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Realms of Chaos
2010-02-25, 07:09 AM
Gah, my brain hurts. It's late at night and I don't have the time/brainpower to make the rest of the fluff for this guy, the explanations I was going to make for its abilities, or even the magical spell that turns someone into this. In short, my head really isn't in the game at the moment so forgive me if this isn't my best work. :smallannoyed:

Anyhow, this class is exactly what it sounds like, a person who is suffering from a weaponized necromantic curse (well, maybe not exactly what it sounds like.. I have seen a couple of PrCs in third party splat-books very much like this but most of them, quite frankly, don't seem to do anything.

This is the only base class I have ever seen in all of DnD that actually curses itself on a mechanical level (not including poorly designed classes) rather than just in fluff. To keep it from being utterly terrible, I weaponized the curse so that you can subject your enemies to it, lowering them down to your level and possibly removing the curse for a moment so you can lord over your opponent.
Even though I am relatively pleased with what I wrote, however, I feel that there is something utterly wrong with this class. I just can't put my fingers on it. Perhaps somebody out there can help me see what is wrong so I can fix this monstrosity.

That said...

The Cursed

Power is a funny thing when you think about it. Some people seek it out their full lives without ever tasting it. Some people find that it comes to them without even trying. In these cases, few people seem to mind their newfound powers and the benefits that they grant. After all, what do they have to lose?
A few people, however, have a dark power thrust upon them, a power that harms oneself nearly as well as it harms others. They are charged with necromantic energies, either left in the land, passed down through a select few bloodlines, or purposefully implanted through the use of a twisted necromantic spell. These people, if they can still be referred to as such, have been turned into living weapons of necromantic might, heralding death and destruction as they travel.
Not all beings are thankful for the power they possess. Some feel, quite rightly, that all they have is a curse.



Alignment: Any
Starting Age: As Rogue
Starting Gold: 2d4 x 10 gp
Hit Dice: d12

The Cursed
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+2|Aura of Bloodshed, Dark Attraction, Undying

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Dread Curse, Menacing Air, Tenacity

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Cursed Resilience, Unnatural Health

4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+4|Cursed Aura, Dark Renewal

5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+4|Grim Sustenance

6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+5|Twisted Reprieve

7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+5|Curse Collector

8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+6|Improved Curse

9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+6|Dark Guardians

10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+7|Grim Sustenance

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+7|Despoiled One

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+8|Awaken the Dead

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+8|Craft Curses

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+9|
+9|Superior Curse

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|Grim Sustenance

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+10|
+10|Wave of Misfortune

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Dark Minions

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11|Unstoppable

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11|Harbinger of Dread

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12|Grim Sustenance, Perfect Curse[/table]
Class Skills (2 + Int per level, x4 at 1st level): Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device

Class Features:
All of the following are class features of the Cursed.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: You gain proficiency with all simple and martial weapons and with light and medium armors and shields (but not tower shields).

Aura of Bloodshed (Su): When you are around, tempers are easily flared and wounds become far more dangerous. All creatures within 10 feet/class level gain a bonus to damage rolls and intimidate checks and a penalty to all other Charisma-based skill checks equal to your class level. You gain double these benefits and penalties.
This ability continues even after your death for 1 round class/level, centered on the largest piece of your corpse (or your most recent location if your body has been destroyed). Multiple auras of bloodshed do not stack.

Undying (Ex): As a cursed, you are exceedingly difficult to kill, kept going by the same forces granting your warped powers. You gain immunity to death from massive damage, although a large amount of damage may slay you normally.
Furthermore, you do not die until your hit points reach –10/class level. For every full 10 hit points below 0 that you are at, you take a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based skill checks other than Intimidate and Use Magic Device.
If you would normally die at 0 hit points, you instead behave as a living creature would while at 0 or fewer hit points.

Dark Attraction (Su): The necromantic energies suffusing your soul has a curious (and unsettling) effect on the undead. The first time (and only the first time) that an unintelligent undead creature makes a successful attack against you, it must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Cha modifier).
Any undead who fails its save is freed from any control it was under and stops attacking unless threatened. Until the undead is either destroyed or controlled by another, it behaves as if ordered to follow you and keep you in sight at all times, usually following from a decent distance. The undead is not your servant, however, performing no additional tasks other than attacking any being that threatens it (yourself included). Any number of undead may be affected by this ability at any given time.
Lastly, your unique necromantic signature is a beacon for those who have fallen under its sway. Undead affected by this ability always know the shortest route to reach you as long as you are on the same plane of existence.

