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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next The Reanimator's Grimorie: Undead Minionmancy for non-Wizards



Giegue
2018-10-20, 11:37 PM
I have NO idea how balanced any of these subclasses are, word of warning. Thus, any and all balance help would be most appreciated.


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The world can be a dark place. For every tale of noble heroes or great triumphs, there is a story of terrifying monsters or gruesome death. While most bards like to focus on tales that uplift and inspire, some bards instead shift their focus to a darker calling. While not a college in the traditional sense, the college of the desecration is a term used to describe the varied and disparate group of Bards who focus their art on the raising of undead minions. Unlike the bards of the college of dirges who use their performances to mourn the dead, bards of the college of desecration, often just called "desecrators", have little care for the dead as individuals. Instead, they find their muse in both the trappings and asthetics of death, and the undead themselves. Desecrators are often fascinated by gruesome topics that frighten normal folk, such as murders, hauntings, undead, and the things that go "bump" in the night.

However, what ultimately distances these bards from every day people is their blatant disregard for the sanctity of the dead and penchant for raising undead minions, which earned them their reputation as "desecrators." In fact, the term "college of desecration" is a derogatory name, coined by college of dirges to disparage these bards as little more than ghouls who root about in graveyards, digging up the dead to become their next minions. While this image of a desecrator is at least partly factual, as a loose assemblage united only by a shared intrest in the macabre, bards of the collage of desecration varry greatly in their passions and levels of depravity. While many are evil individuals who delight in gore, death, and the defiling of the dead, others may instead be amoral enthusiests of horrific tales or even more light-hearted stories in which undead are princaple characters. Desecrators who gravitate towards the latter may even make an effort to combat the stigma against undead, doing things like using their undead as a part of comedic performances, or taking up a publicly romantic partnership with a benign intelligent undead, such as a repentent vampire.

Despite their differences and lack of true organization, some more formal societies of desecrators exsist. These groups typically meet in graveyards, or sites where murders, hauntings and other grim events transpired. The most organized of such groups often try and pass themselves off as a more legitimate fixture in the community. Most commonly, this is in the form of exclusive clubs of wealthy individuals that share certain "exotic" intrests, though some may go as far as establishing a buisness in line with their intrests, such as a funeral home, butcher shop, or sanitarium.

Morbid Secrets

Your fascination with the macabre causes you to seek out dark magics beyond the scope of traditional bardic spellcasting. When you choose this college at 3rd level, you gain Chill Touch as a bonus cantrip. For you, Chill Touch is a bard cantrip, and does not count against your total cantrips known. (As-per the Cantrips Known column of the Bard table.

Additionally, when your Spellcasting feature would let you choose a Bard cantrip or Bard spell known of 1st level or higher, you can choose that spell from all necromancy spells on the Wizard spell list of levels you can cast, or the Bard spell list. Any spells not on the Bard spell list normally become Bard spells for you when you choose them.

Macabre Waltz

Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your music or oration to wake the dead for one last dance. As an action, you can spend a bardic inspiration die and raise a skeleton or zombie from a medium corpse or bone pile you can see within 30ft. Skeletons and zombies you raise this way have a hit point maximum of 1 and remain animated for 1 hour, or until they fall to 0 or less hit points. When that hour is up (or they fall to 0 or less HP), they crumble to dust, leaving them unable to be reanimated again.

These skeletons and zombies may be commanded as-if they where created by an Animate Dead spell cast by you. Skeletons and zombies you raise with this feature are raised with a single bardic inspiration die, which they may spend normally as-if they where an ally. Regardless of how many times you use this feature, you cannot control an ammount of undead created with it which exceeds your Charisma modifier.

