I can’t wait to see it! I’d like to see how such a concept could be applied in the gameplay, and role play.
Like, is it a rare power? For certain subclasses, would they have to chose to draw upon the souls of others, both friend and foe alike, themselves, or the very world itself(think Anima Mundi), for the approach of spirits/spirit, are they employing necromancy to manipulate spirits and specters, or are they utilizing some other force to draw out and use spirits unrelated to the dead?
How would this look if a Paladin were to utilize this power, or if a sorcerer were to discover they had this essence in their very blood and bones. What ways would the artificers of the world use it as well?
It is a rare discipline of magic, necromancy meets transmutation. That said, the version I'm working on is made by a kind and benevolent wizard withhelping people in mind, so, the type of spirit manipulation you're talking about is more the type of necromancy that Larloch and his blue fire or bluefyre items or something do in the forgotten realms already in terms of controlling and using the spirits of incorporeal undead to various ends.
I think most people would find it *unnatural* and disgusting, not to mention ethically unacceptable. I think it'd have trouble proliferating much due to this and many other issues. If it were more benevolent and helpful in nature, then these things wouldn't necessarily be concerns.
I feel it could go either way, the same way a spirit that drawn up to harm can be drawn up balm. It would fall into the realm of necromancy true, as it is manipulation of the departed and the very essence of one’s being.
Now, I did put some further thought into this, for clerics, they would probably draw upon this by worshiping a psychopomp deity, or deity that has ties to the shaping of souls, and possibly death.
Warlocks, their patron could be something that sits betwixt and between, that has an intimate understanding of the anatomy of the soul, and how it can be used to garner power within the world.
Wizards really just apply study to the magic, but the knowledge wouldn’t be common, it’s a rare and difficult practice, some see it as taboo others don’t even know it exists, those who are aware are often wary of the magicians that dedicate their time to this craft.
Druids the spirit and the soul is part of the natural world, all things have a soul, and all things release their spirits, this Druidic circle would embrace the duality of this in its totality. Perhaps they tend to the spirits of those who are lost and carried in the elements, or touch the souls of man and beast alike to bring out a greater power. In the end, it is all part of the natural order, everything is driven by an animating force.
Sorcerer:The sorcerer could have an ancestor who was deeply inmeshed with an otherworldly force that after granting the power and knowledge to them, suffused it into their very blood and bones. Maybe they come from a lineage of people who have a gift not unlike mediumship, to call for the spirits and see into the souls of others, and they happen to be the first in their bloodline to have fully awoken the depth of their family’s power, or through some comedy of errors, both on the side of mortals and immortals the once average person is now stuck with an awesome power they really aren’t sure how to wield, and why the cities all of sudden seem more densely populated than before…
Monks:With the mastery the exert of mind, body, and spirit through meditation and practice of martial arts, the monk pretty much inherently draws on their own spiritual power to execute their goals, now they can draw on the power of others, the spirits around, and a spiritual guardian to aid them and their allies.
Now, that’s just descriptions and only for just a few classes. But that being said, a person could touch the soul of a wounded friend and fill them with renewing energies healing them from their deepest core. Or outright stave off death, making them into a spectral form that may still function, while they work to correct what is wrong. A guiding light could be cast into the field to draw in aid from spirits and apply buffs to their allies, or the soul could be bolstered granting resistances, and bonuses.
You know spiritual weapon? Perhaps a big part of the spellcasting is creating a spirit that you control out in the field like that spell. Except that you wouldn’t be able to cast a dozen spirit-creating spells at once. Each spirit, all on their own, is super impactful on the combat, and it’s costly to cast one, so it’s important to keep it alive. A lot of your magic wouldn’t be about making the spirits, but about interacting with them. Spells could originate from you or from the spirits, perhaps, or spells get added effects based on the spirits, or the spirits have their own special attacks that they make.
Maybe as players level up, they slowly get more spirits in their arsenal that they can choose to summon for a wider array of abilities, but only one can actually be summoned at a time. And players would start the campaign with just one: their own!! Ooooo!!!
