Bone Reavers

Bone Reavers are what happens when a powerful being grants a limited form of lichood onto a person who otherwise could not attain it. Upon the conversion to a Bone Reaver form, half of a Bone Reaver’s face sloughs off, the skin rotting away to expose bone, and the remainder of the flesh becomes cold and dead. While the mind of the creature remains intact, the Bone Reaver is intrinsically connected to the entity that produced them, able to be commanded at any point by the creature that made them remotely.

A Bone Reaver always has a talisman. This is traditionally a circular golden medallion, though it could conceivably be anything nonmagical that the Bone Reaver could carry on them. The talisman contains their soul. Unlike a lich, who has replaced their soul with a phylactery (which is sort of like replacing an apple with a snake that needs to eat apples to survive or something), the Bone Reaver doesn’t need to consume more souls to survive. To free the soul of a Bone Reaver, you must destroy the talisman, at which point the soul immediately heads to the afterlife. You cannot resurrect a Bone Reaver that dies.

Many Bone Reavers are content to exist outside of society, or to utilize their menacing nature as a tool. However, those who wish to try and continue a facade of their normal life usually craft ornate masks or half-masks to at least disguise their hideous disfigurement. While this doesn’t entirely disguise their nature, it acts as an indicator that the Bone Reaver is trying to continue a normal life. (Without a mask, a Bone Reaver has disadvantage on all CHA checks to positively interact with the living.)

At any point, the patron creature can take command of the Bone Reaver, and they become helpless bystanders in their own body. Their eyes become inky pools of blackness. While a Bone Reaver may have a kind heart and a pure soul, the patrons that endorse their unlife are often not so kind, and so Bone Reavers are hated and feared, not for their own deeds, but by the fact that they are damned by their allegiances.

BONE REAVER STATS

Having half your face gone isn’t going to make you the most popular person in the room. Heavy CHA penalty (like -2). However, the fact that you don’t have to breathe or get exhausted makes you a little harder and stronger. Nominal STR and CON bonuses (like +1).

Bone Reavers have their talisman. If they die, their soul returns to their body upon the next sunset of the next full day. Every time they return, they leave a piece of themself in the grave. Take a penalty (like -d3) to a random stat (chosen by a d6).

Any time the Bone Reaver’s patron would want to communicate with or take command of them, they can do so. There is no limit to this. However, if the Bone Reaver would like to try to resist, they can make a DC 30 or some other ridiculous WIS check, with a bonus proportional to the conviction they have towards resisting (a weak resistance may give as little as +2, attacking the party may have a +5, and attacking a family member or scared child might be +10).

At any point, the patron could terminate the Bone Reaver’s soul. The only way a Bone Reaver can have any hope of resisting is if an entity of similar power to their patron assists them in breaking free of the patron’s control, and the Bone Reaver succeeds on a contested CHA roll.

BONE REAVERS IN YOUR GAME

I’m using Bone Reavers because one of my partymembers, Krilko the barbarian/warlock, is a member of the Rotting Legion (the servants of Koren, the demon lord who usurped Orcus in ages past). During a battle, another PC fell, and Koren asked Krilko if they wanted their compatriot back. Krilko said yes, and now Brocc is a member of the Rotting Legion as a Bone Reaver. If a PC dies, and you have some fell agent in your game, making a bargain to return as a Bone Reaver might be an interesting way to spin that story.

I would probably allow Bone Reavers as a PC ancestry/race/culture/whatnot. It would be rare, for sure, but if someone had an interesting story to tell with a Bone Reaver, who am I to stop them? Plus, Bone Reavers kick ass.

Maybe a Bone Reaver slaughtered a village, then their eyes faded back from black, and they reach out the PCs for help in destroying their talisman. Bone Reavers make a great “sympathetic undead”: instead of skeletons or other fodder, a Bone Reaver is an undead creature that may not have had the most say in the matter, but don’t necessarily have to have an agenda, like a revenant.

Perhaps a PC finds a talisman, and suddenly their skin sloughs off. Instead of a save-or-die, they’re a Bone Reaver, which might be worse in the long run…