Death-King V2
Aug 12, 2018 19:11:52 GMT -6
Post by nob on Aug 12, 2018 19:11:52 GMT -6
Death-Kings, Lords and Ladies of the Dead, Masters of Massacre.
Fluff: ((I’ll get around to it some time. I just wanted to get the mechanics out first, so people can tell me what I've done incorrectly.))
Static Powers:
Wake The Dead: By battering down the gates of the underworld, you may call up followers to serve you. By expending one Blight and ten Full Actions you may create a Minion Squad with a combined Threat Rating, Numbers and Damage Rating equal to your Necrosis + Intelligence + Charisma, arranged as you see fit, and these Minions have the Undead and Mindless traits and obey your every order to both the letter and spirit. However, you may have no more of these squads than your Necrosis, though you may reinforce them for one full action and a Blight, up to their full strength. You cannot create a Minion Squad in this way without a suitable supply of corpses, fresh or otherwise, or a graveyard or similar location. You may destroy one of your minion squads as a half action.
Against The Living: Death-Kings should not be. Their existence is offensive to the living, and the feeling is mutual. In any scene where the Death-King directly interacts with a specific mortal being in a social manner, that mortal must make a (TN 5*Necrosis, capped at TN20) Composure test or give into their fight-or-flight instincts and either flee the scene or attack the Death-King. This can only affect a specific individual once every twenty-four hours, and only the mortal directly interacted with must make the test. The Death-King can make a (TN10+5*Necrosis) Charisma + Deceive test to negate Against the Living for one scene.
Phylactery: A Death-King’s soul is trapped (usually willingly) in something that is not their body. To a certain extent, this makes them immune to true death, though this requires them to defend whatever object, place, or person their Phylactery is. A phylactery is quickly destroyed, with any serious attack on one destroying it unless it is being actively protected. If statistics are required, a Phylactery has 10 HP and 3 Resilience.
While the Death-King’s Phylactery remains intact, death is merely a setback. When the Death-King perishes, they return to life at their phylactery, fully healed, in 2d10 - Necrosis days. If the Phylactery is destroyed, however, when the Death-king dies no force can return them to life, not even the gods, and to manufacture another Phylactery is impossible. After all, you have only one soul!
Secrets Of Life And Death: Obsessed with immortality, the Death-King has learned the secrets of life and death, and especially learned how similar the two are… Death-Kings start with one rank in Necromancy, can always advance Necromancy as if it appeared in their class, and advance Necromancy for half its cost. ((For what it’s worth, this saves a total of 500 XP, or one session’s worth.))
Power Stat: Necrosis
Necrosis is a measure of how far along the Death-King is as far as attaining the true power that their undead transformation has given them. At low Necrosis, Death-Kings look almost alive, though usually with some obviously undead trait such as glowing eyes or pallid skin. At high Necrosis, the Death-King more resembles the walking corpses they command than anything that could be considered 'alive'.
Resource Stat: Blight
A Death-King has Blight equal to their Necrosis + Intelligence and Charisma. Death-Kings regain one Blight each time they kill a living thing that has a soul of about the size of a housecat or larger that is within close proximity to them -- if you kill something remotely, their soul is sucked up by the universe itself.
The Tell of a Death-King is a stench of death and general wrong-ness around them that affects all living things. When their Tell reaches higher levels, insects, plants and small animals around them shrivel and die in seconds, and the ground where they walk blackens and cracks.
Necrosis 1: Vigor Mortis: Death-Kings have the Undead trait, and do not need to eat, drink, nor do they age. Additionally, they only suffer the death effects of criticals to the head or gizzards. However, they do not heal over time or respond to mundane medical efforts. Magical healing, but not resource points, works as normal.
Necrosis 2: Augmented Summoning: By spending Blight while Waking The Dead, you may remove the Mindless Trait or add one of the following traits: Amphibious, Caster (Magic Missile), Crawler, Dark Sight, Fear (1), Flyer, Phasing (for two Blight), or Quadruped.
Necrosis 3: Corpse Explosion: Whenever an enemy character dies in a scene, the Death-King may spend 2 Blight to cause that character to deal wounds equal to their level to adjacent characters, ignoring resilience, armor, or any similar effect in Explosive damage. This is a magical effect.
Necrosis 4: Necromastery: The Death-King becomes immune to fatigue, and their Resilience increases by 2.
Necrosis 5: Necropotence: As a free action, the Death-King may sacrifice any number of hit points to regain that amount of Blight Points at the end of their turn. This cannot cause critical damage, and if it would, Necropotence automatically fails.
