Toymaking is not unlike necromancy. Painting details in miniature, carving faces, stitching clothing, and stringing up limbs require a meticulousness and obsession that is also a prerequisite for animating the dead. Necromancers, after all, devise their own playthings and meticulously fashion them, albeit using more gruesome materials.
It should come at no surprise, therefore, that necromancy enjoys a strong tradition of toymaking. Practiced necromantic toymakers can animate their dolls as slaymates, adorable but lethal minions that strike in numbers.
Slaymates
Starting when you choose this ambition at 3rd level, you learn to bind the souls of the dead into Construct vessels—namely porcelain dolls, clockwork toys, wooden puppets, and stuffed animals. When you perform your Animate Thralls ritual, you can summon slaymates. You command these creatures as your thralls and they count as Undead for the purpose of your necromancer class features. Additionally, two slaymates count as one thrall for your maximum number of thralls. When one of these creatures is reduced to 0 hit points or released by you, it collapses into a heap of ruined materials.
Charnel Puppet
At 3rd level, using a supply of material stored in your bag of bones, you can animate slaymates at a moment’s notice. You can use an action and expend 5 or more points from your Charnel Touch pool to animate two slaymates under your control for every 5 points expended, which count as your thralls. These slaymates appear within your space or in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you.
Soul Doll
Beginning at 6th level, as a reaction when a creature you can see within 60 feet of you dies, you can capture the creature’s soul and trap it within a soul doll. The creature controls the body of the doll using the statistics of a slaymate, but it can’t attack and retains its alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You don’t control the soul doll and it doesn’t count as one of your thralls.
The soul doll speaks and understands all the languages it knew in life. It is under no compulsion to answer your questions truthfully or cooperate with you, especially if you are hostile to it or it recognizes you as an enemy.
While the creature’s soul is trapped in a soul doll, it can’t return to life. The soul leaves the doll when you release it as an action, or when the soul doll is reduced to 0 hit points.
You can have up to five soul dolls at one time. If you attempt to create a new soul doll, you can release another doll as a part of the reaction used to create the new doll.
Miniature Minions
Beginning at 10th level, when you perform your Animate Thralls ritual, you can choose for any thrall you animate to be Tiny and have a toylike appearance of your choice. Every Tiny thrall under your control gains the Evasion trait.
Evasion. If the thrall is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw and only half damage if it fails, provided it isn’t incapacitated.
Capstone: Clockwork Lich
At 20th level, you have reached the pinnacle of necromancy and transformed yourself into a lich. As a part of the Rite of Lichdom, you transfer your soul into a body of ticking clockwork, a stuttering but immortal form. You gain the following features in addition to the Lichdom feature:
Clockwork Body. Your soul is bound to a Construct body with your statistics. Your type is Undead. However, spells and effects that specifically affect Constructs affect you as well.
In your clockwork body, you are immune to being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, or stunned. Additionally, you are immune to any spell or effect that would alter your form.
You can spend 10 days and 500 gp of materials to build an additional clockwork body to act as a safeguard against death. Whenever you die, your soul transfers to another clockwork body that you have built of your choice. If you have no clockwork bodies available, you reform at your phylactery in the body of a slaymate, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores.
Spell Immunity. You are immune to three spells of your choice, which you select when you build the clockwork body.
Slaymate Statblock
- Tiny Construct, Typically Chaotic Evil
- Armor Class: 15 (natural armor)
- Hit Points: 2 (1d4)
- Speed: 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 (–2 | 12 (+1) | 10 (+0) | 3 (–4) | 3 (–4) | 16 (+3) |
- Skills: Stealth +3
- Damage Immunities: poison, psychic
- Condition Immunities: poisoned
- Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 7
- Languages: the languages known by its creator
- Challenge: 1/8 (25 XP)
- Proficiency Bonus: +2
False Appearance. While the slaymate remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal toy.
Mimicry. The slaymate can mimic simple sounds it has heard, such as a person whispering, a baby crying, or an animal chittering. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful DC 11 Wisdom (Insight) check.
Actions
Scratch. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) slashing damage.