Necromancer 2e Creations

:These are the 0.9 rules for the custom Necromancer 2e Class. Consider this a beta version and unfinished.
:Life Force: HP > From the material plane. Traditional bodily life.
:Spiritual Force: SP > From the spirit plane. Traditional spirit / mind / soul.
==Classifications==
Decomposition: 	Zombie 	Skeleton	Ghost
Method of creation:	Restless	Raised 	Cursed
Agency: 	Mindless	Bound 	Free
===Control Undead===
Opposed willpower check (including level)
===Level Requirements===
Level	Zombie 	Skeleton 	Ghost
1 	Basic 	 	Phantom
2 	Large 	Skeleton 	
3 	Ghoul 	Object 	
4 	 	Warrior 	Spectre
5 	 	 	Shade
6 	 	Greater 	Poltergeist
7 	Nightmare 	Specialist 	
8 	Revenant? 	 	Ghost
9 	Revenant? 	Mage? 	
10 	 	Commander 	Ghost
11 	??? 	 	
12 	Lord 	 	
13 	Magic Jar Person	 	Greater Haunt?
14 	 	Death Knight	
15 	 	 	???
==Zombies==
The caster infuses part of their life force into the zombie. This is done by drawing out the caster's blood, enchanting it, and applying it directly to the corpse's brain. Usually, this requires a small amount of surgery. The life force reanimates the nervous system with supernatural strength. Any removed body part will cease to function, unless it is reattached. Zombies must be the same size as (or smaller than) the caster.
===Zombie Basic===
While slow, sluggish, and unsuited to most tasks, zombies are difficult to destroy and have incredible strength. They make excellent diggers, lifters, and pushers - perfect for exhuming freshly buried bodies.
A zombie may be killed with 6 points of damage to their head, or with 20 point of damage to the zombie as a whole. The latter case assumes the body is badly damaged or even destroyed by the time the brain is destroyed. Every time 6 damage or more is done by a single source, a limb is damaged or destroyed (equal chance of each limb). The listed HP for the zombie's body is for a fresh corpse. Corpses that are decomposing will have fewer HP.
===Zombie, Large===
Large zombies are created by the same method, but using larger corpses. This includes animals, so zombie horses can be created and ridden. Regardless of the number of attacks the creature once had in life, zombie creatures only get 1 attack per round. The creature being animated determines certain properties of the zombie. Creatures that were humanoid or predators in life (ogres, crocodiles, snakes) use a greater attack block than creatures that were prey. Aquatic creatures maintain their ability to swim and mounts can carry riders.
===Zombie, Ghoul===
Ghouls are faster, smarter, and more agile zombies. This is caused by decentralizing the nervous system so that the ghoul's spiritual force is spread throughout the body. The downside of this is that it makes ghouls easier to kill. Another upside is that this spiritual force can be channeled into a new attack form.
When a ghoul hits a target, it rips a small hole between the material and spiritual planes. This rupture causes a sudden tug on the life force of the creature. Failing a saving throw (Willpower) will cause the creature to be stunned and paralyzed for the next round.
Taking advantage of this new attack form requires a small amount of the caster's life force. If the caster prepares 4 bodies at once, they can be animated at the same time.
===Zombie, Nightmare===
Hooves fade into smoky mist, doesn't touch ground. Telepathically bound to the caster when in LoS. Provides for an unnaturally smooth ride.
===Zombie, Revenant===
Despite their similarities to regular zombies, Revenants are stronger, faster, smarter, and have a split existence. Most of their physical form is material, but they are strongly connected to the spiritual plane their mind. Their connection allows them to locate anyone living creature in the material world, no matter how far away. Revenants can be tasked to retrieve, or just seek them out so their creator can follow and find them as well. In order to find a person, the corpse that the Revenant was created from must know the target, or their master must know them. To know is either to have touched the target, or to have a part of their being (hair, skin, fingernail)-having an object owned by the target is not useful. Once set upon a mission, the Revenant cannot be ordered to do a different task, and will search out and find the person/creature or die trying. Once they have found and appropriately dealt with the person/creature, they can be redeployed again.
Unlike a regular zombie, a Revenant who has their head destroyed does not die, but continues to fight until it reaches 0 HP.
==Skeletons==
Ancient remains given life again. Removed limbs remain active until the creature is destroyed. When reanimated, separated pieces join, meaning broken skeletons are made whole. Damage to this repaired body is permanent, unless the skeleton is raised again. The skeleton cannot have any flesh on or around any joints or breaks when created - the flesh interferes with the binding magic.
