Initially, I was going to mix some D&D homebrew into my 100 Days of Anime posts, but trying to binge 100 anime and write anything of substance was just not working out. Now, for the month leading up to Anime Weekend Atlanta, I’m going to share some anime-themed homebrew every Sunday. (This one is late, but better late than never.)
For my first Anime & Adventure post, I decided to pull some inspiration from Death Note, turning the titular notebooks and the shinigami who wield them into adventure fodder. This was something of a challenge because death-by-pen is a really potent ability to just drop into the hands of players, and the shinigami as presented in the anime and manga are difficult to grapple into a statblock.
Nevertheless, I’m pretty satisfied with the results.
Shinigami
Shinigami are mysterious, extraplanar creatures deeply tied to death. Their exact origins are a mystery, even to them, but they are drawn to the Material Plane by curiousity about humanoids. Shinigami take many forms, but most appear as ghastly humanoids with pale skin and harsh features.
Deadly Notetakers. Shinigami are the original possessors of death notes, books that allow them to control the final fates of mortals. A shinigami can determine the time and place of a mortal’s death simply by writing it in a death note, and by doing so, the shinigami gains the mortal’s remaining lifespan.
Some shinigami pass death notes along to humanoids for their own amusement.
Perplexing Predators. Shinigami view their relationship with mortals as simple coexistence. Mortals must die eventually, and shinigami need that death to survive, just as mortals must eat to sustain themselves.
Shinigami are theoretically immortal and constantly seek something to fill this time. They busy themselves with mortal hobbies, and some have even been known to befriend mortals.
Shinigami are difficult to intimidate or incite to violence and generally avoid direct fights.
Deathly Nature. A shinigami doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Death Note
Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement)
A death note may appear as a scroll, a simple sheet of parchment, or a notebook. To the naked eye, it is a perfectly normal bit of stationary.
While attuned to the death note, you can use an action to write the true name of a creature on a page of the death note, forcing the creature to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 300 points of necrotic damage, and if this kills the creature, you gain 3d8 temporary hit points and your Constitution increases by 1, to a maximum of 20.
If the creature succeeds on its save, you take two levels of exhaustion and your Constitution decreases by 1. Nothing happens if you do not write the creatures true name, do not know the creatures true face, or do not write its name with the intent of killing it. The death note has no effect on undead.
Additionally, while attuned to the death note, you have truesight out to 60 feet.
The death note has 1d12 charges. Once all its charges are expended, the death note disappears. Changes to Constitution caused by its use remain but truesight ends.
Design Notes
Finding the right balance for these was a challenge, and I could probably spend ages tweaking them. I’d still like to find a better way to manage the shinigami’s invisibility. I considered basing something on the skulk in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, but ultimately, removed from its original setting, the situational invisibility just felt less important so I stuck with an at-will spell.
Similarly, in Death Note, humans can’t actually gain lifespan by killing someone with a death note, but I felt like the item needed a risk/reward factor to make up for losing some of its original flavor. If I were to drop a shinigami and death note into my campaign, I’d probably allow the shinigami to use the death note by the rules in the manga. I didn’t want to throw too many mechanics around that for the DM because from that angle it feels much more like a flavor thing, a really potent plot hook.
If you want to see this all spiffed up with D&D formatting, check it out on GM Binder.
Until next time!
chasetriesagain.com 
1 Comment