corpse ringer [3.5, peach]

[Somensjev]

ok, it's a class i designed a while ago, it's probably overpowered (even for 3.5) so just be prepared

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Corpse ringers are all one of a kind. They seem strange, crazy or even psychotic. But they are actually quite sane, though they may not always show it.
Corpse ringers control dead bodies and make them do their bidding, this doesn't mean that they're evil, but since they have almost no combat abilities, then can only rely on others to help them, so they use corpses, since they don't talk back to them

Adventures
Corpse ringers usually go out on adventure to find more powerful and interesting bodies to control. They don’t like living people much, but they put up with a party, because they're a good source of corpses

Characteristics
Corpse ringers have many skills, and know how to use them well, but their most refining feature is the ability to "raise" the dead and make them fight for them. There are many speculations as to how their power works, but no-one actually knows

Alignment
Corpse ringers can be any alignment, but usually avoid lawful, good and evil, because they know what happens when you follow laws, and they also know what happens when evil people meet good people, and vice versa

Religion
Corpse ringers don’t specifically believe in a single deity, because they know that they exist, but understand that they cant help everyone, so they either worship every deity they can, or they worship none

Background
Corpse ringers were usually raised in war-time, and know of all it's consequences. They have magical power, but not enough to become a good necromancer or wizard, although they usually learn from both of these types of people. They put the collective information that they learnt from the wizards and necromancers to learn how to raise and control dead bodies with what magical power they have

Races
Corpse ringers may be of any race

Other classes
Corpse ringers don't sit well with anyone, no matter what their class. They are very antisocial people

Role
The role of a corpse ringer is entirely dependent on the corpses that they control, the corpse ringer them self is more skill based than anything else

Game rule information
Corpse ringers have the following game statistics:
Abilities: a corpse ringer has much to gain from good constitution and dexterity scores, since they make them survive longer. They also usually have high intelligence
Alignment: any
Hit die: D8

Class skills
The corpse ringers key skills (and the key ability for each skill) are bluff (cha), concentration (con), knowledge (necromancy) (int), knowledge (arcana) (int)
Skill points at 1st level: (4+int modifier) X 8
Skill points at each additional level 4 + int modifier

Class features
All the following are class features of the corpse ringer

Weapon and armour proficiency: they are proficient with no weapons, and only light armour

Corpse ring: they can place pieces of metal (any metal) onto a corpse and bring it to life. The metal that they put on the corpse will become metallic items that the corpse wears, when the corpse dies, the items stay in the shape they took. The shape depends on what the corpse did in life
For each corpse ring they have (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., etc.) they can reanimate one deceased body
Their corpses start at level one of whatever class that they were in life, and they level up independently of the corpse ringer, but they may not exceed the level of the corpse ringer
it takes 1d6 hours to raise a corpse, and then it takes 2d4 days to get used to using the corpse. during the 2d4 days the corpse can only walk, and perform minor actions

ring reborn: a corpse ringer can perform a 24 hour ritual to take certain attributes of a corpse and embed the attributes into a metallic item that the corpse wears, they can perform the ritual once and give all metal items on the corpse a different attribute
(ability modifiers, racial modifiers, base attack bonus, spells, spell like abilities, weapon/armour proficiencies, known languages, class levels, skill saves, initiative bonus, natural armour/weapons, hit points, land base speed, special abilities, stats and anything else the corpse ringer may want)
They can then either, wield these items them self and gain their effects, place them on a new corpse to give that corpse their abilities, or hand them out to people

level, BAB, Fort save, Ref save, Will save, special
1, +0, +2, +2, +2, Corpse ring, ring reborn
2, +1, +3, +3, +3
3, +1, +3, +3, +3, 2nd corpse ring
4, +2, +4, +4, +4
5, +2, +4, +4, +4
6, +3, +5, +5, +5, 3rd corpse ring
7, +3, +5, +5, +5
8, +4, +6, +6, +6
9, +4, +6, +6, +6, 4th corpse ring
10, +5, +7, +7, +7
11, +5, +7, +7, +7
12, +6/+1, +8, +8, +8, 5th corpse ring
13, +6/+1, +8, +8, +8
14, +7/+2, +9, +9, +9
15, +7/+2, +9, +9, +9, 6th corpse ring
16, +8/+3, +10, +10, +10
17, +8/+3, +10, +10, +10
18, +9/+4, +11, +11, +11, 7th corpse ring
19, +9/+4, +11, +11, +11
20, +10/+5, +12, +12, +12, 8th corpse ring