Dread Curse (Su): Starting at 2nd level, your true curse manifests itself in earnest. You take a penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks equal to half of your class level. This penalty becomes a bonus when making saving throws against any spell or effect that a remove curse spell could remove and when making Constitution ability checks.
Once per day per class level, you may suppress this ability for 1 round as a swift action. Furthermore, a number of times per encounter up to your class level or Charisma modifier (whichever is less), you may pass the curse onto another creature within 50 ft/ class level as a swift action. The target must make a Will save with a DC of 10 + 1/2 class level + Cha modifier. If the target succeeds, it takes the penalties of your curse for 1 round. If the target fails, however, it suffers the penalties of your curse and you are freed from all such penalties for 1 round.
Other creatures can be cured of your dread curse by a remove curse spell or similar ability. You, however, may never be cured of your own dread curse through any means.

Tenacity (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, your curse strengthens your body a bit, allowing you to withstand great wounds and keep fighting. You automatically stabilize and do not fall unconscious when reduced to negative hit points. While at negative hit points, you may take a single move or standard action each round (but not both). This ability does not permit you to continue fighting after death.

Menacing Air (Su): Starting at 2nd level, your presence starts to inspire fear in those around you. Living creatures with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 are shaken for as long as they remain within 5 ft./class level. More intelligence living creatures are shaken for as long as they remain within 5 ft./2 class levels of you.
While you are at negative hit points, the baleful energies fueling your curse empower this fear further. Any affected creatures must make a successful Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Cha modifier) or become panicked rather than shaken. A creature who succeeds on its saving throw against your menacing air can’t be panicked by your aura for 24 hours. Furthermore, for every full 10 hit points below 0 that you are at, increase the range of this ability by 5 feet.

Cursed Resilience (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, your body refuses most forms of pain, becoming inured to the worst of tortures. You gain immunity to nonlethal damage and to any effect that relies on the creation or manipulation of pain. Furthermore, for every full 10 hit points below 0 that you are at, you gain damage reduction 1/-.
However, this resilience comes at a price of sorts. If you possess fast healing or regeneration, you instantly lose these abilities. You may never gain them through any means.

Unnatural Health (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, the necromantic energies fueling your curse grant you a boon of sorts, protecting you from disease. You no longer suffer any negative or positive effects from disease. You still display the physical signs and symptoms of any disease you catch, however, and may pass such diseases on to others normally. You may no longer be cured of disease via magical means but you may still make Fortitude saves to “resist” (and eventually end) a disease if you wish.
While at negative hit points, you exude a diseased aura out to 5 feet. Any creature that enters this aura must make Fortitude saves against each disease you possess or catch the disease themselves. No creature may be affected by this aura more than once per 24 hours. For every full 20 hit points below 0 that you are at, increase the radius of this aura by 5 feet. This aura is a supernatural ability.

Dark Renewal (Ex): Starting at 4th level, your body resists most forms of healing, save for one grim method. Whenever you slay a living creature, you heal hit points equal to its Hit Dice. However, you no longer heal naturally and all forms of magical and supernatural healing only restore half as many hit points as normal

Cursed Aura (Su): Starting at 4th level, your curse begins to leak out from your body, causing bad luck for all those around you. All creatures within 5 feet/4 class levels (other than yourself) take a penalty to all attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws equal to 1/4 of your class level (rounded down).
However, whenever a creature within range fails an affected roll, you take damage equal to that creature’s Hit Dice. For every full 10 hit points below 0 that you are at, increase the radius of the aura by 5 feet.

Grim Sustenance (Su): Starting at 5th level, your body starts taking its sustenance from the world around it, destroying life around you. You no longer need to eat or drink. All inanimate plants, animals, and vermin that come within 50 ft/class level of you take 1d8 damage/5 class levels.
Starting at 10th level, you no longer need to sleep. The range of this ability increases to 100 feet/class level and any plant creatures or magical beasts that come within range take 1d6 damage/5 class levels.
Starting at 15th level, you no longer need to breathe. The range of this ability increases to 500 feet/class level and any elementals or fey that come within range take 1d4 damage/5 class levels.
Starting at 20th level, your body never dies of old ages (although it continues visibly aging) and you gain all immunities of the undead type while under 0 hit points. The range of this ability increases to 1,000 feet/level and any living creature of a type not listed above that come within range take 1 damage/5 class levels.
Damage dealt by this ability ignores all regeneration, damage reduction, and hardness. Once a target has been damaged by this ability, it remains unaffected for 24 hours. A potential target who remains within range for long enough takes damage every 24 hours as if re-entering the aura.

