DnD Secret Crafts Graveologist

Dungeons and Dragons – Mystara Secret Crafts

Secret Craft of the Gravemaster

aka Gravemaster, Graveologist, or Master of Grafting

This secret craft was developed by those who have a deep connection with necromancy and the element of fire. These are abilities granted by the grace of the patrons of the necromancy. Their magic concentrates on dealing with the enhancement of undeath, grafting from a fallen foe or constructs.

Source Material: This secret craft was built from material gained from various editions of the game. Principalities of Glantri (GAZ3), Deep Magic – Blood and Doom (DM12), Encyclopaedia Arcane – Necromancy (Beyond the Grave – MGP1005), Ultimate Prestige Classes (Crypt Lord).

List of Practitioners of the Graveologists

• Initiate –
• 1st Circle –

Craft Magical Items – Graveologist

• Very Rare
  • Candle of Invocation – (Energy, Entropy, Matter, Thought, Time)

Ranks of the Graveologist Secret Craft

• Initiate (from 1st level)
• 1st Circle (from 6th level)
• 2nd Circle (from 11th level)
• 3rd Circle (from 16th level)
• 4th Circle (from 21st level)
• 5th Circle (from 26th level)

Graveologist – Initiate

To become an initiate, one must be part of either “The Great School of Magic” in Glantri City, Cult of the Eternal Flame, or in good standing with fire aspect necromancers.

Secret Craft – Graveologist – Initiate

• Craft Bonus = Proficiency + Cha + circle +2 (darkness or fire aspected and traldaran)
• Craft DC: The Base DC of a secret craft abilities is: Base Craft DC = 8 + Prof + Cha mod + circle achieved +2 (darkness or fire aspected and traladaran).
• Starting Language – Traldara
• Associated Sphere – Usually a Entropy or Energy Immortal, but any Immortal who is a Patron of non-intelligent constructs or re-animation is also valid.
• Expanded Magic: Characters gain extra spells to their spell list from this secret craft. A prepared caster gains them as spells in their spellbook, a spontaneous caster can swap out the spells with their known spells during craft downtime.
• Artefacts of Animation (Entropy and Energy) You can make a craft check to use a artefact of animation without expending the items power by paying for it with your own life force instead. This avoids the chance of a penalty being activated. You can also steal power from an artefact to heal your soul burn. If you are attuned to the artefact, you can use its power to activate your secret craft features without a chance of a penalty being activated. Traladaran attuned racial magical items allow you to pinch their charges for the day using 1 charge to replace 1 soul burn, and for each level or rarity above common the magical item can replace an additional point.

Graveologist Additional Crit Effects

• Graveologist Additional Craft Mishap: In addition to the base critical failure, you take irreducible necrotic damage (from the standard mishap) as a punishment from your mentor, this also reduces your Charisma by 1.
• Graveologist Additional Craft Boon: In addition to the base critical success, your muscles are wreathed in power and you gain a point of Charisma.

Associated Classes:

• Fighter – Clacking Mercenary (mhh35)
• Monk – Way of the Long Death (scag130)
• Paladin – Oath of the Giving Grave (mw403)
• Warlock: Pact of the Undying (scag139)
• Wizard: School of Artifice (br202), School of Necromancy (ph118)

Available Feats: tba.

Spell Lists – Secret Craft – Graveologist
(Dead based spells)

Cantrip –

1st Level Spells – Dead Man’s Hands (bls40), Death’s Shadow (ea02-22), Detect Dead – R *, Grave-Touched Weapon (bls65), Hone Blade (mwb429), Restore Corpse (pcc42), Strike Barren (below), Writhing Arms (mwb437)

2nd Level Spells – As You Were (mwb421), Augment Skeleton (bls16), Bones of Steel – R *, Charnel Stench (bls30), Decompose Corpse (pcc37), Doom of the Slippery Rogue (mwb427), Gentle Repose – R (ph246), Glowing Bones (bls64), Sensory Link – R *, Speed Undead (bls111), Undead Alteration (bls120), Voice of Deathly Whispers – R *