Skeletons are weak to bludgeoning damage and are destroyed by being submerged in water (crossing a river, falling into a lake, etc.)
===Skeleton: Basic===
These undead are visually distinct, with a yellow bioluminescence coating their eye sockets.
===Skeleton: Object===
Using the same ideas as creating basic skeletons, a necromancer can focus on the connections between the bones more than the animation of them, and create an object out of bones with no fasteners.
The only limit is the number of bones the caster has, and the life span they can spare. Proper building techniques must be observed. A necromancer couldn't build a bridge across a wide canyon just by extending it from one side.
Example: using the finger bones of two people, a necromancer casts this spell and connects them end to end to form a ring of finger bones that they then use as a crown.
 
===Skeleton: Warrior===
These undead are visually distinct, with a violet bioluminescence coating their eye sockets.
===Skeleton: Greater===
These undead are visually distinct, with a crimson bioluminescence coating their eye sockets.
===Skeleton: Specialist===
These undead are visually distinct, with a deep green bioluminescence coating their eye sockets
Useful to tackle complex projects like construction and navigation. Not particularly useful in combat, except to command lower undead.
===Skeleton: Mage===
These undead are visually distinct, with a golden bioluminescence coating their eye sockets.
Has very limited pool of spells. Casting spells consumes the mage's hp. Levitate, some sort of fire throwing thing.
===Skeleton: Commander===
These undead are visually distinct, with a darkness clouding their eye sockets, and burning flames where their eyes should be.
==Ghosts==
These creatures exist mostly in the ethereal plane, but have ties to
either the material or spiritual planes as well. Furthermore, those not within
the material plane can still project into it.
===Ghost: Phantom===
A phantom is a necromancer's first foray into the world of ghosts. That said, the Phantom is a rather useless creation. In essence, a Phantom is the spirit of a creature unaware that it is dead, acting out moments of its life in a chaotic and twisted show. It could be reliving its final moments of death, creating visuals outside of itself to fit its narrative, but does so without knowing or understanding. Or it could be pacing the halls of an area endlessly. A phantom may be of any living creature sacrificed. It has no awareness, cannot be commanded, and cannot interact with objects, and only makes vague wails, moans, and stepping, dragging, or scraping sounds. It is a stepping stone to greater creations and a bit of a curiosity.
Phantoms exist fully on the ethereal plane, but projects almost all the way into the material plane. It is only semi transparent, with well defined edges.
A phantom exists in the general vicinity of where the creature that was sacrificed for it died. If the surroundings are familiar to the spirit, it may have more interesting and complicated movements or actions.
===Ghost: Specter===
The caster prepares a magic circle that lets them access the ethereal plane, and opens a wound on their body over the circle. Inside the circle, the caster opens a wound with a specially prepared silver knife to bleed a part of their life force into their spirit. The resulting creation is a plain faced ghostly creature. Under the guise of a detect magic, or similar spells, the specter looks like its creator. They do not interact with the material world, but do not wander like phantoms. They can be possessed, or enchanted with a clairvoyance spell, allowing the caster to safely venture into dangerous areas, or keep a lookout in a key location.
Specters exist in the ethereal plane and barely projects into the material one at all, making them very difficult to see.
Because specters have such basic intelligence, they perform poorly when sent out on their own, often standing in the middle of walkways or moving through crowds. This puts them in a position to be detected, which is usually a bad idea for a scout / lookout.
===Ghost: Shade===
The process for creating a shade is identical to that of creating a specter, but instead of forming the ghost of the life force and binding it with the spiritual force, the shade is made of spiritual force and given form with life force. The resulting creation is an ethereal creature with the form and face of the caster. Shades are mostly transparent with a very slight red illumination. The blood gives the shade enough of projection in the material world that they can see and be seen. Shades have 1 hp for each year of life the caster sacrificed.
Alternatively, the caster may create a larger magic circle and place within it a living member of their species. The same process is used, but the creatures entire life force is withdrawn. The resulting shade has the form and face of the person used in the sacrifice, and hp equal to the creature's max.
Shades are still fairly stupid undead, but they are just smart enough to grasp the concept of following while avoiding detection. A shade properly marked with a clairvoyance spell can be sent to follow a person and then used to gaze upon them from a safe distance. Similarly, they can patrol large areas, or to look at certain areas over and over again, allowing the necromancer to “check in” on locations far from them.
