The thing you have to understand is that zombie-masters and ghost-whisperers are defined as much by fashion as arts: all black clothing, thick makeup, spend a lot of time posing dramatically, and so forth. Given the circumstances it's only natural that I might mistakenly assault a mime.
Depending on the context and campaign world, necromancy might be viewed as anything from the vilest of black arts to a completely victimless crime. This range of opinion can also be found among the game's players, so as usual when playing an edgelord archetype it's considered extremely correct to ask if everybody's cool with it first.
| Necromancer | Reanimate the dead. | |
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| caret-right | Deathlord | Your control is enhanced. |
| caret-right | Essential Salts | Make your minions portable. |
| caret-right | Mechromancer | Flexibility in material and outcome. |
| caret-right | Revenance | Create free-willed undead. |
| caret-right | Speak With Dead | Converse with the dead. |
| Utility | plus-circleArise: As a procedure, you can reanimate a corpse as an undead creature. Optionally, you can also bind it to your will. plus-circleUndead Stats: Creatures reanimated as undead have the same level, archetypes and combat ratings as before. They also gain the Synthetic and Simple weaknesses, with all bonus abilities from these weaknesses being applied to the Undead and/or Steadfast archetypes. plus-circleDeath's Master: When you create a new undead, you may roll a trigger die. If you succeed, the newly created undead is bound to your will and slavishly follows your instructions. If not, they have no special loyalty to you or anyone else and will act as they please. The trigger die result required to control a created undead creature depends on your relative levels: 7+ for undead of up to your own level, 4+ for undead of up to half your level, automatic success for undead of up to 1/5 your level. Undead whose level is higher than yours cannot be controlled. plus-circleLast Covenant: If you receive explicit permission from a creature to reanimate them after death, then you automatically succeed in binding the resulting undead to your will even if they are higher-level than you. minus-circleMindless Servants: Bound undead will do whatever you tell them without question, but cannot understand instructions unless they are communicated with a single word (possibly accompanied by pointing). Once you command them to do something, they'll keep doing it to the best of their ability until they are destroyed or you tell them to stop, even if it makes no sense to continue. They're stupid as hell, or maybe really passive-aggressive. minus-circleMalevolence: Unbound undead left to their own devices generally just stand around where they're left, possibly wandering aimlessly. If they encounter any other creature that does not have a level in the Undead archetype, they attack furiously and mindlessly until they or their target has been ripped to shreds. minus-circleUnsuitable Clay: You cannot create an undead creature from a corpse that isn't mostly-intact. If a creature was never technically “alive” to begin with (such as robots, golems, etc) then it cannot be reanimated as undead, either. Such creatures generally can be identified mechanically by having the Synthetic (Adamant) weakness in life, but the referee can disallow anything that seems particularly non-organic. minus-circleWavering Grasp: You can unbind an undead from your service any time. If you die or are otherwise incapacitated, all undead that you've bound become unbound automatically. All bound undead become unbound at the end of each session regardless. minus-circleHades' Due: Reanimating the dead costs 1 point of Supplies. This cost must be paid regardless of whether you successfully control the undead that is created. |
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| caret-right | Alternative | plus-circleChains of Death's Denial: You can force an undead you reanimated to be bound to your will even if you fail the trigger die roll to make it happen. minus-circleCursed Seal: Every time you bind an undead that wouldn't normally be bound, you must spend 1 Supplies. |
| Protection | plus-circleMy Way or None: If you fail to bind a created undead to your will, you can choose for them to be instantly destroyed instead of being independent (and probably turning on you immediately). plus-circleThe Only True Release: Any time an undead would be unbound from you (such as when you are killed/incapacitated or at the end of the session), you can choose for them to be instantly destroyed instead of freed. minus-circleNaught Remains: Destroying an undead rather than allowing them to be unbound in this way utterly annihilates the body, causing it to crumble into dust or similar. The remains cannot be re-animated and the undead creature cannot ever be returned to “life”. |
