Magic Item Homebrewing Ideas for an "Ethical" Necromancer

[Ionathus]

Bree & Rhogar, I know you read these forums on occasion. No peeking.

Hello all! I am DMing for a party of 4 in a traditional Forgotten Realms campaign right now and, because I'm apparently a masochist, I like to homebrew items as much as possible to fit each character's playstyle and personality.

This is a fun challenge for everyone, but emphasis on the "challenge" part when it comes to my wizard: she's a level 9 Necromancer and a "good" one, to boot. Cheerful, Chaotic Good, strong moral convictions, only sees the undead as a useful tool to be made from an abundant resource (e.g. the trail of corpses the party leaves in its wake) and avoids messing around with soul-trapping or mind-control stuff at all costs. Well, almost all costs (more on that later).

Obviously, this presents a unique challenge for magic items. She's never, ever going to go for the Hand & Eye of Vecna, or the Book of Vile Darkness, for instance. Likewise, lots of online "Necromancer magic items" lists tend to feature armor made from the skin of an angel, spectral demon-whips that flay the soul from your body, etc. etc. I'm looking for something that enhances the flavor and tactics of her choices, without going overboard and forcing her into one OP strategy.

Her current character-specific magic items are:

a bone wand that gives extra bonuses (temp hp, turn corpse into a zombie) if you kill an enemy with it, and
Diet Soul Gems that don't quite *consume* the soul, rather simply delay its release to the Outer Planes, allowing her to siphon that ecto-energy and regain spellslots a la the pearl of power whenever she releases a soul. Oh, and the Diet Soul Gems don't give you a choice: they detain the soul of any humanoid that dies within 60 feet of you, regardless of whether you want them to or not :smallbiggrin:

What character-specific items would you give her? I don't necessarily want to buff her undead summons, since they already hit like a train. She really enjoyed me giving her that "hard choice" with the Diet Soul Gems and I definitely want to lean into that "power has a cost" flavor of necromancy. Right now I'm considering something that lets her add extra Oomph to her necrotic damage spells, at the cost of her own HP. But maybe I could target something completely different, like a defensive cloak or a utility item? Would love to hear your thoughts - thank you!

Maybe useful setting notes: in my setting, Necromancy is mostly frowned on or is a source of fear, and prominent necromancers have tried to take over the world in living memory. Two of the other characters consider necromancy to be some form of abomination, and are uneasy about her tampering with Dark Forces, but nobody thinks she's evil -- just that she's too curious in a "you were so preoccupied with whether you could" way. However, I also haven't introduced any "Necromancy is objectively evil" lore, such as its use powering the Negative Energy Plane or anything similar.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Taking a little inspiration from the Mistborn books, what about a couple sets of metal or crystal bones that can be used to make extra-powerful skeletons?

A ring that gives you the ability to transfer drained life energies (ie, necrotic damage) to another character to heal them.

A soul-trapping gem that can be used to purify tainted spirits (ghosts, specters, etc), turning the excess evil energy into spell slots and releasing the purified soul to go on to its afterlife.

[Segev]

A recorder, flute, or other instrument that, when played, causes the dead to rise to dance to the tune. They can be made to perform useful activities as part of the dance, Disney Princess Song style.

[Amdy_vill]

Bree & Rhogar, I know you read these forums on occasion. No peeking.

Hello all! I am DMing for a party of 4 in a traditional Forgotten Realms campaign right now and, because I'm apparently a masochist, I like to homebrew items as much as possible to fit each character's playstyle and personality.

This is a fun challenge for everyone, but emphasis on the "challenge" part when it comes to my wizard: she's a level 9 Necromancer and a "good" one, to boot. Cheerful, Chaotic Good, strong moral convictions, only sees the undead as a useful tool to be made from an abundant resource (e.g. the trail of corpses the party leaves in its wake) and avoids messing around with soul-trapping or mind-control stuff at all costs. Well, almost all costs (more on that later).

