Ghoulcaller Bloodline

Ghoulcallers are not your typical necromancers. They are not wizards studying the art in hopes of Lichdom. They are not clerics worshipping a god of death or stitchers building a masterpiece. Ghoulcallers were made for spontaneity. They are not made for spending years building up powerful undead allies like Vampires or Death Knights. Ghoulcallers are all about quick and dirty necromancy, building armies in a matter of minutes, not days.

The Ghoulcaller's gift is a strange one, and very often those with the gift never know of the power residing within them (though most will still feel a strange pull to graveyards). What sets off the gift no one knows, but once it is awakened it does not go away.

Those with the gift have a few immediately recognizable traits that set them apart, the most obvious being their irises turning a nearly-white grey in color. Beyond this, though, are more subtle traits. Ghoulcallers are often pallid, their skin cold and their limbs stiff.

Those who do not avoid or deny the changes often become even more recognizable, whistling while they carry bells and shovels. When a Ghoulcaller rings a bell they can hear nearby corpses ringing back like a sick game of marco-polo, allowing them to better find material to work with. They are capable of making magic shovels that help them excavate graves faster and cast their spells.

The most identifiable (and most terrifying) tell, however, is the whistling. Unlike most casters, who must chant and perform rituals in order to raise the dead, Ghoulcallers are capable of animating the dead by whistling a three-note melody, as if waking them up from a particularly heavy nap.

So if you're ever injured on the battlefield and hear whistling: its best to arrange a retreat.

Ghoulcaller spells

Spells are added to your spell list

1st	False Life, Find Familiar
3rd	Ray of Enfeeblement, Wither and Bloom
5th	Spirit Shroud, Summon Undead
7th	Blight, Evard's Black Tentacles
9th	Raise Dead, Negative Energy Flood

Ghoulcaller's Tools

As a bonus action, you may imbue a bell or chime with necromantic power. It rings out and you immediately becoming aware of all corpses within 120 feet of you that could be raised as undead. Living creatures within this range also hear the bell's ringing, and recognize it as unnatural. 

Additionally, after spending 10 minutes with 10 gold worth of precious metals on hand, you may turn a quarterstaff in your possession into a *Gravetender Shovel*. The damage from this item is considered magical if it isn’t already, and you may use it as a spellcasting focus. This item allows you to cast the *Mold Earth* cantrip at will. If it had any enchantments beforehand, they remain after being transformed in this way.

Unbreathing Horde

At 6th level, you have gained the ancient power of the Ghoulcallers, and create zombies quicker than most.

As an action you may target the corpses of any number of creatures within 30ft that are size medium or smaller, spending two sorcery points for each corpse, and turn them into one *Zombie Horde*. You may not target the corpses of oozes, plants, constructs, or elementals this way.

The horde starts in the space of one corpse you targeted with this feature, has a number of Zombie Counters on it equal to the number of corpses targeted, and uses the stats on the next page. Damage dealt by *Zombie Hordes* you control is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances.

You may control no more than one horde at a time, and your horde has a maximum number of Zombie counters equal to your level in this class. You can use a bonus action on your turn to command your horde to complete a task, which it will attempt to complete to the best of its ability until complete or given another order.

If you use this feature while you already control a horde within 30ft of the corpses, you may instead add Zombie Counters to an existing horde you control. If you do, remove those corpses from the field and add one Zombie counter to the horde for each corpse (up to the maximum), as you command the new undead to join with the existing ones.

Whenever a *Zombie Horde* removes a Zombie counter, a corpse appears in a space adjacent to the remaining horde (and may be returned to un-life, if you spend the sorcery points). If a *Zombie Horde* would ever be reduced to less than one counter, reduce its health to 0 and remove it from combat.

The horde is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you've given it. To maintain the control of the horde for another 24 hours, you must expend a number of sorcery points equal to the number of Zombie counters on the horde before the current 24-hour period ends. Any Zombie counters not paid for in this way are immediately removed from the horde and turned into Zombie creatures that are put in spaces adjacent to the horde they came from.

You may target undead creatures of intelligence 6 or less with this ability as if they were a corpse, as long as they are not being controlled by another being.

High Necromancy

At 14th level, you don’t care what kind of creatures you use to make your zombies, you just need them to be dead.

You have learned to fashion humanoid zombies from the remains of larger corpses with your *Unbreathing Horde* feature. When you use *Unbreathing Horde*, you can target the corpse of a Large or larger creature multiple times, allowing you to make multiple zombies from one corpse. You may target a large corpse with the feature up to 3 times, a huge creature up to 6 times, and a gargantuan creature up to 9 times. 

Midnight Rider

You have learned to call an undead steed to your side in your hour of need.

You may target a large corpse with this feature and spend 3 sorcery points. If you do, you raise the corpse as a mount, using the *Skeleton Warhorse* statblock regardless of the creature's original form. The mount functions as if it were summoned by the *Find Steed* spell, except that it is considered undead, and leaves behind a large corpse upon its death. You may only have one large creature raised in this way at a time.

Hordemaster

At 18th level you master your control over zombie hordes.

The range of the reanimation and commanding effects of *Unbreathing Horde* increases to 120ft.

When you use your *Unbreathing Horde* feature, you may choose to target empty spaces rather than corpses (expending sorcery points as normal). If you do, zombies crawl out of the ground in the chosen spaces, visibly glowing with magic. Any Zombie counters added to a horde this way are removed after one minute, leaving no corpses behind.

Additionally, you may control up to two *Zombie Hordes* at once, but maintaining control over the second horde costs 2 sorcery points for each Zombie counter rather than 1.