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Susano-wo
2010-07-05, 08:15 PM
After seeing the improved Familiar pic in Complete warrior,
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/cw_ag/75439.jpg

I really wanted to make a Lawful Good Halfling Necromancer (I know, my mind works in bizarre ways sometimes. The way I thought of to do this would be to, instead of raising corpses, you use a modified version of speak with dead to obtain their consent to be used later. Perhaps their souls are stored in gems, or jars, a bone from their corpse, etc.
Then you cast a modified animate dead, that creates undead of legal combinations under the normal create undead spell description. When the undead is destroyed, the soul is released, though the caster could, by using a full round action(?), cause the soul to return to the receptacle.

I see the need to get volunteers to be probably more than a balance to the ability to summon the undead you wanted then and there (well, after an hour). Am I wrong? would this be overpowered?

And the other question is the benefit for the dead soul. Since its a pact, the easiest way for a benefit would be a requirement of the caster. Something along the lines of avenge my death, make sure that my family is provided for, etc. If he does not make reasonable attempt to fulfill this (and by reasonable, I mean if you have to put off, say, avenging his death, that's ok, but you can't just skip town and 'get around to' doing it at some indefinite point in the future), he loses his souls, and becomes tainted; unable to use this version of the spell until he atones for his mistreatment of the dead.

Some of this I think is related to the culture I came up with, but the only thing that's really important is that he would be traveling from his land for the first time, where it would be an honor to serve again after death, so though he would have some already prepared, the difficulty in convincing new souls to join up for him should balance out the creation of whatever undead you wanted for the situation with enough prep time

Susano-wo
2010-07-05, 09:30 PM
Not trying to bump this, but is there any way for me to move this to the proper forum? [was supposed to be homebrew, since its, yaknow, a custom version of a spell] Or does a Mod ahve to do that?

Optimystik
2010-07-05, 09:32 PM
Well, what you're describing is not animating dead - you are bringing back specific souls and letting them retain their sapience, which would be more akin to the Create Undead line of spells.

As far as reversing the alignment of said spells, there's two ways you can go about this - Deathless, good versions of undead spirits (described in BoED and ECS); and Vivicarnum, Necrocarnum's identical yet much less evil (and squicky) sister.

Susano-wo
2010-07-05, 09:38 PM
I see your point RE: their intelligence. I suppose the lesser spell could only give them normal undead intelligence. And yeah, I know about deathless (though not the other thingie..where's that from?), just seemed to me the idea of someone who actually uses undead while being good sounded fun and interesting. So I would want them to be undead, and affected he same way by positive/negative energy. But maybe its too hard to mess with just for this?

Optimystik
2010-07-05, 09:58 PM
Ghostwalk also has plenty of material on your "come back and serve a spellcaster in order to accomplish unfinished business" angle. Their ghosts can be any alignment, including good.

Vivicarnum is an opposite-alignment variant of Necrocarnum, a form of Incarnum tied to death. Unlike Necrocarnum, which is wrested from its victims unwillingly, Vivicarnum is granted freely in order for those creatures who have died fighting a mistaken cause to seek redemption.

Vivicarnates are therefore those who use Vivicarnum to reanimate the corpses of their foes and power their soulmelds. As with most things Incarnum, it can be found in Magic of Incarnum.