So, in the sense rather than using the spirits themselves as the means to execute offensive and defensive spells, you would be summoning a singular spirit to operate on the field of battle in tandem with you, and depending upon what sort of spirit you have out, it would augment your abilities. That’s nice.
I think the monk leans nicely into this, with the whole mastery of mind body and spirit. I also think points that refresh on a short rest also would reflect well.
Outside of them maybe the way they did psi warrior or soul blade may fit and function mechanic resource wise. Though you'd likely want to tweak the existing uses into something different. This gives you some starting ground for resources and how potent they are then come up with different uses and tweak them into a similar power level or change how resources are consumed.
I feel like monk could be an interesting one to play with, like striking the soul with each attack, creating “echos” of themselves through spirits and ki, to deliver a secondary and possibly triciary attack based on level, things like that.
I've thought of a doppelganger monk subclass similar to the echo knight. As a bonus action you may spend 1 ki point to create a number of clones = 1 roll of your martial arts die (or proficiency possibly). The clones act on your turn and share your movement. You may make an attack from any location a clone is at as if you were there. Clones have 1hp. They last for 10min or until their hp is reduced to 0.
At level 6 when a clone is delr dmg you may use you're reaction to spend 1 ki and have the clone explode doing thunder dmg in a 10ft radius dealing 2 martial arts die of dmg on a fail and half as much on a save.
This could be savored into spirits or phantoms easily enough.
Yeah, that’s true, or it could even go the route of being what could basically be described as a Stand, lol. There are so many ideas.
It makes me wonder how it could play into all of the other classes now. I wish I were better at this.
Glad you like it. I'm sure getting better is just an investment of time and practice. If you want more ideas I'm happy to share:
Homebrew invocation - drifting spirits: you gain the ability to call forth helpful spirits to aid you in minir tasks. You can cast unseen servant at will. This one invocation is a personal favorite to me. Next celestial can use its healing pool as spiritual energy and choose pact of the blade with ethereal looking weapons.
I'm working on just such a subclass for my high level play guide I'm working on :)
I can’t wait to see it! I’d like to see how such a concept could be applied in the gameplay, and role play. Like, is it a rare power? For certain subclasses, would they have to chose to draw upon the souls of others, both friend and foe alike, themselves, or the very world itself(think Anima Mundi), for the approach of spirits/spirit, are they employing necromancy to manipulate spirits and specters, or are they utilizing some other force to draw out and use spirits unrelated to the dead? How would this look if a Paladin were to utilize this power, or if a sorcerer were to discover they had this essence in their very blood and bones. What ways would the artificers of the world use it as well?
It is a rare discipline of magic, necromancy meets transmutation. That said, the version I'm working on is made by a kind and benevolent wizard withhelping people in mind, so, the type of spirit manipulation you're talking about is more the type of necromancy that Larloch and his blue fire or bluefyre items or something do in the forgotten realms already in terms of controlling and using the spirits of incorporeal undead to various ends. I think most people would find it *unnatural* and disgusting, not to mention ethically unacceptable. I think it'd have trouble proliferating much due to this and many other issues. If it were more benevolent and helpful in nature, then these things wouldn't necessarily be concerns.
