More Tools for 5e: Corpse Stitcher's Kit
IT’S ALIVE! - At least, that’s what I’d say if it was a living creature. It’s not, it’s just a constructed buddy to go on fun and whacky adventures with you. This week, as we still celebrate all things spooky during the most unholy of all months, Halloween (I don’t know why everyone just calls it October though), I decided we should have a spooky tool.
Read on to learn more about the mechanics, why I created it, and my intentions behind different elements.
For those who don’t care about the how of my tool:
Corpse Stitching
Unleash your inner dark scientist and delve into the realm of forbidden knowledge with these macabre implements. Designed for the daring necromancer or mad scientist, these tools are your gateway to a world of sinister experimentation. With your scalpel in hand, you'll harness the power to mend, meld, and manipulate the remains of the departed, breathing new life into your creations. Stitch together body parts with surgical precision, splice the arcane forces of the ethereal realm, and unleash the abominable to roam the night.
Corpse Stitcher’s Kit is all about creating Victor Frakenstein’s Monster - but as your best buddy to go on adventures with. While some may be put off by your… friend, others may see it as a useful, shambling horror to hide behind when the hobgoblins attack. But let’s get into it.
Why Does This Kit Exist?
So the main reason I made this kit, besides I wanted to make a tool for Halloween, is that a ‘pet’ is kind of limited in 5e. Sure, you have your drakewardens, beast masters, and even familiars, but there aren’t a lot of options out there if you want to create a buddy with special abilities. We do have the necromancer who can create a whole horde of undead minions, but that’s not what I envisioned Corpse Stitching to be. Frankenstein only focused his efforts on a single monster, and that’s what I wanted.
In addition, there just weren’t really any tools that touched on this space. We don’t really have a tool that is about conquering death with science, and so this tool could fill that hole.
My Objectives
Before making this kit, I had a main goal in mind. I did not want this to be a headache for the Game Master. While I might be a bit biased (or traumatized from conjure woodland beings), people who want to use this tool still need buy-in from their GM to do so. In addition, I wanted to make sure its power budget was limited. This is only a tool, not a class feature.
You’ll notice its attack is pretty pitiful at only 1d6 + strength modifier, which… isn’t going to win very many battles. But it takes a Bonus Action for it to do that, so it seemed like a fair trade-off. You can have a bit of damage, and in exchange you don’t get your bonus action. For some classes, like a rogue, that cost could be too great. For other classes, like a fighter, they may not even notice that it’s gone.
Additionally, most of its abilities are more defensive in nature. It doesn’t have an acid breath, it doesn’t explode like a nuke, it is just there to soak up some damage, get destroyed, and then the player has to build a new one.
Now let’s talk about the kit.
Corpses and Necro Points
The basic idea behind this tool is that you get to spend a number of ‘Necro Points’ to build your ideal companion. I’m not yet 100% sold on the name of Necro Points (but the tool was originally named Necrocrafter, so it’s kind of a holdover).
In order to spend these points, however, you must have bodies, and you need a lot of bodies. Either you are going to become quite a nuisance at the graveyard, or you will be adopting a brand new policy of “take no prisoners”. Every time you are going to create a Crafted, you need a number of bodies equal to the Necro Points you are going to spend. Plus, the more Necro Points you spend, the more special abilities you have, and the higher the overall stats of the Crafted. So it’s good to kill… I guess?
Anyway, you get a number of Necro Points equal to Intelligence modifier plus Proficiency Bonus, so someone just starting out may only have 4 to 6 points. If your build is focused on Intelligence, you’ll likely have 6 when you start out, and 11 by the time you become especially dangerous.
I’d point out, that that means you need 11 bodies. And 11 points isn’t even the maximum! There are weaknesses you can give your Crafted that will boost that number to 15 Necro Points you can spend - which means you are going to get quite a reputation around time. Of course, you probably don’t want 15 Necro Points. While it makes the Crafted harder to destroy, it is also a harder DC to hit since the DC to create one of these monsters is 10 plus the number of Necro Points spent on it.
So there are trade-offs. You can build a powerful Crafted, but you have to explain the bodies, you have to beat the DC, and you have to spend a lot of downtime with your corpses before you can announce IT’S ALIVE!
Special Abilities
Because you are making your very own best friend—it only makes sense that you get to decide what your best friend is even good at. That’s why you can spend Necro Points on special abilities that can give the Crafted resistances, immunities, extra speed, longer reach, and more.
These abilities, which normally only cost 1 point, could cost up to 3 points, limiting how many abilities your Crafted can have. However, as I mentioned before, there are weaknesses you can add to your Crafted, giving you more points to buy more abilities with. However—you still need to succeed on the DC to make your Crafted, or else all those bodies just go to waste and you have to start over.
Which is kind of wasteful of you. Corpses don’t appear out of nowhere.
Get Stitching
That’s, by and large, the Corpse Stitcher’s Kit. I hope you give this tool a whirl, and make sure to back us now on Kickstarter! We have about a week left, and this tool will be included in the book, plus even more abilities to perfectly craft your new best friend made out of multiple people who tried to kill you for some reason.
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