The Lipimancer: Update

One of my players is playing a Lipimancer! And he is rocking it! So now I have to take my half baked idea and make it into a usable 5e sub-class.

Some quickly obvious problems arise from the original post:

• It implies an infinite number of spells per day assuming you can find enough food
• Having spells cost calories means that I have to figure out a way to equate relative cost of different spell levels

The simple solution is to use an already built in mechanic of the sorcerer class, sorcerer points, and keeping the spell casting system intact.

Invest in suspenders, you'll need them

The Lipimancer:

Regaining Spell Slots: When you take a long rest you regain all of your spell slots but it consumes all of your stored calories, AND unless you have full calories stored you only regain half of the number of spell slots per spell level, rounding down.

So a 4th level Lipimancer goes to sleep with only 10,000 stored calories she wakes up hungry (no calories stored) and with only 2 1st level spell slots and 1 2nd spell slot restored. Lipimancers are cranky in the morning if they are hungry.

Wellspring of Vitality: At 2nd level you learn how to tap into your bodies stored energies to augment your casting. 4,000 calories are equal to 1 sorcerer point, and unlike sorcery points you do not regain all of your calories at the end of a long rest, you have to eat to get them back. You can never have more calories stored than your current calorie cap (see table below).

Let the Fat Flow: You can translate your stored calories into magical energy and vice versa, either by spending calories to get spell slots refreshed or spending spell slots for more calories (but never more than your cap!), both are bonus actions. You cannot regain spell slots greater than 5th level using this ability.

Some Tables:

Level	Sorcery Points	Calorie Equvilent
1st	-	4,000
2nd	2	8,000
3rd	3	12,000
4th	4	16,000
5th	5	20,000
6th	6	24,000
7th	7	28,000
8th	8	32,000
9th	9	36,000
10th	10	40,000
11th	11	44,000
12th	12	48,000
13th	13	52,000
14th	14	56,000
15th	15	60,000
16th	16	64,000
17th	17	68,000
18th	18	72,000
19th	19	76,000
20th	20	80,000

Spell Slot Level Regained	Sorcery Point Cost	Calorie Cost
1st	2	8,000
2nd	3	12,000
3rd	5	20,000
4th	6	24,000
5th	7	28,000

(I like this because it builds in a cap to the number of calories the Lipimancer has stored away to use for magic but leaves the spell casting system intact so that they can use them seamlessly with the sorcerer's class abilities, and I don't have to mess with fudged spell level equivalence)

Metamagic: At 3rd level you gain the Metamagic ability, as described in the PHB, except that you expend calories instead of sorcery points.

Spontaneous Lipid-Generation: At 20th level you regain 16,000 calories just by taking a light nap (a short rest). You must be asleep for this to work.

Suddenly giant chickens become the most desirable enemy to hunt.

Okay great, we've tweaked the sorcerer class enough to work as a Lipimancer, now lets make their sub-class abilities:

Way of the Fat Mage: At 1st level you gain access to your calorie pool, but only for use in determining spell slot replenishment. You also get all of the tweaks to the sorcerer class as described above. In addition you  the following spells to your learn able spell list:

Spell Level	Spell
Cantrip	Consume
1st	Emesis
2nd	Swallow Whole
3rd	Vortex of Excess
4th	Dimension of Flesh

Over Burn: At 6th level you can choose to spend more calories than you have stored, sending you into calorie debt. When you over draw this way you must make a DC 12+(1 per 4,000 calories expend bellow 0) Constitution save or fall unconscious and takes 1d6 Con damage. You can only be awoken if force fed enough food to get you back to positive calories, but the Con damage remains until magically restored or taking a week of downtime recovery and eating your full calories every day per point of Con damage.

So a 6th level Lipimancer has only 4,000 calories stored, but he really needs to cast one more 1st level spell. He expends the calories (8,000) to get the spell slot as a bonus action and then he rolls a DC 13 Constitution save. If he passes she acts normally, if she fails she falls into a low-energy coma state and take 1d6 Con damage. He can continue to over draw this way down to -24,000 calories (bottom cap mirrors top cap), at which point he falls into the coma state regardless, but she only takes Con damage if she fails her save.

14th Level: Leaving for player and I to work out.

18th Level:Leaving for player and I to work out.

