Custom Major Artifact

[Winter S Jackson]

I'm in the planning stages for a new campaign featuring a massive undead presence (because who doesn't love the old zombie apocalypse plan) and am planning it to be facilitated by a previously unknown artefact. Now, that's not a thing I've had to make before, so would appreciate some opinions on power and utility.

Blackhallow Staff
Slot none; Aura strong (Necromancy); CL 20th; Weight 5 lbs.
DESCRIPTION
A long staff of blackened, lightning-struck wood and topped with a cracked, broken skull, this potent artifact contains highly concentrated energy from the darkest corners of necromancy. Unlike a normal staff, a Blackhallow Staff contains a maximum of 112 charges that cannot be restored through any normal means. When the charges are expended, it breaks into worthless shards of burnt wood (See destruction). To find the number of charges in a found Blackhallow Staff, roll 1d100 and add 12.
Using a charge raises those affected as with the Animate dead spell, except it affects all viable corpses within 1,500ft and can only create a random assortment of generic skeletons and ghouls in a ratio of 3:2 (achieved by applying the skeleton and dread ghoul templates, except the created ghouls cannot create spawn or command other ghouls). As an addition, for each creature affected this way, there is a 2% chance for an additional Shadow to be created, with the same hit dice as the original creature. All creatures created this way remain under the control of the staff’s wielder until it is broken or used by another person, even if the undead's total HD exceeds the normal limits.

-Animate dead (112 charges)

A wielder of the staff capable of activating it gains spell resistance equal to 10+ their caster level, immunities as described in “undead traits”, and a +4 profane bonus to three stats of their choice, chosen when the staff is first used and remaining until the staff is used by another. Once chosen, these stats cannot be changed.
DESTRUCTION
A Blackhallow Staff can only be broken if a wielder uses all of its charges, raising at least their HD in undead each time. If the last charge is used and the wielder has not fulfilled this requirement, the staff insteads fades into black smoke and reforms at a random location, killing the wielder in the process. Doing so restores 1d100+12 charges.

[Kadus]

First, this is an Artifact level item. Raise undead in that level of area is a huge effect with possibly game breaking effects. Consider that the area affect by this spell is 2/3 of a mile across. In that space hundreds of dead could be in loosely packed graveyards. In mass graves or battlefield scenarios it would not be unheard of for thousands of bodies to be available per casting. With a half full staff the wielder could seek out these sites and raise the biggest army the world had ever seen, one that doesn't require food or rest.

If the staff is a historical item, then this matters little. If an active piece, then the question needs to be answered: What's stopping the undead any that's sure to already exist in huge numbers? The top five battles of the American Civil War caused 165,000 casualties alone. That would be a huge Amy with dozens of staff charges to spare.

If this staff does exist then many people will look for it. In the process of using it they will raise hundreds or thousands and kill thousands more. Since bodies are destroyed when the spell ends and people are likely to die because their first couple casings will probably be test runs with low HD minions this world will be one without large sets of graves. Through necromancy or fear most bodies will end up as ash or dust.

Some closing questions to think about:
How does the holder know where all the raised dead are if they're scattered across 7,000,0000 square feet?
Does it require anything to organize a force this big?
Have you read the book Way of Shadows and it's sequels? There is a really cool concept for an undead army there. I'll explain it in another post.

TLDR: Cool but could be overwhelming.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Dot

[Goth Guru]

If the ghouls are non contagious, why not just zombies.
It is unclear how many undead and when to avoid the staff from life sucking the wielder.

[Winter S Jackson]

Thanks for the analysis Kadus, and this is all encouraging. The communication thing hadn't occurred to me- it'll need a clause for controlling them, yes. I haven't read the book. And in regards to the rest of the points, this artifact is being used in a vastly depopulated world where travel is incredibly difficult. This means finding large groups of corpses (or potential corpses) is difficult, and if the artifact disappears it can be very difficult to relocate.

As for the ghoul/zombie question, I specifically wanted some of the raised undead to be sentient. And you're right, I haven't stated whether it confirms both the number of charges in it and whether you've failed its requirement. Probably yes and no respectively, but I'd have to think about it.

[Goth Guru]

I thought of an adventure hook.

The Lost Pyramid: A pharaoh ordered his pyramid to be magically sunk beneath the sand when it was filled with him, his treasures, and all his servants. Now a greedy fool is trying to use the staff to locate the pyramid.

[Winter S Jackson]

That'd do it. I had something similar in mind for the latter reaches of the campaign- protected city with a big adventurer and monstrous humanoid population that had fallen overnight. Because class levels aren't affected the sane by undead templates, the army would be terrifying.

Open question: if you an adventurer found this item (and know people knew you found it)... What would be you do?

[Rednal]

Immediately deliver it to the nearest church of Pharasma for sealing and/or destruction. That's not the kind of thing that should be available for an enterprising villain to grab away. XD

[Goth Guru]

It's sick in a cool way that you have to use it to destroy it.
In the heavens there are no dead bodies. Maybe there's a vault where that stuff's locked away.

[AwesomenessDog]

Rednal wrote:

Immediately deliver it to the nearest church of Pharasma for sealing and/or destruction. That's not the kind of thing that should be available for an enterprising villain to grab away. XD

If your villain is stumbling into game breaking artifacts daily, you're a mean gm.