Shambles

    I made this a while back for AD&D, but I did barely anything with it as we played for < 10 hours. Could be used as an enemy, PC, or follower. Needs lots of work in general, I know.

    Shambles
    Shambles are the result of untrained - or uncaring - tampering into a range of arcane arts, usually including alchemy and always necromancy.

    [sorry I don't know what schools of magic/science would fit, I envisioned them as coming from a world somewhere between high/low fantasy in terms of magic, with industry and some magic being understood/widespread enough to be thought of as technology]

    Their souls torn away from the ethereal realm and thrust back into our reality to animate bodies that may not even be their own, they are lost and confused, and easy to manipulate. Physically, they are an amalgamation of repurposed material, both natural and mechanical, living and lifeless, magical and mundane.

    Creation
    To create a shambles, one must first construct a body for it. This body can be composed of anything from lopped-off limbs to clockwork assemblies. The only restriction is that the component in question can be repurposed - for instead, arms where legs belong - but it must be an actual body part in it's own right: A tree branch would just sit there uselessly, while a branch from a Spriggan or Dryad could move itself. A rock would merely weigh down the shambles, while a slab hewn from a Stone Golem could move itself (though it is questionable that the body could move it). Special note: Peg legs do not animate themselves.
    Note that the quality of the materials, both in harvesting and construction - a limb lopped off in the heat of battle, left to rot for a few days, and then crudely stitched onto a torso will function much more poorly than one surgically removed and finely stitched back together.
    It is, of course, permissible to simply use an intact human torso! Though it won't last long, for reasons explained below...

    Binding
    The final stage of creating the body for the shambles is finding an item worthy of binding the soul to.
    [note: in systems that already have rules in place for soul trapping/etc, you might want to modify this section to match]

    This item can be anything from a dagger to a mason jar, but remember the following:
    It must be kept very close to the shamble's body at all times, or the body will cease to animate. This effect can be reversed with no direct side effects by simply closing the distance between the soul and the body - though obviously a body suddenly losing all motor control can be a very bad thing. For this reason, the locus for the soul is often implanted directly into the body before the ritual (this does make things slightly more difficult logistically, but far from impossible).
    If the soul locus is destroyed, the shamble will immediately cease to animate, and it's soul will be returned to the realm from whence it came. This is the equivalent of death for a shambles, and counts against a character's limited number of reanimations. So too does the initial revival.

    [the distance could be whatever you want, maybe one meter + willpower bonus in meters? idk]
    [insert magicababble about the steps, ingredients etc to actually binding the soul]

    As noted, Shambles are not exactly mentally stable creatures. They have been torn from the only life they knew to a strange new world that likely confronted them with some very uncomfortable truths about life and/or the prospect of eternal torture/bliss, and then were pulled back again. Their ethical and spiritual compasses have been destroyed and reborn, or in other words, are no better than that of an infant - yet they are intelligent and able bodied enough to ask questions that they have no answers for, and to affect a world they have no stake in.

    To top it all off, if recognized for what they are, they are usually shunned and even attacked by sentient creatures and even the Gods.

Imprinting
More than anything, a shambles desires a purpose. Most find themselves in the throes of madness within seconds of entering the world, feeling every emotion from most passionate love to the deepest hate, blissful happiness to crushing depression, and cannot make sense of or act on this torturous array of emotion.

Fortunately, someone is usually on hand to take care of that little problem for them. After all, you don't create a shambles out of curiosity - most are intended as soldiers or grim, unquestioning servants. For once a shambles is shown a moderately convincing outlook on life, no matter how senseless it may be, they accept it, because anything is better than the complete confusion they knew before.

Of course there are times that no one is on hand to greet the shamble's awakening - maybe they were killed during the final steps of the ritual - not unheard of - or disappeared, chased off, just wanted to see if they could do it. In this case, the shambles will imprint on the first creature to try to convince it of anything (in a way the shambles can understand). This could lead to such occasions as a snake oil salesmen shambles absolutely convinced that his product will alleviate any suffering, or if unlucky enough to be created in a mental asylum - again, this happens more than you might think - someone hell bent on manufacturing an endless supply of paper clips, because paperclips are the only sacrifice sate the appetite of the great universe-devourer. And he can eat a lot of paper clips.

Translated to rules:
The shambles will imprint on the first creature to attempt to convince him of anything. He will take on his alignment and accept any instructions given to him by this creature.
General rule of thumb: declarative statements do not count, imperative statements do.

now things start getting screwy and unresolved

Basically, every major 'life event' which is a very vaguely defined term even on my end increases the likelihood of the shambles forming their own identity outside of their imprint. I don't really know how to define this. For instance, killing someone for the first time would probably count. But how about killing someone for the second time? Killing a child vs an adult? Etc. Any ideas on that end would be appreciated. So every time one of these events happen, they are allowed to exercise more 'creative interpretation' of their creator's orders and/or alignment. Eventually they will be free altogether.

At that point they may just become normal people (mentally), or maybe they will find themselves facing an existential crisis where every 'life event' forces them to reconsider what they have taken to be true, until they break mentally all over again and re-imprint, starting the cycle anew. I guess some could do that and some could be normal .

Last thing to note is their physical properties. As I said they are formed of basically leftover body parts. These body parts decay at an accelerated rate of time due to their status - in addition, they may be likely to fall apart at the seams under heavy duress. They have a reduced need for food, water, and sleep. They can forgo these entirely, though this will even further increase the rate of decay in their body parts. What parts they are currently made of affects their attributes - stone golem limbs will increase str/con while decreasing dex, for instance. They do not naturally cure their own wounds in any case, and all incoming healing is reduced by half.

That's basically it. Use whatever you want in your creations. Pic related is my original writing, with slightly more confusing metaphysical rules but slightly more defined physical rules.