Shadows of Heroes.

WotC published a new supplement for D&D 4e/Essentials this week. It probably won't surprise you to find that I've been eagerly awaiting it's arrival since hearing of it a few weeks back. Heroes of Shadow contains a host of character options for the players who want something darker. New classes like Vampire, Blackguard, Executioner (a rework of Assassin) and Binder (a warlock variant), new options for Mages to dabble in or master Necromancy, and a bunch of other stuff to fill out your anti-heroes.

One of the things that disappointed me most about D&D 4e was the limit on building darker characters. Sure, you could have a pact with Infernal entities (Infernal Warlock), and/or you could play the descendant of an empire whose leaders did the same (Tiefling), but besides a handful of items, that was pretty much it as far as creepy trappings of supernatural evil are concerned.

I love creepy trappings of supernatural evil on my (anti)heroes.

It seemed part of the design of the new edition--player characters were explicitly banned from taking evil alignments. Rules for more monstrous races were not (originally) included. And worst of all from my perspective, no Necromancy! Diabolism seemed one thing, but fooling around with dead things was somehow beyond the pale these days. Really? So I've been relegated to playing a series of unsatisfying neutral-to-good adventurers in one campaign, trying to find something that really catches my interest. No more!

So I've been drawing up characters left, right, and beyond using WotC's online Character Builder, seeing what makes these new classes and options tick. My all-time personal favorite fantasy concept--the heroish necromancer--is leading the pack. Death is just an evocative subject, even in settings where it can be reversed. I don't think of myself as emo or anything--I just recognize that death fascinates or scares the shit out of anyone who gives it any thought.

Nobilis tie-in: One of the Properties of the Estate of Death in my 3rd edition Nobilis game is "Death fascinates or terrifies." /nobilis

A tradition that began with D&D 2e and Planescape, the Red Dragon Inn free-form RP chat-room and numerous home-brew necromancy spells posted on AOL in early high school continues in D&D 4e with Hygelak the Necromancer. He's clearly the favorite to be introduced into whatever campaign I can get him into--I kept the the old screen name from my AOL days, and played a number of iterations (never very long--unfortunately, DMs and friends don't seem to want me to be happy in this specific way). I've been waiting for the chance to bring him back for a campaign full of creepiness, ambition, and dedication.

I'm crossing my fingers.

In yet another game--the one my fiance runs, the D&D 3.5 Planescape game--I play a vampire spawn with anmesia, and nothing but a peculiar black sigil on his forehead to give him any idea as to his true identity. They call him "the black-runed man," which he quickly adopted and shortened to "Blackrune." So, with the new supplement, I got to try my hand at recreating him for 4e. The Vampire class is pretty damned (pardon the pun) linear, with a choice in powers at 2nd level, a choice of two vampire-focused paragon paths, and another power choice at level 22. But the paragon choice is pretty sweet...do you want to be a charming, hypnotic noble of the night, or do you want to hunger, hunt and kill? I build the Stalker variant to stay faithful to Blackrune (I find the Hunger aspect of vampirism more compelling than the hyped sexuality--I prefer Stephen King to Anne Rice, thanks).

World of Warcraft didn't have an option for Necromancers when I started playing (shortly after the game went live), so I settled for a Warlock--wielding demonic minions and energies to lay waste to the enemies of the Alliance. Since then, Death Knights became a playable class, and declared that Hygelakus the Warlock had been captured by the Lich King and transformed into a Death Knight, only to escape and seek revenge. I haven't taken a serious look at the Blackguard class (a damage-dealing Paladin variant), but mayhap I should. I've definately enjoyed wielding dark magic via a really big sword recently.

Enough for now! I have characters to draw up, and a game tonight. Who knows--maybe my Artificer will be horribly slain?