PDA

View Full Version : 3.5 Feat: Abhorsen



Tesla_pasta
2012-08-10, 10:28 PM
Because, sadly, this does not already exists (to my knowledge)


Abhorsen:
prereqs: Bardic Music, ability to turn undead, knowledge (religion) 5, Perform (Bells) 10

Benefit: class levels that grant bardic music ability stack with class levels that grant Turning to determine highest HD of undead turned/turning damage roll. by expending a use of bardic music as part of your turn check, add +2 to the highest HD of undead affected and total number of HD affected. you may spend up to 4 uses of bardic music on one turn attempt (total +8)



For example: a rogue2/bard5/cleric3/Folchulcan lyrist 4 would turn as a 12th level cleric.

with a 20 Cha, spending 2 uses of bardic music, a roll of 12 would grant (12+2+4) a max of 18 HD undead, and a roll of 7 on the turning damage would grant (7+12+5+4) 28 total HD.

This feat is flavored from the Garth Nix novel Sabriel.

Debihuman
2012-08-11, 08:59 AM
Because, sadly, this does not already exists (to my knowledge)

Actually, there was a PDF of this as a prestige class a while back under the Community 3E project so it is open content. I can send you a copy if you PM me with an email.

Perform Bells should be listed as Perform (Percussion) as bells are listed under that skill.

This link might be useful though I haven't checked these items for balance: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Bells_of_the_Necromancer_%283.5e_Equipment%29

Undeadsense might be a decent supernatural ability to give them and extending the distance to 90 ft. with Greater Undeadsense.

Undeadsense (Su:) An Abhorsen notices and locates undead creatures within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability.

Debby

Deepbluediver
2012-08-14, 10:44 AM
Having just reread the Old Kingdom Trilogy, I was reminded how much potential the characters in the story have.

While this is a nice start, I think that you could easily turn the Abhorsen family into an entire 20 level class (or a 10-level prestige class, at the very least). Over the course of the three books, most of the bells show alternate powers that can be employed against both the living and the dead. Just off the top of my head, it seems like mastering control over one bell every few levels would make for a nice progression and be a good way to spread out the abilities.

Though depending on how detailed you want to get, you might have to also homebrew an entire sub-realm of the negative energy plane to represent the river of death.


Edit: Or apparently it's already a 3E prestige class (haven't seen that yet, gonna go look for it).

Yitzi
2012-08-14, 01:54 PM
You might be thinking of this (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Abhorsen_%283.5e_Class%29), but that seems to be poorly written and balanced (and the note on "religion" displays appalling ignorance of that topic as well; in D&D in particular, there's much more to religion than what happens after you die.)

Deepbluediver
2012-08-14, 02:31 PM
You might be thinking of this (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Abhorsen_%283.5e_Class%29), but that seems to be poorly written and balanced (and the note on "religion" displays appalling ignorance of that topic as well; in D&D in particular, there's much more to religion than what happens after you die.)

Thanks for the link!

Hmm.... :smallannoyed:
The class that is presented there does seem to have quite a few "meh" or "what the frell?" bits and pieces to it.

I think what we have here is a case of some one trying to stick exactly to the description as given in the book (and occasionally cramming in something completely out of left field), instead of using the books as inspiration to make something that would work well in D&D.
Despite the potential that this has, I've resolved to not start any new projects for a while, at least not until I finish a couple of the ones I am currently working on. I still think that the River of Death as presented in the books would provide a very interesting and flavorful replacement for the rather bland negative energy plane on the SRD.