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| Offense | plus-circleUnder My Sway: As an action, you can attempt to bind any undead creature within 5 meters to your will, even if you did not raise them yourself. Roll a trigger die to determine success as normal. minus-circleLimitations: You may attempt to bind any given undead creature exactly once- if you fail, then you cannot ever bind that creature again. Failing to bind an undead you raised yourself counts as your one try on them. You cannot spend Supplies to turn a failure into a success on this binding check. minus-circleUnruly: Undead that do not have the Simple weakness cannot be bound by this effect. |
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| Utility | plus-circlePort-A-Corpse: Instead of reanimating a corpse, you can perform your ritual to reduce it into a light, easily-portable form. This costs the same amount of time and potential Supplies as reanimating them, but you do not need to make any checks to bind them to your will afterwards. plus-circleDragon Teeth: You can use an action to throw the reduced corpse to any point in throwing range (0-10 meters) whereupon it immediately returns to full size and animates. You must make your check to bind it immediately after throwing it (at least, if you want to- throwing their undead into the middle of a crowd of enemies and just letting it go wild is a favorite tactic of many necromancers). minus-circleBurden: Reduced undead are considered inventory items, and you must carry them with you if you want to make use of them later. |
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| caret-right | Alternative | plus-circleReduction: As an action, you can reduce any adjacent, bound undead back to a reduced form. Undead that aren't bound to your will are unable to be reduced in this way. minus-circleSupplies: Roll a trigger die every time you reduce an active undead. If the result is 1-6, you must spend 1 Supplies. You cannot reduce active undead if you have no Supplies remaining. |
| Utility | plus-circleBreath of Life Inverted: Your reanimation is no longer limited to only organic life. Any corpse can be remade undead, even those that were never biologically “alive” to begin with. | |
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| Utility | plus-circleThousand Curses: Undead come in far, far more varieties than the standard shambling corpse or rattling skeleton, and you know how to make them. When you reanimate a corpse, you can choose to add additional weaknesses to the resulting undead from the following list: Frail, Frenzied, Handless, Nightbound, Ravenous, Slowpoke, Tethered. Note that creatures gain no benefit from having more than three weaknesses, and undead minions come front-loaded with two already (Simple and Synthetic). plus-circleDark Gifts: Bonus archetypes/abilities gained from weaknesses can be selected from any of the following archetypes in addition to the Undead and Steadfast archetypes: Adamant, Abomination, Burrower, Darkseeker, Faceless, Flyer, Ghoul, Powerhouse, Shadow, Spectre. |
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| Utility | plus-circleSpecial Undead: When you reanimate a corpse, you can choose to create a special kind of undead called a “revenant.” A revenant maintains their own mind and free will, meaning that they do not gain the Simple weakness and do not perform the usual homicidal fury typical of most undead when left unsupervised. minus-circleUncommandable: Revenants cannot be bound to your will upon creation and are free to act in any way they want. minus-circleDust to Dust: Revenants have a limited lifespan. At the end of the current session, they will crumble to dust or otherwise be irreversibly destroyed. All revenants innately know this and will use their limited time as they see fit, most often to accomplish a specific important goal or to say farewell to their loved ones. |
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| caret-right | Alternative | plus-circlePhylactery: You can make a revenant's “lifespan” permanent, preventing them from automatic annihilation at the end of the session. minus-circleDeath Price: Creating a permanent revenant requires you to use an Undead keystone instead of a point of Supplies during the reanimation process. |
| Social | plus-circleClassical Necromancy: You can talk to any corpse that has an intact mouth. The dead have no memory or knowledge of anything that happened to them after they died, including any past conversations you may have had with them using this ability. The dead tend to speak briefly or cryptically, and are generally motivated solely by getting you to leave them alone. The dead are not compelled to answer your questions if they don't want to for whatever reason. plus-circleAlso Dead: You can use this ability to converse with corpses you have animated and other Simple undead as well. |
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