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Necromancy: Beyond the Grave is Mongoose Publishing's second Encyclopaedia Arcane book, each one presenting rules to expand the role of a specific flavour of spellcaster. It contains roughly the mix of new rules you'd expect from this kind of supplement: new spells, monsters, prestige classes, feats, skills, and magic items.

The first chapter is an overview of D&D necromancy, how it relates to negative energy, the undead, divine magic, and immortality. The theory of negative energy presented here, seeing its creation as a natural phenomenon occurring at death, gives necromancy a sensible rationale which the rest of the book draws on, as well as suggesting scenario ideas.

Next up are three prestige classes (each with 10 levels), open to anyone with the right skills, alignment, and arcane spells. This means any wizard or sorcerer can potentially join, not just specialist necromancers. Tucked away in this chapter are the new skills, three Knowledge skills to act as entry requirements. Well thought out, if not world-shattering.

The Spectral Loremaster imitates the DMG's Loremaster, only with the mage gaining obscure knowledge from the dead rather than from dusty tomes. It's an evocative and seemingly balanced addition, but no explanation is given for exactly how one of the class's main special abilities works. Spectral Loremasters can use Gather Information checks to interrogate local spirits, but we aren't told how it works in practice -- does the Loremaster actually see the spirits, have to wander around looking for them, or just go into a trance and converse with them internally?

The Deathseeker draws on the negative energy released upon a sentient creature's death to add power to spells or to gain bonus slots. Play balance is a little harder to judge here -- in a combat-light game the Deathseeker would be at a disadvantage -- but it seems more suited to NPCs anyway.

Most definitely more suited to NPCs is the final prestige class, the necrophage. A mage who creates abominations by grafting dead limbs to living creatures (and the necrophage's own body at higher levels) is one of the best ideas in the book. Sensibly, the exact effects of grafts are left up to the DM, although guidelines and examples are given. It's just a shame the necrophage's ability can't be used on fey; I always wanted an excuse to rip the wings off pixies.

The new spells seek to fill the gaps on either side of the mid-level necromancy spells, with low-powered and high-powered variants of animate dead as well as the expected combat spells and miscellaneous mad whack black magic. On the low side, animate animal is a cantrip for creating tiny skeletons and zombies, and animate skeleton has been added at first level with animate zombie a second level spell. All well and good, but on the high side where I was hoping for some legion-raising spells, there's still a gap. Raise city would have been a good contender, except that the undead are trapped within the spell's radius, making it a good dungeon-stocking spell, but not a good globe-trotting-host-of-corpses number. Raise death hulk and raise death fleet provide the nautical equivalent, but on land my plans for world domination through corpse animation are going to have to rely on one 20th level caster for each 40 HD of undead. Sigh. Other spells enable necromancers to find nearby bodies, see and talk through their animated friends, animate skulls to serve as traps, and shrieking missile lets Warhammer fans recreate the Screaming Skull Chucker.

The new feats are powerful, allowing necromancers who choose them to animate corpses innately, power-up their creations, cast from the clerical Death domain, drain life, speak to spirits, and gain spell resistance. These abilities are offset by randomly gained 'Negative Energy Side Effects' which are strongly reminiscent of WFRP's necromantic disabilities, only less harsh. They include Animal Terror, Disfigurement, Insanity, and Cadaverous Figure, and the example insanities given in the Help For GMs chapter are straight out of the WFRP rulebook. But hey, if you're going to steal, steal from the greats.

A short chapter on lichdom is useful only as background colour, requiring the prospective lich pass an Int check at DC 20 or just plain die. I can only assume the point is to frighten PCs away from lengthened life through death.

The magical items are mostly pretty vanilla, although the Black Banner can be used to animate the gigantic legions of the dead that I really want. It just seems like a cop-out to require a major artifact to recreate Army Of Darkness. That's all I'm saying.

