Of course, though, I concede the word's long since lost that original meaning in fantasy and fallen into general use as encompassing any magic dealing with death and the undead. So a literal necromancer should be calling upon the spirits of the dead only to ask them for predictions about the future they shouldn't be raising skeleton armies. If we're really going by the literal meaning, though, necromancy doesn't mean spells of death-it means specifically divination by death. If necromancy is the magic of death and the spirit, then (one could argue) it should also encompass effects on its mirror, life, and what is healing but bolstering life and staving off death? (I'm not saying I necessarily buy this argument myself or would classify healing spells as necromantic if I were making up my own original fantasy setting I'm just saying it's an argument I can see being made.) I think there is a possible rationale for it, after all. Though it's not entirely impossible they came up with it independently.
TOMB RAIDER 2 REMAKE ABANDONED FULL
In early editions, for instance, certain spell schools worked differently on different planes, and in third edition identifying a magic item or enchantment might let you know the spell school corresponding to the effect even if you don't learn its full abilities.Īnyway, though, by saying it depends on what you consider "traditional" I just meant that given the amount of inspiration that so many CRPGs take from D&D, it's entirely possible that that's where the makers of the game got the association of healing with necromancy from. (Except illusionists, who for some reason were a separate subclass in first edition.)īut even though the fact that the healing spells belong to the school of necromancy doesn't generally affect whether or not a particular cleric can learn them, the school that a spell belongs to may have other consequences. (And now that I look at the PHB, it they weren't even called "spell schools" yet the book just refers to the "type of magic".) It wasn't till second edition that wizards could even specialize in particular schools. The school of each spell was listed, but it didn't have any real game effect at first I think Gygax may have just put them in for color. Really, the spell school didn't actually mean much of anything in first edition. They have been since the first-edition Players Handbook, back in 1978. The spell school is explicitly listed in the spell description, and cure light wounds and the other healing spells are stated as belonging to the school of necromancy. I don't mind a food system when it adds to a game's strategy, but it's silly to include it and then trivialize it.Įvery spell in D&D pertains to a particular spell school, not just wizard spells. Thus, the need for food is easily solved, making the entire system just an annoyance, requiring us to stop exploration every 10-15 minutes for a round of fish and cheese. Each casting creates one food item that you can right-click to eat, restoring your nutrition. Eventually, my conjurer leveled up and got "Create Food," and by the end of the level, all three of my mages had it. Seem to poison you instead of replenishing your statistic. The only items of food I found in the dungeon were "badberries," which
Fortunately, I discovered that spell points regenerate fast enough for the necromancer to keep up with the hit point loss by casting "Cure Light Wounds." I just had to listen to all my characters yell "Hrugh!" with hunger pains every few seconds. This started about 10 minutes into the game. Your characters have a "food" statistic, and if it runs out, they start going hungry and taking damage every couple of seconds.
I'll close this first entry with a couple of major annoyances.