New Class for ACKS: Zaharan Necromancer

After the first fatality in our Adventurer Conqueror King System game the player of our sadly departed thief asked if there was any way he could play a necromancer. I did some experimenting with the ACKS Player's Companion and came up with the following class. It's balanced per the class creation rule but with only one session so far I can't yet vouch for how well it works in play, though we had no issues in that session. The Zaharan Necromancer has some inspiration from the Death Master of Dragon Magazine 76. by Lenard Lakofka. I might try an alternate version more alchemical in nature as was that class.  The background for this class is from the version of Zaharans I'm using in our game and differs slightly from the official Autarch version.

Zaharan Necromancer

Class Summary

Image credit: katalinks / 123RF Stock Photo

Prime Requisite: INT

Requirements: INT 9

Hit Dice: 1d4

Maximum Level: 11 (can continue advancing to 14 HD if becomes undead)

In ages past the dread Necromancers of the Zaharan Empire created hosts of guardians for their fell empire - undead legions, tribes of beastmen, and unspeakable abominations. After their defeat these dark magics were forbidden throughout the land. These Zaharan Necromancer is a descendant of the original Zaharan Order of Necromancers. They must be of Chaotic alignment in order to perform the necromantic rituals they learn at higher levels.

Zaharans have builds similar to those of humans but with very sharp-angled features which gives them a slight elven appearance. Their coloring tends towards extremes - skin tones of ebony, ivory, gold, etc., eye colors frequently violet or amber, and hair usually white. Zaharan Necromancers may initially be of more human appearance depending on the strength of their Zaharan blood. However as part of their initiation rituals they are transformed into a full Zaharan appearance.

Similar to human magi, Zaharan Necromancers receive limited combat training. At first level, they hit an unarmored foe (AC 0) with an attack throw of 10+. They advance in attack throws and saving throws only two points every six levels of experience (i.e., half as fast as fighters). They may only fight with quarterstaffs, clubs, daggers, and slings. They are unable to use shields, fight with two weapons, or wear any kind of armor. For these reasons, Zaharan Necromancers are quite vulnerable to physical danger, and in an adventuring group they should be protected.

In exchange for these weaknesses, Zaharan Necromancers can learn and cast many powerful arcane spells. The number and levels of spells the Zaharan Necromancer can use in a single day are listed on the Necromancer Progression Table. Due to their inheriting many of the secrets of the Zaharan Empire, Zaharan Necromancers tend to have more spells at a given time than the equivalent human mage would have at the same level.

A Zaharan Necromancer’s selection is limited to the spells in his repertoire. A Zaharan Necromancer’s repertoire can include a number of spells up to the number and level of spells listed for his level, increased by his Intelligence bonus. For instance, Aahz L, a 3rd level Zaharan Necromancer, is able to cast 3 1st level spells and 1 2nd level spell per day. If he has 16 INT (+2 modifier) he can have up to 5 1st level and 3 2nd level spells in his repertoire.

In addition to their magic knowledge, a necromancer’s eager embrace of chthonic secrets provides with a dark blessing, which provides them with a +2 bonus to all saving throws (included in their saving throw table). They are death speakers, able to cast speak with the dead once every eight hours with a casting time of one turn.

Their training includes secrets of the dark arts such that he can control undead as a Chaotic cleric of one half his class level. If the character casts spells that require a saving throw versus Death, his targets suffer a -2 penalty on the save. When the character casts necromantic spells (such as animate dead), the spell effects are calculated as if he were two class levels higher than his actual level of experience. He may also conduct necromantic research as if he were two class levels higher than actual. This is effectively the Black Lore of Zahar proficiency.

When a Zaharan Necromancer reaches 5th level (Corpse Lord), he may begin to research spells, scribe magical scrolls, and brew potions. When a Zaharan Necromancer reaches 9th level (Necromancer), he is able to create more powerful magic items such as weapons, rings, and staffs. A Zaharan Necromancer may also build a sanctum, often a great tomb or mortuary, when he reaches 9th level. He will then attract 1d6 apprentices of 1st-3rd level plus 2d6 normal men of Zaharan descent seeking to become Zaharan Necromancers. Their intelligence scores will be above average, but many will become discouraged from the rigorous mental training and quit after 1d6 months. While in the Zaharan Necromancer’s service, apprentices must be provided food and lodging, but need not be paid wages. If the Zaharan Necromancer builds a dungeon beneath or near his tower, monsters will start to arrive to dwell within, followed shortly by adventurers seeking to fight them. Additional rules for sanctums are detailed in the Campaign chapter of the core rules.

