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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keeper of Secrets" data-source="post: 2011685" data-attributes="member: 13836">Green Ronin's Secret College of Necromancy is an aid for any GM wishing to incorporate a fresh take on necromancers in their campaign.  Written by David 'Zeb' Cook and Wolfgang Bauer, this book dissects the world of necromancers, creating an established network of like-minded individuals all interested in the dark arts.The book begins with introducing the reader to two new classes: the necromancer and the death knight.  While necromancers have certainly gotten treatment in other products, this is one of the better, more balanced approaches I have seen.  Whereas it gets the same treatment as any other book that discusses classes, I liked the brief section on religion and belief systems that preceded it.  Obviously, the necromancer has the look and feel of a wizard but specializes in death magic.  The death knight is a derivative of the fighter with some special abilities.  This class is as pure evil as it gets, as the death knight is an individual who has been baptized into the service of evil shortly after birth.  Yeah, I thought it sounded kind of neat, too.  At higher levels the death knight can cast spells but that is not the focus of the class.  Like the necromancer, the death knight has a nice explanation in the beginning on what kind of individual traits a death knight possesses and the kinds of motivations they have.  I am not sure if the authors intended it or not but the name 'death knight' brought to mind (for me at least) a specific kind of monster from the old Fiend Folio.  As such I think I would have tried to call it something else, but admittedly, the name does fit for what the class can do.  Naturally, both of these classes gravitate towards evil (but it is pointed out that the necromancer need not be), so the usefulness for PCs may seem somewhat limited, unless the GM runs a 'no holds barred' kind of campaign.  The feats and skills presented for these two classes are, for the most part, very specific.  Skills like embalming, grave robbing and so on are to be expected in a book on necromancy.  The book provides feats such as Dying Blow (allowing attacks while dying) and Sense Undead are interesting and even can be used by any class.  However, some feats like Master of the Past (allowing the character better DCs against enemies they have dealt with before) and Chill Hand (allowing a freezing touch attack) have prerequisites of being a necromancer.  They all seem like fairly solid choices for those who dabble in the necromantic arts and whereas their usefulness is somewhat limited to classes like the necromancer and death knight, they certainly are clever additions.In the chapter about spells and magic, The Secret College of Necromancy offers up some interesting and well-done spells used by necromancers and, to a lesser extent, death knights.  Honestly, I was pretty impressed with the spell list as they seemed not only balanced but also seemed like great theme spells for the class (which is always a little tricky to pull off).  Further, a bonus that I really liked was that if the reader was not overly thrilled with the necromancer class offered in the book, they could at least add the spell list to complement the necromancer spells in the Player's Handbook.  The second part of the spells chapter gave a listing of some creepy and arcane tomes; complete with a rich history that stayed generic enough that they could be inserted into any campaign.  The description of these tomes were so interesting that I could imagine seeing them in some dark and vile chamber, poured over by a sinister figure.  The descriptions of the books were vivid enough that I immediately thought of several ways in which they could have entire campaign stories based around them.  Following the section on the spells and the creepy books, I was pleased to see some sections on not only what it takes to be a necromancer but also some detailed descriptions on various undead templates.  The section on the necromancers explained how hated and loathed necromancers would be in any decent society, grave robbing, sneaking through the dead of night and how they would gather allies.  I was reminded of Dickens' London as well as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and the dreary outlook that people would have had.  It really did a great job of explaining what a necromancer's life and activities would be.  Furthermore the material about the undead is perfect.  It is a wonderful addition to a book on necromancy, giving the reader more of a look into the kinds of things necromancers deal with as well as the kinds of entities the necromancer can expect to be around.  What makes this book great is the fact that even if no necromancer PCs appear (or very few NPCs) the book is still very useful as it allows the GM to get a very good perspective on undead creatures.  Certainly for GMs interested in the undead, without going into minute detail, this is an excellent resource.The last section of the book described The Secret College of Necromancy.  This was my favorite section of the book due to the interesting details and colorful way in which it is presented.  It starts by explaining that the Secret College is not so much a structure like an actual college but more of a state of mind and a metaphorical college.  They have no guildhall to show off, no membership lists that anyone has seen and no written by-laws.  Even though the Secret College can be dropped into just about any fantasy campaign or fantasy city, it is presumed that necromancers must work in secrecy (though I suspect that the one city this might NOT work in is Hollowfaust:  City of Necromancers).The authors take great care to give the Secret College a realistic feel, demonstrating how those involved in this dark art would have to establish numerous secrets and safeguards to protect themselves from prying eyes.  There are numerous personalities associated with the Secret College, listing their motivations, personality quirks and all the nice crunchy bits needed.  Just by reading this section an enterprising GM can come up with several different ways to work them into a campaign, creating story hooks and side adventures for any characters that spend a great deal of time in a major city.  Due to nature of the guild, they could certainly be used as enemies, allies or something in between.  I suspect that entire series of subplots could revolve around the Secret College.The Secret College of Necromancy is a great addition to any campaign.  Though I have to admit that it is less of a book for players and more of a book for GMs who desire to create realistic necromancers and their allies.  Anyone who picks up The Secret College of Necromancy certainly won't be disappointed.I give it a 4 out of 5.</blockquote>

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