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So here’s my regular “first impressions” stuff that I do for these playtests.
My first thing is that necromancers are…kinda problematic. I know that during PFS1 there was a whole controversy regarding using animate dead in PFS, since that was kinda…corpse desecration. I’m a bit hesitant with how usable this class would be outside of evil campaigns when there’s regular “raising undead” stuff going on. It makes it weird that this class is common. Like, doing basically anything around a Pharasmin is gonna cause a lot of uproar.
Expert in only fort as a caster?? That’s…definitely different.
Yeah, thralls can’t really take actions, so I’m not sure how you could command the thrall to trigger a trap like the “while exploring” section suggests.
Why not give the necromancers a spellbook? I guess to differentiate them from wizards. It just seems like the dirge is just a weird contrivance.
Consume Thrall is…actually kinda interesting and balanced. Though it gets a bit weird at higher levels when you create multiple thralls at a time.
Why does the grim fascination give a general feat? It doesn’t seem to make thematic sense.
The auto-scaling Undead Lore seems a little random, since that skill just…doesn’t seem to be used mechanically for the class very often. Also, why not just give Additional Lore in Undead Lore; it’ll save some space.
Bone Burst: I kinda feel like this should also have the chance to disrupt on, say, a critical failure on the save, to bring it in line with Reactive Strike
Desperate Surge: It should say Grapple instead of Grab
Lifesense: Knowing a creature’s exact HP feels a bit…TOO meta. I honestly think the feat is sufficient without that last sentence
Quickened Casting: Doesn’t have the once per day frequency.
Become as Spirit: I kinda feel like void damage should also not be affected by the resistance.
Desperate Revival: The fact that this is such a massive area and also damages allies makes it really…eh…I kinda want you to be able to pick and choose who’s affected.
Create thrall: Yeah, it feels like there should be, like, an ability to Sustain to move a thrall up to 25 feet or something. Also, why does the damage scale so poorly?
Life tap: This definitely seems like the most powerful of the rank 1 focus spells. I kinda feel like it should either be nerfed or the other ones should be buffed.
Perfected Thrall: I feel like you should be able to Sustain it with he turn you summon it. Also, it doesn’t say whether or not this Strike contributes toward the necromancer’s MAP.
Skeletal lancers: I kinda feel like this spell doesn’t really do a whole lot beyond spawn five thralls.
Zombie Horde: So…is there no additional benefit for if you spawn the burst onto more than one thrall? I kinda feel like there should be.
Overall, I think this is a really fun class, I’m just concerned about the rarity of it, because it seems like a lot of the thematics of it are very disruptive. And this is, like, the first class that actively locks you out of certain deities, like Pharasma and Sarenrae. It feels like this class would be better as, say, a class archetype of Wizard, because I really can’t see this class being used outside of evil or morally-gray campaigns. The class talks a lot about the “respecting death,” but then has a lot of stuff about utilizing undead. It just seems like there’s not a lot of wiggle room for stuff that isn’t explicitly pro-undead. Like…undeath is meant to be unholy. There’s zero unholy things in this undead-riddled class.
Undead Lore is not odd but it could use some feats to go along with it for sure.
I don't think Lifesense is a level 10 feat without know the EXACT HP of a target, if not then it could easily be a class feature in my opinion at level like 1.
Bone Spear: Is powerful but takes 2 rounds to fully cast
Create Thrall: Damage is low because it is 1 action Cantrip
Life Tap: How so, it's not that powerful seeing as the drained condition doesn't stack unless you use ALL your focus points on healing I guess? Is it really that strong, it helps balance out their high fort save spell amount.
The others, yeah I can't deny it...
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If a pharasmin is pitching a fit over a necromancer existing, I'm not sure it's the Necromancer that's being problematic or disruptive.
Can't get behind your assessment of Life Tap either. Like. At level 1 Life Tap deals 1 damage on a success and 2 damage on a failure and heals for that much HP. The debuff is okay, but it's a status penalty and basically a one off.
Essentially the spell does three things but none of them very well.
I'm currently just amused they forgot the Frequency: Once a Day line on Necromancer's Quickened Casting.
More impressions to come, I'm sure.