At 9th level a Zaharan Necromancer may create necromantic servants and become undead as if he were two levels higher (due to his secrets of the dark arts). At 11th level, a Zaharan Necromancer may learn and cast ritual arcane spells of great power (7th, 8th, and 9th level), craft magical constructs, and create magical cross-breeds.

Due to their background and training, all Zaharan necromancers speak four bonus languages: Ancient Zaharan, Goblin, Orc, and Kemeshi.

As true Zaharans, all necromancers also possess certain inhuman benefits and drawbacks from their near-extinct bloodline. Chief among these are the ancient pacts of service and obedience by which the lords of Zahar ensorcelled the dark powers of the world. Some creatures still remember these pacts and will aid Zaharans when commanded. All necromancers gain a +2 bonus to reaction rolls when encountering intelligent chaotic monsters. Intelligent chaotic monsters suffer a -2 penalty to saving throws against any charm spells cast by a Zaharan necromancer.

Secondly, necromancers are inexorable in the face of horrors that terrify normal men. They are immune to all natural and magical fear effects.

Finally, necromancers grow in power after the flesh. If transformed into intelligent undead, they retain their racial powers and any class abilities. Once transformed, the necromancer may continue to advance in Hit Dice without limit, even past his class’s maximum level. At 1 HD, it requires 4,500XP plus 500XP per special ability (*) to advance to 2 HD. The amount of XP required doubles with each HD (round values greater than 20,000XP to the nearest 1,000). All of the necromancer’s class abilities will continue to progress without regard to his class’s maximum level, to a maximum of 14th level.

However, because of their dark souls, the grim embrace of death holds special perils for Zaharans. Whenever a deceased Zaharan rolls on the Tampering With Mortality table, he suffers a penalty on the 1d20 roll of -1 per level of experience.

Tables

Class Progression

XP	Title	Level	HD	1	2	3	4	5	6
0	Grave Robber	1	1d4	1
3.525	Tomb Haunter	2	2d4	3
7,050	Necropolite	3	3d4	3	1
14,100	Bone Lord	4	4d4	3	3
28,200	Corpse  Lord	5	5d4	3	3	1
56,400	Ghoul Lord	6	6d4	3	3	3
115,000	Wight Lord	7	7d4	4	3	3	1
230,000	Death Master	8	8d4	4	4	3	3
430,000	Necromancer	9	9d4	4	4	4	3	1
630,000		10	9d4+1	4	4	4	4	3
830,000		11	9d4+2	5	4	4	4	3	1
*	(As Undead)	12	12d8	5	5	4	4	4	3
*		13	13d8	5	5	5	4	4	3
*		14	14d8	5	5	5	5	4	4

Saving Throws

Level	Petrif & Paralysis	Poison & Death	Blast & Breath	Staff & Wands	Spells	Attack Throw
1-3	11+	11+	13+	9+	10+	10+
4-6	10+	10+	12+	8+	9+	9+
7-9	9+	9+	11+	7+	8+	8+
10-12	8+	8+	10+	6+	7+	7+

Proficiency List

1. Alchemy (G)
2. Apostasy
3. Battle Magic (G)
4. Collegiate Wizardry
5. Command
6. Contemplation
7. Craft (G)
8. Diplomacy (G)
9. Engineering (G)
10. Familiar
11. Healing (G)
12. Illusion Resistance (G)
13. Knowledge (G)
14. Language (G)
15. Leadership (G)
16. Loremastery
17. Magical Engineering
18. Mapping (G)
19. Mystic Aura
20. Naturalism (G)
21. Navigation (G)
22. Profession (G)
23. Prophecy
24. Quiet Magic
25. Righteous Turning
26. Sensing Power
27. Soothsaying
28. Theology (G)
29. Transmorgification
30. Unflappable Casting
31. Wakefulness

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Let the Dice Fall Where They May

Though I began gaming in the 80s the 90s proved to be very formative in my gaming style. I absolutely ate up story-based games like Vampire: The Masquerade as well as the story-based style seen in D&D 2nd Edition products.