Twisted Reprieve: Starting at 6th level, you can weaken your mind and body to slip free of your curse with greater ease. Each night at midnight, you may select any number of penalties listed below and gain them for 24 hours.

You take a –4 penalty to Initiative checks.
You take a –4 penalty to Critical Confirmation rolls.
You take a –5 foot penalty to your speed in all modes of movement
While in encounters, you have a 5% chance of skipping your action each round.
All of your attacks gain a 10% miss chance, stacking with other sources of miss chance.
Whenever you spend an action to cast a spell, redistribute essential, manifest a power, to use a spell-like ability, or to activate a supernatural ability or magic item, there is a 10% chance that the action is simply wasted (but other resources, such as spell slots, scrolls, and material components, are not).
You take a –1 penalty to an ability score of your choice. You may not target an ability with a score of 1. This ability is applied before your perfect curse class feature, if you possess it.

The penalties stack and you may take them multiple times, although you may not select any penalty other than ability penalization more than once/4 Cursed levels. For each penalty that you take, you may suppress your dread curse one additional time per day.
Furthermore, whenever you take more than 5 damage/character level at once, all creatures in your cursed aura gain the same penalties as you (other than ability penalization) for 1 round.

Curse Collector (Su): Starting at 7th level, the curse in your body resonates with those found in cursed items. All cursed items within 5 feet of you fail to function as if cursed. Delusion items actually provide the benefit that they appear to, Opposite effect/target items are not reversed, Intermittent functioning items always function and both requirements and drawbacks of cursed items are ignored. Items with entirely different effects (or for which there is no uncursed version of the item) simply fail to magically function at all within range.
This ability does not affect cursed artifacts, although such items may always be removed from your person if they would otherwise be impossible to remove or rid yourself of them.

Improved Curse (Su): At 8th level, your dread curse grows even stronger. Your curse now penalizes AC as well as its other effects. As a move action, you may subject an opponent to an empowered version of your curse (counting towards your normal limit per encounter). If the target fails its will save, it takes 1d4 points of damage/levels in addition to the curse’s other effects and it remains cursed for 1 minute. The damage may be halved with a successful Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Cha modifier).
Even if the target is cursed for more than 1 round, a failed save only frees you for a single round. Furthermore, a target may not be cursed with your Dread Curse again while a previous curse remains. You may dismiss the effects of a dread curse upon an enemy early as a move action.

Dark Guardians: Starting at 9th level, the undead entourage you attract tries to protect you from harm. All undead affected by your dark attraction class feature attack any creature that they perceive to be threatening you. Lacking intelligence, the undead do not respond to verbal threats or subtle spell effects (such as compulsions) but do respond to playful nudges and even violent gestures.
Undead continue trying to pursue and attack until either the target leaves their line of sight for 5 rounds, the undead leaves your line of sight for 5 rounds, or either you, the target, or the undead is slain. Your undead do not “remember” previous offenders and do not attack them unless provoked again.

Despoiled One (Su): Starting at 11th level, your curse ruins the very world around you, making it all but unfit for life but granting you a bit more resilience. You may now take a full round of actions each round while at negative hit points. While at negative hit points, however, all food and drink that comes within 20 feet/class level of you is ruined and all objects to come within this range have their hardness permanently reduced by half of your class level. This effect does not stack with itself.
For every full 10 hit points below 0 that you are at, you gain blindsense out to 5 feet. Creatures within the range of this blindsense cannot be stabilized at negative hit points, even after receiving a heal check or magical healing.

Awaken the Dead (Su): Starting at 12th level, your curse seeps into the bodies of dead creatures, awakening them as the living dead whether you like it or not. Any mostly intact corpse that comes within 10 feet of you arises as a free-willed zombie or skeleton (depending on its state of decay) 1d4 minutes later. Furthermore, all undead within your line of sight gain a +2 turn resistance. For every full 10 hit points below 0 that you are at, increase this turn resistance by +1
Unfortunately, bringing those reanimated in this way back to life is no mean feat. A caster must make a successful Caster Level check (DC 10 + Cursed level) in order to bring such a creature back. With a failure, any XP cost or Material component required by the spell is expended but the creature doesn’t return to life.