3rd Level – Bone Trap (bls25), Corpse Armour (bls34), Feign Death – R (ph241), Finger Missile (bls58), Gloomwrought Barrier (mhh170), Heat Flesh (bls69), Infuse Weapon (bls76), Invigorate Zombies – R *, Restore the Undead (bls99), Silver Bones (bls106), Strength of the Underworld (mwb435), Undead Conduit *

• 4th Level – Blood and Steel (mwb421), Graft Weapon*, Iron Bones (bls77), Zombify Self (bls131)
• 5th Level – Blade of Bone (bls21), Create Homunculus (xge152), Heat Bone (bls69), Mark of Fire (bls85), Mark of Ice (bls85), Mark of Ooze (bls85), Resist Channelling (bls99), Skull Bomb (bls106)
• 6th Level – Adamantine Bones (bls11), Ebon Water (bls50), Longevity – R *
• 7th Level –
• 8th Level – Malevolent Waves (mhh181)
• 9th Level –

* details to come. (R) are for ritual spells.
Source: ea02, ph

Graveologist – 1st Circle (Apprentice)

Secret Craft – Graveologist – 1st Circle

Secret Crafts – Manifestations (Replaces other active secret craft manifestation when activated) Each Manifestation uses a light colour based on the Sphere it is being drawn from Energy (red), Entropy (black), Matter (green), Thought (white), Time (Blue). Each manifestation lasts until the end of your next long rest, and you can spend 1 soul burn to keep it active until the next long rest without rolling or you dismiss it.

Graveologist Apprentice (Manifestation SB 1 DC 16) When you activate this manifestation, you dim light within a 5 ft radius. All undead and flesh-based constructs in the radius gain 1 point of health at the end of your turn.

Graveologist Apprentice Enhancements and Powers (Requires Graveologist Apprentice to be active)

• Necromantic Communication – Death (Power SB 1 DC 16) As an action, by smelling and tasting the flesh of a body, the crafter can speak with the dead as per the spell, but the body does not need to be whole or able to answer in return as it all appears in the crafters mind. Can only be done once per body.
• Necromantic Components – Death (Enhancement SB 1 DC 16) Takes an action to activate. Once activated, you can use your prepared death to power your spells in place of material components, as long as it is worth less or equal to the value of the preparation.
• Necromantic Consumption – Death (Power SB 1 DC 16) As an action, you can eat the flesh of an undead creature and recover 1d8 hit points equal to its hit dice. You can do this once per fallen foe. Your prepared death can also be used to heal 1d8 hp per 10 gp of value you consume.
• Necromantic Enhancement – Death (Enhancement SB 1 DC 16) Once activated with an action, you can treat your unarmed attack as a bludgeoning weapon while your manifestation is active. You also gain resistance to bludgeoning damage. Your unable to subdue with this style, and a successful critical hit also causes the target to be stunned for a round.
• Necromantic Enhancement – Death (Enhancement SB 1 DC 16) Once activated with an action, you gain resistance to necrotic damage.
• Necromantic Touch – Death (Power SB 1 DC 16) You can make a melee attack against undead creature and cause it to make a Wisdom saving throw or loose charisma points equal to half your level and take 3d6 necrotic damage. On a successful save they don’t loose charisma. On a failed save they also have the poisoned condition until they make their saving throw. If you exceed their current hit points, they are considered to have failed all three death saves.
• Necromancy Specialisation (Enhancement SB 1 DC 16) Activate as part of a short rest and stays active if your manifestation is active. You can prepare one spell from the craft list as a known spell. You can reactivate this power to replace the known spell. Non-spellcasters can use this to gain a cantrip if listed.
• Necromantic Undeath – Siphon or Transfer Active Magic (Enhancement SB 1 DC 16) As an action, you can transfer an active magical effect from you to a controlled or willing Undead creature or flesh-based construct even if those creatures are not considered a valid target. This costs 1 soul burn per spell effect level.
  • You can harness the death around you (not Celestials, Constructs, Fiends or Undead) regaining gaining 1 spell slot for each level of creature that died within 10 ft of you which you can then spend to increase the slot level of a spell your casting without using a higher spell slot. You can retain up to twice your level in spell slots and this activation lasts for 1 minute/level. The creature must have died within 1 round of the harvesting.
• Extended Necromancy Transmutation (Enhancement SB 1 DC 16) You can prepare transmutation spells as a necromancy spells relating to modification of the body. The results give an appearance of undeath to the subjects they are cast upon.

