Necromancer

Overly concerned with death and negative energies, necromancers are wizards who have somehow become tied in to the plane known as the Gray. Though they marginally interact with this plane by drawing energy from it, they don’t open portals into the Gray simply by virtue of their spellcasting.

Whether through a fascination with death or by attempting to harness negative life energy, necromancers have become tied to the Gray. They are delvers into the great unknown, seekers of the answers known only to the dead, and hopeful searchers in the frantic scramble for immortality. Rather than drawing the energy to power their spells from plant life, necromancers draw it from the Gray, the realm of the Athasian dead. It is thus difficult for most people to tell if they are defilers or preservers, since they have little effect on the plant life around them in normal circumstances.

Necromancers are mainly concerned with the search for immortality. They learn all they can of death in order to avoid its eventual embrace. Some are merely interested scholars, while others want to attain immortality themselves. To this end, they often seek out intelligent undead to learn from and may serve them in some capacity in return for this information. Necromancers who make such bargains are always NPCs. Some necromancers search for kaisharga to learn how to become like them; others may approach meorty resting places hoping to learn more about the mysterious ancients.

Player character necromancers may be normal adventurers who have let their fear of death overwhelm them, true scholars seeking to unlock the secrets of death and immortality, or regular people who have inexplicably become linked to the Gray due to a curse or tragic event.

While most people consider necromancers ghoulish and poor company, they can be quite potent adventuring companions. Their abilities to animate dead and to keep intelligent (free-willed) undead from ravaging if given the chance to speak to them should not be overlooked.

Requirements:

To qualify to become a Necromancer, a character must fulfill the following criteria:

Alignment: Neutral, Neutral Evil, Lawful Neutral, Chaotic Neutral

Races: Only humans and half-elves may become necromancers. Elves aren’t that interested in death, preferring to live for the moment, and delving in cairns and burial grounds isn’t to aarakocran tastes.

Feat: Craft Arcane Orb

Knowledge (Arcana): 8 ranks

Knowledge (Planes): 8 ranks

Spells: Ability to cast arcane spells of 3rd level or higher.

Special: The character must have spent some days alone in an undead infested area, and survived.

Special: Any familiar the wizard had will go away and never return. From now on, the wizard is unable to have any familiar.

Special: Preservers may not advance past 4^th level. If they do, they automatically become defilers. After achieving 5^th level on this prestige class, Atonement spells automatically fail to turn the defiler Necromancer back into a preserver.

Class Skills

The necromancer’s class skills (and the ability for each skill) are, Concentration (Con), Craft (lens crafting) (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidation (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Scry (Int, exclusive), Spellcraft (Int). The Necromancer may also acquire any ancient language spending only 1 skill point.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Hit Die: d4

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the necromancer prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Necromancers gain no proficiency in any weapon or armor.

Immune to Undead Fear (Ex): The character is immune from fear and fear effects caused by the undead.

Gray Casting (Ex): The Necromancer may cast arcane spells that are fuelled by energy from the Gray. This way, they don’t need to gather energy from plants and the terrain. The number of total spell levels the Necromancer can cast this way, per day, is equal to its Int modifier x Necromancer level + 2d8/level (the access to the Gray is unstable, and the necromancer must roll the dice in the beginning of each day). When a necromancer accesses the Gray for spell energy, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10+spell level) to withstand the negative energy of the dimension, taking 1d4 damage on a failure, and needing to be successful on a Concentration check (DC 10+damage taken+spell level) to successfully cast the spell. After spending his daily amount of energy from the Gray, all subsequent spells are cast normally as the wizard’s original path (Defiler or Preserver).

Gray Fellowship (Ex): The character is easily identified by free-willed undead as a fellow being with ties to the Gray. The necromancer may make a Diplomacy skill check at DC 10 to prevent to free-willed undead from attacking the necromancer and his companions as enemies, at least while the necromancer explains himself and maybe strikes a bargain with the undead. This DC may be modified by how the PCs approach the undead and whether the undead has other plans in mind.

Look of Death (Ex): Necromancers have a strange look about them. It hangs like a dark aura, growing stronger as they advance in level. This makes others feel ill at ease in their presence, giving a reaction penalty equal to half its Necromancer level, rounded down. However, this penalty does not affect undead and other necromancers, and works as a bonus to the necromancer’s Intimidate checks.

Necromantic Knowledge: To a Necromancer, Animate Dead is a 3^rd level spell and Control Undead as a 5^th level spell. He also has access to Create Undead as a 6^th level spell and Create Greater Undead as a 8^th level spell.

Rebuke Undead: At second level, the Necromancer may rebuke undead as an evil cleric with a level equal to the necromancer’s character level minus 2.

Orb of Power : The necromancer may craft an obsidian orb, similar to an Arcane Orb, using his Craft (lens crafting) skill. The DC is set by the necromancer, being equal to 10 plus the spell levels it will hold (with a maximum equal to triple the Necromancer’s level, plus his Intelligence modifier). For instance, an orb that holds 6 spell levels worth of energy has DC 16 to be crafted. The Necromancer may fill the orb with energy from the Gray (casting spells into it, but only its energy levels are absorbed, not the spells themselves) and use it whenever he likes. Once drained, the orb may be filled again. Only one orb may be used by a necromancer.

Reanimation (Sp): The Necromancer is able to reanimate a destroyed undead one more time, casting Animate Dead and spending additional energy equal to the undead’s HD (the Necromancer may not reanimate undead that have more HD than he has in caster levels). At sixth level, he may reanimate an undead a second time.

Undead Champion: The necromancer may animate a corpse up to large size and design it as his champion. This newly created undead has maximum hit points for its type and +1 profane bonus to its AC, attack and damage rolls and its special abilities DCs. This bonus increases by 1 when the Necromancer reaches 7^th and 10^th level. The champion also has Turn Resistance equal to the Necromancer’s level, and can never be controlled or rebuked. The necromancer and the champion can communicate with each other telepathically up to one mile away. The champion may be reanimated by the necromancer just as any other undead.

Steal Energy (Su): Using its obsidian orb, the necromancer may leech away power from another mage. The energy thus stolen goes into the orb for use by the caster. Energy is taken from the other wizard at a rate of one point per level of the caster per round. That one point translates into enough energy to cast one spell level. For example, if a 12th-level caster uses steal energy against another mage and that mage fails to offset the spell, the caster may pull up to 12 points worth of spell energy per round from the other wizard and store the energy within the obsidian for later use. Two cantrips have 1 energy point, a 1^st level spell has 1 energy point, a 2^nd level spell has 2 energy points, and so on. This energy drained away is taken from the lowest level spells first. The victim is allowed a Fortitude save, with a DC equal to 10+Necromancer’s Int modifier+ ½ Necromancer’s class level to avoid it.

Immune to Negative Energy (Ex): Due to its connection to the Gray, any attack that drains hit points or ability scores fails when used against the necromancer.

Obsidian Death (Sp): Using his obsidian orb, the Necromancer may release energy levels as a ray (ranged touch attack) that hurts living beings (or cures undeads). This ray causes 1d8 damage for every spell level the wizard has stored within the orb. Those targeted by the spell are allowed a Reflex saving (DC 10 + Necromancer’s Int modifier + ½ Necromancer’s class level) for half damage. Anyone killed outright by the damage is completely turned to ash.

Undead Leadership (Ex): the Necromancer attracts undead followers, just as if he had the Leadership feat, but he doesn’t get a cohort.

Immune to Energy Drain (Ex): The necromancer is so close to the Gray that he is immune to energy drain, never gaining negative levels.