Necromancy used by the Telyavelic Tremere is far more useful than the Necromancy used by the Giovanni

[Ragged Robin]

Didn't the Telyavelics slightly predate the launch of Revised Edition? Which is where we first see the assimilation of the Cappadocian, Samedi, and Nagaraja clan disciplines as Necromancy paths? For a while there in 2nd Edition V:tM and the original edition of VDA, spirit magic was pretty much a free-for-all. I do agree that the Path under discussion belongs under Necromancy instead of Thaumaturgy, if it should be allowed at all; I'm just trying to be clear on the context in which this happened.

The samedi powers were never really absorbed into the mortis/necromancy clean up. They stayed unique until v5. Since thanatosis probably the worst discipline in vtm I tended just to give them necromancy with voodoo rituals found in blood magic 1.

But yeah they're v2 in origin so it sort of makes sense some of the powers are anachronistic. You can see it in the way the giovanni and cappadocians have an interest in Thaumaturgy beyond the norm. I always thought necromancy/mortis was better written than thaumturgy with its well defined boundaries and mo

[adambeyoncelowe]

They already get access to Koldunic Sorcery, so I don't think they need Necromancy powers added to their Thaumaturgy.

I think you could just let them learn Spirit Manipulation with a bit of a reskin. Most of their write up is based around shamanic practices with only some smaller death elements. The death bits can be easily replicated by making them buy Necromancy out-of-clan (with the right mentor) like anyone else.

Wangateurs, RAW, do something similar. There's Voudoun Necromancy and Wanga (Voudoun Thaumaturgy), which are mechanically separate Disciplines, but both operate as part of the same religion, and both are out-of-clan. There are loads of Necromancers who dabble in Thaumaturgy and vice versa, without needing to combine the two Disciplines.

[Elphilm]

I'm more than a little surprised that the overall consensus in this thread should be that the Path of the Shadow World steals from Necromancy's bag of tricks, but I guess the intricacies of the publication history of original White Wolf products is not of much interest as a general thing. Although Libellus Sanguinis 2 was released in the same year as the Revised version of Vampire: The Masquerade, the former (and the entire Vampire: The Dark Ages game line) is still very much a 2nd Edition product. When Sielanic Thaumaturgy was written and published, Necromancy was still a normal, linear discipline with 5 basic powers and a handful of level 6-10 powers. That's the only version of Necromancy that the Path of the Shadow World should be compared against, and the path is incompatible with the Revised design decision to turn Necromancy into a Thaumaturgy-style discipline with multiple paths and rituals. If anything, it's Revised Necromancy that owes a debt to Path of the Shadow World, as well as Cappadocian Mortis, because both Dark Ages disciplines provided the basis for the Revised rework/expansion of Necromancy.