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(+1)

I'm working on  using this for a solo game with Scarlet Heroes, but in my own setting. Decided to try my hand at Necromancy using the spells from the Necrotic Gnome Necromancer class.

    NECROMANCY    -2 HP, +1 MP

    • Command the Dead [1 MP]: 2d6 humanoid corpses or skeletons rise up and obey the caster's commands for 1 round per level.

        Commanded Dead - AC 7 [12], HD 1 (1hp), Att 1 x weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 0, MV 60’ (20’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 12, AL Chaotic, XP 10

    • Spells: ✦ Animate Dead [4 MP] | ✦ Speak with Dead [2] | ✦ Command Undead [3]

    Suggested learning: Suffering a tragic loss and becoming determined to bring them back, only to figure out you can't really raise the dead.

It's slightly anxiety inducing to create these because I don't wanna feel like I'm cheating, but it's also really hard to condense the essential of a type of magic to just a few spells.

It's probably impracticable but I do sorta wish there were harder guidelines to making a style. Like, "you get 9 points, a spell can be cast by -1 MP than its level on the book, so an arcane class can have up to that value of spells on it." But that's probably because I suck at making spells hahahahaha

I'll also try my hand at some Blood Magic and using Wonder and Wickedness spells to see how it goes!

(+1)

This looks good to me! One thing you could consider is dividing Necromancy into two styles: Undead Rapport and maybe Life Magic or something like that. Undead Rapport might be commanding/taking control of existing undead (note: if you have your own version of the spell written up as a feature, no need to add the spell, too) and speaking with dead, and Life Magic might be about animating dead and resurrection.  

If you're playing solo, I feel like you should only think of it as "cheating" if you personally feel you're getting robbed of interesting play. There's no need to hold yourself to any more objective standard than that, in my opinion. 

RE: magic styles, it is definitely loosey goosey in the book. A thing I tended to do was give a style fewer spells if the style gave access to what I thought of as more generally useful or potent spells, and give a style more spells if they were very situational.  If commanding undead seems like it would come up a lot in your game, separating the two ideas like I mentioned above might be a good idea. If it's more niche, just make it one style. Again though, you should really only worry about changing this if you feel it makes the game too easy for you to make any fun decisions. 

I did think of dividing it up actually, I think I'll do that. It's just that seeing the spell list makes me a bit antsy at what to choose hahahaha

The idea of separating them by usefulness is very true too, I kept feeling like the direct command spells were much stronger and more useful than the communication one, but there were communication ones that I didn't put in because it felt like too much.

Thanks for the tips and pointers! I may come back in a while with a Blood Magic one, and I'm toying with a sort of Archery style but for black powder guns. I really like Old School Stylish and the JRPG-y vibe it lends the game :)