Inspired Reanimator

At 6th level, you learn how to raise permanent undead minions. You gain Animate Dead as a bonus spell known. For you, Animate Dead is a Bard spell, and does not count against your total spells known (as-per the spells known column of the bard table). When you cast Animate Dead, it can target one additional corpse or bone pile and create one additional skeleton or zombie (as-applicable). Additionally, when you cast a Necromancy spell that summons, raises, or creates undead (such as Animate Dead or Create Undead), you can spend a bardic inspiration die to have the undead it summons, raises, or creates gain the following additional benefits:

They gain one additional hit die (and the resulting increase in hit points and hit point maximum. Starting at 15th level, they gain two additional hit dice (and the resulting increase in hit points and hit point maximum).
They add the higher of your Charisma modifier or proficiency bonus to their weapon damage rolls.
Rule the Still Heart

At 14th level, you learn how to forever bind the unbeating hearts of the dead to your will, transforming them into your eternal slaves. Bard spells you cast treat undead as humanoids and ignore their immunity to the Charmed condition (if-applicable). Additionally, if a bard spell you cast would inflict the Charmed condition on an undead creature(s), those undead remain Charmed indefinitely. This does not extend the duration of any other spell effects beyond granting the Charmed condition. (So an undead indefinitely charmed with a Dominate Person spell you cast this way could not be directly controlled as-per that spells' rules after its duration ends, and would merely have the base effect of the charmed condition (giving you advantage on Charisma checks made with it) extended for an indefinite duration.) If you or one (or more) of your allies attack or otherwise directly harm any undead you have charmed indefinitely through this feature, they immediately lose the Charmed condition and become hostile.


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Most people known all to well what happens when a Paladin forsakes their oath or a Cleric forsakes their god. However, very few people have any idea that Druids, the appointed guardians of nature, can also fall from grace. Much like how a Paladin who turns away from good and justice becomes a vile oathbreaker, a Druid who forsakes the natural world also becomes a force of wickdness. While not a true "circle" in the formal sense of the word, the "circle of blight" is a term other circles have coined to describe those wayward druids who try to bend nature to their will rather than live in harmony with it. Depraved and wholly selfish, Druids of the Circle of Blight sever their ties to nature, but not their magical connection to it. This blend of control over nature and utter diserguard for its well-being allows these druids, often just called "Blighters," to gain twisted, unnatural powers beyond the scope of traditonal druidcraft.

Forever marked as a cancer in the natural world, once a druid becomes a Blighter their magic twists and warps, taking on the taint of death and undeath. When they wildshape, the forms they take are rotting, undead versions of the animals they used to love. When they wound the land and rip magic from it, the spells they produce are foul and unnatural, and often deal with necrotic energy and the raising of undead creatures. Hated by all other circles, the life of a Blighter is a solitary existence, lived only for self-gratification. While most Blighters are simply selfish individuals who ignore nature's balance in the name of increasing their own power, the most warped and twisted of their ilk have an almost psychotic compulsion to destroy nature. Such Blighters actively worship pollution and blight in place of nature, and take sadistic glee in despoiling pristine land. They will often spend months on end living in a forest and slowly polluting it with necrotic energies and undead, and for no other reason than the sick pleasure they gain from watching nature rot away.

However, most blighters do not start out so warped and extreme in their outlooks. In fact, the vast majority of Blighters are actually failed druidic acolytes. Many children who are taken into other circles to be trained quickly come see the demanding, austere life of a druid as punishing and antithetical to their young, and often frivolous, outlooks. Such children quickly come to resent their stern teachers, and as a result reject traditional druidcraft entirely so they may live without responsibility and discipline, chasing after their whims as they strike them. While such an origin seems benign enough, prolonged use of druidic magic without concern for nature fundamentally twists an individual, and the child who simply wanted to be free from the yoak of their stern teachers will invedibly be corrupted into a monster who delights in nature's destruction if they stay on the path of the Blighter.

