[Necromancy] Weapon - Corpsunder

Dark wizards typically prefer a meticulous, controlled process of raising their dead, but a necro-organic blade can perform the same task in a pinch. The results are quite sloppy, so no self-respecting necromancer would be caught dead using one.

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Corpsunder
Weapon (longsword), rare (requires attunement)

You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls you make with this magic weapon.

Master of Flesh. While attuned, whenever an effect would command you to move or take a physical action against your will, such as the fear or dominate person spell, you can use your reaction to roll a d20. On a roll of 11 or higher, you don't move or don't take that action.

Flesh, Skin, and Bone. You can use this weapon to separate a creature into flesh, skin, and bone. This can be done using an action targeting a corpse that has died within 10 days, or as a reaction when you kill a creature with this weapon (targeting the dead creature). The target cannot be undead or a construct.

When you do this, you transform the corpse into a fleshmire, skeleton, and a skinmeld. The GM has these creatures' statistics. In combat, the undead creatures take their turns immediately after yours and obey your verbal commands. The undead remain for 1 hour or until they die. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dusk.

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Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of this weapon has this property. The bonus to attack and damage rolls increase to +2, and you can use the Flesh, Skin, and Bone property twice instead of once between dusks.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This is essentially the item version of the "Disembody Self" spell (or the spell is the item version of this sword... hm). It allows players to essentially summon three minions, which is kind of similar to a very limited version of a 3rd-level Animate Dead.

To make the sword itself more interesting, I added Master of Flesh, a mostly ribbon ability with some in-game utility, particularly against other necromancers or wizards, which fits this theme well.

Together, the +1 property brings the sword up to Uncommon; the Master of Flesh ribbon equals the opportunity cost of attunement; Flesh, Skin, and Bone brings it up to Rare.

I think visually, the ruby came out well, as did the bony hand. The blade is supposed to separate into 3 to represent the Flesh, Skin, Bone property, but ended up a little messy visually to really notice. Oh well. I always have trouble coming up with ideas for swords.