OSR Class: Skeleton Wizard

You are NOT a necromancer, and quite frankly, you are tired of commoners mistaking you for one. You went to a chartered wizard college and are a respected member of the wizarding community. Sure, you wear a skull for a hat and have a bandoleer of bones and you cut people open and one of your mentors was a talking skeleton and ...

Your dear old academic advisor.

This is a wizarding school for Arnold K's GLOG system. The base details for the wizard class can be found here, and the spellcasting rules can be found here. (The short version is that spells are level-less, you spend Magic Dice to cast them. More MD spent means more powerful magic but also a higher risk of something going wrong.)

School: Skeleton Wizard

Starting equipment: A bandoleer of chicken bones (1 inventory slot. Can hold 10 lil' bones). Small ceremonial trumpet. Silly Hat.

Drawback: In addition to expending your [Magic Dice], you must also draw upon the magical power stored within bones to cast spells. When casting a spell, the energy is drawn from the bone, causing it to crack and slightly blacken.

The bone must be whole and intact, but unless otherwise specified, a small chicken bone will suffice.  You must have firm, direct contact with the bone. You can draw power from your own bones, but this causes crippling injury and is considered taboo. Teeth do not count as bones.

Also, people keep confusing you for a necromancer.

The player of a skeleton wizard should draw a bunch of doodles of bones and dramatically rip them in half every time they cast a spell.


Perk:  If you use the skull from an intelligent creature to fuel your spell, add +1 MD to your roll. This MD does not return to your pool.

(Apes, Elephants, Bears and anything smarter counts as intelligent. You can rent skulls from the College of Skeleton Magic in any major city.)

Given that scrolls can provide a similar effect, the +1 MD isn't a huge deal unless you're on an island full of skeletons or something. 


Cantrips:

1. Flavor a pot of liquid with savory broth.
2. Touch a bone to identify it's species of origin and any bone-related health problems.
3. Touch a bone or tooth to repair minor damage.

The third cantrip isn't strong enough to mend broken bones. It definitely isn't strong enough to restore mangled limbs.  It can be used to surgically treat stress fractures and damage from degenerative conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis.  It can also be used to reverse tooth decay; this is the only form of bone magic that can affect teeth.

Skeleton Wizard  Spell List

Several of these spells target a bone via touch. It's possible to use such a  spell on a bone still within another living creature, but requires direct bone contact, so it's really only possible with willing or incapacitated targets, and requires a deep incision.

An apprentice Skeleton Wizard ready for action!

1. Speak with Bones

R: 50'  T:  Skeleton   D: concentration

You control the target skeleton like a puppet. This skeleton can be of any species and model clay skeletons work just as well. The skeleton is capable of levitating and manipulating small objects (< 5 pounds) but can't exert enough force to injure anyone.  You can also project illusionary noise out of the skeleton, but this is limited to sounds you could make with your own voice.

No no no. Not like you're thinking. Speaking to bones is necromancy. This spell lets you speak with bones. It's an educational aid.

2. Bone Armor

R: Touch  T: Creature  D: 10 minutes
Bone plates erupt through the target's skin, dealing [sum]-[dice] damage to the target. This extra armor reduces all physical damage the target takes by [dice]x2. 

3. Magic Metacarpals

R: Touch T: Creature  D: 10 minutes

[Dice] sharp spikes of bone burst out of the target's hands, dealing [dice] damage to the target. These can be used in hand-to-hand combat or the spikes can be shot out in a ranged burst. (1d6 + [dice] damage in either case.)

The College of Skeleton Magic isn't really about training warriors. But bones can be weapons in a pinch.

4. Bone Ward

R: 10'  T: Area  D: Varies

Create a shimmering force field, 10‘x10’, centered up to 10' away. Alternatively, create a sphere centered on the caster 5' in diameter.

This invisible barrier  repels any bones which try to cross it. The barrier is completely intangible to any other substance: steel, wood, meat, etc. It only blocks bones. The ward can be destroyed by dealing [sum]*2 damage to it, but it can only be damaged by bare fists and weapons made of bone.

Bones are full of magic, and specialized wards can block magic. It's a fairly straightforward application of basic wizarding principles.

5. Bone Sense

R: [Dice]*15'   T: Creature  D: [sum] rounds

Target gains instinctual proprioceptive awareness of the exact position and orientation of every bone within range. They can sense invisible bones, and can sense bones through walls.

If you invest two or more [dice], grants knowledge of the species and health of any creatures whose bones you sense.

6. Mend Bones

R: Touch  T: Creature or Bone  D: 0

Instantly restores the bones of a creature to perfect condition, removing any bone-related wounds. Missing bones can be regrown as long as the proper flesh still exists. Even those without bone problems heal [dice] HP as micro-fractures mend and the body is set into proper alignment.

Can also be cast on an individual bone outside of any body, restoring it to a museum-quality specimen.

Responsible skeleton wizards bring valuable skulls to the College for display and experimentation. The college won't pay in cash, but will deduct a fair sum from your wizard student loans.

