mass sleep, plague, rot flesh, soul switch, spook, and undead warding. I found the spells to be imaginative and relevant to the subject matter, and actually provided some great adventure ideas. The next section details eight infamous necromantic tomes in which these new spells can be discovered, giving a brief history, appearance and twist (e.g. good-aligned persons suffer damage when touching it) to the book, as well as the spells it contains. The remainder of the chapter gives various necromantic items such as flaying knife, powdered blood, skin parchment, floating eyeballs, shadow bottle, and talking skulls. Gruesome stuff. A table gives prices for the mundane items.Chapter 3: Graverobbing and the Undead begins with a discussion on the finer points of graverobbing and other means of gaining bodies for re-animation. There is also information on the hazards of same, such as magical protection or cremation of the body, or recognition by a powerful friend or family member once the body is resurrected (Lesson One: Don't dig up the High Cleric's granny).The chapter continues with information on creating various types of undead and includes a sidebar on the movement speed of different undead and their durability (i.e. how long before they fall apart). Undead feats and qualities are also given here to help create unique undead, such as those who can remove body parts or transform into a swarm of vermin. Great stuff.There is a brief discussion regarding the use of different types of undead as lackeys, followed by a slightly more detailed discussion on the path to lichdom.Chapter 4: Creatures of Necromancy, details eleven new creatures with a necromantic twist - includes creatures such as the flayed man (the undead flayed corpse of a necromancer with full spellcasting abilities and negative energy capabilities), ghost hound, blood, bone, and rot golems, necromantic siege engines (rams built from dead bodies and incorporeal siege towers), and undead war elephant.Chapter 5: A History of the Secret College, discusses the background history, present circumstances, local attitudes to necromancy and punishment inflicted on any persons discovered to be part of a loose confederation of necromancers. There is also a brief discussion as to why persons may become involved in the group in the first place.Chapter 6: The Secret College At Work, goes into more detail on the group, explaining how they share resources, details of membership and recruitment, and some of their meeting places and centres of activity. Further information is given on escape routes and safe houses for necromancers on the run from the authorities. The chapter continues with some of the college's allies and finishes with a good section discussing the goals and plots that are on the college's current agenda. There is also a sidebar on including the Secret College within Freeport, and could be used to enhance the dangers of Freeport as described in Freeport: City Of Adventure.Chapter 7: Personalities of the Secret College, describes (and gives stats for) fourteen NPCs, some of whom are the mainstay of the Secret College of Necromancy, others who are allies and one rogue necromancer who could spell trouble for the whole college.The Appendix contains tables from the main text, an index, and a necromantic addendum for Green Ronin's d20 Character Folio.Conclusion: Secret College of Necromancy competes somewhat with AEG's 'Undead' and Mongooses 'Necromancy', more so the latter. It is more focused, organized and useful than 'Undead' but lacks some of the interesting prestige classes from that book and does not cover the more religious/divine aspects of undeath. It is very similar in its coverage to Mongooses book (except for the necromantic feats which are the best part of 'Necromancy' in my opinion) but the spells, items and creatures are more interesting, and 'Secret College' has the additional bonus of a ready-to-run generic confederation of necromancers to drop into your campaign.The NPC classes are fairly powerful (an issue raised in the book itself) and make great villains. The book advises that a plague of "righteous paladins, vengeful inquisitors, and crusading clerics" should harrass the PC of any player who insists on taking these classes. And rightly so. The only problem I have with this is that there are then no player class options remaining - I had hoped to see at least a necromancer prestige class for neutral-aligned PCs. Be warned, it ain't there. This is a book primarily useful for GM's.But this is a minor issue in a book packed with neat spells, items and creatures, a grim and macabre atmosphere, a host of potential villains and related adventure ideas, and a ready-to-run necromantic organisation to drop into your campaign.</blockquote>

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