The White Dwarf Necromancer

White Dwarf  35, November 1982...

No wonder the Satanic Panic happened.

I was introduced to D&D in 1983 at age 10 and wasn't introduced to White Dwarf until much later when it became more or less a Warhammer 40K thing. Not sure how I missed it for so long; it had to be on the shelves here... or was it?

So, I missed this awesomeness completely. And I wonder what I'd have thought if I saw this then. I honestly don't know...

The Necromancer...by Lew Pulsipher (wow... the author's name even sounds Satanic).

A cleric based, 15 level class with a D8 Hit Die, saving throws, attacks, and the level progression of the cleric, with spell-like abilities ranked by "grade" as opposed to "level" and the explicit need to sacrifice living creatures every few weeks (especially human virgins and pregnant women) or lose all powers granted by their Dark God.

• For every level a Necromancer gains, they lose 1 point of charisma. This represents their extreme loner, anti-life nature. Love this. What would zero indicate, undeath appearance?
• They can control undead using the cleric's turn undead matrix.
• They are immune to the nasty effects of undead of a lesser level than themselves, paralysis, level-drain and such.
• Their wounds don't heal naturally, requiring ritual sacrifice to gain 1/2 the victim's hit points. However, if they build a temple of death (at 10th level) they can regenerate there.
• Gains infravision at 2nd level.
• Past 1st level, they return as an undead of similar hit dice if killed.
• May place a curse on their killer as he dies.

Most of their spell-like abilities revolve around summoning or creating undead, speaking with and imitating the dead (feign death, non-corporeality) and can be used only once per day each (more abilities were added in White Dwarf 36). Some actually require ritualistic, black-mass killings, transforming the victims to a state of undeath.

X/times per day has never been a favorite mechanic of mine and I think I'd trade their need to sacrifice to heal wounds for a need to sacrifice to fuel abilities. They would have a black magic pool of sorts and each "grade" would have an associated cost, also, the greater the sacrifice, human virgin vs goat or cat, the greater the points gained. Thus, they may find themselves needing to sacrifice something during an adventure as opposed to off-screen sacrifices. This would certainly lead to memorable moments and clashes as clerics and paladins discover what they're up to.

I love this class. It's steeped in Black Magic (the term is actually used). It would never be published these days... by anyone. Modern Necromancer's are so fucking lame, in fact, the whole modern game is lame. It just shows how D&D has been utterly degraded over the years -- from dark MEDIEVAL slaughter, to WoTC's glitter-fest.

Sad.

And, is it just me, or was White Dwarf much edgier than Dragon?

Bringing In 2025 With "AD&D"

That is, AD&D, as in Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch. Not new, just the newest form (originally three core books, now two.) One of the stalwart stewards of all things 1st Edition, Greyhawk in particular, Bloch created "AD&D" with the goal of doing what Gary would've done had he revised the game himself. As we know, Gary was booted before any such revision and the anti-Gygax 2nd Edition followed. Bloch brings new classes, like the Jester, Savant, Mystic, and Mountebank and new race choices including Centaurs, and of course, new spells and magic items, etc. Similar attempts have been made, such as, Trent Smith's Heroic Legendarium (a fine book) and OSRIC (more of an SRD) but I've seen nothing as comprehensive as what Bloch has done here.

Behold the size of these! Both are 500 page behemoths. Will the print-on-demand binding hold up? Such binding is weak enough on small books. My two original TSR books shown above are 40+ years old and the bindings are still perfect. I would've almost preferred soft-cover perfectly bound for these colossal tomes. I wonder what the cost would be to get them professionally bound?

The formatting is in the style of the later AD&D hardcovers (think Monster Manual II and Unearthed Arcana.) The art is mostly good and reminiscent of how it once was (black and white is best in life! Yes, color can be great, but look to companies like WoTC for what NOT to do! Jesus, WoTC sucks.) Anyhow, this bestiary has over 1000 entries, more than you'll ever need. It's like Monster Manuals I, II, and Fiend Folio all under one cover... and then some! Here, there are plenty of demons and devils and... angels (hell yeah!) and of course plenty of dragons. Curiously, no gold dragon -- replaced by the electrum? -- what is the story here?

Very nice Amazon. A level of boldness missing these days. Bold is good.

Add in the Book of Lost Tables and you have every random encounter table possible, mostly in the D1000 format. The best collection of random encounter tables that I've seen anywhere. And to simulate truly random, I've created a random table of these random tables. So I can randomly roll any monster in the game! I'm beginning to think that dungeons shouldn't be any more stratified than the wilderness. While traveling, you can encounter a dragon or a dryad regardless of your level. Although I'm as guilty as any one, there should be no "Dungeon for levels 3-5" there should simply be dungeons... enter at your own risk, anything is possible. The secret to explaining this... lots of empty spaces in between, plenty of empty (though not meaningless) rooms and long twisting corridors. No one will hear you scream... and no one will hear you fight! Nothing in reality is stratified for your safety and convenience. Although, yes, a certain logic does exist for the more dangerous foes being found the deeper you go. Still, I'm for much more randomized danger. I think I'll roll up a truly random dungeon and see what happens...

Pages upon pages of this!

It is (almost) exactly the game you think it is, though some subsystems have changed and there are more races and classes (the more classes the better!)  A small nitpick I have: The Assassin is presented as an "optional" class. Why? In a game where you can be chaotic-evil, murder, steal, raid, and ravage, where you can play a blackguard (the classic anti-paladin) the paragon of all things evil --which is not presented as "optional." Is an assassin worse than a blackguard? Castles & Crusades has also done this to assassins with their recent printings and they knew Gary well. Is this something he had in mind? Otherwise, I just don't get it. It's akin to making Greedo shoot first. Don't soften things up. Ever. That's a 2nd Edition sin.

Anyhow, these two massive tomes, with a side helping of random tables, are literally all you'd ever need to play this classic game... FOREVER.

Well done Joseph! 

Now people, ENTER DUNGEONS, LOOT AND SLAY!!!