Obviously, this presents a unique challenge for magic items. She's never, ever going to go for the Hand & Eye of Vecna, or the Book of Vile Darkness, for instance. Likewise, lots of online "Necromancer magic items" lists tend to feature armor made from the skin of an angel, spectral demon-whips that flay the soul from your body, etc. etc. I'm looking for something that enhances the flavor and tactics of her choices, without going overboard and forcing her into one OP strategy.

Her current character-specific magic items are:

a bone wand that gives extra bonuses (temp hp, turn corpse into a zombie) if you kill an enemy with it, and
Diet Soul Gems that don't quite *consume* the soul, rather simply delay its release to the Outer Planes, allowing her to siphon that ecto-energy and regain spellslots a la the pearl of power whenever she releases a soul. Oh, and the Diet Soul Gems don't give you a choice: they detain the soul of any humanoid that dies within 60 feet of you, regardless of whether you want them to or not :smallbiggrin:

What character-specific items would you give her? I don't necessarily want to buff her undead summons, since they already hit like a train. She really enjoyed me giving her that "hard choice" with the Diet Soul Gems and I definitely want to lean into that "power has a cost" flavor of necromancy. Right now I'm considering something that lets her add extra Oomph to her necrotic damage spells, at the cost of her own HP. But maybe I could target something completely different, like a defensive cloak or a utility item? Would love to hear your thoughts - thank you!

Maybe useful setting notes: in my setting, Necromancy is mostly frowned on or is a source of fear, and prominent necromancers have tried to take over the world in living memory. Two of the other characters consider necromancy to be some form of abomination, and are uneasy about her tampering with Dark Forces, but nobody thinks she's evil -- just that she's too curious in a "you were so preoccupied with whether you could" way. However, I also haven't introduced any "Necromancy is objectively evil" lore, such as its use powering the Negative Energy Plane or anything similar.

Old-school white necromancy focuses on summoning negative energy creatures things like the night waker, you could make up some down-level similar creatures and give them an item the lets them burn their zombies and skeletons and summon one of those creatures. a flavored spell casting book from tashas that has necromancer spells that they don't have.

[Mastikator]

The Staff of Lost Souls (requires attunement)
This staff appears as a twisting set of bones with runes carved into them. As an action the holder may choose one undead target within 60 feet range. That creature must then succeed on a DC 16 charisma saving throw, if it fails and the creature has a soul (bound or otherwise) or is it is released into the after life. If the creature is merely animated by magic then it has a disadvantage on the save. The undead's body is then inhabited with magical energy, animating it and bringing it under the control of the holder of the Staff. This can only animate one creature. If the creature being animated is CR 4 or higher it is transformed into a wight, otherwise it remains the same type as before.
If anything takes control of the undead then it is immediately destroyed.
This ability has 1 charge and recharges at dawn.

[Ionathus]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!


Taking a little inspiration from the Mistborn books, what about a couple sets of metal or crystal bones that can be used to make extra-powerful skeletons?

A ring that gives you the ability to transfer drained life energies (ie, necrotic damage) to another character to heal them.

A soul-trapping gem that can be used to purify tainted spirits (ghosts, specters, etc), turning the excess evil energy into spell slots and releasing the purified soul to go on to its afterlife.

I really like the ring idea, especially because it would let her (very slightly) step on the Paladin's toes as the healer :smallbiggrin:


Old-school white necromancy focuses on summoning negative energy creatures things like the night waker, you could make up some down-level similar creatures and give them an item the lets them burn their zombies and skeletons and summon one of those creatures. a flavored spell casting book from tashas that has necromancer spells that they don't have.

Hmm, that's an interesting mechanic -- basically burning low-level undead to create bigger ones, like a Yu-Gi-Oh summon? This would also nicely build on some of the fights they've had, where skeletons/zombies combined amalgam-style into larger undead boss monsters.

[snooker]

Its all very possible for good people to use bad things for good means. Sure, maybe the amulet WAS created from the souls of a thousand infant children, boiled alive, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for a good cause.