Unnatural Secrets

Your delve into forbidden secrets and knowledge that the other Circles abhor. Starting at 2nd level, you can prepare one extra spell of each level of 1st level and higher to which you have access from any other class list, as long as it is a spell of the Necromancy school. These spells are considered Druid spells for you while they are prepared. Additionally, you learn the Chill Touch cantrip. For you, Chill Touch is a Druid cantrip, and does not count against your total cantrips known (as-per the druid table)

Undead Wildshape

Also at 2nd level, your delving into the darker arts of magic has warped your ability to wildshape. Whenever you use wildshape, the following effects occur:

Instead of changing to the beast type, you change to the undead type
You gain resistance to Necrotic damage
You gain immunity to poison damage and the Poisoned condition
You choose if your wildshape is Rotting or Skeletal. If it is Rotting, you have disadvantage on all Dextarity saves and checks, but you gain Undead Fortitude. If you choose Skeletal, you gain resistance to piercing weapons but vulnerability to bludgeoning weapons. If you have the ability to cast spells while wildshaped, that ability only applies to spells of the Necromancy school.
Rotting Minions

At 6th level, you learn how to raise undead to serve you. You add Animate Dead to the Druid Spell list, and can prepare and cast it as a Druid spell. When you cast Animatr Dead it can target one additional corpse or bone pile and create one additional skeleton or zombie (as-applicable). Additionally, when you summon, raise or create undead with a necromancy spell (such as Animate Dead) they gain the following additional benefits:

They add your druid level to their hit point maximum.
Their weapon attacks deal additional poison damage equal to your proficiency bonus, and count as magical.
Their weapon attacks ignore resistance to poison damage.
Undead Wildshape Improvement

At level 10, the corruption that took hold of you further empowers your undead wildshape. When you wildshape, you can now choose up to beasts of CR 4 or lower (the rules for Undead Wildshape still apply) and you gain the options of making your undead shape Ghoulish or Mummified. If you choose Ghoulish, whenever you attack a creature with your one of your undead shape’s natural attacks, they must make a Constitution saving throw against your Druid spell DC or be paralyzed for 1 minute, or until you lose concentration (as-if concentrating on a spell.) They may re-attempt this saving throw at the start of their tuns to end this effect. If you choose Mummified, once in each of your turns you can force a creature you can see within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw against your Druid spell save DC. (No action required) On a failed save, they are frightened for 1 round.

Decaying Strike

At 14th level, you have learned to enhance your attacks with the unnatural corruption welling within you. When you successfully land an attack while in your undead wildshape, your target must make a Constitution saving throw against your Druid spell save DC. On a successful save, they take half damage and suffer no additional effects. On a failed save, they take 6d6 necrotic damage. Additionally, they take 2d6 necrotic damage at the start of their turn every round for 1 minute, and you gain half of the damage dealt as temporary hit points. They also have disadvantage on all saving throws for the duration. The target may make additional Constitution save at the end of every round, and on a successful save the effect ends.


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War is expensive. The toll of war is the lives of soldiers, and the lives of soldiers take immense resources to mantain. With requirements like food, shelter and rest, the average man-at-arms is a very inefficient tool in the game of war. While some nations try to rectify this with the use of constructs, their outrageous price tags prove prohibitive to deploying them en-mass. While most nations live with the costs of fielding an entirely living army or using constructs, for a few wayward nations necromancy provides an alluring alternative.

When morality is set aside, the undead can make terrifically efficient soldiers. Fearless and untiring, undead don't require food, lodging or rest for their survival. They do not shrink at the prospect of taking life, and will obey orders without question. With their relatively cheap price, at least when compared to constructs, it is no surprise some desperate or amoral nations turn to raising the dead as a means of cutting down on the number of living troops they must provide for. However, while obedient, mindless undead are less than ideal in many respects, being unable to take initiative or respond to changing battlefield conditions. Sentient undead are therefore the pinnacle of soldiering, but since they are not mindless they have the capacity for disobedience. Thus, both shambling mindless grunts and elite intelligent shock troopers come with the same need: the need for leadership.

For political reasons, the undead are seldom permitted to serve as their own officers; instead, fearful mortal authorities insist that they must be placed under the command of the living. However, if such officers hope to win the respect of their troops, they must be magically powerful in their own right, as well as charismatic and subtly tainted by the touch of death. Such officers are thus vested with magical powers by the sovereigns of their nations, giving them quick and easy access to the fell talents needed tolead undead units on the battlefield. Often called "uttercold assault necromancers," the defining trait of these Warlocks is their ability to harness a twisted blend of ice and death-based magics to support the undead that fight under them and destroy their enemies.