New monsters are always fun, and the new undead (all non-ethereal) include reanimated grave robbers bearing ghostly lanterns, skull-faced children, and a template for death knights. The death knight, a paladin who died while falling from grace doomed to wander the earth as an evil abomination, was one of those oldschool D&D monsters whose lack was felt in the new edition. Even WotC seemed to miss them, and a death knight template appeared in Dragon #290.

Both death knights have the same challenge ratings, ability bonuses, hit dice, fear aura, and saving throws, and although their spell resistance is calculated differently they're both effectively off the scale for most mages. Dragon's death knight has twice the amount of undead buddies, complete turn immunity compared to Necromancy's 4 resistance, several immunities, a blast attack, causes Con damage, and can summon a nightmare or other mount. Necromancy's death knight has some skill bonuses, darkvision, spell-like abilities, and a grave mount, which has the same CR as a nightmare while appearing to be wimpier. Only clever use of the spell-like abilities could stop this version of the death knight from being weaker than the more 'official' one. Don't ask me which one fits the CR better though, I've never understood how to figure those things out.

To get superficial for a moment, the cover art (which features zombies rising from graves bearing names which look suspiciously like those of somebody's PCs), is amateurish. The internal art ranges from high quality to high school sketchbook. One piece, on page 32, should have been scanned in at higher resolution to get rid of the pixellated look, or just printed smaller. And whoever drew the topless female necromancer using an animated skeleton's hand as a substitute push-up bra ought to be ashamed. The flavour text and fiction, much of which concerns a mage's seduction into study of the black art, is surprisingly unsucky. It's atmospheric and mostly brief, which is all I could ask for.

All told, Necromancy treats its subject well, evoking the right mood and pushing the right buttons for fantasy horror. It's useful for DMs and players, providing you can convince your DM the power balance is right, and written in an easygoing and informal style that didn't leave me nursing DMG headache. Not game-changingly brilliant, but solid nonetheless.