Downtime Activities: can require 1 or more soul burn points to activate and maintain. You do not require you to have the manifestation active to use. Use of downtime abilities cannot be offset by magical items or artefacts.

• Laboratory: A Necromancer must create a laboratory to use their abilities in at the cost of 5,000 gp per circle they have obtained.
  • Once they have a laboratory, they can build a field kit that costs 3,000 gp per circle and allows experiments but has twice the failure rate. This can be used ten times before it runs out of components. It costs 300 gp per use being refreshed, if it is exhausted, then it must be rebuilt from scratch. Using a field kit doubles the laboratory burn percentage.
  • Experiments cost 1,000 gp of components, take d6 hours per circle of ability used and gain a 5% additional failure chance for each interruption.
  • Finding components takes a week per 1,000 gp of items in Glantri City, or twice that in another capital, or three to four times depending on the country.
  • They require a formula book (use a blank spellbook) to write down all the details of what they can create with their lab or field kits.
• Prepare Material Death (SB 1+) You can spend a week to sacrifice a number of hit dice of flesh of a dead creature, from yourself or a helpless target. For every hit dice sacrificed this way, you can gain enough material to replace 10 gp worth of material items for a spell. Each HD used in this fashion also causes 1 point of Soul Burn. You cannot regain the soul burn while this has not been expended, but may add to its capacity with downtime.
• Dead Familiar (SB 1+): You spend a week to training a familiar to become undead for a short time. This gives the familiar once per short rest to not need to eat, breath or sleep for ten minutes per level. This will cost you 1 soul burn per character level (or 1 point if you have the familiar class feature or follow the Traladaran pantheons). You cannot recover the soul burn while you retain the familiar.
• Dead Companion (SB 1+): You spend a week to training a companion to become undead for a short time. This gives the companion once per short rest to not need to eat, breath or sleep for ten minutes per level. This will cost you 1 soul burn per character level (or 1 point if you have the companion class feature or follow the Traladaran pantheons). You cannot recover the soul burn while you retain the companion.
• Dead Mount (SB 1+): You spend a week to training a mount to become undead for a short time. This gives the mount once per short rest to not need to eat, breath or sleep for ten minutes per level. This will cost you 1 soul burn per character level (or 1 point if you have the mount class feature or follow the Traladaran pantheons). You cannot recover the soul burn while you retain the mount.
• Bind the Limb (SB 1) By spending a week you can graft one body part to another creature (or yourself) granting abilities of that body part and loosing abilities associated with what was lost or removed. The grafting lasts for 1 week/level and will cease to function halfway through that time, a drop off at the end of that time (grafting to yourself does not have this issue).
• Necromantic Craft Specialisation (SB 1+): You gain a known or prepared spell from the list of spells in this craft for each level you can cast. If you know more than one craft you can only have this available for one. Repeat activations changes the these slots to the activating craft. Costs 1 point per level of the spell. This loss is permanent while you have access to these spells. Unlike regular spells, Cantrips cost 1 point per character level.

2nd Circle (and beyond)

These will be expanded when a player unlocks more in the game.

Content Updates

• 2022-03-14 – Added in link to cult of the eternal flame.
• 2022-03-12 – Updated the Initiate level abilities and wording. Update of the 1st Circle abilities and powers to bring them more in line with the changes made to the initiate level and through trial in play over the last year
• 2021-08-05 – Updated the layout and content.
• 2021-07-21 – Added in section on magical items.

Secret Crafts

Overview, Downtime: Secret Crafts, Spellcasters

Elemental Crafts: (6) Air, Darkness, Earth, Fire, Water – Combining Craft – Elements

Necromancy Crafts: (6) Blood, Devour, Grave, Reanimate, Shade – Combining Craft – Necro

Racial Crafts: (38) Alchem, Beast, Bureau, Celest, Chaos, Chrono, Craft, Crypt, Diplomat, Diviner, Dragon, Elven, Entertain, Fiend, Heal, Mech, Mental, Merch, Music, Nature, Portal, Preserve, Protect, Rad, Sail, Shape, Skald, Sky, Spirit, Spy, Star, Sumon, Tech, Void, Wagon, War, Weapon, Witch

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