Starting gold
6d4x10 (150gp)

Ex-corpse ringer: if a corpse ringer attacks something without using the corpses, then they lose all of their corpse ringer abilities until they have performed a 24 hour ritual to make up for this

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yes, the saves are ridiculous, i wasnt sure what to put them on when i gave it to them, so i gave them good scores in everything until i though of what they needed the most

[Moonwolf727]

Congrats on finally posting another of your hombrew classes, have a complementary table to go with it.

Unfortunately there are a lot of complaints I have with this class. Tis to be expected with a lot of homebrew, perhaps all of it, but I'm just going to type my smaller gripes in red and write my larger problems or suggested text changes in spoiler boxes. I've avoided actually changing anything aside from adding the table so don't worry about me ruining your class.

Corpse ringers are all one of a kind. They seem strange, crazy or even psychotic. But they are actually quite sane, though they may not always show it.
Corpse ringers control dead bodies and make them do their bidding, this doesn't mean that they're evil, but since they have almost no combat abilities, then can only rely on others to help them, so they use corpses, since they don't talk back to them

Adventures
Corpse ringers usually go out on adventure to find more powerful and interesting bodies to control. They don’t like living people much, but they put up with a party, because they're a good source of corpses

Characteristics
Corpse ringers have many skills, and know how to use them well, but their most refining feature is the ability to "raise" the dead and make them fight for them. There are many speculations as to how their power works, but no-one actually knows

Alignment
Corpse ringers can be any alignment, but usually avoid lawful, good and evil, because they know what happens when you follow laws, and they also know what happens when evil people meet good people, and vice versa

Religion
Corpse ringers don’t specifically believe in a single deity, because they know that they exist, but understand that they cant help everyone, so they either worship every deity they can, or they worship none

Background
Corpse ringers were usually raised in war-time, and know of all it's consequences. They have magical power, but not enough to become a good necromancer or wizard, although they usually learn from both of these types of people. They put the collective information that they learnt from the wizards and necromancers to learn how to raise and control dead bodies with what magical power they have

Races
Corpse ringers may be of any race

Other classes
Corpse ringers don't sit well with anyone, no matter what their class. They are very antisocial people

Role
The role of a corpse ringer is entirely dependent on the corpses that they control, the corpse ringer them self is more skill based than anything else

Game rule information
Corpse ringers have the following game statistics:
Abilities: a corpse ringer has much to gain from good constitution and dexterity scores, since they make them survive longer. They also usually have high intelligence
Alignment: any
Hit die: D8

Class skills
The corpse ringers key skills (and the key ability for each skill) are bluff (cha), concentration (con), knowledge (necromancy) (int), knowledge (arcana) (int)
Skill points at 1st level: (4+int modifier) X 8
Skill points at each additional level 4 + int modifier

Class features
All the following are class features of the corpse ringer

Weapon and armour proficiency: they are proficient with no weapons, and only light armour

I think this fits with the class flavor except that they should at least be proficient with simple weapons.

Corpse ring: they can place pieces of metal (any metal) onto a corpse and bring it to life. this is really vague. Describe the process, are they undead? Are they Alive? If they are undead do they count as zombies or skeletons or something different?
The metal that they put on the corpse will become metallic items that the corpse wears, when the corpse dies, the items stay in the shape they took. The shape depends on what the corpse did in life.
For each corpse ring they have (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., etc.) they can reanimate one deceased body. Reanimate? So they are undead? Throw me a bone here, please.
Their corpses start at level one of whatever class that they were in life, and they level up independently of the corpse ringer, but they may not exceed the level of the corpse ringer. Ok, seriously? That is so underpowered it isn't even funny. Level 1? Most campaigns don' account for constantly getting new level 1 party members and quite frankly I doubt your team-mates will appreciate having their XP stolen by your minions. At higher levels the corpses will get slaughtered by any level appropriate encounter simply because they start at level 1.
it takes 1d6 hours to raise a corpse, and then it takes 2d4 days to get used to using the corpse. during the 2d4 days the corpse can only walk, and perform minor actions. Also really annoying since you have to wait for quite a while after leveling up to get any use out of your new class features. That and you have to cart around a corpse for up to a week until it becomes marginally useful while hoping it doesn't get re-killed.