Necromancy: Beyond The Grave
Necromancy: Beyond The Grave Capsule Review by Jody Macgregor on 31/03/02 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty) I love the dead. Product: Necromancy: Beyond The Grave Author: Matthew Sprange Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Mongoose Publishing Line: d20 Cost: $14.95 Page count: 64 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 1-903980-04-06 SKU: MGP1002 Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Jody Macgregor on 31/03/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Horror	Necromancy: Beyond the Grave is Mongoose Publishing's second Encyclopaedia Arcane book, each one presenting rules to expand the role of a specific flavour of spellcaster. It contains roughly the mix of new rules you'd expect from this kind of supplement: new spells, monsters, prestige classes, feats, skills, and magic items. The first chapter is an overview of D&D necromancy, how it relates to negative energy, the undead, divine magic, and immortality. The theory of negative energy presented here, seeing its creation as a natural phenomenon occurring at death, gives necromancy a sensible rationale which the rest of the book draws on, as well as suggesting scenario ideas. Next up are three prestige classes (each with 10 levels), open to anyone with the right skills, alignment, and arcane spells. This means any wizard or sorcerer can potentially join, not just specialist necromancers. Tucked away in this chapter are the new skills, three Knowledge skills to act as entry requirements. Well thought out, if not world-shattering. The Spectral Loremaster imitates the DMG's Loremaster, only with the mage gaining obscure knowledge from the dead rather than from dusty tomes. It's an evocative and seemingly balanced addition, but no explanation is given for exactly how one of the class's main special abilities works. Spectral Loremasters can use Gather Information checks to interrogate local spirits, but we aren't told how it works in practice -- does the Loremaster actually see the spirits, have to wander around looking for them, or just go into a trance and converse with them internally? The Deathseeker draws on the negative energy released upon a sentient creature's death to add power to spells or to gain bonus slots. Play balance is a little harder to judge here -- in a combat-light game the Deathseeker would be at a disadvantage -- but it seems more suited to NPCs anyway. Most definitely more suited to NPCs is the final prestige class, the necrophage. A mage who creates abominations by grafting dead limbs to living creatures (and the necrophage's own body at higher levels) is one of the best ideas in the book. Sensibly, the exact effects of grafts are left up to the DM, although guidelines and examples are given. It's just a shame the necrophage's ability can't be used on fey; I always wanted an excuse to rip the wings off pixies. The new spells seek to fill the gaps on either side of the mid-level necromancy spells, with low-powered and high-powered variants of animate dead as well as the expected combat spells and miscellaneous mad whack black magic. On the low side, animate animal is a cantrip for creating tiny skeletons and zombies, and animate skeleton has been added at first level with animate zombie a second level spell. All well and good, but on the high side where I was hoping for some legion-raising spells, there's still a gap. Raise city would have been a good contender, except that the undead are trapped within the spell's radius, making it a good dungeon-stocking spell, but not a good globe-trotting-host-of-corpses number. Raise death hulk and raise death fleet provide the nautical equivalent, but on land my plans for world domination through corpse animation are going to have to rely on one 20th level caster for each 40 HD of undead. Sigh. Other spells enable necromancers to find nearby bodies, see and talk through their animated friends, animate skulls to serve as traps, and shrieking missile lets Warhammer fans recreate the Screaming Skull Chucker. The new feats are powerful, allowing necromancers who choose them to animate corpses innately, power-up their creations, cast from the clerical Death domain, drain life, speak to spirits, and gain spell resistance. These abilities are offset by randomly gained 'Negative Energy Side Effects' which are strongly reminiscent of WFRP's necromantic disabilities, only less harsh. They include Animal Terror, Disfigurement, Insanity, and Cadaverous Figure, and the example insanities given in the Help For GMs chapter are straight out of the WFRP rulebook. But hey, if you're going to steal, steal from the greats. A short chapter on lichdom is useful only as background colour, requiring the prospective lich pass an Int check at DC 20 or just plain die. I can only assume the point is to frighten PCs away from lengthened life through death. The magical items are mostly pretty vanilla, although the Black Banner can be used to animate the gigantic legions of the dead that I really want. It just seems like a cop-out to require a major artifact to recreate Army Of Darkness. That's all I'm saying. New monsters are always fun, and the new undead (all non-ethereal) include reanimated grave robbers bearing ghostly lanterns, skull-faced children, and a template for death knights. The death knight, a paladin who died while falling from grace doomed to wander the earth as an evil abomination, was one of those oldschool D&D monsters whose lack was felt in the new edition. Even WotC seemed to miss them, and a death knight template appeared in Dragon #290. Both death knights have the same challenge ratings, ability bonuses, hit dice, fear aura, and saving throws, and although their spell resistance is calculated differently they're both effectively off the scale for most mages. Dragon's death knight has twice the amount of undead buddies, complete turn immunity compared to Necromancy's 4 resistance, several immunities, a blast attack, causes Con damage, and can summon a nightmare or other mount. Necromancy's death knight has some skill bonuses, darkvision, spell-like abilities, and a grave mount, which has the same CR as a nightmare while appearing to be wimpier. Only clever use of the spell-like abilities could stop this version of the death knight from being weaker than the more 'official' one. Don't ask me which one fits the CR better though, I've never understood how to figure those things out. To get superficial for a moment, the cover art (which features zombies rising from graves bearing names which look suspiciously like those of somebody's PCs), is amateurish. The internal art ranges from high quality to high school sketchbook. One piece, on page 32, should have been scanned in at higher resolution to get rid of the pixellated look, or just printed smaller. And whoever drew the topless female necromancer using an animated skeleton's hand as a substitute push-up bra ought to be ashamed. The flavour text and fiction, much of which concerns a mage's seduction into study of the black art, is surprisingly unsucky. It's atmospheric and mostly brief, which is all I could ask for. All told, Necromancy treats its subject well, evoking the right mood and pushing the right buttons for fantasy horror. It's useful for DMs and players, providing you can convince your DM the power balance is right, and written in an easygoing and informal style that didn't leave me nursing DMG headache. Not game-changingly brilliant, but solid nonetheless.

Necromancy: Beyond The Grave