Craft Curses (Su): Starting at 13th level, you gain the ability to craft certain cursed items and add curses to other items. You can alter any magic item to add the delusion, opposite effect or target, intermittent functioning, requirement, or drawback curse. Adding a single such curse to an item requires time and experience as if remaking the item from scratch but only costs 1/4 of the item’s market price in materials. A single item may be treated multiple times to gain multiple curses in this way. Only the great power of artifacts cannot be cursed in this way. No requirement, drawback, or dependant intermittent functioning curse may be more severe than those listed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (page 272-273), decided by DM discretion.
Alternately, you can create unique cursed items as if you possessed all item creation feats and had access to all spells of a spell level up to half of your cursed level. Doing so doubles the cost, xp, and time required to make the item. However, the item to be enchanted need not be masterwork as is normally the case.

Superior Curse (Su): At 14th level, your dread curse becomes far more debilitating. Your curse now penalizes the Save DCs of all your abilities other than Cursed class features as well as its other effects. As a standard action, you can subject an enemy to a greatly magnified version of your curse. In addition to dealing damage like with your improved curse class feature, you may give any foe who fails their Will save a number of negative levels up to your Charisma modifier and the curse lasts for 10 minutes. You may only distribute a number of negative levels each day up to your class level. The negative levels last for 24 hours before fading away.
In all other ways, your superior curse follows the same rules as your dread curse and improved curse.

Wave of Misfortune: Starting at 16th level, you can cause your cursed aura to expand into a wave or horrid luck. As a swift action, you can double the range of your cursed aura, the penalty it imposes, and all damage that it deals you for 1 round. You may use this ability a number of times per day up to your Charisma modifier.

Dark Minions: Starting at 17th level, the undead that follow you finally start to obey your whims. The first order that you give each day to one or more undead affected by your dark attraction class feature is obeyed reliably. Each further order, however, gains a cumulative 5% chance of simply being ignored (maximum 100%). You may give no more than one order each round.

Unstoppable (Su): Starting at 18th level, the curse running through your veins simply refuses to let you die. You cannot be killed by simple hit point damage, no matter how low your hit points are reduced. For every 20 points below 0 that you are at, however, all of your ability scores take a –1 penalty (minimum 0).
Furthermore, both positive and negative energy heal you (although dark renewal still halves healing from both sources).

Harbinger of Dread (Su): Starting at 19th level, your body is completely attuned with your curse, preventing other curses from taking hold. You gain immunity to all effects that a remove curse or break enchantment spell could remove. Furthermore, when at negative hit points, you gain spell resistance 10 + Cursed level.

Perfect Curse (Su): At 20th level, your dread curse reaches the peak of its power. Your curse now penalizes all of your ability scores in addition to its other effects (to a minimum of 1). For the purposes of your Cursed class features, ignore the penalty to your Charisma score. As a full-round action, you can subject an enemy to a perfected version of your curse. In addition to dealing damage and bestowing negative levels, the target’s fate is tied to your own for the duration of the curse and the curse lasts for 1 hour. If you are slain while the target is cursed, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 Cursed level + Charisma modifier) or fall dead as well. A creature with 100 or fewer hit points is not granted this saving throw and instead dies instantly. This ability does not count as a death effect.
In all other ways, your perfect curse follows the same rules as your dread curse, improved curse, and superior curse.

Cursed and Multiclassing: Although any character can multiclass into or out of Cursed, the curse that they bear drains their vitality if they try to embrace other paths. Subtract your class level from all hit point rolls when taking a level in any other class (minimum 1 hit point gained per level).

Chronologist
2010-02-25, 10:29 AM
Maybe the thing you feel is utterly wrong about the class is the number of class features. Seriously, this class gets a strong class feature at every level. Despite the drawbacks you take, with clever planning ahead (and liberal use of passing the curse to others), you can negate many of the penalties.

I think you should remove many of the class features in lieu of ones that have a scaling effect over time. Maybe it's just me, but I get confused as a player when I have 8 or 9 seperate class features I have to keep track of all the time. It might be more accessible to newer players if the abilities were fewer and the drawbacks were less crippling.

peacenlove
2010-02-25, 02:23 PM
Seconded. This class has too many abilities, and most of these are complicated enough so no one would actually use the class. For instance i read them and i don't remember what half of them do :smallbiggrin:
Why don't you turn the individual curses into a martial adept school and make them strikes boosts and stances? This would clear up things, would go nicely with the class since it has a high base attack bonus and is a frontline warrior and would give you leeway to put some scaling abilities into the class, not to mention easier to evaluate.