Scottish Wedding Traditions

I was listening to the radio while driving for work (both things I do often), and there was this interview with crime novelist Catriona McPherson about her newest novel "Reek of Red Herrings", the latest in her series of murder novels. It was a nice interview, but what caught my attention was her attention to the peculiar wedding traditions of the Banffshire coast in Scotland, of which I had never heard.

Some juicy bits from the cold, grassy hills of Scotland:

• The men fish all year so they hold all of their weddings at the same time as a community around Christmas time
• Weddings last a week and there is a different event/activity every day
• Generally they do a "handfasting" (a ceremony where the groom/bride's hands are tied together) as a pre-wedding, these aren't binding if they can't have kids, so they try out the marrige first by trying to have a kid. If the bride gets pregnant they get married, if not they court others.
• The blackening of the bride, as the groom nails his bride's colors to his mast this makes her interesting to demons and other malevolent fey, so she has nasty stuff poured over her (rotten eggs in cabbage water for example) to dissuade them from taking her

So to just to throw out some ideas of how to use these:

• The party shelters on an island from a storm, they get roped in as part of a wedding party in exchange for shelter. But! Body parts of one of the many grooms are found in fish barrels. Who done it? They have a week of weird traditions to deal with to solve the mystery before everyone goes back to fishing!
• An ancient murder victim is found preserved in a peat bog, seemingly confirming that dear great-great-great-great-grandpa really was murdered, not just lost in the bog! Old tensions boiling over after the body is found, and the long dormant blood feud is renewed. Soon brides are killing their grooms and grannies are poisoning their grandchildren from the other side of the village feud! Can you solve the ancient murder and smooth the tensions in the village? Maybe a marriage would help!
• The PCs badly misinterpret the social situation and they all get married! (Not unlike that Firefly episode...)
• Actual demons and cruel fey want to take away the bride, have to fight them off while the really long and intricate wedding ceremony goes on.

The Primal Paths

This is the first of my follow up posts to this project, today's class is the Barbarian. The goal of this project is to create a "minigame" of sorts for each sub-class for D&D 5e that allows the character to grow in ways not directly tied to their level progression and that makes each sub-class feel unique and interesting.

Path of the Berserker:

Original Idea: "Your rage and fury are your deepest joys, track the most amount of damage done in a single rage. With each new level of destruction you find deeper wells of joyous ruin." 

Fun fact, historically a berserker was just a champion or one who wore a bear or wolf skin shirt as a sign of rank. There was not indication they had anger issues. So this image is at least partially correct.

So the idea here is to keep track of the amount of damage done in a rage. Pretty simple stuff, and for players that want to play a Berserker I think a logical step.

After playing with AnyDice for a few minutes with an "average" berserker I came up with some appropriate thresholds (note the highest damage thresholds are only possible once Extra Attacks are earned at level 5, criticals occur, and/or they are buffed to the moon).

The real challenge is going to be finding enough things to kill/hit while raging to get to these high levels of damage. *Sigh* The challenges of the berserker.

75 damage/rage: +1 to hit while frenzied

100 damage/rage: +1 to damage while frenzied

150 damage/rage: Fast healing 2 while frenzied

200 damage/rage: Add half proficiency bonus to Unarmored Defense while frenzied

300 damage/rage: Additional +2 to hit while frenzied

400 damage/rage: Additional +2 to damage while frenzied

500 damage/rage: Fast healing 5 while frenzied

750 damage/rage: Add proficiency bonus to Unarmored Defense while frenzied

1000 damage/rage: Fast healing 10 while frenzied

Totem Warrior:

Original Idea: "You find your totem animal in a dream or an ecstatic trance over the heady fumes of a ritual fire. You and the animal meld in body and spirit, you are the primal incarnation of the bear, the eagle, the wolf, or some other. Track the number of animals you help, these must be the same as your totem animal(s)."

You can play that crazy hairy man the wandered out of the mountains asking "Say, have you seen any wolves in distress lately?"

You have chosen a totem animal for your barbarian for the sweet fighting buffs, but this is to make actually confront and interact with the animal that you so admire. Every adventure you go on is going to be like this:

Anyway, down to the juicy stuff. These things all count as helping your totem animal:

• Freeing a bear from a bear trap
• Raising orphaned hawk eggs
• Leading a wolf pack out of the ranch lands to new grounds for safe hunting

But are they equivalent? I dunno, probably. So instead of accounting for exactly how many animals you actually save, (Are 9 eagles equal to 2 wolves? The math gets weird.) lets use an abstract rating of how helpful you are being to the abstract totemic ideal of the animals you help.

Rank 1: You help an individual of the animal group during a time of distress (ie nurse a she wolf during a risky child birth, help a lost faun find its mother, give a thirsty bear clean water after a wild fire)

Rank 2: You defend an animal in combat

Rank 3: You help a community of animals during a time of distress (ie lead the wolf pack out of newly settled ranch land for safer hunting, you teach a momma bear and her cubs to collect honey and forage for a season)

Rank 4: You defend a community of animals in combat

Rank 5: You help the whole of the animal kind (Super amorphous, DM discretion)

So you can kind of see the magnitude of help that each rank merits. Lets say you once helped a whole wolf pack through the winter by bringing them meat periodically (Rank 3) and you find a wolf about to be killed by an angry shepherd and you save it by fighting him off (Rank 2), that's nice but it wont help you get to Rank 4, you gotta do something really special for that.

If you have more than one totem animal you can gain favor with each of the animals you have a totem of.

Bonuses from each Rank and Animal:
Rank 1:
All: The animal you save becomes a close friend and ally, appearing at most once per session at an opportune moment to help you. (Example: the cub you rescued from drowning wanders out of the woods just in time to give you a boost up over the stone wall) Mechanically this means that if you can explain how the animal can help you, once per session your animal friend can give you advantage on one skill or ability check. You can have many animal friends, but only use this ability once per day.

Rank 2:
Wolf: Your sense of smell has gotten very good. You can now track by scent as a wolf could. You have disadvantage against smell based attacks.
Eagle: You gain a piercing scream that gives you advantage on Intimidation checks with civilized people or advantage with Persuasion checks with birds (player must actually scream for this to work).
Bear: You gain the ability to eat completely omnivorously. You can eat anything and anything you find, including raw meat, grass, branches, bees, moss, and mushrooms. This lets you get advantage on your save against ingested poisons.

Rank 3:
Wolf: Can cast Conjure Animals as a 3rd level spell as a ritual once a day, can only summon wolves or wolf like animals (can use dire wolves or re-skinned other beasts as appropriate).
Eagle: Can cast Conjure Animals as a 3rd level spell as a ritual once a day, can only summon eagles or wolf like animals (can use giant eagles or re-skinned other beasts as appropriate).
Bear: Can cast Conjure Animals as a 3rd level spell as a ritual once a day, can only summon bears and bear like animals (can just use the different bears in the MM or re-skinned other beasts as appropriate).

Rank 4:
Wolf: In the Spirit Realm you can choose to take the shape of a Dire Wolf with HD equal to your level.
Eagle: In the Spirit Realm you can choose to take the shape of a Giant Eagle with HD equal to your level.
Bear:In the Spirit Realm you can choose to take the shape of a Polar Bear with HD equal to your level.

Rank 5:
Wolf: Can cast Conjure Animals as a 5th level spell as a ritual once a day, can only summon wolves or wolf like animals (can use dire wolves or re-skinned other beasts as appropriate).
Eagle: Can cast Conjure Animals as a 5th level spell as a ritual once a day, can only summon eagles or wolf like animals (can use giant eagles or re-skinned other beasts as appropriate).
Bear: Can cast Conjure Animals as a 5th level spell as a ritual once a day, can only summon bears and bear like animals (can just use the different bears in the MM or re-skinned other beasts as appropriate).

Thoughts

Are they balanced? Probably not, but what ever, its going to take a Berserker a long time to get all of that damage in one frenzy. It does incentive-ize combat in a perhaps undesirable way.

The Totem Warrior I feel like better exemplifies a more whimsical and less combat oriented path, which is the goal for this series of posts. But it also more complex and unwieldy.

Look for a post on Bards next!

Tattoos as Unarmored Defense

The Rock voiced the big guy and it was actually pretty good

I watched the movie Moana and it was very pretty looking and fun.

It also got me thinking about how cool Polynesian tattoo culture is. It's a nice half way between geometric and natural art. So let's use sweet tattoos as a stand in for armor, because a big muscely guy with a ton of tattoos is protected by his shocking look as much as by his ferocious speed.

(Some other bloggers have talked about this kind of idea before. Arnold K's fashion idea mostly)

Your tattoos only protect you when they are uncovered, so you gotta run around showing a lot of skin so everyone knows how cool you are. You get the basic (+1 AC) tattoo for free if you are a barbarian or a monk using the unarmored defense class option in addition to the Con/Wis and Dex bonuses. Other classes can use the tattoos instead of armor, AC=10+Tattoo bonus+ Dex bonus.

You can get more tattoos, but you'll need better and better tattooists for the new ones to be effective, and finding a grand master tattooist in Ánemos is hard, and the right to be tattooed by one is worth shedding blood over. The new tattoos must represent one of your great deeds.

Let's see a price chart. Tattoos are never going to be quite as effective as plate, but they don't weigh anything, you just gotta scrap off that mud and show em off. You also get an extra bonus to intimidation/persuasion type rolls corresponding to the bonus of your tattoos. This represents the fear and respect your mighty tattoos instill in strangers.

Tattoo Bonus	Tattooist Level	Cost (Drachma/Silver Pieces)	Time to Tattoo
+1	Novice	500	1 week
+2	Journeyman	1,000	2 weeks
+3	Expert	2,500	1 month
+4	Master	5,000	2 months
+5	Grandmaster	10,000	4 months

You have to get tattooed with every successive level of tattoo, any Expert tattooist worth their ink will laugh you out of their studio if you show up clean and blank as a baby.

There are of course magical tattoos you can get, perhaps finding the design in ruins or tattooed onto the corpse of a long dead Sea King. You may even be given one as a reward. Magical tattoos is probably a blog post itself.

Lard Lords

An apprentice Lipimancer learning the pleasure of their craft

Lard Lords

You can smell them before you see them, the sweet stench of gently rotting meat clings to them. As they waddle into view you can see their cheeks flushed too rosy, their eyes gleam with a little too much vigor, and of course their prodigious bulk is the surest sign you are dealing with the foulest and most potent of necromancers, the Lipimancer.

Some say they are simply blessed with corpulence at birth. Others claim that they earn their weight like the rest of us but they weave into their food spells of life and growth and power. Still others claim that these abominations at one point consumed the flesh of man and learned to crave it. But who knows? Ask them yourself, perhaps they will induct you into their ranks and teach you their secrets. Or, more likely, they will laugh a great body quivering laugh and consume you.

They wear their nobility and their power in their rolls. These are spell casters that consume calories instead of mana. The very first Lard Lord took note when their mentor and professors told them about blood magic, how you could trade blood for more powerful and fell magic. They dared to ask the dark question, what else would be suitable for trade?

Blood may be the vehicle for the bodies nutrients but fat is the good stuff, why do you think we love bacon so much? They tried it first on rendered animal fat and found that relative to blood it was like going from coal to jet fuel. The magic of Lipimancy was born, and thus true Necromancy was perfected. For the goal of Necromancy is to master death, and therefore cling to life, and consuming prodigious amounts of magic food will certainly help you cling to life.

You can play a Lipimancer if you want. They are kind of like sorcerers, but instead of spells per day they track the fat stored in their bodies and they can draw more and more fat to overcharge their spells. An over drawn Lipimancer is a withered skeleton, emaciated and horribly gaunt. But they have mastered eating, and given a few days and enough flesh they will be back to their rotund self's.

Lipimancer Spells:

Cantrips:

Consume: The Lipimancer has learned to magically eat food very effeciently. With this spell they can eat and digest food much faster than a normal person, instead of taking an hour to eat and gain the benifits (an calories) from a meal they only require one minuite.

1t level:

Emisis: A Lipimancer can choose to turn their stored energy into horribly acidic magical excrete that they can spew from their mouths. This is a 20ft cone, with a Dex save for half damage, dealing 2d6 acid damage. Those hit by the blast must also make a Constitution save or be poisoned until the next round.

At higher levels: The damage done by the cone increases by 1d6 when cast with each spell slot above 1st.

2nd Level:

Swallow Whole: The Lipimancer has learned to weaponize their eating, they are now able to swallow whole Tiny and smaller creatures. The creature must make a Dexterity save of disappear into the Lipimancer's maw. Once in the stomach, the creature takes 2d8 acid damage each round until dead, or a minute later, whichever happens first. The Lipimancer gains the benefit of having eaten 1000 calories*the HD of the consumed creature after a minute.

At higher levels: Using spell slots above 2nd allows them to swallow larger foes. Each spell slot allows them to swallow one size category larger.

3rd Level:

Vortex of Excess: The Lipimancer can project their gluttony out into a whirling vortex, causing those caught in its current to gain massive amounts of weight. For every round they end in the 40 ft diameter vortex centered on the Lipimancer they must make a Constitution save. On a failed save they balloon in weight. This first failed save causes them to loose all Dexterity bonuses. The second failed save acts as the effect of the Slow spell. And the third and final failed save means they they pop, dying instantly.

4th Level:

Dimension of Flesh: Carrying all of that weight around gets hard, so Lipimancers developed this spell. They send part of their prodigious bulk to a pocket dimension for safe keeping, this has the interesting effect that Lipimancers can partition portions of their HP into these pocket dimensions. When cast at the beginning of the day the Lipimancer determines how much of their weight (and therefore their HP) they want hiding away. They can call this stored fat back to their body as a full round action, though they must make a Constitution saving throw to avoid being sickened from the heady experience.

Player Class Minigames

A while back the amazing Arnold K wrote a post on non-level based advancement that I really latched on to, I used it in my games and my players loved it. I really like the idea, so I set myself to the challenge of making one for each class, as Arnold implies in his own post. I play using heavily bastardized 5e rules, so each class will get these when they get to their class specialization, and each one will be specific to that specialization.

(This is an outline post, look forward to single posts for each class! As I publish them I'll put links to them in this post)

Non-level based advancement:

The whole premise of non-level based advancement is that it gives the PCs ways to improve that are directly tied to their actions. They see rewards for playing to their specialization's strengths. And its a way to further distinguish the classes from each other, and even distinguish the specializations from each other. Everyone gets to be a special flower!

Barbarian:

Ugh, another cliche barbarian

Barbarians are tough as shit angry people that kill things.

Path of the Berserker: Your rage and fury are your deepest joys, track the most amount of damage done in a single rage. With each new level of destruction you find deeper wells of joyous ruin.
Totem Warrior: You find your totem animal in a dream or an ecstatic trance over the heady fumes of a ritual fire. You and the animal meld in body and spirit, you are the primal incarnation of the bear, the eagle, the wolf, or some other. Track the number of animals you help, these must be the as your totem animal(s).

Bard:

You can tell shes a bard because of the smirk

You are an orator, a poet, a musician, and your expression moves your friends to heroism and your foes to despair.

College of Lore: You are a well from which you can draw history and knowledge from the depths of the past. Your long study lore has given you an unrivaled grasp of Lore. For every lost secret that you unearth your knowledge deepens.
College of Valor: You thrill in the heat of battle, pounding a martial beat as you urge your allies on. You have taken to the sword as a duck to a pond. Keep track of every bardic inspiration die that is the difference between life and death for an ally or foe.

Cleric:

Yes, even dwarfs can be clerics

You are a champion of your faith, you are the word and the law. As such you embody some aspect of your faiths principles, that is your Domain.

Knowledge Domain: Your mission is to discover all of the secrets that your gods has scattered over creation for you. Your mind is sharp and adaptable, keep track of the number of times that your divinely guided mind finds a solution to a problem.
Life Domain: You are a gardener of souls; those that you nurture grow in vibrancy and quality, you also ward off death and disease. Keep track of the number of times you guide an ally back from death's door.
Light Domain: Your faith's light shines through you, and you are a scourge to the undead. Track the number of undead you destroy.
Nature Domain: Your faith's mandate is to resolve the disputes between mortals and the Spirits of the land, and as one that straddles the line between you keep track of the number of these conflicts you resolve.
Tempest Domain: Your church is the high windy sea cliff, rain is your baptism, wind is your hymn, lightning is your prayer candle, and thunder is your prayer. Keep track of the kills done with lightning or thunder damage.
Trickery Domain: You delight in mischief and sowing chaos, as is the will of your god. Keep track of the number of successful social deceptions you have committed.
War Domain: You lead the battle hymns and the rites for the glorious dead, in your capable hands the common men place their trust. Keep track of kills with your god's favorite weapon.

