Mortavius wrote:
I know Morgoroth is classed as a Necromancer; did you go with a more spiritual bent for him? We already seem to have so many Necro's in Ravenloft; I wonder if there is a way to make him stand out? I don't have my books in front of me right now; is there a different school of magic that would work for him (from Advanced Player's Guide)? Not saying you did a bad job or didn't already look at that option of course.
Well...
(A long design notes ramble follows)
The arcane spellcaster darklords are as follows:
Alchemist: Heinfroth, Markov, Mircea, Ilsabet Obour (4)
Bard: d'Honaire, Lady of the Lake, ApBlanc, Evensong, Lukas (5)
Magus: (0)
Sorcerer: Aderre, Arijani (2)
Summoner: Lady of Ravens (1)
Witch: The Hags, Inza (2 or 4, depending on how you look at it)
Wizard: Azalin, Strahd, Easan, Meredoth, Hazlik, Morgoroth, Tsien Chang, Daegon (8). Of those, Strahd, Meredoth, Morgoroth, Tsien Chang and Daegon (5) are necromancers, and Azalin is a universalist wizard with such a strong bent for necromancy he might count as well.
Misroi hedges in on the same space as well, but he's an oracle by my reckoning.
Apparently, bards are meant to be the most common arcane spellcasters in Ravenloft, followed by witches and wizards, then sorcerers and alchemists (many of whom don't even consider what they do to be magic), then magi and summoners. So, apart from the preponderance of wizards and necromancers particularly, we're more or less in line with that.
The Advanced Class Guide also adds the arcanist, who "are able to pull apart magic, deconstructing the bonds that hold it together and forcing it to obey their will. It is not an easy task, but this talent allows them to wield magic like no others. They can consume the raw essence of magic to forge powerful effects, both wondrous and deadly." I would imagine they're also very rare in Ravenloft (on a level with summoners).
So, which wizards can be shunted into other classes without losing flavour?
I think there would be rioting if Azalin or Strahd were changed; they are too iconic, and the way they use their powers is too ingrained into the narrative of the world to alter. They're also both extremely high level, so they're not commonly encountered. (To do this, we need to consider darklords who exist only to be encountered and/or defeated--e.g. Monette, the Phantom Lover, the House of Lament; darklords who could go either way--it'd be hard to defeat them but you can, like Hazlik, Easan and Morgorth; and those where permanent defeat would irreparably alter Ravenloft, like Strahd and Azalin).
Easan and Hazlik don't need to change. They have their own niches (conjurer and blaster respectively).
This leaves Meredoth, Morgoroth, Tsien Chang and Daegon. All of whom are necromancers. I don't really have an issue with a lot of darklords having an interest in necromancy--a lot canonically have Powers checks for black magic.
I've already said elsewhere that Daegon should be re-crafted into a sorcerer, given his interest in the waning of his bloodline (and for a bit of variation). So move him into that column.
If anyone in Ravenloft should be an arcanist, it is Meredoth. He's already got a very similar method of preparing his spells (or not), and the archmage/metamagic master schtick. So I'd move him into that column (although we can't yet, because the book's not out yet). That makes the FoS curse of a lack of creativity even more telling, given he's used to ripping magic down to its basic blocks and rebuilding it into whatever he wants. He can still have the necromancy thing going, he's just a necromancy-focused arcanist rather than a necromancer.
Let's face it--no one likes Tsien Chang, and she and Meredoth (and Strahd and Azalin) are occupying the same niche of uber-powerful necromancer. Except she can turn into a tree and has an obsession with the number 4. In fact, that obsession is more fundamental to her than the necromancy, which is apparent in her original write up, when she was just an ordinary wizard. If there was something like a wu jen, I'd do that, but since there isn't, her nature magic suggests witch to me rather than wizard.
Morgoroth has necromancy built into his backstory (which I really like), into his domain, and into his character. His whole story is about trying and failing to be redeemed by love and give up the black magic. The Phantasmal Forest crawls with spirits and walking dead. He's also a mid-level necromancer, for PCs to defeat if they want to. So I would leave him as a necromancer. If you look at his spell list though and compare it to some of the others, you can see I've tried to give each darklord their own flavour of spells. His are haunting-style illusions and life-draining necromancies, rather than creating the undead (like Azalin and Strahd, who also has a lot of blood, fog and charm spells), conjurations and transmutations (Easan) and evocations (Hazlik).
Some of the alchemists would also become investigators when the ACG is released--those who don't fit a good alchemist archetype (Markov and Mircea) and for whom mutagen and bombs don't seem so appropriate.
So that leaves us with:
Alchemist: Markov, Mircea (2)
Arcanist: Meredoth (1)
Bard: d'Honaire, Lady of the Lake, ApBlanc, Evensong, Lukas (5)
Investigator: Heinfroth, Ilsabet Obour (2)
Magus: (0)
Sorcerer: Aderre, Arijani, Daegon (3)
Summoner: Lady of Ravens (1)
Witch: The Hags, Inza, Tsien Chang (3 or 5, depending on how you look at it)
Wizard: Azalin, Strahd, Easan, Hazlik, Morgoroth (5; 2-3 necromancers).
You've also got a really high level arcanist, sorcerer, witch and wizard, and 2-3 mid-level of each (except arcanist) for PCs to defeat, so doing it this way fits all 3 design goals.
All of which I suspect is a lot longer than you wanted.
tl;dr: Morgoroth stays a necromancer, but he's reasonably individual as one.