One of the frequent elements of that style is not letting the dice get in the way of the story. I'm not going to bash that gaming style - I had a lot of fun gaming that way, playing through the Forgotten Realms Avatar-trilogy of adventures and managing to have a great time, despite its strong element of rail roading. It's a style and if everyone is having fun with it then there's nothing wrong with it.

One of the dangers with that style is players can turn into spectators or actors for a story designed by the GM (or a pre-packaged adventure). You'll have villains who absolutely cannot be killed in the first encounter, events that must happen no matter what the players do. One of the innovations I've seen over the last decade is game systems which incorporate these assumptions into the game. For example, in various FATE games (such as Spirit of the Century and The Dresden Files) if your freedom of action is restricted by certain story or genre elements you get rewarded for going along with it in the form of FATE points. At the same time you can spend those FATE points to override that loss of narrative control. This, in my opinion at least, is a good way to run such a game. It removes the players from being passive observers but still drives towards telling a story, with modifications to prevent it from simply being the story the GM wanted to tell. I think it emulates well what you'll often hear writers of fiction say when they indicate the characters they created dictated a different ending. For example, Stephen King indicated he was surprised to discover some of the characters he created for 'Salem's Lot chose not to go along with the horrible end he'd anticipated for them.

"Old school" games typically advise against this sort of play. In my experiments with such games, Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) last summer and my recently begun Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) campaign I've tried my hand at the style of play. One consistent piece of advice I've seen in such games is letting dice rolls be binding. To the best of my recollection, I first read that in Hackmaster and saw it furthered in Dungeon Crawl Classics with advice for all die rolls to be in the open. In both games I've operated in this manner. In both cases I used random character generation. In our ACKS game I had each player roll up five characters and generate two PCs. Since we've typically had around four players per session I've had players run both characters at once. DCC has players generate four zero-level characters and whoever survives the first adventure (if anyone does) gets to be 1st level. The only allowance I've made is allowing 1st level characters to start with maximum hit points.

It's probably worth noting that I've not gone fully random, allowing the dice to determine the contents of every hex - but it's something I may end up doing as I've only detailed the hexes immediately around the starting home base.

The obvious reason for writing all of this is to discuss how it plays. I'd have to say it represents quite a change from what I'm used to. Generally speaking I'd roll the dice behind a screen. Which means I might fudge the results. "Well gee Bob is down to 3 hp and so 10 hp damage would pretty much finish him and it's first encounter of the night so it seems anticlimactic to kill him now." There's pretty much zero chance of me doing that. It makes the word an unforgiving one, where even the brightest, most skillfully played character can get unlucky. But it also discourages trusting to luck unless there is no other choice. But it also adds to accomplishments - most characters have penalties to at least one ability score, some several. That max hit points I give out is still subject to Constitution penalties which several characters in the group have.

I'd like to think this makes success all that much more noteworthy. In both DCC and ACKS games I've seen characters who are pretty much average people scrape their way through some horrific scenarios and escape by the skin of their teeth - or die trying. It also makes death, oddly enough, less frightening. The odds of your character perishing in his or her adventures are decidedly greater than zero so be bold (but not foolish) while you live. I've grown to greatly enjoy the mortal wounds table in ACKS - our poor band of adventurers has a number of persistent injuries....

I'll likely talk at a later point about the effects of removing a set plot in a later entry, but I do find the randomness coupled with players in more control of their destines really leads to the players determining the plot line and importance of various events and locations. The player of the cleric, for example, was rather interested in undoing the defilement created by an unholy altar to Orcus while another player was more interested in moving on to a tomb they had been gathering keys to.

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Remembering Jack Vance

"Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic!"

- "Turjan of Miir", the first story of Mazirian the Magician (aka The Dying Earth)

Earlier this week the worlds of science fiction and fantasy lost one of its greats, Jack Vance. One of my favorite authors, Michael Chabon, in an article about him in the New York Times Magazine, referring to him as "the most painful case of all the writers I love who I feel don't get the credit they deserve. If ‘The Last Castle’ or ‘The Dragon Masters’ had the name Italo Calvino on it, or just a foreign name, it would be received as a profound meditation, but because he’s Jack Vance and published in Amazing Whatever, there’s this insurmountable barrier.” 

