Death Marchers

+cecil howe has been killing it lately with his inktober submissions over on his website and his most recent submission has inspired me to write up a class thingamabob. Also he and John Anderson have created a twitter bot that will occasionally pump out RPG hooks. And it's crowdsourced! So if you'd like to submit an entry follow that link!

Death Marchers precede the dead to places the living can't tread. Brass, woodwind, and percussion in hand they play final lamenting dirges through dry deserts, icy tundras, and dense forests. Their haunting music ends only when the dead are buried or death has claimed them.

The Death Marcher
Hit Dice: d6
Saves: Fighter
XP to Level 2: 2,250 
Spellcasting Ability: Wizard


Instruments of Steel - To the Death Marchers music and violence come hand in hand. Therefore their tools are forged as instrument and weapon. Roll a d6 twice to determine the instrument and its weaponry.

Instrument Types

1. Brass (Cornets, Trumpets, Tubas, etc.)
2. Wind (Clarinets, Oboes, Flutes, etc.)
3. Percussion (Drums, Cymbals, Xylophones, etc.)
4. String (Guitars, Lutes, Sitars, etc.)
5. Keyboard (Accordions, Harmonicas, Synths, etc.)
6. Other (Bagpipes forged from the lungs of a dead god, etc.)

Weapon Types

1. Big Ass Axe - d10 damage, reach.
2. Boomerblade - d6 damage, throwable, comes back to you.
3. A Boring Sword - d8 damage
4. Wires, Hooks, and Barbs. Oh my! - d4 damage, reach, can be used like a whip to trip people or snatch objects out of their hand. Damage causes the target to bleed for 1hp per round; the bleeding can only be staunched with magical healing or first aid. The bleeding stacks.
5. Kerosene and Steel - d6 damage, can be ignited on command, illuminating like a torch, and dealing +1 damage.
6. I Need Monster Power! - deals no damage, but playing it allows the Death Marcher to summon a random monster with HD equal to 1/2 his level (round up).

Personal Dead - You carry your Personal Dead with you, whether its in a square coffin, a large sac, or chained to your back. Your goal is to escort your personal dead to their final resting place. Use Skerples' Table of Camp Followers or your favorite NPC generator to determine who they were in life. For determining their final resting place, I recommend opening your favorite hexcrawl and picking the most remote dangerous hex on that map; or you could just make a place up that's filled with fuck all danger.

New Spells

Black Parade
Target: Self
Duration: d20+level days

Death Marchers travel to distant and dangerous lands where food and water are ill found. This spell allows the Death Marcher to forego food, water, and sleep for the duration of the spell. However once the spell ends, the Death Marcher incurs all the fatigue-related penalties he would have incurred without this spell.

Dead March 
Target: One
Duration: 1 Turn/level

This spell enchants the target with great speed. The target moves at double movement speed, as if effected by the Haste spell, but cannot deviate from his path. This means they can move forward but not backwards, left, right, or diagonally in anyway. Unwilling targets may save versus Magic to avoid this effect.