And think of it! All of those poor babies boiled to death; can't let them die for nothing. Nope, make the most of a bad situation and use their sacrifice to forward the cause of good.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Its all very possible for good people to use bad things for good means. Sure, maybe the amulet WAS created from the souls of a thousand infant children, boiled alive, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for a good cause.

And think of it! All of those poor babies boiled to death; can't let them die for nothing. Nope, make the most of a bad situation and use their sacrifice to forward the cause of good.

A tangent here that I feel compelled to bring up, though I don't rush for it actually to derail the thread, is that Evil people can have Good goals, methods are just as much an indication as the results they seek.

On topic: I recall that Necromancer has done anti-synergy with life transference, which I think is a terrible shame. If I were creating a custom item for a Necromancer, one of the first small ribbons I would attach would be to overcome that, on top of other more generally useful effects. I liked the idea of a staff that can release trapped spirits.

[quindraco]

Bree & Rhogar, I know you read these forums on occasion. No peeking.

Hello all! I am DMing for a party of 4 in a traditional Forgotten Realms campaign right now and, because I'm apparently a masochist, I like to homebrew items as much as possible to fit each character's playstyle and personality.

This is a fun challenge for everyone, but emphasis on the "challenge" part when it comes to my wizard: she's a level 9 Necromancer and a "good" one, to boot. Cheerful, Chaotic Good, strong moral convictions, only sees the undead as a useful tool to be made from an abundant resource (e.g. the trail of corpses the party leaves in its wake) and avoids messing around with soul-trapping or mind-control stuff at all costs. Well, almost all costs (more on that later).

Obviously, this presents a unique challenge for magic items. She's never, ever going to go for the Hand & Eye of Vecna, or the Book of Vile Darkness, for instance. Likewise, lots of online "Necromancer magic items" lists tend to feature armor made from the skin of an angel, spectral demon-whips that flay the soul from your body, etc. etc. I'm looking for something that enhances the flavor and tactics of her choices, without going overboard and forcing her into one OP strategy.

Her current character-specific magic items are:

a bone wand that gives extra bonuses (temp hp, turn corpse into a zombie) if you kill an enemy with it, and
Diet Soul Gems that don't quite *consume* the soul, rather simply delay its release to the Outer Planes, allowing her to siphon that ecto-energy and regain spellslots a la the pearl of power whenever she releases a soul. Oh, and the Diet Soul Gems don't give you a choice: they detain the soul of any humanoid that dies within 60 feet of you, regardless of whether you want them to or not :smallbiggrin:

What character-specific items would you give her? I don't necessarily want to buff her undead summons, since they already hit like a train. She really enjoyed me giving her that "hard choice" with the Diet Soul Gems and I definitely want to lean into that "power has a cost" flavor of necromancy. Right now I'm considering something that lets her add extra Oomph to her necrotic damage spells, at the cost of her own HP. But maybe I could target something completely different, like a defensive cloak or a utility item? Would love to hear your thoughts - thank you!

Maybe useful setting notes: in my setting, Necromancy is mostly frowned on or is a source of fear, and prominent necromancers have tried to take over the world in living memory. Two of the other characters consider necromancy to be some form of abomination, and are uneasy about her tampering with Dark Forces, but nobody thinks she's evil -- just that she's too curious in a "you were so preoccupied with whether you could" way. However, I also haven't introduced any "Necromancy is objectively evil" lore, such as its use powering the Negative Energy Plane or anything similar.

Well done corrupting her morality by coaxing her to fall prey to temptation and delay souls reaching their afterlife for her own gain. Proud of you.

I'll offer two suggestions, one for the morally good necromancer like you asked for, and one for the necromancer who's totally cool with imprisoning souls cos she tells herself it's ok if they get to the afterlife eventually and holding someone against their will totally isn't against the law in every country because all moral beings oppose it. What really matters is that she gets her sweet spell slots.