Searching the web will reveal more about him than I could hope to capture in a single blog post. I came to his work relatively late, in my mid twenties shorty after moving to the Boston-area. But in a sense I'd been familiar since I began gaming in the early eighties. The mainstream tributes to him talk of his influence on entire generations of fantasy and science fiction writers but they tend to neglect his influence on fantasy gaming. Obviously there is the superb Dying Earth RPG published by Pelgrane Press. But it is difficult to imagine Dungeons and Dragons without Vance. Of course there is the spell-casting of the Dying Earth novels, where wizards memorize spells that vanish from their memories after casting. One of the biggest controversies in the 4th edition of D&D was its largely abandoning the "Vancian" magic system D&D had used since the 1970s.

His settings and protagonists also clearly influenced RPGs. The Dying Earth is more than a novel or a setting - it went on to define an entire genre of fantasy and science fiction. A world in which empire after empire has risen and fallen, leaving behind ruins, technology, magic, and bizarre creatures, malevolent and benign. His protagonists often bring to mind player characters - out for their own profit, often bumbling their way into and out of trouble but nevertheless possessing a certain style as they do so. This is not just seen in his fantasy but his science fiction as well - for example Ports of Call  features a would-be interstellar adventurer who finds himself in a menial position aboard a tramp freighter as it works its way through various bizarre cultures.

Its hard to talk about Vance without referring to his writing style. He had a gift for using twenty words where other writers would use five. I myself am far closer to the terse style of your Isaac Asimov. But those twenty words become an absolute joy to consume. And I think consume is the right word - you took his writing inside you, you tasted it. He made you feel you were viewing alien landscapes yourself, experiencing the sunset of a tired sun which would soon wink out forever, bringing eternal darkness.

I know that Vance's last years were physically challenging - despite being legally blind for his last three decades he continued writing. I hope he had an inkling of how much joy his work brought people and what a large influence he had.

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'Sup?

March and April were such good months for blogging, But not May...

I remember when I was in college I used to think how great it'd be after graduation and all the free time I'd have. And truth to tell, the amount of free time I had prior to kids was pretty cool, though I did work at a computer start-up for a few years of that... May does tend to be a busy month in my family, with the school year approaching its end and both daughters being born in May. Plus I have a project at work nearing completion and have been working many, many late nights as a result of that. As one might imagine, gaming and blogging has been pushed to the backburner.

There's been some fun stuff during all this time - two young ladies having their birthdays is a good time (though our eleven year old is now taller than her mom...) I've managed to start an ACKS game, something I'll certainly be blogging about as it progresses. Managed to make it to a pair of movies - Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness. I'd love to find time for 42 and The Great Gatsby but those might need to wait until they come out on video.

So I'll probably be doing some blogging on the above topics as free time returns. Not for a little while longer, though I will try to sneak another post of two in this week.

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D&D Products of the 1970s and Sandbox Games

One thing I've noticed is the D&D products of the 1970s seem awfully different from the material produced now. Not totally - looking through the material that companies like the Judges Guild and TSR produced, adventures have always been popular. (Though the adventures of the day were a lot more open/easy to drop into a campaign.)

But what I see is a lot of products designed as resources for Dungeon Masters. You had your Monster & Treasure Assortments and Dungeon Geomorphs. Judges Guild produced a gazillion products with dungeon and wilderness maps, random encounters, etc.

As I'm prepping my first "real" sandbox style game I have to confess I see the utility in them. Not knowing precisely what the players will do has me going through my not inconsiderable gaming library (stretching, if not back to the 1970s, at least to the 80s - when a lot of those old products were still in print). Lots of adventures I've used in the past seem just perfect for location x or location y. Heck I can see the value in random encounters, something I don't think I've used in ages. Once you have an idea as to who lives in that mountain range, it is not unreasonable that characters adventuring in that area will run into those beasties. It draws to mind the adventure of Bilbo Baggins, whose encounter with trolls screams "random encounter".

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