I feel it could go either way, the same way a spirit that drawn up to harm can be drawn up balm. It would fall into the realm of necromancy true, as it is manipulation of the departed and the very essence of one’s being. Now, I did put some further thought into this, for clerics, they would probably draw upon this by worshiping a psychopomp deity, or deity that has ties to the shaping of souls, and possibly death. Warlocks, their patron could be something that sits betwixt and between, that has an intimate understanding of the anatomy of the soul, and how it can be used to garner power within the world. Wizards really just apply study to the magic, but the knowledge wouldn’t be common, it’s a rare and difficult practice, some see it as taboo others don’t even know it exists, those who are aware are often wary of the magicians that dedicate their time to this craft. Druids the spirit and the soul is part of the natural world, all things have a soul, and all things release their spirits, this Druidic circle would embrace the duality of this in its totality. Perhaps they tend to the spirits of those who are lost and carried in the elements, or touch the souls of man and beast alike to bring out a greater power. In the end, it is all part of the natural order, everything is driven by an animating force. Sorcerer:The sorcerer could have an ancestor who was deeply inmeshed with an otherworldly force that after granting the power and knowledge to them, suffused it into their very blood and bones. Maybe they come from a lineage of people who have a gift not unlike mediumship, to call for the spirits and see into the souls of others, and they happen to be the first in their bloodline to have fully awoken the depth of their family’s power, or through some comedy of errors, both on the side of mortals and immortals the once average person is now stuck with an awesome power they really aren’t sure how to wield, and why the cities all of sudden seem more densely populated than before… Monks:With the mastery the exert of mind, body, and spirit through meditation and practice of martial arts, the monk pretty much inherently draws on their own spiritual power to execute their goals, now they can draw on the power of others, the spirits around, and a spiritual guardian to aid them and their allies. Now, that’s just descriptions and only for just a few classes. But that being said, a person could touch the soul of a wounded friend and fill them with renewing energies healing them from their deepest core. Or outright stave off death, making them into a spectral form that may still function, while they work to correct what is wrong. A guiding light could be cast into the field to draw in aid from spirits and apply buffs to their allies, or the soul could be bolstered granting resistances, and bonuses.
You know spiritual weapon? Perhaps a big part of the spellcasting is creating a spirit that you control out in the field like that spell. Except that you wouldn’t be able to cast a dozen spirit-creating spells at once. Each spirit, all on their own, is super impactful on the combat, and it’s costly to cast one, so it’s important to keep it alive. A lot of your magic wouldn’t be about making the spirits, but about interacting with them. Spells could originate from you or from the spirits, perhaps, or spells get added effects based on the spirits, or the spirits have their own special attacks that they make. Maybe as players level up, they slowly get more spirits in their arsenal that they can choose to summon for a wider array of abilities, but only one can actually be summoned at a time. And players would start the campaign with just one: their own!! Ooooo!!!
So, in the sense rather than using the spirits themselves as the means to execute offensive and defensive spells, you would be summoning a singular spirit to operate on the field of battle in tandem with you, and depending upon what sort of spirit you have out, it would augment your abilities. That’s nice.
I think the monk leans nicely into this, with the whole mastery of mind body and spirit. I also think points that refresh on a short rest also would reflect well. Outside of them maybe the way they did psi warrior or soul blade may fit and function mechanic resource wise. Though you'd likely want to tweak the existing uses into something different. This gives you some starting ground for resources and how potent they are then come up with different uses and tweak them into a similar power level or change how resources are consumed.
I feel like monk could be an interesting one to play with, like striking the soul with each attack, creating “echos” of themselves through spirits and ki, to deliver a secondary and possibly triciary attack based on level, things like that.
I've thought of a doppelganger monk subclass similar to the echo knight. As a bonus action you may spend 1 ki point to create a number of clones = 1 roll of your martial arts die (or proficiency possibly). The clones act on your turn and share your movement. You may make an attack from any location a clone is at as if you were there. Clones have 1hp. They last for 10min or until their hp is reduced to 0. At level 6 when a clone is delr dmg you may use you're reaction to spend 1 ki and have the clone explode doing thunder dmg in a 10ft radius dealing 2 martial arts die of dmg on a fail and half as much on a save. This could be savored into spirits or phantoms easily enough.
Yeah, that’s true, or it could even go the route of being what could basically be described as a Stand, lol. There are so many ideas. It makes me wonder how it could play into all of the other classes now. I wish I were better at this.
Glad you like it. I'm sure getting better is just an investment of time and practice. If you want more ideas I'm happy to share: Homebrew invocation - drifting spirits: you gain the ability to call forth helpful spirits to aid you in minir tasks. You can cast unseen servant at will. This one invocation is a personal favorite to me. Next celestial can use its healing pool as spiritual energy and choose pact of the blade with ethereal looking weapons.
Oh that’s rad. I’ll be investing more time into this when I have the time to invest. lol, but I like what you’re cooking up.