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k
The visual I'm shooting for is something like the power suits from Aliens or especially Avatar. Something hulking, strong, and fast, and could possibly act independently without a "pilot" inside(which would be important, since I want to give it a sort of emergency ejection function for the necromancer once things turn sour for him. I'm hoping to make his actual demise hilarious for the players).
Has anyone seen anything similar to this statted up before? I'm just curious to see what others have done with the basic idea.
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Has anyone seen anything similar to this statted up before? I'm just curious to see what others have done with the basic idea.
No stats yet, but check out this entry from the latest RPG superstar contest. Pretty much exactly what you're asking for. (Maybe the creator can email you his stats, I'm bet he has 'em!)
As a necromancer is going to have a lot going on anyway, what with being a spell caster and all, I'd suggest making it a special magical armor. Give the pilot a whole bunch of temp. HP, plus enhancement bonuses to AC and Str. It'll be so much simpler that stating out an actual extra set of monster abilities.
I did something very similar in one of my games a while back, but gave our resident anime-fan a chance to fight back in his own golem suit. It worked out simple enough as an armor suit.
Peace,
tfad
Has anyone seen anything similar to this statted up before? I'm just curious to see what others have done with the basic idea.I have used this spell to replicate what you are looking for:
Hulking Shell
School Necromancy; Level Sorcerer/Wizard 6
Casting Time: 1 Standard Action
Components: V,S,M (A humanoid skull with gems mounted in the eye sockets with a value of at least 500gp.
Range: personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 min. / Level (D)
Save: None
SR: NoThe Necromancer is encased in a giant undead exeoskeleton. The Shell has 10 hit points per caster level, +1 size category, a +6 strength bonus and +8 AC bonus and +10 movement. It has all the immunities normal undead have. While affected by this spell the necromancer may not cast any spells which would require he use somatic or verbal components. All mindless undead treat the caster as neutral while inside his hulking shell. If the hulking Shell is destroyed by damage instead of the duration expiring there is a 50% chance the material component is destroyed.
<I am the author of this spell and someday hopefully it will be in a self-published supplement named "Veneficium", if anyone is interested in assisting me in playtesting this and other spells I would appreciate any input>
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I think the Epic-level handbook had rules about making a zombie colossus that the necromancer would magic jar into to control. The basis of the idea was from the old D&D adventure Castle Amber (which is still awesome, all these years later).
You could tweak it a little, say, by having a cockpit of sorts in the zombie's head. It would actually be funny to see a colossal zombie head eject from the body with a putris "splutch" and fly away, as the headless body plails away at the party.
I think the Epic-level handbook had rules about making a zombie colossus that the necromancer would magic jar into to control.
I was just going to say, flesh colossus.
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A spell (or two) I developed for Relics & Rituals 2, that didn't make the cut;
Corpse Colossus and Bone Juggernaut (both designed for 3.0, so some rules might be out of date).
Animates several humanoid corpses into one giant zombie.
Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: Touch
Target, Effect or Area: Animates a giant zombie from a dozen man-sized corpses
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Description
A necromancer from Hollowfaust named Kadeth fled to Glivid-Autel so that he could continue his studies among ‘less squeamish’ peers. In return for his knowledge, he was allowed to partake of the Societies research into immortality, to attempt to stave on his own deteriorating health. His research has reached its inevitable conclusion, and he now seeks out twenty-three appropriate bodies, which he means to awaken into unlife as a rotting colossus with himself as the guiding intellect…
Spell Effect
After gathering eleven suitable humanoid corpses, none dead more than three days, the caster draws out a suitable chopping tool and many yards of sturdy cat-gut. After eight hours of butchery and crude stitching, and one dark sacrifice, the caster has assembled a fearsome creation in the form of a gargantuan humanoid from the many smaller components.
This creation draws a spark of unlife from these dark deeds, being treated in all respects as a gargantuan zombie (core rulebook, pages 191-192) of particularly gruesome aspect, and counting as 24 hit dice against the total amount of undead the caster can have under his control at any one time (per the description under animate dead, core rulebook I, p. 174).
The creation remains active until destroyed, although it can only be directed by the spoken command of its creator, or certain emphatic gestures (go, come, halt).
While this spell could theoretically be increased, using 24 bodies to craft a 48 HD colossal zombie, no arcanist has yet been able to do create and control such a monstrosity. Some propose that the caster would have to be the equivalent of a 24th level spellcaster to initiate the ritual, others suggest the catalyzing death has to be more powerful (or more numerous?), perhaps of a larger creature, a magical beast or even a spellcaster. Experimentation, with all the horror that implies, continues…
Material Components: Eleven intact and fresh humanoid corpses, many yards of catgut, a strong needle of bone and a sharp cutting tool are required for the initial assembly process. To awaken the beast into unlife, a twelfth living humanoid must be sewn into the very center of the assembled construct, making up the ‘heart’ of the finished zombie. The bone needle used for assembly, still attached to the single long strand of catgut that holds the mass together, is pushed through this living victims heart and the spell traps the force of his death and channels it out through the needle and catgut into the creature, shocking it into an unholy semblance of life. It should go without saying that the casting of this spell is an evil act that goes beyond the pale of most ‘Evil’ spells.
And the precursor spell that started it off;
Bone Juggernaut.
Animates many man-sized skeletons into one larger one.
Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: Touch
Target, Effect or Area: Fuses 16 intact medium-sized skeletons into one gargantuan one.
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Description
Created in a collaborative effort by many necromancers of the Animator’s Guild of Hollowfaust, this spell was crafted to combat the severe shortage of gargantuan and larger skeletons for animation. The leader of the project, an unhealthy fellow known as Kadeth, proposed carrying the experiment to its logical conclusion by attempting to craft gargantuan zombies. His fellow Animators voted against that idea, and he quietly vanished one night, along with his personal libraries and servants.
