If you had a vast scientific arsenal of kooky inventions and a near limitless supply of undead pawns to tweak. What would you do?
In one of our current campaigns we have a gnome sorcerer, and a cleric of Wee Jas. Both lvl 7 and between the two of us we have knowledge engineering, alchemy, blacksmithing, Weaponsmithing, and armorsmithing all at full ranks.
Right now we have bugbear skeletons encased in full body metal shells (functions and costs as a suit of full plate)
Potential plans include spring loaded small skeletons for jumping attacks, and attaching leather flaps where the wings of creatures would be to give back their flight.
And my gnome is developing unstable explosives for the undead to deploy.
We have the storyline figured out nicely but I feel like our undead manipulating capacity is far from maxed out.
|
Tiny ones could be used as ammo or thrown behind the opposing meatshields to disrupt spell casting, encase 'em in a leather padded shell to absorb impact.
you could make undead nets that either launch themselves or require a thrower (could be another undead).
Dip 'em in molten metal before animation and you could have Silver, Adamantine, cold iron, etc, skeletons (they could overcome damage resistance)
Fashion some to become pack creatures with many legs and a wide back (like a beetle only with a flat back) so they can carry any treasure or even personnel.
Spellstitch them ala Monster Manual II.
Remove the skin, add a layer of chainmail, some steel plates, large adamantine spikes, reattach skin, animate and presto! Fairly ordinary looking zombie who just won't die!
There is a couple off the top o' da head. Hope some help or spark an idea.
FH
remember wild wild west? maybe reanimate a huge monstrous spider and slap full plate and various projectile weapons on its frame, then have skeletal halflings fire the projectiles (ballista or giant sling shot alchemist fire).
Alternatively, make a large collection of 'undead' that will help build homes etc for the poor get them to do all the grunt work.
Who says that necromancy cann't be used in a beneficial manner?
igi
I can't remember which issue of Dragon it was, but there was a nice spread on maximizing undead creations in one of last year's issues...might be worth digging up.
As ever,
ACE
Make a good 'ol fashion Deadapolt! Use a catipult to launch Zombies and Skeletons over castle walls or something like that (it works better if they can survive the fall). Or, for added fun, light them on fire! Another fun one are undead misquetos (sp). Or drowned (MM3) with full plate mail and tower shields. There auras do all the work. You could also attach Tiny or smaller undead to arrows and fire them at enemies. Man, I can't wait to play my necromancer/fleshgrafter in my brothers next campaign now.
Nice!
Thanks guys! I paricularily like the rhino car. We already have demolition deadies. My gnome is making explosives for the skeletons to carry into battle plus the cleric has a corpse crafting feat that causes the undead to detonate with negative energy when they are destroyed. Lots of fun. Keep um comming.
I use mine to set off traps. Fifty thousand gold pieces worth of sigils dealing 40d6 fire damage to everyone in the corridor, and it just got wasted on a ten hit point zombie. Dungeons usually alternate between traps and monsters, so each opponent we faced would save us from one trap afterward.
A player of mine is cleverer. He killed a gray render and raised it as skeleton, then had a throne built inside the chest to ride around in.
A player of mine is cleverer. He killed a gray render and raised it as skeleton, then had a throne built inside the chest to ride around in.
Hey! One of my players did that too! Although it was less of a throne and more of a papoose.
hehe you guys so need a necromancer with some well picked feats out of Libre Mortis; you guys to take over the world; or at least a part of it. My Half Vampire Wizzy/necro would love to join you sigh; have the skills and feats you need to attain glory. Check that book out and its feats list, warning; you also may stay up long hours dreaming of the possiblilities.
Make a good 'ol fashion Deadapolt! Use a catipult to launch Zombies and Skeletons over castle walls or something like that (it works better if they can survive the fall).
Use Craft Contingent Spell to give the undead catapult ammo a one shot use of Feather Fall. Caster and Spell Level 1, costs 25gp and 2xp per skeleton.
hehe you guys so need a necromancer with some well picked feats out of Libre Mortis; you guys to take over the world; or at least a part of it. My Half Vampire Wizzy/necro would love to join you sigh; have the skills and feats you need to attain glory. Check that book out and its feats list, warning; you also may stay up long hours dreaming of the possiblilities.
Done and done. We have the book and did spent all night combing through it. His cleric has corpse crafting, nimble bones, and dark retribution feats. So all his undead have +4 str, +2 hp per hit dice, +10 base land speed, +4 on initiatve checks, and explode with negative energy when destroyed damaging living foes and healing any of our nearby creations.
