Necromancy: Beyond the Grave A D20 System supplement from Mongoose Publishing Rating: (4 ot of 5 hearts)

The first chapter describes necromancy, the negative energy that fuels it, and the stigma that it is attached to it by the public and wizards at large. Most wizards use necromantic spells without really understanding what they are doing, using safe spells that ward users from the effect of negative energy. Those who embrace the art of necromancy more closely will sometimes channel negative energy through their being without the traditional wards and safeguards, putting their life force at risk and sometimes suffering the consequences. The nature of negative energy, its natural manifestations, and the dangers of its extensive use by spell casters are discussed in great detail. A comparison between the Arcane and Divine approaches to necromancy follows.

Three prestige classes are given in the next chapter. These prestige classes reflect extreme and specialised involvement with necromancy and negative. One, the Spectral Loremaster, is a variant of the Loremaster prestige class. The Spectral Loremaster gains knowledge from communicating with the spirit world. The other two prestige classes are better suited to evil characters.

The Deathseeker gains extra spell slots by harnessing the negative energy flooding into a living creature as it dies. This propensity to benefit from other's misery tends to encourage others to revile the Deathseeker.

The Necrophage is not an eater of the dead as the name suggests but is akin to a Doctor Frankenstein. The Necrophage grafts limbs from dead creatures to living creatures, to undead beings he controls, or to himself. It is easier for the Necrophage to create Flesh Golems than for other spellcasters.

Thirty-five new necromantic spells are added to the repertoire of what is available to spellcasters, a few of which are inspired from the second edition Necromancer's Handbook. Some low level spells permit a wizard to animate and control one skeleton or one zombie. There are a few attack spells using negative energy and quite a few that make undead servants more powerful. The ninth level spells Raise City and Raise Death Hulk will provide a powerful necromancer with an army or a navy of undead minions. The spell Unfetter Undead makes all undead within 50' of the caster uncontrolled unless their master makes a Will save.

There is one spell, Recall Spirit, which is really unclear. It can be used to summon a spirit back to the body it once inhabited, such as a body whose spirit has been the victim of a Magic Jar or subject of an Astral Projection. So far so good. But then the text says that the spell can be used on a corpse that has subsequently caused the creation of an undead creature. If used as such, it will destroy the undead if it fails its saving throw. Admit that the phrasing is strange. Is that two spells in one, or what? What happens to the original spirit of the body once the undead creature is destroyed?

After the spells come the most important element of this work, the necromantic feats. The necromantic feats permit the necromancer to directly manipulate negative energy with some risks. A negative energy check must be made at DC 10 to avoid the side effects of negative energy manipulation. A character's Int modifier and caster level are added to the roll. A roll of 1 is always a failure. Failure means that the player must roll on the Negative Energy Side Effects table, which will give any results from Animal Terror (children and animals flee you), Stench of Death and Negative Level, to Constitution Loss and Undeath. The new Undead Template is applied to any necromancer who succumbs to the ravages of negative energy. A necromancer can add or subtract his level die roll to try to limit the harmful effects or to precipitate undeath's embrace.

The necromantic feats offer a variety of ways to control negative energy, such as Animation By Touch which lets the user animate one corpse as per the spell Animate Dead, Death Touch which is similar to the granted power from the death domain, and Command Undead which lets the necromancer cower and command undead creatures as a cleric of half the necromancer's current level. The prerequisites and the Negative Energy Check keep the feats well balanced.

Most of the magic items are interesting, such as the Black Gauntlet, which lets the user do the same trick as Darth Vader: reach towards a victim and strangle them. One item has flawed prerequisites. It is the Cup of the Damned that will automatically slay and raise as a zombie anyone drinking from it unless a DC10 Will save is succeeded. Otherwise, it grants an additional spell slot of any level the necromancer can cast. The prerequisites are 6th level, Craft Wondrous Items and Animate Dead. There are obviously a few things missing here.

Rules to transform a character into a Lich are provided, but the probability of dying while trying is too high. An intelligence check at DC 20 is required, irrevocable death is the result of failure. No raising, no nothing.

The monsters included in the book were submitted by Erica Balsley and Scott Greene, the creators of the amazing on-line Creature Catalogue (go check it out, you owe it to yourselves: http://www.d20reviews.com/cc/index.html ). They include the Death Knight template and many other undead. These monsters are potential adventures in themselves.

A list of all Necromantic spells by level concludes the book. Interestingly, on top of the new spells and the spells from the Player's Handbook, the Necromantic spells from the excellent Sword and Sorcery Studio's "Relics & Rituals" are also included.

This book will be very useful to anyone wanting to have necromancers looming around in his campaign world.

Weaknesses: A few minor errors in the layout. The potential mistakes in the rules mentioned above. These are minor details all things considered.

New Rules: