Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Weird Arcana - Graveborn (New Oracle's Curse)


I said it before, but it doesn't hurt to repeat: Oracles are awesome.

It’s a perfect blend of mechanics and flavor. I can’t point exactly what is so cool about the class – maybe the way the curses work – but there’s something incredibly primordial about Oracles that I just love it (another reason could be that I deeply loathed D&D's Favored Soul as one of the most ‘flavorless’ class ever created – I know, an exaggerated impression).


New Oracle’s Curse

Graveborn: You are touched by Death. This could mean that you’re born dead (without breathing) or that you’re born from a dead woman. This could also mean that you literally died once and was raised from the dead. It doesn’t matter; when you came back you brought something with you (or you left something behind). You skin is cold and you have a deathly parlor. You don’t heal naturally, only through magic or long-term care. You also suffer a –4 penalty on Handle Animal and Ride checks with living animals and magical creatures. You gain a +4 competence bonus on saves against death effect. At 5th level, you only suffer half damage from negative energy attacks and reduce all energy drain by 1 (minimum 0). At 10th level, you’re immune to negative energy effects. At 15th level, you’re immune to negative drain.

2 comments:

  1. This is similar to the Sorcerer's bloodline ability, correct?

    This is an interesting twist on the Oracle's Curse. Though, much as I'm fond of giving characters a necromatic bent, I tend to prefer the more mundane ailments (deafness, blindness, etc) given in the APG.

    Nicely done all the same.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You mean the undead bloodline? No. The idea came from some myths (Siberian shamans, for example) where to become a diviner or talk with the spirits, the caster must first suffer a "symbolic" death. I just took this concept a little further. Looking now at the Curse, I can see why most people will think it’s undead-aligned.

    ReplyDelete