Druid:

I've got to wonder what he was doing with his staff behind his back. It looks really uncomfortable. 

While clerics with the nature domain resolve the disputes between mortals and Spirits, druids instead speak for the Spirits as mortal vessels for the natural world's desires.

Circle of the Land: The Spirits lend you their aptitude with weaving the world to their desires. Keep track of your standing in the Spirit world.
Circle of the Moon: While totemic barbarians embrace an animal, you embrace the beast within yourself and you shift skins with ease. Track number of kills while in a particular wild shape form, and get stronger in that form.

Fighter:

As a fighter you are well versed in many combat styles, but there is one style that you truly excel at. Hone this to a sharp point.

Champion: Your weapons are an extension of your body, and you know how to use them to deviating effect. Track number of critical hits you score on your opponents and unlock further levels of might.
Battle Master: You are a tactical thinker, seeing the opportunity in every thrust and parry. Track number of kills with specific weapons, and perfect new techniques with that weapon type.
Eldritch Knight You are a thoughtful hero, melding spell and strike with scholarly dedication. Track number of foes over come with might and magic.

Monk:

Through years of study within your monastic order your mind and body have transcended the abilities of mere mortals. Your fists blur, your feet fly, and with a deep breath your Ki can course out and grant you amazing abilities.

Way of the Open Hand: Your mastery of not only your own Ki but also the Ki of your foes highlights the importance of using your prowess in harmony with that your companions, keep track of how many times your Open Hand Technique allows an ally to kill an opponent or neutralizes them.
Way of Shadow: You have mastered how to use your Ki to meld into the shadows. Keep track of how many times you get the drop on your enemies by using your powers.
Way of the Four Elements: You see the balance in the world and can manipulate it to aid you. Every time you set a natural problem to right your wisdom and strength grows.

Paladin:

Very progressive of WOTC to have a half-orc paladin

A scion of your faith, the fist of justice, or the shield of the innocent; you are a the Law. You embody your religions teachings to protect the faithful and punish the wicked.

Oath of Devotion: You are the purest of the pure, a bright white light in a dark world. Every time you use your Chanel Divinity power, keep track of how many evil creatures you destroy.

Oath of the Ancients: The forest is your cathedral, the stream your place of baptism, the wind your prayer, and Spirits your allies. Woe be unto those that would harm these places... Track the number of times you resolve a dispute in order to preserve a natural feature.
Oath of Vengeance: Spirits and their like a fiends and foes of Civilization, and you have vowed to cleanse the land of them. Track the biggest spirit or demon killed, your power waxing with their deaths.

Ranger:

Masters of their environments and either Nature's staunchest defenders or their most fearsome dominators, rangers are a diverse group of talented individuals.
Hunter: Your mission is to hunt down the most fearsome predators to pave the way for Civilization. Hunters track the biggest beast they have slain, gaining further levels of mastery with the next trophy.
Beast Master: You have formed a deep bond with a beast, and so as your friendship grows so does your shared power.

Rogue:

A Master of Medicine OR a really sneaky Assassin who was your doctor the whole time?!

Master criminal or master killer, master healer or master of the arcane. The rogue excels at arts that few have talent at, through their arts they profit.

Thief: Whether you steal for greed or the challenge, your largest haul is your greatest pride. Keep track of the most valuable thing you have every stolen.
Assassin: You are a master of surprising your foes. Track the number of successful assassinations you achieve.
Arcane Trickster: A subtle mind and a long study have rewarded you with magical talents. Keep track of the number of "roguish" acts you have accomplished with your Mage Hand.
Master of Medicine: Medicine is a slow art, and poison especially requires a thoughtful mind for its application. Keep track of the number of poisoning delivered with a sneak attack.

Sorcerer:

Magic literally courses through your veins, your parentage or the strange circumstances of your life have thrust these abilities upon you.

Draconic Bloodline: Keep track of the number of dragon hearts you have eaten. Double points for killing and eating dragons opposing your own heritages color.
Wild Magic: The variable surges of the cosmos twist and warp your magic, so give in and let them twist you as well.