By the way all we have is skeletons right now (we've decided that neither of our characters like the smell of rotting flesh so for storyline we are sticking to less fragrant undead) and with both their dex increase, the fact that they gain improved initiative, and the nimble bones boost our deadies have some killer reaction time +10 initiative for our halfling skeletons is the highest, the lowest is +8 on our ogre skeleton.
That and we are going to spell stitch (libros mortis template gives undead special abilities) our halflings to fire scorching rays, true strike, and healing spells.
Sorry, Sexi, I looked at the template for Spell Stitched last night, and True Strike won't work. All spells must be Conjuration, Evocation, or Necromancy. While I did agree to change the horrific XP cost to create the temple to a more reasonable level, I'm leaving that. Since healing is Conjuration (creation) and Scorching Ray is Evocation, your're good there. But no True Strike. Ray of Enfeeblement would be a good option, however.
Also, I think Paddock may want to look into having basically a power-armor suit of a skeleton for dungeon crawls. Since he likes to take the lead, anyway. Another ogre would do nicely.
Alternatively, make a large collection of 'undead' that will help build homes etc for the poor get them to do all the grunt work.
Who says that necromancy cann't be used in a beneficial manner?
I have had one country like that, where necromancy was commonly used to provide farm hands and such workforce. That society was neutral in alignment and it was considered a good thing that your corpse would still go on benefitting others even after your death...bit like Igors in Pratchett's Discworld books. So nothing blasphemous or anything about that (except in minds of god of death and such who oppose necromantic practices in principle).
You think it would be ok to steal this idea for my Evil Gnome bard named Gubbaffet (ring any bells,hmm?) So I am hoping I can just kinda steal this idea for my evil bard, hey he's a gnome, maybe he wants to still engineer. This could get intresting...
~Love The Flabulator!?!
For Savage Tide, need a ship with banks upon banks of zombie oarsmen, rowing 24/7 around the clock.
I cast...Animate thread!
While said in jest you have hit upon an idea worth investigating. I'm thinking about the animated skeleton of a baleen whale with an iron diving bell suspended within the center and attached to the rib cages by steel cable. Better yet, the diving bell itself could be made out of the animated skull of a storm giant dipped in steel with the eye sockets acting as portholes (when covered with magically strengthened glass, of course) and the mouth acting as the entrance.
I have a town in my campaign that uses ogre skeletons as perpetual labor to man a gristmill and water pump.
Who needs steam or water power when you can get more work out of dead Cousin Earl than he ever did in real life?
Who needs steam or water power when you can get more work out of dead Cousin Earl than he ever did in real life?
I've thought about this too and the good thing that you mention is also the social problem that it would create. I think that you would resent the living ('what, you want to be paid?', 'what do you mean you have to sleep?') to such an extent that you might just want to help Cousin Earl to an early death (when he'll be more useful to you). When the undead start to seem more attractive than the living, because they are harder workers (read easier to control and exploit)that is when you realize why all those spells have the 'evil' descriptor... even if you are building houses for the homeless (who incidentally lost their jobs to cheaper more efficient zombie labour :) ).
Who needs steam or water power when you can get more work out of dead Cousin Earl than he ever did in real life?I've thought about this too and the good thing that you mention is also the social problem that it would create. I think that you would resent the living ('what, you want to be paid?', 'what do you mean you have to sleep?') to such an extent that you might just want to help Cousin Earl to an early death (when he'll be more useful to you). When the undead start to seem more attractive than the living, because they are harder workers (read easier to control and exploit)that is when you realize why all those spells have the 'evil' descriptor... even if you are building houses for the homeless (who incidentally lost their jobs to cheaper more efficient zombie labour :) ).
Cows and horses are out of busines.
Imagine a zombie farmer. He would need constant guidance. "Do this" "do that" and the like. just too dumb to do farming on its own. You need "awakened" undead.
But as for cows and horses, sheep and goats, etc...
a nice picture comes to my mind. farmers gathering around the full lade table, and after the feast they will go to the village necromancer and get a skeleton horse (chicken or whatever they ate) in return.
Still no breakdown to lokal economy, since skeleton horses won't work without their master-farmer either. Always the human factor, I guess. :)
|
Skeletons with bags of poison gas powder attached in their ribcages so when you hit them, you take yourself out. No armor--you WANT them to damage the skeleton.
Or better yet, skeletons whose bones are coated with oil of impact (do they still have that in 3.5?). They'd be like walking mines, and the PCs would hesitate every time they saw another skeleton.
You could also take a zombie or skeleton and coat them with some kind of mold or fungus (brown mold comes to mind).
If you're good with illusions, you could take something like a wight and cover it with an illusion of being a skeleton. It would probably only work once, but it might definitely catch PCs off guard.
I got one for you 'zombie - howsabout a skeleton tripwired with tanglefoot bags? :D