Occtis in Daggerheart
SUMMONER'S HOPE FEATURE
Aid of the Spirits. Spend 3 Hope to conjure otherworldly aid. Distribute 2 Hope among one or more other PCs within Far range, and you clear a Stress.
CLASS FEATURES
Summon Entity You can summon otherworldly Entities: Fate Spirits and other Entities from your subclass. Each Entity is associated with a summoning circle below. Mark a Stress to summon a number of your Entities equal to your tier, and add them to the appropriate circles. You can hold a total number of Entities equal to your level. Summoned Entities stay within Very Close range, can perform harmless tasks within that range, and cannot be targeted. If a task requires an action roll, make a Spellcast Roll to command the Entity.
First Circle — Fate Spirit. After an adversary within Very Close range makes a successful attack roll, you can command a Fate Spirit to force the adversary to reroll the attack. The spirit then disappears
SPELLCAST TRAIT: Knowledge
FOUNDATION FEATURES
Second Circle — Shambling Corpse. You can summon Shambling Corpses using your Second Circle.
Hunger of the Grave. Make a Spellcast Roll against a target within Far range. On a success, your Shambling Corpses move to attack the target, dealing 5 physical damage for each Shambling Corpse before returning to you. One Shambling Corpse then disappears.
Grim Harvest. When an adversary within Far range marks its last Hit Point, you can summon one Shambling Corpse without marking a Stress.
So you could run Occtis as a Wizard. He would enjoy the Codex Domain. But there's the literal Necromancer subclass in the Summoner class, and Occtis does summon up his undead helpers. Also, the Blood Domain plays into Occtis having the Vital Sacrifice feat and the spell Life Transference, plus the vibes of Occtis using his "now unecessary" body parts as spell components.
Some fun things about Summoner is that the only dismissing conditions for any summons are their final use conditions. In other words, call up Pin the Fate Spirit (as Occtis has not had him directly attack, just be used as a spellcasting conduit and Help Action) and he doesn't dismiss until he forces an enemy to reroll their successful attack. And for Necromancer, Dame Gaya Seremai the Shambling Corpse can stick around until she's the one dismissed after making the Hunger of the Grave attack.
High Stamina: Gain an additional Stress slot at character
creation.
Adaptability: When you fail a roll that utilized one of your
Experiences, you can mark a Stress to reroll.
Human is human. We'll get into the undead status in a bit.
Privilege: You have advantage on rolls to consort with nobles,
negotiate prices, or leverage your reputation to get what you want.
You could run Occtis as Reborne, as he has clearly been cut off from what he knew before by his death and resurrection. But, Occtis still acts like a Tachonis, a lord of a Sundered House, and still has a lot of unlearning to do in this regard. So in light of that, I'm inclined to keep Occtis Highborne for now.
Transformation: REANIMATED
Corpse: During a rest, you can clear Hit Points only if you have access to remains from a recently deceased creature. Describe how you use these materials to maintain your corpse.
Won’t Stay Dead: When you choose the Risk It All death move and fail, you can permanently mark a Hit Point to succeed instead. When you do, you still use the Hope Die’s value to clear Hit Points and Stress. When you permanently mark your last Hit Point, you pass through the veil of death.
My hesitations about how mechanically ugly Reanimated is have been relieved by the final product in Hope and Fear vs what was published to The Void. The Void version had it so you could only heal on downtimes with body parts to integrate or Risk It All death moves, while as you can see here, the final version lets you be healed normally with the caveat of body parts needed during downtime.
It's a little off from Occtis's vibe, in that he hasn't needed to add other's body parts to himself to heal, just stitching himself up, but it's not a terrible narrative bit to add/overcome.
Outcast of House Tachonis: Occtis has been subtly kicked out, but he is still a Tachonis. This is the experience for all that entails.
Effort Matters: For all the work Occtis has put into learning magic, being a necromancer wizard. And spitting in the eye of his father's value of "effortlessness"
I "Lived," Bitch!: The learned experience is being undead. Killed and came back, not quite alive, but still here. And fun phrasing.
Mark a Hit Point to conjure a talisman infused with our life essence. When the bearer of the talisman would take Severe or greater damage, they can destroy the talisman and reduce the damage by two thresholds. The talisman otherwise disappears when you take a rest or cast this spell again.
Similar-ish vibes to Life Transference. It's even a "they get twice as much as you take", sort of. After all, you sacrifice 1 Hit Point to make the Talisman, and they get to reduce a Severe damage (3 Hit Points) by 2 thresholds/Hit Points. And better, Occtis can use this Talisman on himself if he wants.
When you mark a Hit Point, place a token on this card. On a successful attack, you can spend any number of tokens from this card to gain a 1d6 damage bonus on the attack for each token spent. This card can hold a maximum number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait. Clear all tokens from this card when you take a long rest.
Once more, the vibe is Occtis sacrificing parts of himself for power. Getting hurt earns you bonus damage dice.
I also considered Bolt Beacon instead, just for a good magic attack and to not entirely ignore the Splendor Domain, as you could flavor it as a Firebolt that catches clothing on fire without actually damaging beyond the initial impact, but I do like leaning into the Blood Domain for Occtis.
When you or an ally makes an action roll to frighten or intimidate a creature within Close range, you can spend a Hope to give the roll advantage. On a success, the target marks a Stress.
Additionally, once per long rest, you can spend a Hope to calm yourself or a willing creature within Close range, letting the target clear 2 Stress.
A nod to Occtis being intimidating with the druids in the Shcongarten, having the Cause Fear spell, as well as how his undead status makes emotional regulation weird and somewhat easier to be calm when Occtis doesn't have the physical/chemical emotional cocktail going on.
Make a Spellcast Roll (13). On a success, mark a Hit Point to inflame a group’s lifeblood within Far range, making each target mark a Hit Point. If you have at least 3 Hit Points marked, each target marks 2 Hit Points instead.
Does Occtis have Fireball? No. Should he have necromancer-vibes fireball mixed with health sacrificing? I think so.
And the other options just weren't as fun. Occtis isn't really a healer,so that's Mending Touch and Healing Touch from Splendor out, as well as Second Wind. The only one who had an ability to speak with dead was Vaelus via the Stone of Nightsong, so Final Words isn't a great fit. Occtis isn't a great motivational speaker, so Reassurance and Voice of Reason are also out. If Occtis were any other Tachonis, I would have given him Brand of Castigation as a semi-precursor to the Scar ability of the Tachonis. Occtis doesn't really have any charm/control spells to make Blood Puppet make sense. And while Blood Spike isn't a bad match for an attack, Burning Gore is bigger and more fun.
