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The Unbound — Spell & Arts List Draft (Necromancy)

Working draft, not locked in. The Unbound is a full school (not partial), built on WWN's official Necromancer class. Forbidden/outlawed in at least two nations; practitioners typically operate in hiding, often trained secretly by a mentor.

Identity notes

  • Necromancers can prepare/cast High Magic spells in addition to their own New Magic list, per the official WWN class — worth deciding whether Unbound retains full High Magic access or is restricted to a curated subset, consistent with how the other schools work.
  • The binding/Geas aspect (soul-level compulsion) is politically important — per the Magic_Systems.md note, it's the part that keeps the Unbound quietly funded even while the necromancy itself is the part that gets practitioners burned.

Arts (from the official Necromancer kit)

  • Bonetalker — See/communicate with any undead regardless of shared language; sense surface thoughts and orders of visible undead.
  • Cold Flesh — No sleep needed, reduced pain; damage cap of 2 from any single Shock instance; natural AC bonus.
  • Consume Life Energy — Melee/consecrated-weapon attacks heal the necromancer for a portion of damage dealt.
  • False Death — Appear dead to mundane examination while still able to move/perceive; no need to eat/drink/breathe while active.
  • Gravesight — See life energy as glowing patterns, even in darkness; see normally in total blackness as a side effect.
  • Keeper of the Gate — Mortally Wounded creatures within range die instantly and can't be revived (or, alternately, can be auto-stabilized) at the caster's discretion.
  • Life Bridge — Pool hit points between two willing/helpless creatures; telepathic link while active.
  • Master of Bones — Undead save twice (worse result) against the caster's abilities/spells; can negate one undead attack per scene.
  • Red Harvest — When an intelligent living creature dies within 50 ft, either heal 1d6+level or gain +4 to next hit roll this scene.
  • Unaging — No natural aging beyond species max +20%/level; immune to poison/disease.
  • Uncanny Ichor — Blood repels predators; stab/puncture wounds can Mortally Wound but not outright kill barring catastrophic damage.
  • Unliving Persistence — Auto-stabilize when Mortally Wounded (self or, by touch, others).

Spell List (draft, from official Necromancer New Magic)

Tier 5 - Life Bridge (spell version, distinct from the Art of the same name — confirm this isn't a duplicate/naming collision before finalizing) — Pool hit points between willing/helpless targets; can shift enough to Mortally Wound a donor to top off a recipient (capped at the recipient's max). - Everlasting — Instant-action burst protects all allies within 50 ft from being reduced below 1 hp for 5 rounds; caster left at 1 hp afterward. Usable once per day per creature.

High Magic spells assigned to Unbound (from the full-list audit)

Four High Magic spells routed here rather than to Crimson/Mirage/Haras/General, on the reasoning that curses, binding, and body-horror read as necromantic even when the source book files them as generic High Magic. One-line summaries only — full text not yet pulled.

Tier 3 - Shared Flesh (adapted from Conjunct the Vital Viscera) — Merges living creatures to share hit points or body parts. Body-horror territory, fits Unbound's willingness to work with magic other schools won't touch. - Curse of Tumefaction (adapted from The Torment of Tumefaction — full text available) — A single visible living creature is cursed: boils erupt, blood weeps from orifices, tumors engorge the flesh, hair falls out almost instantly. Any vigorous physical action (not movement) costs them 2 dmg/caster level, up to once per round. A Main Action + Physical save throws it off; failure means it lasts the rest of the scene (and a creature with fewer HD than the caster's level who fails once is cursed indefinitely, until dispelled or released).

Tier 4 - Gutting (adapted from Evert the Inwardness) — Summons the contents out of a container, or the viscera out of a living creature. About as unambiguously necromantic/body-horror as a spell gets — no real argument for putting this anywhere else. - The Binding Word (adapted from The Grinding Geas) — Binds a target to obey a command or suffer a terminal disease. This is the signature Geas spell — directly matches the doc's description of the binding aspect being "why the school has never been fully eradicated... someone always wants that capability."

Fan "Project Gemini" spellbook additions (adapted, not official)

Tier 1 - Grave-Needle (adapted from Death's Cartographer) — Blood-marked parchment acts as a crude compass pointing toward the nearest lesser undead (3 HD or less); the needle thickens with higher undead counts nearby. - Rider of the Pale Road (adapted from Saddle of the Pale Horse) — Imbue a saddle to reanimate a dead horse as a mindless, non-combat-trained undead mount for a day (extendable daily, or made permanent for 300 silver in oils/dusts — caster can control a number of Pale Horses equal to level). - Strip the Unburied (adapted from Lay Bare The Unburied Bones) — Sweeping gesture strips flesh from every inanimate corpse in sight, leaving bones intact and neatly arranged. Animated undead with real mass/limited exposed bone take 2 dmg/HD from the caster's level if caught by it, reduced to a bare skeleton if killed. A rare Unbound spell that's genuinely useful non-lethally (battlefield cleanup, corpse ID) as well as an anti-undead option.

Tier 2 - Scarecrow's Curse (adapted from Horror of the Farmer's Land) — Target of equal or lesser HD fails a Mental save and is paralyzed in a standing, arms-out pose for 1 day/caster level. Onlookers who gaze on the paralyzed target must save or be unable to approach.

Tier 5 - Breath of the Shallow Grave (adapted from Rebuke the Shallow Grave) — Revive a recently-slain mortal at 1 hp, cursed with undeath (grants an Undead origin focus). Must be cast within 1 minute/caster level of death; doesn't work on destroyed/dismembered bodies.

Still open

  • Confirm whether Unbound keeps full High Magic access (as the official Necromancer class does) or is restricted to a curated list like the other schools — the audit assumes the latter (curated), consistent with every other school.
  • Life Bridge naming collision between Art and spell — needs resolving (rename one, or confirm WWN genuinely has both and they coexist).
  • Tier 3–4 gaps are now filled by the audit's High Magic assignments; tier 1–2 still leans entirely on fan-homebrew material rather than official content.
  • Haven't cross-checked the Healer's New Magic list, which sits adjacent to Necromancer in the book and might have a spell or two worth reskinning darker for Unbound (revival/restoration magic inverted, etc.).
  • Wealth Beyond Imagination (fan homebrew High Magic spell — slays a 1 HD or weaker humanoid to create a minor Exemplar worth 1000 silver in inspiration; caster risks 1d4 permanent Charisma loss each cast) — flagged the same way Psychic Fetters was in Mirage: an ethically loaded spell worth a deliberate content-tone decision before it's added anywhere. Strong thematic fit here given the life-for-power framing.

Sources used

  • Official WWN Necromancer Arts and New Magic spell list, plus 4 curated High Magic spells (Worlds Without Number Free Edition PDF, pages 60–93).
  • Fan "Project Gemini" spellbook and "Prompts Without Number" Inktober page (sites.google.com/view/projectgemini/spellbook and /inktober) — homebrew, not official Sine Nomine content.
  • See /High_Magic_Audit.md for the full 52-spell cross-school assignment.