The undead soldiers that uttercold assault necromancers lead are perfectly disciplined, and their nations thus expect the same level of discipline from them. In order to maintain this expected discipline, and in response to the hatred and fear in which their forces are held, uttercold assault necromancers are held to the highest standard of military ethics. A degree of political aptitude is also demanded of these officers, as their forces are almost guaranteed to be given the most dangerous and least desirable missions. The stringent requirements that come with being an uttercold assault necromancer demand commitment from a young age, so most who take up the path are apprenticed in their teens, and low level characters typically fall into this apprentice category.

Patron Spells

The Uttercold Legion lets choose from an expanded list of spells when you select a Warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you:

1st: Heroism, Ice Knife
2nd: Aid, Enhance Ability
3rd: Crusader's Mantle, Sleet Storm
4th: Death Ward, Ice Storm
5th: Circle of Power, Cone of Cold

An Officer and a Gentleman

As an Uttercold Assault Necromancer, you are a recognized officer in a military force that has one or more undead detachments, one of which you are responsible for, or one day will be responsible for. Starting when you select this patron at 1st level you and up to 4 of your allies may gain free food and lodging, while on a military installation within your nation. You also have advantage on all d20 rolls when gathering information from military members (active or retired) from your nation.

You gain proficiency in one versatile or one-handed weapon of your choice. Upon completing your training (or at character creation, if you received your training prior then the start of the campaign) your GM can have your millitary reward you with a weapon of that type, Known as a Ceremonial Weapon. You may use you ceremonial weapon as an arcane focus for your Warlock spells and abilities. If you lose or break your Ceremonial Weapon you may get a replacement at any military installation within your nation. A Ceremonial Weapon can become a pact weapon. (Credit: Garfunion)

You also must abide by the officer's code, a set of exacting standards that your military and nation hold you accountable to. Your GM determines the exact punishment for defying this code.

As an Uttercold Assault Necromancer, you must conduct your villainous acts with restraint, good manners and aplomb. In addition, you must hold yourself to the following rules:

You must avoid harming innocents and civilians, when feasible.
You must be courteous and dignified of bearing (and towards the opposite sex, gallant) at all times.
You must graciously accept the surrender of a defeated foe, and treat them with decorum and respect, which means absolutely no torture.
You cannot summarily slay captured foes. You are permitted to test their worthiness by placing them in elaborate conditions almost certain to kill them, as long as those of sufficient character or cleverness might survive.
You must always keep your word of honor.
You are also expected to ensure that all of your subordinates (including undead minions you raise or summon yourself) obey this code, and to discipline them if they do not. Note that other "dishonorable" actions, including attacks from ambush, torture of captured spies, and the use of poison, are perfectly permissible under the Officer's Code.

Conscript Undead

Also at 1st level, you learn how to bring the undead under your control. As an action you can expend a Warlock spell slot to take control of an undead creature. When you this, you target one undead creature you can see within 30 feet and force it to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target must obey your commands for the next 24 hours, or until you use this feature again. Undead whose CRs equal or exceed your warlock level are immune to this effect. (Credit: Garfunion)

General of Undeath

At 6th level, you become a peerless commander of undead. Undead you raise, summon or create with necromancy spells (including spells you cast through invocations and mystic arcanum) gain an additional hit die (and the resulting increase in in hit points and hit point maximum) Starting at 15th level, they gain two additional hit dice instead (and the resulting increase in hit points and hit point maximum). Additionally, frendly undead within 30ft of you add the higher of your Charisma modifier or proficiency bonus to their weapon damage rolls.