Forever Curious
2010-02-25, 02:29 PM
As much as I REALLY like the flavor and mechanics, I must agree that it's way too many features. Perhaps making it a Necromancer PrC might make things easier for you (less levels to fill).

DracoDei
2010-02-25, 03:06 PM
I, on the other hand, LIKE classes that will get you killed in your first few sessions (even at level where that isn't supposed to happen anyway) if you don't know what you are doing, and return survivalibility and/or party usefulness as a linear function of player skill... and I don't mind complexity at all.

Realms of Chaos
2010-02-25, 04:32 PM
I admit that I stuck in just about every class feature I could think of to communicate the material. I don't know what I was doing exactly. In my defense though, most of my abilities do seem to be improving previous abilities, looking back.

Let's see what I got:
1. Massive damage immunity + greater threshold of death.
Improvement 1: Take actions under 0 hit points.
Improvement 2: Take full-round actions under 0 hit points and despoil surroundings.
Improvement 3: Become almost impossible to kill via hit point damage.


2. Aura that helps combat but harms diplomacy (for everyone).

3.Gain an incidental army of undead who don't obey you.
Improvement 1: army protects you.
Improvement 2: create undead and provide turn resistance.
Improvement 3: army obeys you (sometimes).

4. Gain a curse you can pass onto others.
Improvement 1: Can suppress curse more often by taking penalties.
Improvement 2: Curse affect AC, can deal damage as move action, lasts up to 1 minute.
Improvement 3: Curse affects save DCs, can give negative levels as standard action, lasts up to 10 minutes.
Improvement 4: Curse affects ability scores, ties target's fate to mine, lasts up to 1 hour.

5. Fear aura that improved at low life.

6. Immunity to nonlethal damage that improved at low-life.

7. Immunity to disease and pass disease to others at low life.

8. No natural healing and half magical but heal by killing.

9. Give half penalties of (unaugmented) curse to nearby people but suffer damage when it influences them.
Improvement 1: See improvement 1 of dread curse. Grant penalties to others in aura.
Improvement 2: Double area, penalty, and damage of aura.

10. Remove biological requirements by harming other creatures.

11. Use cursed items without penalty.
Pseudo-improvement 1: Create cursed items
Pseudo-improvement 2: Immune to curses + spell resistance at low life.

Can anyone tell me what particular abilities are mind-boggling? Perhaps ones that should be taken out or altered?

Forever Curious
2010-02-25, 04:36 PM
I admit that I stuck in just about every class feature I could think of to communicate the material. I don't know what I was doing exactly. In my defense though, most of my abilities do seem to be improving previous abilities, looking back.

Let's see what I got:
1. Massive damage immunity + greater threshold of death.
Improvement 1: Take actions under 0 hit points.
Improvement 2: Take full-round actions under 0 hit points and despoil surroundings.
Improvement 3: Become almost impossible to kill via hit point damage.


2. Aura that helps combat but harms diplomacy (for everyone).

3.Gain an incidental army of undead who don't obey you.
Improvement 1: army protects you.
Improvement 2: create undead and provide turn resistance.
Improvement 3: army obeys you (sometimes).

4. Gain a curse you can pass onto others.
Improvement 1: Can suppress curse more often by taking penalties.
Improvement 2: Curse affect AC, can deal damage as move action, lasts up to 1 minute.
Improvement 3: Curse affects save DCs, can give negative levels as standard action, lasts up to 10 minutes.
Improvement 4: Curse affects ability scores, ties target's fate to mine, lasts up to 1 hour.

5. Fear aura that improved at low life.

6. Immunity to nonlethal damage that improved at low-life.

7. Immunity to disease and pass disease to others at low life.

8. No natural healing and half magical but heal by killing.

9. Give half penalties of (unaugmented) curse to nearby people but suffer damage when it influences them.
Improvement 1: See improvement 1 of dread curse. Grant penalties to others in aura.
Improvement 2: Double area, penalty, and damage of aura.

10. Remove biological requirements by harming other creatures.

11. Use cursed items without penalty.
Pseudo-improvement 1: Create cursed items
Pseudo-improvement 2: Immune to curses + spell resistance at low life.

Can anyone tell me what particular abilities are mind-boggling? Perhaps ones that should be taken out or altered?

The undead army strikes me as...odd. I see the connection but think it's a bit of a stretch honestly. Other than that, it's pretty hardcore all around.