ring reborn: a corpse ringer can perform a 24 hour ritual to take certain attributes of a corpse and embed the attributes into a metallic item that the corpse wears, they can perform the ritual once and give all metal items on the corpse a different attribute
(ability modifiers, racial modifiers, base attack bonus, spells, spell like abilities, weapon/armour proficiencies, known languages, class levels, skill saves, initiative bonus, natural armour/weapons, hit points, land base speed, special abilities, stats and anything else the corpse ringer may want)
They can then either, wield these items them self and gain their effects, place them on a new corpse to give that corpse their abilities, or hand them out to people. VAGUE VAGUE VAGUE VAGUE VAGUE. How does this even work?! Try to actually describe the numerical effects, please!

Starting gold
6d4x10 (150gp)
Meh, Leave the starting gold as it is. No-one pays attention to it anyway.

Ex-corpse ringer: if a corpse ringer attacks something without using the corpses, then they lose all of their corpse ringer abilities until they have performed a 24 hour ritual to make up for this.Vague again. A 24 hour ritual entailing what exactly? Any monetary cost or does it just waste a day? Also this is just an outright silly rule, they will need to defend themselves eventually. Flanking enemies do appear every now and then.

So many dead levels.

[Somensjev]

ok, firstly, do what you want to the class, you could completely rewrite it if you wanted, i wouldnt care too much

i would say that i left it vague for the DM to do what they wanted with it, but that's completely false, it's one of those things that makes perfect sense to you, but no-one else..


ok, to answer your problems (of which there are a few)

• 1. yeah, they probably should have simple weapons just in case
  
  2. they would probably count as zombies (or maybe magical items? since it is using the metal as a sort of conductor for magic) by the way, you lose your zombie thing if it goes through a anti-magic field, not sure if it's for as long as the field is there, or until you put new metal (or the old metal) onto the corpse
  
  3. yeah, they're undead
  
  4. i might make it that they ressurect at one half corpse-ringer level, rounded up (so lvl 1 = 1, lvl 2 = 1, lvl 3 = 2, etc)
  
  5. i might make it less time, i added that bit just before posting it, originally they didnt wait at all, which might be better
  
  6. ok, so, lets say, you ressurect a barbarian, with a land speed of 40ft, then, you put it's land speed, onto a silver ring, then give that ring to a halfling, that halfling now moves at 40ft, no more, no less
  or, if you got a fighter, with a BAB of +3, put the BAB onto a necklace, and gave it to a rogue, it gives the BAB a misc modifier of +3
  etc, etc
  
  7. i might remove the ex corpse ringer thing, i cant remember why i had it there..

by the way, were you waiting for my next post or something?

[137beth]

What tier were you aiming for?

[Somensjev]

i've got no idea, everyone mentions tiers, but i dont actually have any idea what each tier entails...

[Moonwolf727]

i've got no idea, everyone mentions tiers, but i dont actually have any idea what each tier entails...

It is a rating system for how much utility your class has. I'll give you a basic rundown.

1. Wizard, Cleric etc etc. It can do anything and everything as well as or better than the appropriate class when given some planning time. (Some people aim to make these but you'll probably never get to play a homebrew teir 1, DM's aren't too keen on them most of the time.)

2. Sorcerer. It has the potential to do a variety of things really well or slightly better than their appropriate class but can't do everything. (Aiming for the low end of this is also acceptable and common-ish.)

3. Rouge, factotum etc. Really good at two, or maybe three, different things and possibly mediocre at a few others. (Most people aim for the high or middle end of this.)

4. Really good at one thing but kind of useless for most other things. (Some people aim for the higher end of this as a balancing point.)

5. Mediocre at one thing, possibly with one or two lower-than-average skills to go with it. (This is generally where some badly-made classes end up until they get fixed.)

6. No-one wants to be a six. (Don't be a six unless its for a joke.)

[Somensjev]

ok, i think it'd be about high three or low two