Aeternus Opus
inspired by Pointy hat's Necromaton
but clockwork and steampunk in my high fantasy is cringe so this is fully magical
an Aeternus Opus is the pinnacle of an Artificer skill, an immortal vessel of their design for housing their own soul
Exhilerated Design
as opposed to the ambitious immortality of a lich for many Artificers their Opus is just as much or even more so a form of bodily expression, disgusted by the weakness of their flesh or dissatisfied with their form they turn to profane means for a second chance at their body, of their own design
Aeternus Opus | Crafting
Wondrous Item | Legendary | Requires Attunement by it's crafter
Required Compnents: a Rare Magic item of your Artificer Specialty you Crafted,
Researched Papers for soul containment or atleast 15 CR and/or levels worth of sacrificed test subjects sharing your creature type, CR 0 counts as 1/8
Attuning
in order to attune to your Opus you must inplant atleast one of your own organs into it's frame to act as a Soul Anchor, if the organ was vital you don't die until the attunement process is complete
once you attune to to this item your original body dies and you immediatelly resume existing as your Opus, if you ever lose attunement or the Opus is destroyed you immediately die and can't be brought back to life other than at your original body
price of Immortality, Downsides
Soul Anchor | Sustainment
the original organ used to fuel your immortality, it decays and becomes useless after 1 year after which you gain a point of exhaustion and an additional one every week afterward, you can't lose these points of exhaustion until you replace your Soul Anchor
you can Replace your Anchor by harvesting it as an action from a creature that died within the last minute which shared your original creature type, this replaced Soul Anchor lasts for a number of months calculated as follows
months lasted = the creatures CR + it's Constitution Modifier x it's proficiency bonus, minimum of 2
Size and Senses
an Opus's size and your Size when inhabiting it is Small, Medium or Large, chosen as you craft it
as an Opus you lose your senses of Smell, Taste and Touch and automatically fail any ability check requiring them, you also don't feel any pain or temperature but can still detect any damage being caused to your body
Additionally your state as a soul unattached to a living body gives you a Special new Sense of Spectral Sight Allowing you to see and feel living souls as if by Taste, detailed on the next Page
Properties
Core Component: you gain the benefits of the rare item used to craft this as Follows
- if it's armor you always count as wearing it, always gain it's benefits and can't doff it
- if it's a weapon you can sheat or unsheathe it as a free action and can't be disarmed of it
- if it's a wand, rod or staff you can activate it or use it as a casting focus anytime
- if it's a consumable magic item you gain 3 charges, you can expend 1 charge to use it as you would normally, you regain all expended charges at the end of each long rest
materiel eternal: your creature type becomes construct and you gain the following benefits
- you cease to age and no longer need to eat, drink, breathe or sleep and can't be made to sleep by any means, you can instead take a long rest by spending 8 hours performing light activity such as reading, cooking breakfast or keeping watch
- you're immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition
- your Constition score is equal to 15, if it's already 14 or higher it instead increases by 2 up to a maximum of 20
- you can tolerate temperatures as low as -150 degrees celsius or as high as a 100 degrees celsius with no additional protection
Custom Design: whenever you create magic items with Replicate Magic Item at the end of a long rest you may Incorporate them into your form, up to a maximum of 1 at once
an Incorporated magic item gains the following benefits
- if the item require attunement it uses the same slot as you Opus
- you always count as wearing or wielding it and can't be doffed or disarmed of it
- you can activate it at no action cost, you can't activate it more than once per round and can't cast spells using this feature
- if it has charges you may have it regain them at the end a short rest as per it's description, you can only do this once per long rest
Spectral Sight: your soul can sense the presence and Creature type of living creatures within a 30-foot Emanation that originates from you, using Perception as follows
| DC | Cover |
|---|---|
| 15 | no obstruction |
| +2 | 5 feet of Water, Ice or Snow |
| +3 | an Inch of metal |
| +5 | a foot of Stone, Dirt or dead wood |
| +10 | an Inch of living matter |
| +20 | an Inch of Lead or Silver |
| +Spell Level | Any Illusion |