DracoDei
2010-02-25, 04:53 PM
Sounds like it might just be a case of things working out better as "Ability Name(Degree)" rather than "New Ability Name for Improved Ability". IE your mechanics are fine, but your writing style needs the work.

DragoonWraith
2010-02-25, 05:07 PM
I'm frankly exhausted at the moment and haven't really read through the whole class, but "it gets a feature at every level!" hardly seems like a bad thing. Dead levels are bad things, not not having dead levels.

Nerdanel
2010-02-25, 05:53 PM
This is cool, but what it's missing is coherency. The thing about the curse lowering the victim's numbers but allowing it to be passed off for a moment in particular makes me wonder how it fits with the rest of the effects. I think everything in the class should be focused on keeping the target alive and miserable. Being very effective in combat actually would go well with that, just with the curse making sure that there will be plenty of combat if the cursed person doesn't become a hermit.

DracoDei
2010-02-25, 07:43 PM
I would have Dark Attraction give only range and direction... they are intellegent undead... they can figure it out... plus they need no rest.

Realms of Chaos
2010-02-26, 03:38 AM
Forever Curious: The Cursed has a huge mass of necromantic energy, planted to cause as much havoc as possible through the person. This is why creating an army of basically controlled undead kind of fits here.
Then again, it may be more than possible that this class should be lowered from a "general uncontrolled necromancy" theme to a "uncontrolled curse" theme, stripping out much of the class' necromancy. Read on to see the specifics of what I intend.

Dracodei: First, it specifically states that the undead you control are unintelligent (or is this some of that famous internet sarcasm I hear so much about?).
Secondly, renaming everything as improved and superior versions of each other wouldn't work for several reasons. First of all, not all of the improvements that I listed are neat and clean enhancements (despoiled one is more than just an enhancement for undying and twisted reprieve enhances two abilities). Also, even if I did list every ability that way, I'd end up with 4 different "improved" and "superior abilities, something that wouldn't look too nice (ImO).
I could avoid that by putting everything under a single heading (as I did for grim sustenance) but that would only result in 5 class features more wordy than a barbarian's rage (and similarly undesirable).

Nerdanel: See below for my idea on keeping consistency.

My suggested Fix:
1. I remove the dark attraction, dark guardians, dark minions, and unnatural health.
2. I move menacing air to 9th level and move dark dark renewal to 3rd (to compete with a paladin's lay on hands, kind of).
3. At 17th level, I put in an ability that grants you undead immunities while at negative hit points (instead of granting that ability at 20th level) and lets you treat your curse penalty as a bonus against death effects but that ensures your soul is destroyed with your death.
4. state that you lose your supernatural class features whenever you are freed of your curse (which frankly makes more sense anyways).

We end up with a class that gets 2 class features at levels 1, 2, and 3 and 1 class feature each level afterwards.

DracoDei
2010-02-26, 05:04 AM
Dracodei: First, it specifically states that the undead you control are unintelligent (or is this some of that famous internet sarcasm I hear so much about?).
I simply mis-read it...


I could avoid that by putting everything under a single heading (as I did for grim sustenance) but that would only result in 5 class features more wordy than a barbarian's rage (and similarly undesirable).
This was the solution I was actually suggesting. Not renaming stuff.

Chronologist
2010-02-28, 09:55 AM
Maybe I'm being over simplistic, but I like classes that have fewer, scaling class features. The undead following you is pretty cool, as is the Grim sustenance and the curse.

This is going to sound weird, but why not give the class spellcasting like a Paladin, drawing from a small list of Divine spells from the Cleric spell list? I'm thinking it could be Charisma-based, and the class would simply know every spell for that level. Spells would include the Harm spells, Bestow Curse, Poison, Unhallow, and other negative energy and debuff spells.

Anxe
2010-04-09, 10:30 PM
I think paladin-like spellcasting would work really well with this class. Maybe use the Blackguard spell list instead, but that's a good idea. If a tradeoff if necessary, lowering the BAB or HD would probably work.

Why does it get good Reflex saves? That doesn't fit the flavor. Fort and Will kind of do though.

Also, this class is awesome, and I'm going to use it as the villain in my next campaign. Love it.

Temotei
2010-04-09, 10:38 PM
The 18th level ability is pretty sweet, although I would make it -1 for every ten below zero.

Otherwise, sorry to say, I'm too tired/energetic (at the same time) to read this through and give it honest critique that will actually be my opinion perfectly without making [many] mistakes.