Moves are below all this explanation mess
After much deliberation, I decided this book wouldn’t be complete without my own take on the NECROMANCER. I may rename it like I did my Illusionist, since there are several existing playbooks out there. Suggestions? Would it still be ok to call it a necromancer given that its going to be in a combined classes book based on the old spell schools?
Here are the two main starting moves! I had envisioned that you pick one of these at character creation, but if you think it would work with both, by all means I am open to ideas.
◘ That Which is Dead
You’re dead. Well, mostly dead. Your heart has stopped, and you don’t need to breathe anymore. You have a pale sunken look, but otherwise seem alive. When you reach 0 hit points, as long as your body still is mostly intact, you do not die. Missing limbs and other body parts don’t injure you any worse than a bad bruising would hurt a living person, but could still have an effect on your physical capabilities.
▬ You no longer need to draw breath.
▬ You no longer need to eat. You never have to use rations.
▬ Healing magic does not work on you.
▬ Magic or effects that work against undead work against you.
▬ When you reach 0 hitpoints, each time you would take damage that would take you below 0 hit points, you instead take one debility of the GM’s choice. Once you have taken all six debilities, your body is destroyed and you make the Last Breath move as appropriate.
▬ You do not heal naturally.
◘ Body Snatcher
When you die, or leave your current body, your spirit can occupy a nearby humanoid body if it is not too rotten. If the body is currently living, you need to roll +WIS to push the other spirit aside. It stays in there with you though, and might cause you trouble. You can communicate telepathically with the spirit with which you share the body. If you occupy a rotted body, the GM may give that body some debilities as appropriate.
OH! and I should add a proposed “healing” ability for the undead character since they cannot heal naturally:
◘ Ghoulish Regeneration
If you eat your fill of the raw flesh of a living or recently dead sentient creature, you heal 2D8 hit points or one debility. However you are also overcome with an intense euphoria due to the concentrated life essence that your body magically extracts from the meat. If you eat more than once per day, you must Defy Danger or become addicted to this gruesome food.
edit: added a method to heal debilities.
This seems like a great starting point for a compendium class – not really starting character material I think.
Tim Franzke thanks for the feedback Tim. Would you think these would work better as advanced moves?
Body Snatcher might work as an engaging level 1 move but That Which is Dead really isn’t splashy enough for me to want to play that character – especially because I can just state “my character is undead” at character creation and have nearly the same effect + all the class moves I get.
Body Snatcher however doesn’t seem like an ability a DW adventurer would have – don’t really know why – just seems off to me.
Tim Franzke The idea with the undead is more than just saying you’re dead. It also gives several advantages in addition to being very hard to kill. Appreciate your comments and opinions. Thanks.
Those both seem like an interesting foundation, but don’t provide a ton of immediate options themselves. Did you have other starting moves that those build upon, other than the eating one?
And being undead can be cool, but that’s never been inherent in my concept of a necromancer. Possibly, certainly, but just like a necromancer could be any given race. I’d suggest making that a forking path as an advance move (or compendium class) instead.
Or you could double down on the idea of playing a ghost spirit that can animate undead bodies and change the name from “necromancer” to something else (“corpse snatcher”?) and really pursue that as a more narrowly defined class. I’d still recommend restructuring those moves a wee bit with an eye toward “What new fun thing does this allow the character to do?”
Derek Guder Thanks! I had originally envisioned this as two paths, one being the body snatching type, and the other being the undead type. I was originally not going to create a necromancy themed playbook for my book, but decided to give it a go. That said, the reason this is a bit atypical of necromantic casters is because I am intentionally trying to break away from the mold a bit since there are several necromancer playbooks out there. This particular playbook is still in its infancy though, and yeah I definitely foresee some other supporting type moves.
As for the “what can this character do?” in my mind I had envisioned the undead version as this unstoppable unflinching pale menace. Arrows sticking out of him, unbleeding pale flesh rended by swords, and he just keeps coming, unfazed, placid and horrifying.
The body snatching version, I could see doing all kinds of things that involve jumping bodies. I mean holy crap, you can possess living people. You can jump into a nearby dead body if you’re killed or if you choose to. He has a lot of things he can do, especially with some foresight and planning on the part of the player. This move was directly inspired from the short story Elephants and Corpses http://www.tor.stfi.re/2015/05/13/elephants-and-corpses-kameron-hurley/
Those are both cool, but neither are a typical necromancer, so I’d definitely recommend a name change.
There’s certainly potential in the moves, but they might be worth calling out a bit more, to make your vision clearer.
For example, with the “you’re undead” move, that sounds like maybe it would benefit from something akin to a boost on Defy Danger rolls based on Con or just enduring damage.
Derek Guder did you read the full move for undead? You endure damage and don’t die at 0 hitpoints at all. You continue to act completely unfazed until you have taken 6 more hits (regardless of the damage rolled unless the GM decides its fictionally ridiculous or something) Its definitely about enduring damage. Why does it not seem to be?
Edit: this part in particular “When you reach 0 hitpoints, each time you would take damage that would take you below 0 hit points, you instead take one debility of the GM’s choice. Once you have taken all six debilities, your body is destroyed and you make the Last Breath move as appropriate.” I suppose I could clarify that you are completely alive and acting as normal until you are required to make the Last Breath move, but I thought it would be obvious from context. Perhaps I should be more specific.
Yeah, that’s “stay up for quite a while”, but that’s a bit different in my mind from what you described, particularly since it comes at a cost (the debilities).
“Almost impossible to kill” and “shrugs off damage like an undead juggernaut” are similar but not quite the same.
The move as is wouldn’t quite entice me to play. It’s neat, but not awesome, especially since to heal the debility I need to eat a sentient creature, which would put me back at low/no HP and primes to get another debility unless I eat more and risk addiction.
Shambling corse vs unflinching juggernaut, basically.
Derek Guder I felt that I had to give it a drawback of some kind since it felt rather…juggernaut like already. I feel like Tim is saying the abilities are too powerful and you are saying they aren’t powerful enough. It’s tough to judge, especially within a system like DW. That said, I am considering creating a “Stitch Flesh” skill that you can do when you make camp, allowing you to rebuild yourself and heal some.
Additionally, please bear in mind that this is one single move of what will be an entire playbook and I hope you won’t prejudge the entire class based upon a single draft move. I do appreciate your feedback, thanks much!
Happy to help.
And it’s not necessarily a power thing so much as a “cool thing to do thing.” The undead move is very passive. It allows you to spend a lot of time at near 0 HP, but doesn’t give you many proactive options, really, and hovering that low on HP is great when you need it, but best avoided, when possible.
So it kinda feels like one of those powers that makes mechanical sense but you never want to come into play, which seems like a shame.
Derek Guder Ah! I see exactly what you mean now. Thank you for the clarification. I will definitely be adding some more “active” abilities that go along with it as well. That is certainly a valid concern and one that I would share from your perspective having only seen the stand alone move/ability. Thank you again, I will absolutely bear that in mind when rounding this out. Active abilities are much more fun than passive ones.