Tome of Necromancy - Master of the Seven Necromantic Mysteries

[Sepultra]

Hi, this is my first post so I can't link to the class in question, but it can be found basically everywhere by googling the name.
I've lurked for a long time and couldn't find an answer to this scrolling through threads. A friend told me about this class (he's playing a necromancer) and I've been looking over it thinking about it, but I can't really decide, so the question really is: how good is the Tome of Necromancy's Master of the Seven Necromanctic Mysteries when considering character optimization and just trying to boost to the limit? I don't expect it to be a tier 1 powerhouse like IOTSV or Incantatrix, but reading the class over I find it hard to imagine that it's a great deal better than base wizard.
The seven CLs are top tier if you can find spells that make use of them, but I really can't. The best necro spells (Finger of Agony, Enervation spring to mind) don't make use of CL bonuses at all - at least the arcane ones. The spell list being expanded obviously helps a lot but I don't know much about non-arcane necromancy spells.
Rebuking attempts I don't really see someone getting a great deal of use out of at all.
Negative energy will be useful so that I can have him heal the one or two minions he's likely to have.
Life draining is just a better vampiric touch, really, which doesn't seem amazing.
At will Magic Jar is the best thing I see in this class beyond the effective immortality.

Thanks in advance for the help and sorry if I'm being too vague. I'm new to D&D and much newer to optimization but I really like the flavour for this class for potential villains.

[Helluin]

Many of the ToN prestige classes are ridiculously good. Take Mot7NM for example - the CL boost alone is great, but as a general rule, ANYTHING that expands your spell known is good. In fact, this ability is so good that Recaster and Wyrm Mage, the two most well known PrC that grant expanded spell list at a ONE SPELL PER LEVEL rate, are often considered a worthwhile, albeit harsh, trade despite the CL loss, and Mot7NM is a full casting PrC which gives you unlimited ability to learn any necromancy spells with a 2 level dip.

You just need to take a harder look at necromancy spells from other classes - take a look at what people do with Archivist. Also check out Greater Consumptive Field. If you really want to break the game, take Incantatrix and dip two levels in Mot7NM

[Sepultra]

Many of the ToN prestige classes are ridiculously good. Take Mot7NM for example - the CL boost alone is great, but as a general rule, ANYTHING that expands your spell known is good. In fact, this ability is so good that Recaster and Wyrm Mage, the two most well known PrC that grant expanded spell list at a ONE SPELL PER LEVEL rate, are often considered a worthwhile, albeit harsh, trade despite the CL loss, and Mot7NM is a full casting PrC which gives you unlimited ability to learn any necromancy spells with a 2 level dip.
Fair enough. Just wasn't sure it was worthwhile for necromancy spells. Whole school seems less than great.


take a look at what people do with Archivist. Also check out Greater Consumptive Field.
Okay mate. Thanks for the reply & advice, I will. And yeah that spells is ridiculous. Could see it working really well for a gish.


If you really want to break the game, take Incantatrix and dip two levels in Mot7NM
I hadn't considered a two level dip before, but do you think it's worth taking it up to 7th? I was considering that with the variant Archmage from FR Campaign Setting's Spell Power is ridiculous imo & with Wiz5/MasterSpec4 you end up only needing an extra spell focus to qualify for it.

[Malphegor]

This is the dandwiki one, right?

Hm.

I think the at-will Magic jar is probably the powerful part of that (the rest of it seems like nothing much. energy substitution for negative energy is interesting if used with a locate city bomb maybe.), especially for a villain character.

Being able to posess people quickly is great for a paranoia campaign. Anybody can be Skeletor the Deathless, from the busty barman to the beautiful hag! ANYBODY!

normally dandwiki stuff is overpowered or poorly thought out, but honestly this doesn't seem to much so at a glance. Not much here that you wouldn't get naturally on a dread necromancer build eventually.

[Helluin]

This is the dandwiki one, right?

Hm.

I think the at-will Magic jar is probably the powerful part of that (the rest of it seems like nothing much. energy substitution for negative energy is interesting if used with a locate city bomb maybe.), especially for a villain character.

Being able to posess people quickly is great for a paranoia campaign. Anybody can be Skeletor the Deathless, from the busty barman to the beautiful hag! ANYBODY!

normally dandwiki stuff is overpowered or poorly thought out, but honestly this doesn't seem to much so at a glance. Not much here that you wouldn't get naturally on a dread necromancer build eventually.

Pretty sure ToN is a 3rd party book. It’s generally considered high quality (as in mechanically sound, which is more than you can say for many official sources), but overpowered.

[RedMage125]

I was considering that with the variant Archmage from FR Campaign Setting's Spell Power is ridiculous imo & with Wiz5/MasterSpec4 you end up only needing an extra spell focus to qualify for it.

The FRCS isn't a "variant" Archmage. That book is 3.0. The 3.5e DMG version superceded it.

[Sepultra]

The FRCS isn't a "variant" Archmage. That book is 3.0. The 3.5e DMG version superceded it.
Oh Christ so it is. Well that's that out of the window.

[StSword]

Pretty sure ToN is a 3rd party book. It’s generally considered high quality (as in mechanically sound, which is more than you can say for many official sources), but overpowered.

Not one you buy, it's up for free on the dnd wiki here (https://dungeons.fandom.com/wiki/Tome_of_Necromancy_(3.5e_Sourcebook)) as well as up at the gaming den.

Frank Trollman does have professional rpg credits, this just isn't one of them.