This is a sizable document - partly due to taking a rather broad and vague concept of its topic to include "black magic", divination, flesh golems and some half-baked Cthulhu Mythos references - but much of it is not particularly usable. I couldn't include the races, necromancer class or many of the rituals as written.
The best of this product is its description of a number of real-world deities centred around the portfolio of death (each with its different interpretation of that concern) and the Acolyte of Darkness abilities for characters serving each of them. The publisher has recently dropped the price to $2.95, which is probably as much as I would want to pay for it and not unreasonable as a sourcebook for some variant abilities for wizards, warlocks and clerics. There is a lot of disappointing material to sift through to get there.
I didn't actually mind the minion creation idea too much, if it is restricted to minions. I somewhat like the idea of a necromancer commanding a horde of uglies all to attack on one of his actions, and it's no worse than what wizard dailies can do.
A particularly poor judgement, though, was the thoroughly gratuitous illustration on page 56.
Rating: [3 of 5 Stars!] |