The final core magical Lore in the WFB rulebook. Oh joy. Death is one of the most effective Lores at simply killing targeted models and the added benefit of this is you can get more power dice when you do kill models. This means your magic phase can go on quite a bit longer than other opponents with the obvious benefit of inflicting increasing amounts of damage. However, Death Magic is generally very short-ranged and generally focuses on removing single models. Whilst this is obviously good for many reasons, the damage potential of Death is therefore limited in terms of sheer model death.
Signature Spell - Spirit Leech: Welcome to Mind War for Warhammer but with less range at the lower level. Pretty easy to cast and if you’ve got a high Ld spell-caster you can pick off expensive models (I.e. Knights), Champions, Musicians, Standard Bearers or try and take out other characters. It’s obviously easier to take out the ‘plebs’ but dropping an opponent’s BSB, General or spell-casters can significantly impact upon their gameplay. Level two costs a little bit more but doubles the range which is very important.
1 - Aspect of the Dreadknight: A non-damage spell for Death, this spell is very cheap to cast and makes the target unit cause Fear or make the spell a bit more expensive to cause Terror. This can be very effective if you’ve got multiple Fear/Terror causing units in your army and have managed to reduce your opponent’s leadership through other means or killed their General/BSB/Champions to make it more likely units will break. Even if this is not the case, forcing your opponent to make more Ld rolls will sooner or later force a failure.
2 - The Caress of Laniph: Another easy to cast short-ranged spell which targets a single model, Laniph is particularly effective against low strength and high toughness models as its damage is based upon the target’s strength and it always wounds on a 4+. Again is limited by range and although the Level 2 spell doubles the range and casting cost, isn’t perhaps the most effective sniping spell.
3 - Soulblight: This spell has a medium range and synergises well with spells which are based on strength and toughness (I.e. Shadow spells) but is also very capable of improving your army in combat significantly as it can be cast as an AoE spell at level 2 (though it has a very high casting cost). Making enemy units weaker against yours and more vulnerable to yours is always a bonus but Shadow spells are better for reducing statistics. Consider this a bonus spell unless you get off the Level 2 spell before your lines hit combat (or even during combat).
4 - Doom and Darkness: One of the longer ranged spells for Death (at level 2), this spell can significantly reduce the effectiveness of a General or strong unit by lowering Ld by 3. Very effective if you can cause multiple Ld tests on an opponent in a single turn (I.e. Terror/Fear) but have yet to kill the General/BSB/Champions with your direct damage spells yet. This is especially useful due to the longer range as it can be cast as your army is approaching rather than wasting a spell-caster’s turn if they are out of range.
5 - The Fate of Bjuna: Similar to Caress but hits are based on toughness rather than strength and Bjuna wounds on a 2+ rather than a 4+ with the added benefit causing Stupidity to any model which survives. A steeper casting cost and limited range compared to level 2 Caress generally makes this a later game spell which is more likely to cause wounds due to the 2+.
6 - The Purple Sun of Xereus: Now here’s a spell that no one wants cast and combines very well with Shadow spells which can lower initiative and make the Purple Sun more effective. Also, any Light spells which raise Initiative or provide immunity to magic items to protect your own units can allow you to use Purple Sun more aggressively and not be so fearful of a misfire. Purple Sun combines very well with the Death Magic Lore Attribute as it can cause mass carnage and generate a lot of extra power dice. Whilst a bit random in terms of miscasts (requires a lot of dice), misfires, distance moved and direction, a moving 3” or 5” template can decimate whole units in continuous turns. Being a very dangerous RiP spell obviously limits your opponent’s magic phase as well as a lot of dice are likely to be thrown at the Purple Sun to dispel it.
Death magic is focused around de-buffing your opponent's army but in a different way from Shadow. Rather than rendering units ineffective, Death magic aims to remove important models and reduce army cohesion and effectiveness by lowering an army's ability to function. Whilst the Purple Sun is one of the most damaging spells in the game and can fuel a whole magic phase with the deaths it causes, Death Magic is more of a scalpel than a bastard sword.
Verdict: Great. With Life and Shadow I think this is one of the better Lores from the rulebook and whilst not as damaging overall as Fire/Heavens, Purple Sun can decimate whole armies whilst also detracting from your opponent's Magic phase. Purple Sun combines very well with anything which can lower initiative but can damage your own army if you're not careful. Spells which raise initiative or provide magic immunity (or good Ward Saves) can protect your own army but also your opponent's. Otherwise, Death Magic is very effective at dropping important models but quite limited by short-range which can also combine well with Shadow as Shadow spell-casters can jump Death spell-casters in and out.