Latter first:
Soul Gem Crown: this magic hat has a slot in it you can put a soul gem into. While a soul is in the gem, whenever you finish a short rest while wearing the crown, you can attune to the gem, granting you proficiency in any one language, skill, or tool of your choice the soul was proficient in. The crown informs you of the soul's proficiencies, so you can make an informed choice. Furthermore, as an action, you can ask the soul a question. It is under no compulsion to tell the truth, and only knows what it knew in life, but it also knows what you are about to do (the crown is a very informative prison), which is this: after receiving your answer, you must choose one of the upper or lower planes to send the soul to. The soul is not only sent there, that plane becomes its home plane for magical purposes, such as the banishment spell, and it is magically barred from returning to the prime material for a year and a day under any circumstances.

And the former (this is a minion buff, but I think you'll be ok with it):
Crown of Undead Command: While wearing this magical hat, undead under your control, such as skeletons and zombies, which ordinarily attempt to kill the living unless explicitly ordered not to every time their previous orders cease, instead default to not doing anything, just as if they had not noticed anything alive getting too close. Furthermore, your undead always understand all languages you speak, even if they didn't in life. Finally, at will, you can destroy any undead under your command (you choose exactly which ones to destroy when you do this). Corporeal undead wither away to dust, while incorporeal undead simply fade away to nothingness.

[Kane0]

A wand that allows you to cast Speak With Dead at-will, but the only questions you can ask are ‘are you happy for me to animate and use your corpse?’ and ‘how would you like your body disposed of?’

Consumable black onyx gems that you can set into the eyesockets of undead to give them a power boost (extra AC, HP, attack damage, etc). A variant blood onyx version can be used to make flameskulls.

A hat of disguise that also applies perfume and gives a bonus on deception checks, but only works on zombies.

A mace that lets you smash skeletons together to make bigger, badder ones (ogre skeleton, horse skeleton, bone golem, etc) or break them into bundles of smaller ones (boneswarm!).

A staff that replicates the 3.5 spells Undeath to Death (basically a reversed circle of death) and Undeath’s Eternal Foe (grants immunity to energy draining attacks and other things caused by undead like paralysis, fear and disease)

A circlet or amulet that allows you to heal undead with necrotic damage

Spell scrolls to debone, avasculate and other undead preparation utilities. If the target happens to still be alive... well...

Something that adds a crawling claw as an option for a familiar.

A helm of telepathy that only works on undead, allowing you to issue orders over greater distances and with greater detail.

An item you imbed into a zombie’s stomach to give it an acid/poison breath weapon

Gloves with charges that turn your unarmed attacks into Vampiric Touches.

A ring that allows you to combine ray of sickness and ray of enfeeblement together

A wooden dagger that is vorpal vs vampires

A tome that teaches you to create incorporal undead instead of skeletons/zombies

A gem of seeing, but it only seeks out and reveals phylacteries and other soul-trapping items.

[quindraco]

A wand that allows you to cast Speak With Dead at-will, but the only questions you can ask are ‘are you happy for me to animate and use your corpse?’ and ‘how would you like your body disposed of?’

This is excellent, but constraining the necromancer like this is bad form - it's only narratively compelling if she chooses good.

Better:

Amulet of <X> (DM replaces X with an appropriately Lawful Neutral deity from their pantheond who judges the dead to determine their final disposition; Anubis, for example, which I'll go with)
Amulet of Anubis:
While wearing this amulet, you have the Whispers of the Grave invocation, whether or not you are a Warlock. Furthermore, you can hear a voice which assures you it is Anubis and it is watching and listening. Periodically, you can hear scratching noises, like a quill on parchment.

[Glorthindel]

In a campaign I played in a few years ago, the DM created for my "good" (well, Neutral, but he explicitly didn't dabble in animating corpses) Necromancer a magic staff which leaned heavily into the dark-and-brooding, but entirely in roleplay elements.

