For a goth like me, Pathfinder’s newest playtest class, a necromancer who controls exploding zombies, has “shut up and take my money” energy. Most magical RPGs have necromancers as a subclass of Wizards, but Paizo announced on December 4 that it would split necromancy off into its own dedicated class, with playtesting starting on December 9. Considering how disappointing necromancy is in Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder’s big sibling, this is something to get very excited about.
First, let’s talk about the new option coming to the list of Pathfinder classes. “This is a very exciting project for us”, says designer Joshua Birdsong in a Paizo livestream from Wednesday. “Now that necromancy is not part of the Wizard class, we are now able to delve fully into it as its own unique premise. It has some very fun interactions it can do that pull it apart from a traditional Wizard that you would see in the past.”
The new Necromancer is a prepared occult caster that gains their spellcasting abilities from a dirge within themselves. It seems that most of their powers involve summoning undead thralls, who have slightly different features depending on whether you like to specialize in skeletons, spirits, and so on. As Birdsong puts it, “what would a necromancer be without undead for them to use and control?”
Most tabletop RPGs treat a necromancer’s undead army as a pool of summons, which can cause balance (and bookkeeping) problems if too many are amassed at once. This is very much an issue in Dungeons and Dragons, and so far, Wizards of the Coast has solved the problem by severely limiting your summoning capabilities.
The DnD Wizard’s necromancy subclass doesn’t let you summon thralls until level six, at which point a third-level spell slot gives you two undead summons for 24 hours. The rest of the subclass is filled with mediocre necromancy spells and situational abilities that let you interact with death and undeath.
In the case of the Circle of Spores Druid, you can deal a pinch of extra necrotic damage to enemies, and you might get to summon a resurrected corpse if a humanoid happens to die close enough to you. I’m currently playing one, and have been for nearly two years, yet I’ve never had a chance to animate the dead.
These limiting design choices all seem to be in response to the threat that undead summons seem to pose to balance. But Pathfinder is solving this problem by turning your zombie buddies into consumables.
Consider, for example, the Consume Thrall ability. Once every 10 minutes, if a thrall is within 15 feet of you, you can use one of your turn’s actions to reduce it to dust and consume its necromantic energy. Mechanically, this restores one of your Focus Points.
Alternatively, you can use up a thrall in a more explosive way – by commanding them to literally explode. “One thing that thralls are really good at doing is blowing up”, Birdsong says. “One of the earliest [abilities] you get is the Necrotic Bomb, which lets you blow up a thrall in a big burst of necromantic energy.”
Necrotic Bomb costs two actions to trigger and targets a thrall within 60 feet. All creatures within a 10-foot emanation of the explosion take 1d12 void damage with a basic Reflex save. Forget exquisite corpses, now we’ve got exploding corpses.
The Paizo team alludes to several other ways to consume and use your thralls, including turning them into armor, weapons, or dead weight that can drag enemies to the ground. The aim was, apparently, to make you “feel like you’re controlling the battlefield with various undead forces”.
Based on this Halloween-themed elevator pitch, I’m totally sold on the next Pathfinder playest. I’m sure that the Runesmith, the other class in this playtest packet, will prove to be equally cool, but my mind is so consumed by the thought of skele-bombs that I’ve not had much time to examine it.
If you want to learn about the DnD classes I like better than the necromancy Wizard, head to our dedicated guide. And for more character options from both RPGs, here’s all you need to know about DnD races and Pathfinder races.
Source: Wargamer
