Sculpt Skeleton Feats

[hornedturtle]

Thanks to the very nicely posted suggestion from Wik here is mu second attempt at some necromancer love.

Sculpt skeleton:
By using select bones from from several dead creatures you can create more powerful undead.
Benefit:
You can harvest bones from dead creatures, for every HD the dead creature had you get one bunch of bones (BoB). When creating a skeleton with a spell such as animate dead these BoB's can be used. The resulting Skeleton has HD equal to the BoB used to make it.

HD ----- Size ---------- NA bonus -- STR bonus -- Claw Damage
1-5 ----- med ------------ +2 -------- +0 ---------- 1d4
6-15 ---- larg ------------ +3 -------- +2 ---------- 1d6
11-25 --- huge ----------- +4 -------- +4 ---------- 1d8
26+ ----- Gargantuan ----- +5 -------- +6 ---------- 2d6

Use the Human Warrior Skeleton for base statistics.
special: You cannot use more BoB's then the HD limit for the spell you use. ex. When casting Animate dead you cannot create undead exceeding twice your caster level, likewise you cannot use more BoB then twice your caster level.
Creatures you harvest bones from must have a discernible skeleton and can only be harvested from once.


Sculpt skeleton Armor:
You know how to place the bones in a skeleton for greater defense.
Prerequisite: Sculpt Skeleton.
Benefit:
By lessening the HD of the skeleton created you can increase it's natural armor bonus. For each HD removed in this manner increase the natural armor bonus by 1.


Sculpt Skeleton Claws:
You know how to make a skeleton's claws do more damage.
Prerequisite: Sculpt Skeleton.
Benefit:
By lessening the HD of the skeleton created you can increase it's claw damage. For each HD removed in this manner increase the claw damage by one step. (1d2, 1d3, 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, 6d6, 8d6, 12d6)


Sculpt Skeleton Strength:
You know how to place bones yo give more oomph.
Prerequisite: Sculpt Skeleton.
Benefit:
By lessening the HD of the skeleton created you can increase it's Strength. For each HD removed in this manner increase the Strength bonus by 1.


Sculpt Skeleton Density:
You know how to use bones so that they take up less space.
Prerequisite: Sculpt Skeleton.
Benefit:
By lessening the HD of the skeleton created you can Decrease it's size. For each HD removed in this manner decrease it's size category by one step.
Special: This feat does not allow a skeleton to be created smaller then Medium size. Use the new size category for base bonuses.


Sculpt Skeleton Durability:
You know how to place bones to create greater durability in skeletons.
Prerequisites: Sculpt Skeleton.
Benefit:
By lessening the HD of the skeleton created you can give it bonus hp per HD. For each HD removed in this manner the gets +1 HP per HD.
or
Benefit:
By lessening the HD of the skeleton to be created You can increase it's damage reduction. For each HD removed in this way increase it's damage reduction increases by one.
(not sure on that one)


Sculpt Skeleton Spark of darkness.
Your ability to manipulate the bones of a skeleton borders on divinely inspired.
Prerequisite: Sculpt Skeleton and three other Sculpt skeleton feats.
Benefit:
By dividing the HD of the skeleton created it gains fast healing 1.
Special: This feat may only be applied once to any skeleton. This feat is applied before any other sculpt skeleton feat.


I think i might need to add turn resistance equal to the HD removed to all of these feats because it would make turning or rebuking these skeletons easy if the HD were reduced enough. Also this could be ver abusive with command undead since they have no intelligence. Perhaps if i added a clase that if you lose control of the skeleton it immediately drops to 0 hp?

[Trouvere]

You'd have a much better chance of getting the 'enhanced undead' specialist necromancer wizard variant approved, which does much the same thing as the Corpsecrafter feat. The 'skeletal minion' variant is already available (scroll down; note the minion's progression is nerfed).

But I'm honestly not sure how well such a character would work out in LEW, which is just crawling with clerics of Hyrag, paladins and general good folk (I speak as one who recently retired a grey elf with a skeletal minion, having grown tired of the ridiculousness of having her introduce it as a hooded and cloaked "servant, who is disfigured and does not speak"), and she wasn't even evil.

[hornedturtle]

I did see the skeletal minion and your character before posting this. Perhaps if i just made a normal wizard and went that route after I got to 7th level. Although that could take quite a while in play by post.

[Wik]

The one where you can drop the skeleton's HD to add to it's hit points seems a bit crazy. But I guess it'd make sense, in a way. Make a lot of really tough 1 HD skeletons (but with a huge amount of hit points!) and still be able to control 'em.

But, yeah, I think you're better off going Trouvere's route.

[hornedturtle]

That would get destroyed by the first lv2 cleric that comes by.

[Wik]

True enough. But, in many D&D games I've played, having a bunch of fairly tough CR 1 critters around winds up being a good thing. Lets you control the battlefield, at least.

In any case, I still stand by the statement that trouvere's comment works better, and is easier.