Capillimancer?

[Booksy]

Thats latin for hair. It sounds weird, but what rulings would a necromancer use to animate hair? It's dead, even while still attached to a living body. Magic can animate dead things to achieve leverage and force without muscles, ie via skeletons, so would a clever necromancer slaying a room full of nobles with all their own hair do's/wigs be so far out there? And could they animate their own hair for anime style madness?

[Cheapy]

Depends on how inebriated your GM is.

[Lopke]

All hair isn't dead, only the follicles after a certain point.

Even if all hair was dead, you probably can't animate individual aspects of a creature.

It's a very creative idea, though. Also open to abuse, so if I were your GM I would allow it for very special occasions. For example, expensive/rare components to make it work; a new spell to be researched; at least 1 feat to use Animate Dead on your own hair, and model it after the Witch's hex.

Rare components could include: "hair" from a medusa, hair from a special ghost/undead like Sadako from Ringu, the bit of hair that kept growing after a wizard achieved lichdom, etc.

[Booksy]

Just checked wikipedia, any hair extending past your skin is 'dead'. So, looking at very specialized, heavily researched custom necromancy spells and feats to achieve such an affect. That makes alot of sense, I too can think of too many situations such power could be abused in.

[Zotpox]

wasent there a og monster that had a spell like ability to control hair?
A Korend or something.

[minoritarian]

Would you allow a necromancer to animate the flesh of someone suffering from a necrosis of some kind (e.g. fasciitis, gangrene, frostbite) while it was still attached? That would be more dead than hair as it was once alive. Hair isn't really 'dead' so much as it is inanimate.

I don't see anything wrong with having animate hair but I'm not really seeing necromancy as the way forward. Transmutation - sure. Model it after the Prehensile Hair hex of the witch and allow it to be taken as a feat.

[Set]

Zotpox wrote:

wasent there a og monster that had a spell like ability to control hair?

A Korend or something.

IIRC, Korreds could weave ropes out of their own hair and animate it, or something, in the old Fiend Folio.

The outer layer of skin is mostly dead cells, as well. Animating that and 'peeling' it off of someone to leave them exposed and raw could be a painful 'debuff.'

With such a large amount of dust in the average home consisting of dead skin cells and dead microscopic critters, a 'dust devil / swarm' of necromantically animated 'house dust' could be a nasty sort of distracting attack.

A focused bit of negative energy could also kill internal parasites, and also helpful intestinal critters, leaving someone nauseated and debilitated, but cleansed of all sickness and infestation! (Possibly also infertile, for a time, if it's targetted to affect reproductive cells...)

[minoritarian]

Just thinking about this a little more and definitely don't think it's the realm of necromancy. You can't animate individual dead parts of a creature; or, rather you can but then you get a flesh golem.

Allowing individual parts of a body to be animated leads to absurd situations where you have a Sloughed Skin Cell Swarms (also 'dead'), animated finger nails (also 'dead').

Quote:

...the bit of hair that kept growing after a wizard achieved lichdom, etc.

Hair doesn't grow after you die, your flesh contracts giving the appearance that the hair and nails have become longer.

[minoritarian]

Set the ninja

[Booksy]

Minoritarian: I definitely can see not animating the dead patch of skin - from frostbite, etc - as the rest of the organ is still present.

Given the expenditure of research, and possibly custom feats, I think a Sloughed Skin Cell Swarm or Finger Nail Golem would be a hell of a mood setter. Thank you for the wondeful ideas =D

Oh, and

wikipedia wrote:

Hair growth begins inside the hair follicle. The only "living" portion of the hair is found in the follicle. The hair that is visible is the hair shaft, which exhibits no biochemical activity and is considered "dead"

Set: That animated dust bunny sounds like a low-level encounter waiting to happen, or possibly a really neat spy.

[baron arem heshvaun]

Set wrote:

IIRC, Korreds could weave ropes out of their own hair and animate it, or something, in the old Monster Manual II.

Correcting the source, and I may have to take a look at gnat ability. I thought it just applied to the Korred's hair.

[Zotpox]

nahh the rope thing is eryess devils
korrends controlled all the hair in line of site includeing makeing it grow or fall out.