Remembrancer
 

Hello all,

I've been reading an excellent trilogy by Garth Nix (Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen) and I really like his Remembrancer, a type of mage that deals with death, undead and seeing into the past. In D&D/d20 terms, it is part necromancer, part bard and part loremaster. I like this so much that I think I'd like to introduce it as a prestige class or perhaps as alternate abilities for the bard in my game.

Basically, the Remembrancer uses seven bells (or sometimes whistles or pipes); each has a different tone and magical effect(s), similar to the bardic music ability. Each bell and its ability, as described in the books, are below:

Ranna, the Sleepbringer: causes all nearby beings to fall asleep (sometimes including the ringer)
Mosrael, the Waker: brings a listener closer to life, but can bring the ringer closer to death
Kibeth, the Walker: can give freedom of movement to the Undead or allow the ringer to control Undead, but can also force the ringer to go places against his will
Dyrim, the Speaker: can give speech to the dead or meaning to long-forgotten words or silence a voice
Belgaer, the Thinker: restores independent thought and memory or erase them
Saraneth, the Binder: binds the dead to the will of the ringer
Astarael, the Sorrowful: will cast all who hear it, including the ringer, deep into death

Also, a Remembrancer can "scry" the past in mirrors, though this requires concentration and an expenditure of energy on the part of the mage.

Though some of the abilities can directly translate into d20 terms, some of the others are difficult to explain outside of the context of the story, but I'm open to suggestions. I was thinking that some of the abilities could be based on the Perform skill and have a limited number of uses per day like bardic music. I've never created a prestige class before, so I'm looking for some ideas about how to go about this. Any ideas?

Thanks!

very interesting: a Bard/Necromancer PrC > The Remembrancer. I like it!! This sounds like a PrC that actually gives players with characters that aren't clerics some nice undead abilities (other than some spells that neccy's have). I personally think that Undead shouldn't be the clerics forte, but rather another ability they possess.

Eris, you have a cool idea here, so i will definitively help you out. For PrC's, you need prereq's and abilities that they are given. But first a few details >

-Are R-mancers good at melee/okay in melee/never go in because they have other powers. This will dictate BAB.

-Are R-mancers good at withstanding physical exsertion? can they duck out of the way without even thinking? do they resist mental stresses? This will dictate saves. Remember that undead often have saves tied in with Fortititude, which is one of the main reason's i guess WotC gives clerics good fort.

-do R-mancers have any other special or magical abilities than their instruments? do they cast other spells, or are all their magical rituals tied with their bells/whistles/pipes? This will dictate whether they have +spells per day, etc.

For prereqs, when you have given some more info, i can draft up a rough copy of it :D . Hope this helps

I can only give some probs. obvious ideas, the ones off the top of my head, but here they are for what theyre worth.
let me know how it turns out though, it sounds cool.

structure it as a set of bardic music abilities gained progressively through the PrC.

-Ranna allows user to use bardic music to cast an improved version of sleep (ie more than just 4HD, or it affects elves or something)

-mosrael allows use of bardic music to exchange hp (the caster loses 2hp the reciever gains 1hp style of thing)

-Kibeth allows B.M to cast freedom of movement and command undead upto (x hp) , but using it has a risk; on a roll of one on a perform check teleports the user to a random location.

-Dyrim allows speak with dead, and grants bonuses to decipher script, or to cast silence (possibly permanantly [only removable with remove curse, wish etc.])

-Belgaer allows use of either an arcane version of the psionic power mindwipe, or poss. a mass version of modify memory.

-Saraneth allows summoning of an undead companion (cf shadowdancer's shadow companion in DMG or the song of awakening ability from the dirgesinger in libris mortis)

-Astarael - this is the really difficult one, having not read the book and not knowing context makes it harder- poss it would work like a mass plane shift effect to the appropriate plane (gray waste of Hades or the negative energy plane). - its a bit of a M.A.D effect though.

this bit can be represented by a hp expenditure to use it, or if its really severe temporary Con damage. Id suggest legend lore early on and vision later.

i shouldn't even consider making it less than a 10 level PrC and poss a 15 level one.
i'll try and come up with some suggestions of which bell should be given at which level for you.

when you say what do you mean, is it healing? ressurection? or something else?

Hey, thanks for the suggestions. Here some things I was thinking about:

BAB and armor/weapon proficiencies: The remembrancers are only OK at combat; in the books, they do carry swords (from the description, I would have to say longswords), but they aren't necessarily the strongest fighters, just better fighters than mages. :) They also wore armor (including this neat magical ceramic armor that was very light). So more or less the same proficiencies as a bard.

Saves: I'm thinking Fort and Will - the remembrancers weren't nimble and quick, but steadfast and strong-willed.

For flavor reasons, I wanted the class to have seven levels, one to master each bell, but that is open to adjustment, as are the actual abilities - this might be a lot to pack into a class and removing some of the less interesting abilities (or ones that don't fit in as well) would be OK. Also, the bells do not have to stay in the order that they were presented in the first post.

Some suggestions for the powers

Ranna - Symbol of Sleep

Mosrael - this is a tough one - in the books, the Abhorsen, Remembrancers and necromancers actually entered the lands of the dead and could use the bell either to call the dead to them or bring people back to life. I'm not sure I like either power in this context so I'm open to suggestions.

Kibeth - I like Child's suggestion, but the Walker is more like a weaker version of Saraneth. It's more of a commanding/turning/rebuking undead power than the freedom of movement that's implied by its description. Maybe something like Command Undead, Halt Undead and/or Expeditious Retreat?

