aripockily
patreon
[Necromancy] Item - Blackhand's Grasp
🕑 Added 2023-05-29 14:00:04 +0000 UTCWelcome back to another theme. This time the Necromancy Wastes (soon to be renamed Necrosheer Wastes) won by a pretty nice margin so we're heading down to some fun undead stuff. I've already got some fun stuff planned, such as the skinmeld - the skin undead to the fleshy zombie and boney skeleton. Necromancy is ... fun?
---
According to lich legend, this bony hand was cut from the corpse of the first Blackhand, the visionary, sage, and leader of the Black Brotherhood. The hand has passed between subsequent Blackhands up until their disbanding in the aftermath of the Necromancer's Civil War.
---
Blackhand's Grasp
Wondrous item, legendary
When first found, this severed hand has 1d4 + 1 fingers remaining. While you hold this hand, you can cast the chill touch cantrip from it (spell save DC 19), requiring no components.
Fingers of Death. While you hold this severed hand, you can use an action to cast finger of death from it (spell save DC 19). Once that spell has been cast, one of the hand's remaining fingers disintegrates to ash. Once the hand has no fingers remaining, it becomes a nonmagical stump and loses all its magic.
Rare Variant. The rare version of this item decreases its spell save DC to 15 and reduces the necrotic damage dealt by finger of death to 3d8 + 10.
Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of this item decreases its spell save DC to 17 and reduces the necrotic damage dealt by finger of death to 4d8 + 15.
---
If you are a Rare+ Patron, follow this masterpost link for this item's item card.
---
DESIGN COMMENTARY
There's a couple necromantic methods/factions to explore for this theme; we start off with the classic lich. Because necromancy is also so intertwined with the school of magic, it makes sense to combine them with finger of death. Also I wanted to draw a zombie hand.
After the 1-use-per-finger came together organically, I assigned the rarity, which is as strong as legendary even though it's a consumable. The lore was then adjusted to fit, plus extra variants to allow this item in lower-tier games.
![[Necromancy] Item - Blackhand's Grasp](https://img5.patrefans.com/storage/12/qh/wa/563145-019e84be-8ee7-763e-ab7b-528c47fb9d65.png)
![[Necromancy] Item - Blackhand's Grasp](https://img5.patrefans.com/storage/2/ea/tr/563145-019e84be-8ef1-7f26-a629-9173695a3c3a.png)