A journeyman Skeleton Wizard wearing the
traditional hat and badge of his station.

7. Break Bones

R: Touch  T: Creature  D: 0

Target Saves or [dice] of their bones (your choice) become fractured.
Skulls can only be fractured if two or more [dice] are invested. If this spell is cast while making direct contact with one of the target's bones, even one removed from their body, it automatically succeeds.

Unrelated bit of trivia: The college keeps small bone samples of all registered bone mages on file. Make sure to pay your wizard student loans on time to help support this archival effort.

8. Warp Bones

R: Touch  T: [Dice] bones  D: Permanent.

You exert your will over the course of several seconds to twist bones into the shape you desire. You cannot change their mass, and you cannot break them. The bones can exert force as they bend, just as long as the force isn't great enough to break the bone. The complexity of the desired form is limited by the number of Magic Dice invested.

1 MD allows you to make bones bend as if made from thick rubber

2 MD allows you to manipulate them as if they were stretchy and elastic.

3 MD allows you to mold bones as if they were clay.

4+ MD allows you form the bone into any contiguous shape you can imagine. Microscopic fractal horse statuettes? Go for it.

A master Skeleton Wizard in casual attire.

9. Bone Bramble

R: Touch  T: Bone  D: 30 seconds / Permanent

This targets the same bone that you use to power this spell. A few moments after casting, the bone starts shooting out spurs, growing in size and mass, like some sort of horrible bone cancer. Over the course of 30 seconds, this tangle of ill-formed bone will grow to fill a volume of 10'x10'x10' for every [dice] invested in the spell.

This growth isn't fast enough to directly puncture flesh, but touching the spiky bone causes mild pain, and anyone caught in the area may be trapped. The bone is weak enough to easily smash apart. (About 1 minute for a beefcake with a hammer to make it through ten feet of bone bramble.)

10. Hold Bones

R: Touch  T: [Sum] Bones   D: [sum] rounds

Your fingers begin to tingle. Up to [sum] bones you touch are locked in place midair, and only you can move them. Anyone else attempting to move the bones must save vs. Strength to break your magical hold.

"Bones provide structure, both within the body and without." - Archmage Scapulo

The Archmage shows off his spookiest spell.

11. Skeleton Warrior Form

R: 0  T: Self  D: [sum] minutes

Your flesh vanishes and you become a skeleton! You are not undead. It's just that your skin and flesh has been shifted out of reality. As long as the spell is active, your bones will knit themselves back together and attract each other, healing 1 hp per round.  You take extra damage from bludgeoning weapons and half damage from piercing weapons.You are immune to poison. You cannot be killed; dropping to below 0 hp renders you immobile. You get -3 on any attempt to charm or persuade.

If the spell ends, and your skeleton isn't whole and put together correctly, it can result in disability or death as your flesh reforms without the proper scaffolding. For example, if the bones of your hand and forearm are trapped inside a box as the spell expires, your arm is severed. If someone grinds your skull
into dust, then when the spell expires, the dust transforms into meat jelly and you instantly die.

Casting with 4 or more [dice] gives you the option to make it permanent. But don't do that. You'll starve to death and also lose your wizarding license.

It's your own skeleton! Already alive! Not necromancy!

12. Transfer Essence

R: Touch  T: Creature  D: [Dice] Minutes
Bones contain a residual echo of a creature's soul. You can overlay this soul-structure onto a living creature.

As part of casting this spell, you must expend the energy from the skull of a creature with no more than [dice]*5 HD. You may choose one attribute (Strength, Wisdom, Max HP, magical powers, etc.) that the skull's owner possessed and grant it to the target for the duration of the spell. For example, you can expend a bear's skull to grant the target great strength or expend a dragon's skull to grant the target fire-breath.

Okay, this one is a little bit necromantic. Don't tell the pope.

Theoretically, you could heal this by removing the skull and then growing it back.
Theoretically.

Mishaps:

1. MD only return to your pool on a 1-2 for 24 hours.

2. Bone spur. Take 1d6 damage.

3. The joints in one of your limbs (roll 1d4) lock up for 1d6 rounds. If it's a leg, your speed is halved.

4. Your ribs spontaneously crack. Your max HP is reduced by your level until they heal.

5. Arthritis flareup. Joint pain reduces your dexterity by 3 for 1 minute.

6. One of your teeth falls out. 

Doom of the Skeleton Wizard:

1. Your bones become weakened  and brittle for 1 day. Any bludgeoning attack results in a broken bone.

2. Your bones become soft and flexible for 3 days. It becomes difficult to walk or lift heavy objects, and you must be especially wary of head trauma.

3. Your bones disappear. All of them. Permanently. You are left as a deaf, twitching bag of meat.

This fate can be avoided by stealing the bones of a divine being and surgically implanting them into your own body.

This class was designed to go along with a a goofy Skeleton Island hexcrawl I'm working on. Also in the works is a Skeleton Fighter and a "Skinny Weirdo" whose abilities are all based on skeleton-related idioms.