Author Topic: The Dead Walk [Discipline]  (Read 2503 times)

Offline Stratovarius

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The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« on: July 10, 2017, 08:01:50 AM »
The Dead Walk
The Dead Walk is a rather unusual martial discipline, born as it is out of the desires of necromancers to infuse their superior undead warriors with the ability to summon and command undead themselves, thus removing some of the burden of command from the necromancers. Perhaps more importantly, users of the discipline also removed themselves from danger, letting the undead they summoned and commanded stand in the way of whatever foe presented itself. Born upon the training grounds of Marleath, its existence was quickly suppressed, and is now a guarded secret known only to the Prophesied Doom, bodyguards of Ve Angau. But now, as that lich turns his dark desires towards the surface world, knowledge of the discipline may once more rise amongst the dread warriors who would lead the assault on the bright lands of Arhosa.

Discipline Access
As a closely held secret, it is unknown who holds the knowledge to learn and use The Dead Walk's maneuvers. But interested parties have been able to recreate a few of its basic aspects, using the Martial Study and Martial Stance feats.

Skill: Knowledge (Religion)
Favoured Weapons: Sickle, scythe, ranseur, guisarme, and halberd
Legacy Weapon: Mortuos
Prestige Class: Undying General

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« Last Edit: May 03, 2021, 11:04:06 AM by Stratovarius »

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2021, 05:17:01 PM »
Thinking of replacing Energy Infusion and Desiccator's Breath with boosts that are better suited to the necromancy theme of this discipline.

Maybe "Lifetheft" - whenever an undead you have summoned via a The Dead Walk maneuver deals damage this round, you heal hit points equal to one half the damage dealt.

and

Necrotic Burst - Necromantic energy flares from the creatures you have summoned via a The Dead Walk maneuver, dealing 2 negative energy damage per initiator level to all adjacent creatures and healing the summoned creatures the same amount.

« Last Edit: April 03, 2021, 05:19:32 PM by Stratovarius »

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2021, 12:03:45 PM »
Swapped in Lifetheft and Necrotic Burst as planned, also swapped levels on Vengeful Victim and Sacrificial Minion so there are two first level strike maneuvers

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2021, 08:23:31 AM »
Cleaned up and formatted The Dead Walk, and added Mortuos, a Weapon of Legacy ranseur.

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Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2021, 11:01:36 AM »
Here's the complete and final version of The Dead Walk, which has the discipline of the same name, a Weapon of Legacy called Mortuos, and the Undying General prestige class.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2021, 06:01:49 AM »
Now with added bookmarks in the PDF version.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2021, 04:57:31 PM »
Rewrote the Bond of the Dead feat to something new, cleaned up a lot of the text, tweaked a few maneuvers.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2021, 10:23:21 PM »
Feedback as requested:

The Sacrificial Pawn effect of the Walk By My Side feat says adjacent, but I don't know if it means adjacent to the attacker or the person with the feat.

"Mortuos is a wickedly barbed scythe".  Nonlegacy Game Statistics: +1 ranseur.  I'm seeing a discrepancy, ranseurs are point spear-like weapons.

I think all of the maneuvers are fine?

Undying General
 - I think it's funny that you might not be able to use Risen Dead when you gain the class feature.

Without digging into specific types of undead I don't see any issues anywhere aside from what's already pointed out.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2021, 11:23:35 PM »
The Sacrificial Pawn effect of the Walk By My Side feat says adjacent, but I don't know if it means adjacent to the attacker or the person with the feat.

To the person with the feat - it's a direct quote from Devoted Bodyguards on the Warchief prestige class.

"Mortuos is a wickedly barbed scythe".  Nonlegacy Game Statistics: +1 ranseur.  I'm seeing a discrepancy, ranseurs are point spear-like weapons.

It was originally a scythe, and then I changed it to a reach weapon.

I think all of the maneuvers are fine?
Without digging into specific types of undead I don't see any issues anywhere aside from what's already pointed out.

Yeah, it's a little hard to tell given how odd they are with summoning undead monsters for a single round.

Undying General
 - I think it's funny that you might not be able to use Risen Dead when you gain the class feature.

Expected entry is something like Warblade 1/Cleric 4 (as an example), in which case you're good to go on 3rd level spells. If the player wishes not to do an entry like that, fine by me.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #9 on: June 10, 2021, 01:21:00 AM »
My immediate thoughts on entry were Initiator 2/Caster 3. :lol

I want my gishes to be caster second.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2021, 05:15:46 AM »
It's a cleric, that thing is a better fighter than the initiator with a touch of work. Plus, remember this is an odd discipline where you personally never hit anyone, so you can have iffy martial stats in some ways.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: The Dead Walk [Discipline]
« Reply #11 on: June 10, 2021, 10:05:47 AM »
I'm just saying that's how I build gishes.  Even cleric gishes.