Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
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My take is rather that the character should be able to change, but that the process of change (a) shouldn't be instant or costless and (b) should give rise to interesting roleplaying as the character runs into complications arising from her change of course. (...)
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That would be my take too.
When I think of this necromancer, I remind of Jack Skelington from Nightmare before Christmas. It is a similar situation. One day Jack decided he wanted to take on the roll of a more colorful beign (Santa Claus)...
He was good, charismatic and cool; but from the human point of view, he also was fearful or scary. And that conception resulted from many years of folklore rooted on “culture”. So, making the advantage switchable sounds like switching on and off a part of folklore. The citizens of Halloween Town (his home) loved Jack because in Halloween Town the monsters had a different culture.
For starters, maybe in your setting there is a day of the year when it is safe talking to necromancers, such as Halloween or Day of the Dead (when some people are permissive with dread and death and/or spirituality).
Another example would be Set from the Egyptian pantheon. He was considered good until the lower and high Egypts became one. But that was the result of the transformation of society. We also have Hades, God of the Underworld. Some see him as a “bad guy” after the rendition the Christian Underworld, or Disney’s Hercules, or Saint Seiya’s saga of Hades. But originally, you could say the opposite, he was a “God of abundance”, because the gifts of nature (food, good, etc.) come from the soil, the ceiling of the Underworld.
The thing is that the idea of “being fearful”, here, changed because people/culture changed. So the advantage itself should not be switchable because it would be like making an aspect of culture switchable (that is what I think towards “switchable”).
So, maybe her transition should be similar to a political campaign. First you have people loyal to you or your cause (maybe people that met you before being a necromancer or fellow necromancers or enthusiasts that come to you with more disposition) and then you need to (even learn to) convince others to accept you... because you show you are good, reliable and give them something in return. Which is a process... And then, one day you become an example that stands enough to change the conception of necromancers until someone says “not all necromancers are fearful”. And that would “buy off” the effect of the advantage.
On the other hand, she could acquire the advantage social chameleon. Would not that be appropriate? And maybe have a modifier to activate it with the savior roll.