Assets:
Death Knight: You may add half your Necrosis (Rounded up) as rolled dice to melee damage, and gain Hit Points and Armor equal to your Necrosis. As usual, this Armor does not stack with other sources of Armor.
Lich: Secrets Of Life And Death applies to one other spell school of your choice, in addition to Necromancy.
Worm That Walks: Creatures in contact with you take 3k2 R with the Tearing special quality every round. While in a grapple, you gain a natural weapon with the following profile: 3k2 R, Brawling, Tearing. This weapon may always be used with special attacks that use the Grapple action
Deathless: It only takes you one day to return to life, and you may craft a number of Phylacteries equal to double your Necrosis and one more, though this takes a number of days equal to your Necrosis to craft a single one. You return to your most recently crafted Phylactery when you return to life.
Jiang-Shi: Your Phylactery is a paper talisman attached to any part of your body that is not the Gizzards. Upon death, if your talisman is intact, you return to life after one full round has passed at the beginning of your turn, restoring 5 Hit Points and removing all critical damage. If your Phylactery is destroyed, it can be recreated by anyone who you have taught the process to with a TN15 Crafts test, and placed on your body again to revive you. Additionally, you gain one rank in the Dark Messiah Sword School, and can advance it as if it was in your class track.
Soul-Stealer: Your Phylactery is an object of Artifact quality with a minimum rarity of Very Rare. Upon death, instead of regenerating, whoever is currently in physical possession of the Phylactery becomes you over the period in which you are 'regenerating'. They do not notice this process occurring, though others might.
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Immediate concerns: Necropotence may be too powerful. Secrets of Life and Death saves a lot of XP, though it's still less XP than Sturdy or Veteran of the Wheel would net you. Wake the Dead may need to be toned down a little, but halfing the number of points you get seemed a bit severe.
Edit 1: On the suggestion of Scrapyard Dragon, I have switched Necropotence and Necromastery. Necromastery is strong, arguably their strongest ability, but it doesn't change how they function like Necropotence does.
Edit 2: Against the Living is no longer quite so difficult to pass. Phylactery clarified.
Edit 3: Vigor Mortis now includes both Undead and The Stuff of Nightmares, for bookkeeping's sake.
Fluff: ((I’ll get around to it some time. I just wanted to get the mechanics out first, so people can tell me what I've done incorrectly.))
Static Powers:
Wake The Dead: By battering down the gates of the underworld, you may call up followers to serve you. By expending one Blight and ten Full Actions you may create a Minion Squad with a combined Threat Rating, Numbers and Damage Rating equal to your Necrosis + Intelligence + Charisma, arranged as you see fit, and these Minions have the Undead and Mindless traits and obey your every order to both the letter and spirit. However, you may have no more of these squads than your Necrosis, though you may reinforce them for one full action and a Blight, up to their full strength. You cannot create a Minion Squad in this way without a suitable supply of corpses, fresh or otherwise, or a graveyard or similar location. You may destroy one of your minion squads as a half action.
Against The Living: Death-Kings should not be. Their existence is offensive to the living, and the feeling is mutual. In any scene where the Death-King directly interacts with a specific mortal being in a social manner, that mortal must make a (TN 5*Necrosis, capped at TN20) Composure test or give into their fight-or-flight instincts and either flee the scene or attack the Death-King. This can only affect a specific individual once every twenty-four hours, and only the mortal directly interacted with must make the test. The Death-King can make a (TN10+5*Necrosis) Charisma + Deceive test to negate Against the Living for one scene.
Phylactery: A Death-King’s soul is trapped (usually willingly) in something that is not their body. To a certain extent, this makes them immune to true death, though this requires them to defend whatever object, place, or person their Phylactery is. A phylactery is quickly destroyed, with any serious attack on one destroying it unless it is being actively protected. If statistics are required, a Phylactery has 10 HP and 3 Resilience.
While the Death-King’s Phylactery remains intact, death is merely a setback. When the Death-King perishes, they return to life at their phylactery, fully healed, in 2d10 - Necrosis days. If the Phylactery is destroyed, however, when the Death-king dies no force can return them to life, not even the gods, and to manufacture another Phylactery is impossible. After all, you have only one soul!
Secrets Of Life And Death: Obsessed with immortality, the Death-King has learned the secrets of life and death, and especially learned how similar the two are… Death-Kings start with one rank in Necromancy, can always advance Necromancy as if it appeared in their class, and advance Necromancy for half its cost. ((For what it’s worth, this saves a total of 500 XP, or one session’s worth.))