===Ghost: Poltergeist===
Poltergeists are creations that move between the ethereal and material planes with ease. They are made of the caster's spiritual force and directly chained to an object also bound to the caster. The poltergeist cannot move more than 120 yards from that object. Even the caster cannot order their poltergeist to move beyond this distance. If they are ever separated by a greater distance (e.g. object is teleported away), the poltergeist's bond with the caster is broken and it becomes a free undead. Being made of, and chained, to the caster's spirit allows the caster to issue commands telepathically and lets the poltergeist navigate based on the necromancer's knowledge as long as the caster is within 120 yards of the object they are bound to.
Poltergeists are creates of the ethereal plane, but they may shift into the material plane up to 75%. When so shifted they may interact with physical objects, and are affected by physical attacks, although these attacks can at best drive it back into the ethereal plane. After taking enough physical damage to be destroyed, the poltergeist loses its ability to materialize and becomes unchained from the caster. They are now free roaming undead who can interact with the material world as if they had 2 strength.
Creating a poltergeist requires the caster to sacrifice 5 years of their spiritual force, and a variable amount of their life force. The sacrificed life force becomes the poltergeist's HP.
===Ghost, Ghost===
By using the remains of a dead person, the caster is able to draw their spirit out of the spiritual plane, provided it has not yet been reformed into a new soul. This spirit then crosses the boundary into of the spirit world to enter the ethereal plane, where it then projects into the material plane. The ghost is 40% spiritual, 50% ethereal, 10% physical. The majority of its energy is ethereal, so it can only be harmed things that effect ethereal creatures. Ghosts retain the visage they had in life, including any equipment they were initially buried with. The equipment is purely visual, and has no effect on the ghost's abilities or stat blocks.
Because the spirit bridges the spiritual and physical planes, it is a strong (negative) vortex of energy, projecting a large aura of cold around it, and draining spiritual life from anything it touches: Save vs. Spell or lose 1d10 years of life, giving the ghost twice as much HP. Creatures failing their save stand transfixed staring into the ghosts eyes. If the ghost drains enough spiritual energy to bring it above its maximum HP, the excess hp fades from it at a rate of 1 hp/round. The lesser ghost has an image of the humanoid sacrificed to make it.
:Ethereal Creatures: As Ethereal/Spiritual beings, these creatures are sensitive to high energy life sources (e.g. The Sun / Illumis). Direct sunlight forces them to recall their projection into the material world, or suffer 1d8 damage per round. Additionally, sunlit ethereal creatures are invisible to the naked eye, and are blinded.
==Intelligence==
Undead may command lesser undead at caster's discretion.
===Basic===
Focus on one simple task or object interaction. Only aware of things directly perceivable. Travel in most direct path, navigating basic objects and terrain. Does not recognize or avoid danger.
Actions: Coil a rope, chop down trees (until told to stop), dig a hole, row oar (needs supervision to manage many oars in sync), lift/push/pull object, open door, climb ladder/wall etc.
Navigation: If told to cross a river, will attempt to walk directly across it. Can follow a person or group.
Tactics: Will attack the most available enemy. If placed in an ambush, will attack targets the moment they become available.
===Simple===
Can focus on a single simple task made up of basic tasks. Simple logic, math, coordination, and conditional clauses. Can be given a series of orders and follow them.
Actions: Tie up these people, fill these bags with sand, fell a tree to block the road, sharpen these stakes, dig a trench, row in sync with others, etc.
Navigation: If told to cross a river, will look for a suitable crossing place (e.g. look for a bridge). Take a right at the first intersection and enter the 3rd room on the right side. Walk five miles down this road.
Tactics: Defend location or guard object. If placed in an ambush, will wait until a specific condition is met before attacking. With explicit orders, can focus targets based on equipment, danger, or position.
===Advanced===
Understands basic concepts and priorities, and has advanced use of tools and objects. Has limited independence and can formulate plans to achieve objectives.
Actions: Tie up the prisoners, build a palisade wall, operate sails,
ride mounts, mix martinis, etc. Communicate yes/no.
Navigation: If told to cross a river, will first look for ways to cross (bridges, boats, etc.). If none are found, will attempt to create a way to cross (chop down tree to act as a bridge, create a basic raft/barge, etc.). Go to my laboratory. Find the well in this town.
Tactics: If placed in an ambush, will attack when conditions are favorable. Can prioritize targets in combat and command simple undead to focus them. Acts in the present with no understanding of long term planning or delayed gratification.
===Complex===
Can be given broad objectives and develop their own solutions. Capable of constructing buildings, bridges, mines, siege weapons, etc. Required for advanced spell casting. Understands the priority the caster places on their existence vs. their task and will act accordingly.
Actions: Read, write, fully communicate.
Navigation: If told to cross a river, will identify options, assess them, and choose the most favorable.
Tactics: Any
Category:Custom Monsters