[Class] Merrymarrow

Merrymarrow

HD- d6

Max AC- 14 / Minimum Hit-Points- 4

You are a skeleton. You are dead and alive, but you're not the same as other kinds of undead. You exist within the confines of death instead of acting against it; there is no unnatural malice from beyond the grave nor are you animated by sorcery. You appear as a normal human skeleton, but are painted bright colors and have a sort of spirit to your motions that regular undead don't have. You cannot be turned.

As a skeleton, you have all the powers you'd think you'd have. You are immune to level drain and saves vs death, can't drown and are immune to diseases and don't need to sleep. You do need light to see- some light has to fall into your eye-sockets and coincidentally, most Merrymarrows are afraid of the dark. Without organs, just treat your AC as your cap, but you can still wear magic clothes or armor for their effects. Whenever you take a solid hit with a blunt weapon equal to your level as damage or more, make a combat save or else you are blown apart. Whenever you take a fall of 5 ft x level or higher, you also fall apart. It takes an exploration turn to pull yourself back together, but you may not be complete depending on where your bones scattered. At 4^th level or higher, you can pull yourself together in a single combat round. You could also use your ability to disessemble to smuggle yourself through customs, or hide in a box before popping out for a sneak attack, etc. Lost limbs can be remade from skeletal remains of other creatures, but must be properly cleaned and painted at a temple of the dead. Long "lived" Merrymarrows may have many contrasting artstyles.

You get +1 to hit at all weapons at level 6 and 8.

You get +1 to your AC at level 7.

You get +1 to stealth and reaction checks at 2^nd and 9^th level.

Your primary ability is to dance. You can make music with your own body or with an instrument, and you can dance to raise the dead. To control the undead, you make a turn undead roll using your level +2, which increases to a +3 at level 3 and increases again to a +4 at level 5. Your turn undead dance only works on undead, not demons or other supernatural targets normally turned.

Your dance makes the dead rise to join you, and dance alongside you. While dancing, the dead cannot attack, though they may still have murderous intent and try to swipe out the living nearby, though these attacks always miss. For as long as you dance, the other undead may also dance. Intelligent undead may get a saving throw to resist for a single round. Dancing undead are also compelled to follow you, and you can lead them back to their crypts if your turn undead result is equal to destroyed- instead of destroyed, you lay them down to permanent rest.

Alongside this power, you are an entertainer of the living and well tuned to the spirit and traditions of a land or people. You can sense if a grave has been disturbed, and can also sense corpses that have not been buried or read their funeral rites within a large radius, which increases to an entire hex at 10^th level. By properly caring for the dead, they will not rise again as undead in troubled lands. You can also freely take the material goods and offerings given to the dead at alters, but must repay these gifts in kind. You can do this without disturbing the spirits at rest and will not be cursed or smote by the gods for using these gifts, since you are yourself dead after all.

At 10^th level, you become a Grave Tender. You have become famous and respected enough in both the realms of the living and the dead to become a keeper of a cemetery; a huge honor and responsibility. Every corpse buried there has a 1 in 6 chance to appear on a certain night of the year when the veil between realms is at its weakest. These ghosts can be freely questioned, or just have a nice evening with, and even mortals can see and speak to them. Any especially interesting ghosts have a 1 in 6 chance to become permanent haunts, bound to that place but able to manifest every night or so; these haunts are also more physical and can throw objects or become spectral warriors to defend the graveyard or the local community on the right night.

Finally, you also gain the power of Counter Spell. You can counter any necromancy-based spell, spells cast by necromancers, or spells cast by liches or other intelligent undead. You counter the spell by playing a little chord on your ribcage, which musically purifies the magic and ends the spell in transit, or even after it is already in effect. You can use this power three times per night.