Cold Embrace

Starting at 10th level, you gain resistance to cold and necrotic damage, can hold your breath indefinitely, and don't require food, water, or sleep, though you still require rest to reduce exhaustion and still benefit from finishing short and long rests. In addition, you age at a slower rate. For every 10 years that pass, your body ages only 1 year, and you are immune to being magically aged.(Credit: Garfunion)

Uttercold Assault

At 14th level, you learn how to draw upon the dual powers of frost and necromancy to devistate your foes. As an action you can create a burst of ice centered around you with a 20ft radius. Creatures caught within that radius must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Warlock spell save DC. On a failed save, they take 10d8 cold damage and become restrained. A restrained creature can spend their action to break the restrained condition. On a successful save, they take half as much damage, and are not restrained. If any creature is reduced to 0 or less hit points by this feature, they become skeletons or zombies (your choice, and not subject to change once chosen) under your control, as if you cast Animate Dead on their corpses. Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you complete a short or long rest. (Credit: Garfunion)

New Invocations

The following invocations are added to those a warlock can choose from when they select their invocations:

Reanimating Touch
Prerequisite: Chill Touch cantrip
When a living creature’s hit points are reduced to 0 or less from your Chill Touch cantrip a skeleton rises from its corpse. The skeleton has 1 hit point and has the same initiative as the creature. When the skeleton takes it’s turn, it will move to and attack the closest target that is an enemy to you (if it can). At the end of the skeleton’s turn its hit points are reduced to 0 and crumbles to pieces. (Credit: Garfunion)

Frightful Touch
Prerequisite: Chill Touch cantrip
When you hit a creature with your Chill Touch cantrip, that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is frightened of you until the end of its next turn, after which it becomes immuned to this invocation’s effects. (Credit: Garfunion)

Felfrost
When you cast a spell that deals cold damage, that spell deals additional necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier against a single target. (Credit: Garfunion)

Rime Blade
Prerequisite: Uttercold Legion Patron
While you are wielding your Ceremonial Weapon, you can cast Green Flame Blade as a warlock cantrip, using your Ceremonial Weapon to make the required melee weapon attack. When you cast Green Flame Blade this way, it deals cold damage instead of fire damage, and you use your Charisma modifier in place of your Strength modifier on both the required melee weapon attack and its resulting damage roll.

Icy Burst
Prerequisite: Frostbite cantrip, 5th level
When you cast Frostbite cantrip, you may target two additional creatures. Each target can not be no more then 10ft apart from each other. (Credit: Garfunion)

The Dead Walk
Prerequisite: 5th level
You can cast Animate Dead using a Warlock spell slot twice per-long rest.

Chill of Death
Prerequisite: Uttercold Legion Patron, The Dead Walk, 7th level
When a creature dies from a spell you cast that deals cold damage, you may use your reaction to raise it as a skeleton or zombie under your control. Undead you raise this way remain animated for 1 minute or until end of combat (whichever comes first), and can be commanded as-if they where created by an Animate Dead spell cast by you. (Credit: Garfunion)

Flexible Arcanum
Prerequisite: 11th level
Choose one Warlock spell (which can be a mystic arcanum spell, if applicable) you know. You may use your Mystic Arcanum to cast that spell at a spell level equal to the Mystic Arcanum spent. (You do not also cast the expended mystic arcanum spell when you do this.) You can select this invocation multiple times. Each time you do so, you must choose a different spell. (Credit: Garfunion)

Credits

A big thanks to Garfunion of GITPG for inspiring and outright creating many of the mechanics used by these subclasses. Art courtesy of Granblu Fantasy.

Man_Over_Game
2018-10-23, 04:58 PM
Bard: (I'll look over the other classes when I get more time)
It's a bit stronger as a necromancer than the necromancer Wizard. Notably, the fact that it can control up to 5 undead per day at level 3, and raise up to 5 undead per short rest after level 5.

For reference, Animate Dead is a 3rd level spell, not available until character level 5, and can only be cast twice by a full caster at that level per day. You can usually only add one per casting, or reassert control over a maximum of 4 as a group with a single casting for every 24 hours.

Yours can start raising an army 2 levels earlier than everyone else, and summon about 10-15 a day vs the normal ~2 a day.

Additionally, yours get advantage on their attacks and double movement, extremely better than the necromancer equivalent.

The final ability is actually quite cool. I really dig it.

My recommendation would be to completely change the level 3 and 6 features. For the level 3 feature, I'd make it so that you can temporarily animate life into dead beings, causing them to be able to make movements, make simple attacks, and be an overall nuisance that's designed to be temporary. The idea here is to do something that's completely unique while not having too much overlap with existing classes/subclasses.