Dyrim - Speak with Dead, maybe Comprehend Languages, Silence

Belgaer - Modify Memory

Saraneth - This is more of a strong command sort of power, like Dominate.

Astarael - In the books, this is really a death power, like Symbol of Death, that affects everyone, including the caster. It's something that the Abhorsen/Remembrancers use only in the most desperate of circumstances, but I'm all for making it something less drastic for my game.

Scrying the Past - this is closer to the Legend Lore ability, but I wonder if the Akashic class from Arcana Unearthed has a similar (and less powerful) ability?

if you want to make it only a 7 level PrC, its gonna be difficult to balance.

You will have to make some serious sacrifices, to take it - so a seriously restrictive set of requirements, and no spellcasting improvement while taking the class probably.

at what level do you want it to be available? any preference?

that said there is an inherent risk in using some of the abilities, so that will help - if you make the horribly powerful abilities riskier to use that'll be a suitably characterful deterent.

if it were my PrC i'd definitely make one of the requisite feats Requiem from libris mortis
(it allows bardic music to affect undead).
I should make being lawful (or maybe just Non-chaotic) a requisite - chaotic characters who might simply use the higher powers on a whim would cause game balance probs, and also would probably not survive long.

well here are some more suggestions for spell effects on this one: Last breath [drd4] or Revenance [clr/pal4] both from Complete Divine or spiritwall [sor/wiz5] from Comlpete Arcane, an equivalent of the nightmare shroud ability of the Quori nightmare PrC from Races of Eberron or possibly a variant on commune [clr5?] (commune with dead).

do you feel the ability to cast expeditious retreat really fits the flavor bdy?

i'm afraid i've got a tad carried away and have started working on my own version of this PrC, based on what youve posted here - it was to cool an idea to pass up, sorry.
Its a work in progress, but see what you think so far:

That's a very good start, although I have a pretty specific vision of the class based on what is presented in the books. For example, the Abhorsens and Remembrancers in D&D terms would very much be good-aligned, since their purpose is to bind and/or destroy undead (the bells, however, could be used by necromancers for evil purposes, which is why some of the abilities seem "evil"). They are the heroes in the books and the defenders of the Old Kingdom.

But having said that, I don't particularly like alignment or restrictions based on alignment anyway. I feel that if a player is going to abuse a class, alignment isn't going to stop them from doing it and I am considering doing away with alignment altogether in my games.

Oddly enough, the one thing I am most wary of is making it too "bardish," as in, "oh, this is just the bard class with different abilities." The Abhorsen and Remembrancers were more like wizards or sorcerers (albeit with a militaristic bent, as they were trained in melee combat) that knew how to make specific effects with these bells by sounding a particular note (not a song, technically). Most of them were able to cast spells before they learned how to use the bells. Maybe there should be a some sort of requirement for arcane spellcasting instead - that would open the class to be available to more classes. I also think I would use Knowledge (arcana) and/or Spellcraft instead of Knowledge (religion) for prerequisites.

I'm working on a version to use in my game that I'll try to post as soon as I can.

Thanks for posting this!

i used Knowledge (religion) as its the skill that relates to undead.
- ive never really understood the correlation between them though.

Me too! I thought maybe it was because the cleric class was so closely tied to undead (with the turning ability and all) and because clerics are pretty concerned with life and death in general, but frankly wizards have more spells that create, command or otherwise deal with undead. I can only shrug at it.

although i dont think opening up the PrC to other classes is a bad idea,
I'd be wary of making them combat trained (ie a decent BAB progression) and giving them a spellcasting progression as well as some of the special abilities in a 7 level PrC, unless you are going to give it some hideous downside.

the Astarael ability ive produced has a harsh downside, in that most Remembrancers, if they take the class at fifth level, have, at best, only a 1 in 4 chance of survival, if they use the ability when they gain it. (it was an attempt to counterbalance the fact that its horribly powerful for its level)

Actually, I thought that the BAB and saves seemed fine as far as I can tell (not being a great designer myself). I don't want them to have spells as well as the special abilities anyway as that just seems like overkill to me, but I do think of their special abilities as being arcane in nature - hense why I suggested Knowledge (arcana) and arcane spellcasting ability of some kind as prerequisites.

I still haven't made up my mind about which abilities to include. I really want to convey their connection to the past, and by extension, "dead things," but I just haven't come to any decision as yet.

I'll simply replace the bardic music Requirement with the ability to cast at least 1 level 2 arcane spell of the necromancy school.

what is their weapon of choice BDY? i only ask because though im hesitant to give them anything other than a slow BAB progression, it would probably make sense to give them proficiency with it.

Hows this PrC coming? im afraid ive stopped working on my version for the moment.
coursework and designing an adventure for my group kinda got in the way.

I read the first book in the series and was intrigued by the concept: I'd like to see how the PrC turns out. :)

Unfortunately I had a final exam and I've been out of town for Thanksgiving. I hope to be back on it when I return next week. :)

ive just bought this series of books, and eventually i'll get round to reading them, once ive finished Elric of Melinbone which ive been telling myself i had to get round to.

sadly even thats gonna be a long way off coz ive got a load of Herodotus, Plato and Thucydides to read for Uni first and my small brain cant cope with that lot and something entertaining simultaneously.

eventually i'll get round to reading it and understand the concept behind this PrC properly.