For example, while carrying the staff, my character was always treated as if standing in shadow (even in full daylight, it was as if i had my own private cloud blotting out the sun in the spot I was stood), it generated a slight aura of "wrongness", and my character explicitly couldn't experience joyful emotions whilst holding the staff (it didn't affect him when he wasn't holding the staff, and it stood upright unaided when released, so it led to some odd situations where I would purposefully release the staff during character discussions, so I wouldn't be a "downer" - for a while I carried a prop at the table so everyone knew when I was staff-in-hand and when I was staff-down!).

As for actual benefits of the staff, I am a little foggy on that now, but am fairly sure it granted me bonus Necromancy-only slots, increased range on Chill Touch, and a once-a-day AOE fear effect, but ultimately that is less important, as it was the negative flavour effects that made it feel more like a Necromancy staff than the real boons.

EDIT - Oh, and I've just remembered the staffs other (and the one we found the funniest) 'negative' RP trait - The staff was intelligent and capable of communication, but it just chose not to. And my character was aware of this, and could tell that it didn't hate me, or even particularly dislike me, it was just ambivalent.

[Ionathus]

And think of it! All of those poor babies boiled to death; can't let them die for nothing. Nope, make the most of a bad situation and use their sacrifice to forward the cause of good.

I mean, if the fat's already been rendered off the children, I suppose it would be morally reprehensible to let it go to waste....*sigh* SO much child death in Foon...


Well done corrupting her morality by coaxing her to fall prey to temptation and delay souls reaching their afterlife for her own gain. Proud of you.

And the former (this is a minion buff, but I think you'll be ok with it):
Crown of Undead Command: While wearing this magical hat, undead under your control, such as skeletons and zombies, which ordinarily attempt to kill the living unless explicitly ordered not to every time their previous orders cease, instead default to not doing anything, just as if they had not noticed anything alive getting too close. Furthermore, your undead always understand all languages you speak, even if they didn't in life. Finally, at will, you can destroy any undead under your command (you choose exactly which ones to destroy when you do this). Corporeal undead wither away to dust, while incorporeal undead simply fade away to nothingness.

Thank you :smallbiggrin:

I really like the suggestions here to make undead more easily-controlled and remove the more "uneasy" parts of necromancy - it helps to make her skeletal armies more palatable, while still not making them OP!


A hat of disguise that also applies perfume and gives a bonus on deception checks, but only works on zombies.

A tome that teaches you to create incorporal undead instead of skeletons/zombies

Love these as well, in particular. Both for the "uneasy" thing from above, and also that being able to create undead without material components could work with the lore I've built!


Amulet of <X> (DM replaces X with an appropriately Lawful Neutral deity from their pantheond who judges the dead to determine their final disposition; Anubis, for example, which I'll go with)
Amulet of Anubis:
While wearing this amulet, you have the Whispers of the Grave invocation, whether or not you are a Warlock. Furthermore, you can hear a voice which assures you it is Anubis and it is watching and listening. Periodically, you can hear scratching noises, like a quill on parchment.

According to the player, she is a devout worshipper of Kelemvor...though she calls herself a "Reformed Kelemvorite" (player is an OotS fan :smallcool:). She loves debating with other Kelemvor worshippers, and with the devout Paladin of Bahamut -- this item offers some great opportunities!


EDIT - Oh, and I've just remembered the staffs other (and the one we found the funniest) 'negative' RP trait - The staff was intelligent and capable of communication, but it just chose not to. And my character was aware of this, and could tell that it didn't hate me, or even particularly dislike me, it was just ambivalent.

Depending on playstyle, this is either the most deliciously mean RP twist or the most hilarious bit of flavor possible for a sentient magic item. I love it.

[Randel]

Cleaner Beetles - A jar filled with wood ash and covered in images of beetles. The user can speak the command word and toss a handful of the ash to summon a swarm of ashen beetles under their control. The beetle swarm can be instructed to attack a target, perform mundane cleaning in an area, or strip all the flesh from a corpses bones. If they kill a target, they automatically move on to the flesh eating part unless told not to. After a minute or so, the beetles dissolve back into ash.

The user must replace any ash used, usually with ash taken from a campfire or fireplace.