Warlock:

You have struck a deal, whether you knew it or not, with a being your own reckoning. Now in order to grow in power you must answer their biddings...
Warlocks track favor with their Patron. Perhaps a pool that is only replenished by spreading Patrons message. Can spend favor for special abilities. Of course is specific to each Patron.

Wizard:

"Hey, kid, wanna hear some arcane secrets?"

There are a lot of schools of wizardry, each with their own taboos and secrets. Too many for this post. See Arnold K's excellent posts on the subject while I work on this.

Pale Crowns of Fire

Facing to the northern clime,
Thrice he traced the Runic rhyme;
Thrice pronounced, in accents dread,
The thrilling verse that wakes the dead,
Till from out the hollow ground
Slowly breathed a sullen sound.

The Nekros Archanis

In the misty reaches beyond Chalcis there is said to be an island that is ruled by the Dead Kings, the Nekros Archanis. Only seen in shafts of moonlight on a foggy night, their island Keep glows with malice and the flicker of pale fires on the battlements.

In Chalcis this story is told of the Dead Kings...: Long ago the Dead Kings where mere necromancers, ruling a small empire of detritus and rot. They would descend on their foes under the cover of Wyrfog to harvest the living for their own lifeless ranks and petty squabbles between each other.

But after a hundred years of living in fear of the Dead Kings the wise mages of Chalcis had discovered the secret to calling the winds to their biding, dispelling the Wyrfog of their undead foes. And there was a reprieve from their dread reevings, and the living could repel them when they did come.

But the Nekros Archanis would not be foiled. They unleashed a new terror on the land weapons of pale fire to use their foe's Sun against them. Their blades only grew in dread with the light of the Sun, and none were safe from their cold grasp. And for another hundred years of darkness the Nekros Archanis' rule spread and grew in dark splendor.

In this desperate hour the living people of Chalcis struck a deal with the Spirit of the Moon. For a year and a day they built a magnificent temple to the Spirit of the Moon on the peak of the Mons Lunae while singing the Moon's praises. After this year of Praise, a year and a day were spent pouring barrel after barrel of wine over the Altar to the Moon in its new temple to appease its thirst. After this year of Revelry, a year and a day past and with each high-tide 29 innocents, one for each day in the lunar cycle, were bound bellow the high-tide mark to be sacrificed to the Moon.

The terms of the deal fulfilled the Spirit of the Moon banished the Nekros Archanis to another Realm. The deal was not finished though, for a father released his young daughter on the last night of the ritual to save her from drowning, and so their domain intersects with ours on foggy and moonlit nights and then they are able to still haunt the lives of the living.

You can enter one of their Towers of the Moon if you wish traveler, and you can barter with them for their Pale Fire. They accept many payments, especially blood and favors in the lands of the living. But be cautious, for the Nekros Archanis are always looking for weakness in the veil between their Realm and ours, and many souls have been the unwitting servants of their machinations twords their freedom...

Pale Fire

If you find the Dead Kings perhaps they will give you a weapon of Pale Fire. Even though they ask for no payment, the price is high. In order to wield a weapon of Pale Fire you must step foot into the Realm of Undeath, or else it will surely kill you.

Pale fire does not emit light, it reflects it. As the light around them increases in intensity they too grow bright, so the brightest flame of Pale Fire is in the light of a bright sunny day.

Light Intensity	Effect
No Light	No Effect
Dim Light	1d6 Necrotic Damage
Bright Light	2d6 Necrotic Damage+ Life Steal
Dim Sun	1d10 Necrotic Damage
Full Sun	2d10 Necrotic Damage+ Life Steal

Life Steal: A weapon with this property heals the wielder when the get a critical hit with it, dealing an extra 2d8 necrotic damage and healing them for the same amount.

Weapons of Pale Fire must be wielded by creatures of the Undead Type. If wielded by a living creature they must make a Constitution save (DC 16) every morning at dawn or take 1d6 Constitution damage for and receive no healing benefit from anything other than magical healing. If their Constitution reaches 0, they die and rise as an Undead compelled to serve the Nekros Archanis.

So give your Undead BBEG a weapon of Pale Fire. It will pose the dilemma of fighting it in the Darkness or the Light, and give some nice cursed loot to the PCs!