Power Stat: Necrosis
Necrosis is a measure of how far along the Death-King is as far as attaining the true power that their undead transformation has given them. At low Necrosis, Death-Kings look almost alive, though usually with some obviously undead trait such as glowing eyes or pallid skin. At high Necrosis, the Death-King more resembles the walking corpses they command than anything that could be considered 'alive'.
Resource Stat: Blight
A Death-King has Blight equal to their Necrosis + Intelligence and Charisma. Death-Kings regain one Blight each time they kill a living thing that has a soul of about the size of a housecat or larger that is within close proximity to them -- if you kill something remotely, their soul is sucked up by the universe itself.
The Tell of a Death-King is a stench of death and general wrong-ness around them that affects all living things. When their Tell reaches higher levels, insects, plants and small animals around them shrivel and die in seconds, and the ground where they walk blackens and cracks.
Necrosis 1: Vigor Mortis: Death-Kings have the Undead trait, and do not need to eat, drink, nor do they age. Additionally, they only suffer the death effects of criticals to the head or gizzards. However, they do not heal over time or respond to mundane medical efforts. Magical healing, but not resource points, works as normal.
Necrosis 2: Augmented Summoning: By spending Blight while Waking The Dead, you may remove the Mindless Trait or add one of the following traits: Amphibious, Caster (Magic Missile), Crawler, Dark Sight, Fear (1), Flyer, Phasing (for two Blight), or Quadruped.
Necrosis 3: Corpse Explosion: Whenever an enemy character dies in a scene, the Death-King may spend 2 Blight to cause that character to deal wounds equal to their level to adjacent characters, ignoring resilience, armor, or any similar effect in Explosive damage. This is a magical effect.
Necrosis 4: Necromastery: The Death-King becomes immune to fatigue, and their Resilience increases by 2.
Necrosis 5: Necropotence: As a free action, the Death-King may sacrifice any number of hit points to regain that amount of Blight Points at the end of their turn. This cannot cause critical damage, and if it would, Necropotence automatically fails.
Assets:
Death Knight: You may add half your Necrosis (Rounded up) as rolled dice to melee damage, and gain Hit Points and Armor equal to your Necrosis. As usual, this Armor does not stack with other sources of Armor.
Lich: Secrets Of Life And Death applies to one other spell school of your choice, in addition to Necromancy.
Worm That Walks: Creatures in contact with you take 3k2 R with the Tearing special quality every round. While in a grapple, you gain a natural weapon with the following profile: 3k2 R, Brawling, Tearing. This weapon may always be used with special attacks that use the Grapple action
Deathless: It only takes you one day to return to life, and you may craft a number of Phylacteries equal to double your Necrosis and one more, though this takes a number of days equal to your Necrosis to craft a single one. You return to your most recently crafted Phylactery when you return to life.
Jiang-Shi: Your Phylactery is a paper talisman attached to any part of your body that is not the Gizzards. Upon death, if your talisman is intact, you return to life after one full round has passed at the beginning of your turn, restoring 5 Hit Points and removing all critical damage. If your Phylactery is destroyed, it can be recreated by anyone who you have taught the process to with a TN15 Crafts test, and placed on your body again to revive you. Additionally, you gain one rank in the Dark Messiah Sword School, and can advance it as if it was in your class track.
Soul-Stealer: Your Phylactery is an object of Artifact quality with a minimum rarity of Very Rare. Upon death, instead of regenerating, whoever is currently in physical possession of the Phylactery becomes you over the period in which you are 'regenerating'. They do not notice this process occurring, though others might.
[/center[Immediate concerns: Necropotence may be too powerful. Secrets of Life and Death saves a lot of XP, though it's still less XP than Sturdy or Veteran of the Wheel would net you. Wake the Dead may need to be toned down a little, but halfing the number of points you get seemed a bit severe.
Edit 1: On the suggestion of Scrapyard Dragon, I have switched Necropotence and Necromastery. Necromastery is strong, arguably their strongest ability, but it doesn't change how they function like Necropotence does.
Edit 2: Against the Living is no longer quite so difficult to pass. Phylactery clarified.
Edit 3: Vigor Mortis now includes both Undead and The Stuff of Nightmares, for bookkeeping's sake.
Edit 4: Reworded Against the Living, made the tests significantly easier to pass after finally getting it through my head that they may be too difficult.
Edit 5: Removed The Stuff of Nightmares and put some limits on resource regeneration, to keep the power level even.
Edit 6: Nerfed Necropotence, formatting stuff.
Edit 7: Necropotence nerfed again.