I'd make it something like this:

Target a dead body, a body part, or a pile of bones and spend a Bardic Inspiration. A small piece of the corpse is now animated (likely a hand), it rips itself away from the original body, and now is treated as a Small Undead object that is under your control and uses your Initiative.

They have an amount of "Negative Energy" equal to the Bardic Inspiration you rolled for them. When your turn ends, this number goes down. They can attack, grapple, or shove adjacent creatures. All of their rolls either use their current Negative Energy value + d20 as their roll, or your Bardic Inspiration die as damage. When their Negative Energy hits 0, they cease to remain animated. They have an AC of 10, and rather than losing life, they lose a single point of their Negative Energy. They have a speed of 15. You can control a number of these creatures equal to your Charisma Modifier. You can command all of your creations with a single command (Attack that one! Protect me!) as a bonus action, and they all will continue to follow that command until you give them another one. You may choose a new command as part of the same bonus action you use to raise one. You cannot order specific ones to have separate commands; they all obey the current, singular command.

This fills a niche that supports a (literally) small army without them being overpowered. Since the only thing you really have to track is their original Bardic Inspiration value, you just simply set your rolled BI die aside and round it down to the next lowest number for all of your summons at the end of each of your turns. It's a rather simple system. I'd remove the availability of any Wizard spells outside of cantrips at this level, though.

At level 6, I'd recommend Animate Dead becomes available. Maybe tack on a clause that all of your undead creatures can be commanded with the same bonus action. With the recommended level 3 feature, this would be fairly good as-is.

It's important to separate the class as just being a better necromancer. One thing that's easy to miss is that each subclass generally does about two things that makes them stand out mechanically. The Necromancer controls undead and benefits from using necromancy damage spells to regenerate health, both of which are extremely unique amongst the current classes. On the other hand, your Bard can be summarized as "Everything that a Necromancer Wizard does, but Better!~", which can probably be expanded upon. Regardless of which route you go with the actual mechanics, I think this is the important part to focus on. "What's unique about this?" is the main concern, and let the undead reanimation follow after.

Giegue
2018-10-26, 01:20 PM
I like the first mechanic you came up with. It’s really unique and fun! Thanks a lot for the help; I think it really captures the feel I was going for with that archetype. That being said, the 6th level feature you suggested is too weak/underpowered. With the 6th level feature you suggested, your straight up worse at undead pets than the wizard. No way around that. Your just strictly worse than the wizard in unless you have some other bonuses for stuff raised with Animate or create undead. Howevert, being strictly better is not an answer either, so I do agree that my feature at 6th has to go. After thinking about it, I came up with a totally re-vamped version of the archetype, inspired heavily by


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The world can be a dark place. For every tale of noble heroes or great triumphs, there is a story of terrifying monsters or gruesome death. While most bards like to focus on tales that uplift and inspire, some bards instead shift their focus to a darker calling. While not a college in the traditional sense, the college of the desecration is a term used to describe the varied and disparate group of Bards who focus their art on the raising of undead minions. Unlike the bards of the college of dirges who use their performances to mourn the dead, bards of the college of desecration, often just called "desecrators", have little care for the dead as individuals. Instead, they find their muse in both the trappings and asthetics of death, and the undead themselves. Desecrators are often fascinated by gruesome topics that frighten normal folk, such as murders, hauntings, undead, and the things that go "bump" in the night.

However, what ultimately distances these bards from every day people is their blatant disregard for the sanctity of the dead and penchant for raising undead minions, which earned them their reputation as "desecrators." In fact, the term "college of desecration" is a derogatory name, coined by college of dirges to disparage these bards as little more than ghouls who root about in graveyards, digging up the dead to become their next minions. While this image of a desecrator is at least partly factual, as a loose assemblage united only by a shared intrest in the macabre, bards of the collage of desecration varry greatly in their passions and levels of depravity. While many are evil individuals who delight in gore, death, and the defiling of the dead, others may instead be amoral enthusiests of horrific tales or even more light-hearted stories in which undead are princaple characters. Desecrators who gravitate towards the latter may even make an effort to combat the stigma against undead, doing things like using their undead as a part of comedic performances, or taking up a publicly romantic partnership with a benign intelligent undead, such as a repentent vampire.

