The Whispering Way as a wizard school

[Natan Linggod 327]

I was reading through the wiki entry on the Whispering Way and realised the 'sort of necromancy' school we currently have doesn't quite fit their philosophy. ie the creation and promotion of corporeal undead as the ultimate state of being.

It also occurs to me that an organization that old, should have developed it's own school by now. One that better reflects it's way of thinking.

What do you think? Should we have an official Whispering Way school?
Obviously, I can create one for my games but I think an official one would be nice.

[WWHsmackdown]

Oh yea, the new school system lends itself to being expensive with new options. It's a shame Book of the Dead is premaster but such a school might show down the line, who knows

[Teridax]

This is a fantastic creative prompt! Absolutely, any bit of lore like this should be enough to justify a new Wizard school, and the new structure for arcane schools I think makes it very easy to create new subclasses.

A little while back, I made a brew to add some more arcane schools and detail a simple structure for creating new ones. The School of Profane Theurgy in that brew I think may be of interest for this thread: the curriculum's all about necromancy, and borrows the Undeath domain spells as its school spells. The one problem with it is at 8th rank, as there are no real necromantic arcane spells there: I picked summon elemental herald simply because it's also a spell on the divine list (I specifically wanted all the curriculum spells to also be divine spells), though you could easily go for desiccate instead, or even canticle of everlasting grief if you're feeling adventurous enough to include a non-arcane spell.

[Parry]

I think with the nature and history of the Whisper Way, so illusion and deception focused spells would be appropriate as well. I don't the schools should necessarily be one trait focused. This could also help with levels that have weak or non-existent necromantic spells.

[vyshan]

The whispering way isn't really a school. But what is a school in the similar vein are the schools in Geb.

Geb has two famous Necromantic wizarding schools the Ebon Mausoleum and the Mortuarium. The Mortuarium specializes in arcane resurrection and arcane biology. In 1e it was a subschool of necromancy but here it would work just as being part of the school. The ebon Mausoleum on the other hand also is a school where blood lords are trained.

The two schools are in different cities, Ebon Mausoleum is in Mechitar, and the Mortuarium is in Yled. I don't know if there are any college sports in Geb but I like to imagine that if their are then these two have a big college rivalry.

[Solarsyphon]

I'd probably prefer a necromancer archetype because the idea of a necromancer covers mechanics tied to a few classes like animist, summoners, clerics and wizards but anything any one class lacks can be accomplished simply with an appropriate spell list.

I think the best option would be something like the elementalist but with a necromantic theme.

The problem with doing it as a wizard school is that it might be hard to distinguish it from the boundary and the mentalist schools that already deal with deception and manipulating life force. It will be a combination of them with little unique thematic connection.

It would work as a setting specific school because then it justifies itself as a feature of the world as opposed to the more abstract types of schools in the general class but it would likely be part of a campaign and or uncommon.

Teridax wrote:

The one problem with it is at 8th rank, as there are no real necromantic arcane spells there: I picked summon elemental herald simply because it's also a spell on the divine list (I specifically wanted all the curriculum spells to also be divine spells), though you could easily go for desiccate instead, or even canticle of everlasting grief if you're feeling adventurous enough to include a non-arcane spell.

I'd probably go with something like summon archmage, dessicate or boil blood. Devour life isn't arcane but would probably be the best pick.

[Old_Man_Robot]

There are a lot of cool school ideas for Wizards which are related to specific magic practices or even literal schools.

I'm not sure where we might ever see these printed though. A lot of the obvious ones already been touched on in pre-master books, and its unlikely for us to get updates to the Lost Omen's books.

[Arcaian]

vyshan wrote:

The whispering way isn't really a school.

I'm assuming the OP was meaning a new Arcane School for wizards devoted to necromancy in the way the Whispering Way practices it. If that's the intent, then Player Core is very clear that your arcane school doesn't have to be a literal building of higher learning you attend:

Player Core wrote:

Your arcane school is where you devoted yourself to the study of spellcraft. Whether you learned in the storied halls of a formal institution, via an apprenticeship with an archmage, or taught yourself from secondhand tomes, your arcane school indelibly set the curriculum and direction of your magic.

[Zoken44]

So, a "school" (subclass) for the whispering way. The spells it should add should not only be about raising, creating, and controlling the undead, but also about controlling the living, what would have been Enchantment spells premaster.

[The Ronyon]

What about draining or transferring lifeforce?