A horse - A shadowy horse bound to a figurine. The user can summon or dismiss the shadow horse at will, at which point the horse trots out from the nearest shadow or dimly lit area or dissapears into a dim area when leaving. It likes to eat like a normal horse, but lacks a stomach so the chewed up food just sort of plops back down onto the ground after it swallows.


Hopping corpse talismans - Slips of paper covered in prayers for the dead. By placing one over the face of a corpse and speaking the magic words, a shapeless force similar to that used by the unseen servant spell will cover the corpse and make it move at the users command. The corpse is not undead, merely being moved around. Similarly it cannot perform any actions.

The talismans are mainly used to help transport corpses for burial, and can be commanded to take them to any known location regardless of distance (usually a temple or graveyard). The force carrying the corpse only has a single hit point and any damage at all ends the effect.

However, if the corpse's journey lasts for over seven days, the animating force carrying the corpse can become corrupted, binding with it to create an uncontrolled undead.


Gravedigger's Spade - This ornate spade acts like a wand allowing the user to cast Mold Earth as per the cantrip at will. This can be very useful for burying or digging up dead bodies.

[Kol Korran]

Hi there. First of all, I am fairly new to 5e (I mostly played 3.5e and Pathfinder till lately), so I may have some mechanics wrong, or be unaware of balance issues, but at least my suggestions might give inspiration?

Ok, afer the warning, here are some ideas:

1- The Blood Bowl
--‐‐---‐-------------------------
An ancient stone bowl, looking extremley simple and practical. It's only decorations and signs of importance are nearly faded etched runes of necromacy and alchemy at its sides, and an etched prayer, in a dead language, for an obcure entity of death, who was lost to time.
Oh, and the blood stains on the edges, who look very old, yet smell very fresh, and are utterly resistant to any attempt to remove them...

The bowl have 2 main functions and uses:
# A bloody exchange:
Once per long rest, the user can sacrifice some of his life force to create expensive useful items. The bowl needs to be filled with fresh blood willingly. (Through unknown means, the bowl detects if these requirements aren't met. In that case, the blood rots in a matter of seconds, leaving an awful acrid smell). The user decides the amount of blood, represnted in the amount of HP he loses.
Though the bowl is fairly small and shallow, it never gets truly full, even if great amounts of blood are poured into it.
Once the blood filling was done, the user can make a 10 minutes incantation, and create either costly spell components, or alchemia items, of a worth of 15gp per hp of blood. (This amount is intended not to fully currelate with the regular 25gp increments of most items, to give the feel that the bowl always requires more than it gives). The items created always feel slightly slippery with bloodz and keeo oozing tiny (yet noticable) amounts of blood. If the items are not used in the next 24 hours, they turn to a simple hard to remove blood stain. The catch? Once the items/ spell components are created, the hp loss used to create then is also deducted from the bleeders maximum HP! The HP maximum returns after 24 hours, and no magic can restore this sooner (Including restoration and similat affects).

# A divination in blood:
Once a week, the user can call upon the long lost entity of death (or it's avatar/ messenger) to grant powerful divinations.
The blood bowl is filled in a similar manner (it needs at least 5hp for this to function). The user can then make a different 10 minutes incantation. At the end of it, an extremley pale, somewhat alien, nearly featureless face, yet with a sense of immense depth appear in the blood pool. The user can then ask it questions, effectively casting either Commune, Legend Lore, or Divination. The user must still supply the appropriate material components (though these can be made with the bloody exchange). While the effect works like the spells, there is one added benefit- The entity has an immense knowledge on all matters of flesh, great deaths, severe violence, and sacrifices. (So matyers such as anatomy and medicine, deaths of poweful beings, great battles and plagues, and different meaningful sacrifices throught he ages) On such matters the entity often answers in more depth and clarity than the spells usually provide, though often with disturbing, unnerving and ceeepy detail. The entity however, will never answer any questions about who it is/was, it's origins, or anything of that sort, excpet for very vague or confusing phrases, filled with a sense of sadness, remorse and regret...