Despite their differences and lack of true organization, some more formal societies of desecrators exsist. These groups typically meet in graveyards, or sites where murders, hauntings and other grim events transpired. The most organized of such groups often try and pass themselves off as a more legitimate fixture in the community. Most commonly, this is in the form of exclusive clubs of wealthy individuals that share certain "exotic" intrests, though some may go as far as establishing a buisness in line with their intrests, such as a funeral home, butcher shop, or sanitarium.

Basic Necromancy

Your intrest in the macabre causes you to learn necromantic magics beyond the scope of traditional bardic magic. When you select this collage at 3rd level, you gain Chill Touch and Toll the Dead as bonus cantrips known. For you these cantrips are Bard cantrips, and do not count against your total Cantrips known (as-per the cantrips known column of the Bard table).

Macabre Waltz

Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your music or oration to call back the dead for another dance. You can perform for 10 minutes to assemble corpses you touch into an undead hoard under your control by spending and rolling a bardic inspiration die. The hoard you raise is treated as a single creature with the following game statistics:

Size: Variable (Starts at large, and grows as you gain Bard levels)
Speed: 20ft (It may move through holes up to two sizes smaller than itself at half speed)
Hit Points: Equals the result of your inspiration die roll x your Bard level
Armor Class: Equals your Bard spell save DC
Type: Undead
Immunities: Poison damage, and both the poisoned and exhaustion conditions.
Saves: Equal to your saves (though it automatically fails any save against a damage dealing area attack)
The hoard can be commanded to move freely, however, to command it to take an action of any kind you must use an action. You can command the hoard to Dash, Dodge or Disengage or initiate a grapple (using your Bard spell save DC for the hoard's check, and against any adjacent enemy); however, it cannot be commanded to attack normally. Instead, you can use your action to have each creature that starts its next turn in the round within 5ft of the hoard make a Dexterity saving throw against your Bard spell save DC. On a failed save, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning or slashing damage (your choice). As you grow in power, both this damage and the size of the hoard you can raise increases. At 5th level the damage increases to 2d6 and you can raise a huge hoard. At 11th level the damage increases to 3d6 and you can raise a Gargantuan hoard. At 17th level, the damage increases to 4d6 and you can raise a Colossal hoard.

Regardless of how many times you can use this feature, you can only control one such hoard at any given time; subsequent uses of this feature will repair an existing hoard (raising it with full HP), or raise a new one. However, you may dismiss an existing hoard at any time to raise a new one as a free action, causing that hoard to crumble to dust (leaving it unable to be reanimated again).

Morbid Secrets

At 6th level, you further plum the depths of macabre lore and gain access to stronger necromancy spells. You gain 2 necromancy spells from any list of 3rd level or lower as bonus spells known. At each bard level you gain access to a new spell level, you can swap these spells for 2 necromancy spells of that level from any list. Any bonus spells you gain from this feature do not count against your maximum known spells (as-per the spells known column of the Bard table), and are Bard spells for you.

Rule the Still Heart

At 14th level, you learn how to forever bind the unbeating hearts of the dead to your will, transforming them into your eternal slaves. Bard spells you cast treat undead as humanoids and ignore their immunity to the Charmed condition (if-applicable). Additionally, if a bard spell you cast would inflict the Charmed condition on an undead creature(s), those undead remain Charmed indefinitely. This does not extend the duration of any other spell effects beyond granting the Charmed condition. (So an undead indefinitely charmed with a Dominate Person spell you cast this way could not be directly controlled as-per that spells' rules after its duration ends, and would merely have the base effect of the charmed condition (giving you advantage on Charisma checks made with it) extended for an indefinite duration.) If you or one (or more) of your allies attack or otherwise directly harm any undead you have charmed indefinitely through this feature, they immediately lose the Charmed condition and become hostile.

BIG thanks to Lord Von Becker for inspiring this archetype/creating the hoard mechanics.