While it's not quite perfect, this class is fascinating, a great addition to a homebrew collection. Its greatest strength is also its main weakness- the sheer depth of flavor on display. (As a disclaimer- I am not a balance expert! I have never crunched a number in my life and cannot speak to how this compares mechanically to other classes.)

There's a lot going on here. It's a necromancy class, which is usually what wizards do, but it also has some marital focus. Not enough marital focus to get a fighting style or other things you'd expect from a half caster- in fact, it's not a half caster at all, it's more like a warlock. But also there's some cleric in there with similarities to channel divinity. But that feature is called "death songs", which feels kind of bardish. That's comparisons to 4 other classes before even getting to the subclasses! That might have seemed bad, but I'm dramatizing- mechanically, it's like how clerics are one of the most martially capable full casters on average, just with even more emphasis on it, and warlock casting instead of normal spell slots. I only say all that to show how many possible angles there are to look at this class at.

And the subclasses, oh, the subclasses! Every single subclass is a game changer- there's nothing simple on the level of say, Champion Fighter or Land Druid. Bonedancer is a fascinating thing where you have a companion, but unlike most never leaves your space in combat, giving you an extra set of hands and not having its own health; Fleshsculptor lets you focus almost entirely on your physical stats like a barbarian and letting you enlarge yourself often; and Wraithwalker is a rogueish, unarmed striker which demands a second mental stat to function at its best.

All of these are incredibly character defining, and can lead to some great potential- I would love a chance to play all 3! However, it does somewhat demand you to play into the subclass- there is no such thing as a "Generic Shade". In addition to the sheer number of angles the class can be seen through, with necromancy itself, swordplay, speaking to the dead, music- Where most classes require you to add things to make a character, it's almost as if you need to REMOVE flavor from this class to make a character, decide which parts to really play into and which to brush off. Maybe your Bonedancer plays into the bardishness, eternally accompanied by and dancing with a dead lover, or maybe you could play it straight as a more conventional necromancer and unusually consistent, clingy thrall.

For all this complexity, any given build of the class seems... not too hard to play! As long as you are familiar with the martial and casting aspects of the game, you should be able to grasp what your Shade is capable of at the table, which is nice!

Is it conventional? Nope. Does it stand alongside the base game classes? Probably not, since the subclasses are so defining in comparison. Is it worth checking out? Absolutely! There are a few little wording issues, but it's nothing that couldn't be solved by talking with your DM, if not a future update.

So you got into The North Seat via the Player's Primer and Campaign Setting Book 1 and are wondering if buying the whole Saga is worth it? It was for me, absolutely. It explores all of the mysteries of Norsate introduced or hinted at in those Pay-What-You-Want books, in the same unique tone of heroism in the face of horror. Indeed, the author's imagination seems even more creative as player characters' higher levels let them face a greater variety of threats. The plot is generally linear, although players can explore some areas in any order, and they will have to make hard choices at the end that will drastically affect whether and how they "win". There is some explicit advise on what to do if players decide to go "off the rails", and enough background (location info, random encounter tables, culture) that I think I could improvise a good resolution. Leveling up is by milestones, and only goes to level six, which you might want to give players a heads up on so they don't plan elaborate higher-level builds. Sixth level D&D may not sound very epic, but PCs can accumulate numerous other power ups along the way. Some are very unusual, and may even not be wanted, but all are tightly integrated with the setting, so should deepen your players' attachment to it and make it a memorable campaign. By the end, how you and your players look at the night sky will be changed.

Downsides: There are a couple of mysteries where I haven't been able to quite figure out what the auther intended. If you like to fully understand what you are running, or have players who just keep asking questions, you'll have to make something up or be better at reading than me. Also, like in Book 1, some boxed text just doesn't track - you may want to read it out loud ahead of time and rewrite it, or just wing it with your own words. Finally, unlike the Primer and Book 1 downloads, the PDFs in the Saga lack tables of contents data, even as links from the table-of-contents pages. Hopefully those will be added in a future update.