Alright, here's the variant I'm working on, I'm not putting it in the necromancer page comments yet, needs a bit more fleshing out, plus I'm not sure if it warrants a separate page or would be better discussed here in the forums or some such. Anyway:
Instead of summon undead, animate corpse/minion. Works functionally the same, but requires corpse. The minion maintains the targets size (limit small or medium at 1st level) Also, when minion is destroyed, it returns to an inert corpse state, any or all minions can be returned to corpse states as a minor action? Free action as part of casting animate corpse? (ie, return existing minions to corpse state, raise as new version?). Specifically call out that these minions are crated via the necromancer's life force, and share the necromancer's alignment.
Scales w/ level: # of minions at a time, also size of target-able corpse (small or medium heroic, + large or tiny paragon, +huge epic
Modified by corpsecrafter feats. Ex. "Wings of Death (epic feat, corpse crafter), if you target the corpse of a creature that had a fly speed when it was alive, the minion gains a fly speed (clumbsy) equal to its normal speed as a minion.
2nd example: "Hulking Death", heroic feat, corpse crafter. you may target corpses of creatures one size larger then normal with animate minion (ie, up to large at heroic, huge at paragon, gargantuan at epic).
3rd example: "Death's Pale Steed", heroic feat, corpse crafter. If your animate minion power targets the corpse of a creature that had the mount keyword, the minion may have the mount keyword and may be ridden by your allies. While ridden, you do not control the minion. Instead your ally controls the minion as per the rules for mounted combat. It still counts against your limit of # of minions at a time.
new free Necromancer Ritual: Corpse Token, casting time 5 mins? usable any number of times during rest? Reduces one lifeless corpse to a small token - generally finger bones, teeth, small carving, vial of blood, whatever, necromancer's choice. Arcana DC to identify a corpse token. Corpse tokens can be dropped into any adjacent square and targeted by any spell or effect as though they were the original corpse (also useful for other potential corpse-fueled powers? Corpse explosion?). A number of new medium humanoid corpse tokens can be prepared during a long rest without material (it is assumed that the necromancer raids graveyards, cobbles smaller animal corpses together, or imbues inorganic material with energy from the shadow fell).
Adv. over straight summoning:
- Actually animating corpses, like a proper necromancer.
- can incorporate some of base creature's stats into minion, mostly feat based so can be largely ignored if desired.
- Reanimating fallen minions strongly conveys the implacable nature of undeath
- Corpses in item form - can be handed out by DM
Addressing Concerns:
- what about when I'm in a banquet? Minions can be restored to corpses and converted to easily hidden/transportable form. Spare minions or minions w/ alternate traits can be kept in storage form.
- What about replacing lost minions in battle? Just re-raise downed minion - again, strongly convys the inevitable/implacable nature of undead/necromancy.
- What if I can't find any corpses, or don't want to bother collecting them? Can restock on base 'medium humanoid' tokens during long rest.
Disadvantages, w/ comments
- more complicated then just summoning: it is more complicated. But it's also the class's primary gimmick, so it can afford to be, and provisions are made to minimize hassle for those who don't want to deal with it.
- Minions animated from tokens start adjacent to if you don't drop them out beforehand. Honestly, probably a good call. At will walls as a minor action placeable anywhere w/in range is already potentially too strong. Adds tactical element if PCs have time to prepare for combat - bury/hide/drop tokens in chosen squares before luring enemies into ambush.
Thoughts?