Spell Effect
After a full night incanting over sixteen pristine humanoid skeletons of medium size, the bones slither and fuse together into a towering colossus of bone under the casters direct command. This macabre creation is treated in all respects as a gargantuan skeleton (core rulebook III, p. 165) and counts as 16 hit dice against the total amount of undead the caster can have controlled by such animation magic at one time (per the description under the animate dead spell in core rulebook I, p. 174).
The creation remains active until destroyed, and can be commanded by spoken commands from its creator or certain emphatic gestures (go, come, halt).
At 16th level, the caster may choose to perform this rite over 32 such skeletons (with the commensurate increase in blood sacrifice) to create a colossal skeleton. Such a creation will count as a 32 hit die undead for the purposes of control.
Material Components: In addition to sixteen intact humanoid skeletons, sixteen living creatures must be slain during the ritual and their blood made into a bath in which the bones to be animated must steep during the casting. These creatures must be of medium size, but need not be humanoid (and in fact must not be intelligent). Dogs, associated with mindless obedience by many, are generally preferred for this unhappy role.
Otherwise, my most memorable use of a necromancer was to create Ari, a necromancer who was working methodically towards the goal of becoming a lich, one step at a time, developing techniques by which each and every bodily system and process would be suffused with and / or replaced by necromantic processes.
She would start with a fresh humanoid corpse, and using a 1st level spell of her own crafting, Mend the Dead, restore it to a pristine state, still warm and pliable, all wounds mended. She would drain the now-warm and fluid blood into a vat and seal it for later, then use another spell of her devising to make the skin elastic and pliable, yet momentarily tough, so that she could peel the skin in one long pull from the body, stretching the lips so that she could pull the skin down over the head, and then down the length of the body, until the skin and body were seperate. The skin would be packed in natron salts and left for later as well, while she got to work with her scalpels and removed every trace of flesh and sinew from the skeleton. The cleaned skeleton would be animated normally as a skeleton. The blood would be infused with a cold necromantic life, and become an undead ooze that would crawl over others and try to suffocate them. The skin would similarly be animated into a sheet-like leathery creature that would grapple and restrain others (she like the bodies undamaged, after all, and drowning them in blood and grappling them in skins, to be carried back to her lab by the skeletons was the ideal method). In her laboratory, sealed in ceramic tubs, she kept the organs and muscles, animated with ghoulish hunger as viscera, which she didn't bother to rebuke, only had a skeleton release when her laboratory was invaded, since they destroyed tissue and so didn't please her (another undead ooze, slamming with musculature, draining blood with veins and arteries, and spewing acid from the digestive tract).
A poster on the Giant in the Playground forums, Lysander, took this a step further. Undead lungs that fly on tattered ragged leathery tissue (the wings having been torn open as a Blood-Eagle) and has a sonic fear-inducing moan. Undead Dark Hearts that float (or crawl, at lower levels) with dangling 'tentacles' of circulatory veins and arteries that drain blood, while releasing 'pulses' of negative energy to damage foes in the area. Swarms of teeth that clatter along the ground like a thousand spilled dice, driving their pointed roots into living prey and serving as both caltrops and swarm. Animated eyeballs that roll along (or fly, at higher levels), transmitting information to the necromancer, and allowing her to coordinate her 'troops' from a distance. 'Gutsnakes' made from stomachs and intestines that can grapple and fling digestive acid at foes. Animated floating brains called Vestiges with dangling nerves, that conduct electrical attacks and can both control other mindless undead and send dazing mental attacks to wrack the minds of living foes.
A half-dozen or more of these undead from a single humanoid corpse(although the swarm of teeth will require many donors!), and other options, such as severing the hands of skeletons and replacing them with weapons, while saving the hands to animate as swarms of Crawling Claws, is yet another option. The floating brains could be rebuked, and then used to control other mindless undead, allowing for the necromancer to 'chain-control' a larger group of undead than she normally could.
Another option Ari used when her laboratory was invaded was to produce a low-level magical Oil of Animation that looked like pink gel (sterno!) and she would smooth over the body of a medium person (or a pair of skeletal humanoids). Once so prepared, the ointment remains potent indefinitely, and with a single command word, the preparer can animate this body (or skeletons) as undead, to replace undead servants that have been destroyed (freeing up 'command slots,' which she can now fill with these new 'instant undead'). She had a couple of bodies just 'lying around' so that as the PCs fought through her initial troops, she could whip up some quick reinforcements, without ever going over her 'undead control rating.'
For a higher level game, she would go into using the Corpse Colossus, and combine vast quantities of blood into a massive Blood Weird (undead ooze) that now drains heat to cause blood damage, can slam with it's half-clotted body, and can whirl apart into a bloodstorm, a massive Sleet Storm like effect that obscures vision, makes the area dangerously slippery, and drains heat from those in the area, similar to a Djinni Whirlwind ability.
Ideally, if built into a Corpse Colossus (or Bone Juggernaut) as a 'vehicle,' it would be enhanced to function independently of herself, allowing her to cast spells while it attacks, provide her with cover, as she would be contained within it's rib-cage, and be modified to have;
four arms or
armor crafted from bones reinforcing its body or
an aura of fast-acting magical contagion or
spew acid from it's mouth or
have oversized weapons grafted to the end of it's arms in place of hands or
have a swarm of carrion-eaters nesting within it (crows, rats, flies, whatever) that pour out to attack foes or
magical abilities, such as an aura that gives it the benefit of an automatic Death Knell when it fells someone or an aura of fear or the ability to automatically animate anyone it kills.
Or, *all of the above!*
Mwahahaha!