2- Blindfold of undead sight
‐--------------------------------------------
Created by a civilization that reverred undead, (Or just a wizard with an undead obsession) these blindfolds enabled their wearer to momenterily experience the senses of the undead.

Upon wearing this blindfold, the wearer's normal senses are replaced by senses most common with the undead. This has several effects:
# An ability to sense life and undeath at 6p ft. Radius. The wearer becomes aware of the presence of living beings in this radius. Esepciallt powerful forces of life (such as celestials, powerful fey, or creatures associated with healing and life) shine more brightly, while especially poweful forces of undeath give a stronger sick miasmatic aurs. The wearer gains advantage in trying to perception, investigation and insight checks, to find and learn these creatures.
# If a living or undead creature is within sight, the wearer can use an action to discren its vital conditions:
- An approximation of wounds (No wounds/ above half/ Less than half/ barely standing (1-5).
- Knows if the target is posioned, diseased, and cursed.
# Sunlight sensitivity: While in sunlight (not just bright light) including equivaltn spells and powers, the wearer is disoriented, and suffers disadvatage to perception, investigstion and concentration checks. This negstive effect continues after the blindfold is removed, for a time equal to half the time spent wearing the fold.

Shadow cape (Requires attunment)
-----‐---------------------
The strange nearly weightless cape, looks to be made of an actual shadow. It's width almost imperceptible, it dims or dissappear in strong light, or darkens and lengthen in shadow and darkness.

Once per long rest, the wearer can use an pull the cape around him, thus transforming itself into a shadow.

The wearer changes to the MM shadowz including all of it's abilities, except for the following:
- Ability scores remain the same.
- HP remain the same.
- All equipment (Including armor, weapons, focuses, component pouches, other mundane and magical equipment) becomes a part of the shadow, and non functional. Change AC, attacks, and relevant powers accordingly.
- The shadow retains the user's alignment, personality and character.
- The shadow can only cast spells with no material components.
- For a purposes, the shadow is considered an undead, and subject to effects affecting undeaf (Such as turn undead, specific spells and such).

The wearer can stay in the shadow form safely for 10 minutes. If he seeks to remain it it further, it runs the risk of losing some of himself to the shadow. After 10 minutes roll Con and Wis saving throws (DC 15) every 10 more minutes. Failure results in a con save results in a loss of 1d6 points to a physical abilty score, and failure in a Wis save results in a similar loss for a mental ability score. (Which ability score is rolled at random). The loss can be restored only with restorative magic, such as restoration.

---------------------

Hope you may like these! And good luck with your game! :)

[MrStabby]

So the dead needn't be evil.

Look at things like the Ancestral Guardians barbarian - willing spirits with a common cause coming to your aid.

Give a talisman that lets benvolent spirits cross back into the world to help the character.

[Wizard_Lizard]

You could get a thing that lets you create undead with positive energy, like the Aereni of eberron? It'd replace necrotic damage attacks with radiant, or something like that.

[Ides Usher]

The Greater Necromancy Dozen Glove

This glove made of fine dragon leather has a pocket in the palm. Placing a material component in the pocket allows that component to be used up to 12 times before being fully consumed. Material components in the pouch that are used for necromancy spells last twice as long, up to 24 times. The necromancy spells that use that component are cast at a level one higher than the caster's actual level. There is a lesser version of this item which only allows five uses of any material component and up to ten uses when casting a necromancy spell. This lesser version allows the caster to extend either range or duration, caster's choice at the time of casting, of any necromancy spell using that component by 10% instead of casting at a higher level. Other schools of magic have their own Greater and Lesser Dozen Gloves tuned to that one particular school of magic. Only one component at a time may be placed in the pouch regardless of which school the glove is attuned to. Removing a component before it is completely consumed forfeits its existence. The pouch is larger on the inside than on the outside, so larger components may be placed within.

[Angelalex242]

Remember when we used to have Good Undead in the book of exalted deeds?

Also 'Ghost Martyrs of the Sapphire Guard, Attack!'