PDA

View Full Version : (Pathfinder) Necromancer, Base Class, PEACH & WRIK



Paulcynic
2011-09-18, 01:26 AM
WRIK = Will Review in Kind :)

A T3 Original base class, with an emphasis on Touch Attacks which land powerful single-target debuffs, Verge abilities that let you bounce across the Veil between life and death, and a whole lot more :) If anything, this class comes with a host of original and useful abilities, so read on!

I enjoy homebrew rules, and in this case have tried my hand at creating a balanced but flavorful new class: the Necromancer. I don't feel that this concept has been done adequately by any game developer, as most treat it as an afterthought within a base class. I disagree with this, as Necromancers are iconic :) and so I've given them a little love.

Paulcynic
2011-09-18, 01:27 AM
Necromancer, New Base Class





http://i51.tinypic.com/10dcec8.jpg




See This Artist Here (http://nebezial.deviantart.com/)

You were once a druid, protecting and bolstering life; but fate played its hand one day and you faced a rather dramatic death. Maybe a Tsunami took your seaside village, maybe a meteorite left your home a smoking crater, how ever it happened, it wasn't pleasant. In your last moments of life, you looked back and felt content with your accomplishments and legacy. Then there was blackness, but not the relief of death; it is your first moments of unlife. You suddenly found yourself looking back on the devastation through a dark gossamer Veil, your body laying unscathed but lifeless. Instinctively, frantically, you reached across the Veil toward life. The best you were able to accomplish was physical reanimation, and it became clear that your body was no longer your home.

The 'stuff' of You now exists on the Fugu plane, also known as the Afterlife, domain of Kelemvor, God of Death. All departing souls first enter Fugu, where, if they paid homage to a Deity, they are then guided to what ever paradise they were promised. Those who failed to appease their Deity in life, and those whom chose to go it alone, become part of the Fugu Wall which protects Kelemvor's inner sanctum. But you, you are different, you were chosen by fate to fulfill a Purpose.

Necromancer's aren't Undead, they're Planar Beings with a strong anchor to the Prime Material Plane through their former bodies, known as their Avatar. Necromancers aren't necessarily the anti-Druid class; while the Druid focuses on creating and bolstering life, they often forget that there are four seasons in the Life-and-Death cycle. Where Druids prefer the new-birth of Spring, Necromancers are tied to the final journey toward Winter. They are not obsessed with death, and are not evil beings. Death exists, and so too must they in order to maintain balance. However, Necromancers exist on the verge of undeath, not within it, and so are best thought of as agents of the Fugu Plane; like the mythical Ferryman, their primary role is to shepherd souls to their final resting place. Being part of death, they gain tremendous power over it, using that power to protect those who yet still live, and to destroy those who violate the 'rules' of life and death; especially powerful undead cheaters such as the infamous Lich.

Necromancers exist in a semi-dream state, as their mind is divided between realities. They often seem aloof and distracted; and in fact they perceive the living world as a person would a dream, with the subconscious inserting itself over real experience. As such, they have no ego, experience everything with synesthesia, and although who they were in life—their thoughts and feelings still intact—their dream-like mental state dampens their emotional attachment to people and outcomes.

Role: The Necromancer is a support class/Melee combatant, bringing powerful single-target debuffs against boss-level foes, or summons for battle-field control when needed. His arsenal is impressive, and his ability to avoid death is sure to frustrate a foe or two.

Class Skills: Bluff, Craft (Any), Disguise, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Planes), Perception, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Stealth.

Alignment: Any Axiomatic Lawful-Chaos, However, must be Morally Neutral.

Hit Die: D6

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 plus Intelligence Modifier.

Starting Gold: As Druid

http://i51.tinypic.com/10eesea.jpg

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Necromancers are proficient with the following weapons: club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, scythe, sickle, shortspear, sling, and spear. They are also proficient in Unarmed Combat.

Necromancers are proficient with light and medium armor, and may move at their maximum speed in any armor made of bone, even medium and heavy armors.

http://i56.tinypic.com/24cecds.jpg
Deathdream: The real You watches from the other side of the Veil, animating your own former body to complete tasks in the living world.

At 1st level gain Channel Negative Energy; 1D6/odd level. You may use this ability a number of times each day equal to 3 plus your Charisma Modifier. You are affected by Positive and Negative Energy in the same way as Undead. If you would be damaged by or subject to an effect of Positive energy, as an Immediate Action, you may spend a use of Channel Negative Energy to negate the damage and/or effect.

Deathdream also allows for the selection of Deathdream Insights. Your Mind-affecting abilities, Fear, Charms, and Compulsions affect undead.

Add your Charisma Mod to Knowledge (Planes), and to any skill used in identifying the abilities and weaknesses of undead creatures.

Deathdream Insights: While you exist on the Fugu side of the Veil, your mind actually exists on both sides. Seeing the duality of the Life/Death cycle, you realize that life is death, and death is life—its all the same, but different... You learn to apply this insight to your given purpose.

You learn a new Deathdream Insight at levels 2 and 4. You may choose an additional Deathdream Insight or Verge ability every even level after 4th.

Activating a Deathdream Insight, Touch Attack, or Verge ability costs 1 use of your Channel Negative Energy for the day, and all non-instantaneous effects last for a number of rounds equal to your Necromancer level plus Charisma Mod, unless otherwise noted. Abilities with a Range of "Close" are radius abilities that affect the listed target type within 25' plus 5' per 2 Necromancer levels.

The following abilities are listed in thematic blocks, some abilities in the block require others in the block to function. One is not locked into a block however, and may choose Deathdream Insights freely so long as they have the prerequisites or so long as they are stand alone abilities.

http://i52.tinypic.com/30nkq3d.jpg
Control:
“I See Your Stitches” (Su): The body and soul are two components of one complete being. You know much about undead, including the fact that undead spirits are barely stitched to their bodies; you're an expert at exploiting this weakness. All Hostile undead (those that you do not control and which threaten you and your allies) within Close Range, are affected by a minor disruption. At 1st level, the Necromancer can Disrupt Hostile Undead causing them to suffer a -1 penalty to Attacks, Damage, and Saves; increase this disruption penalty by an additional +1 for every five Necromancer levels.

“I Said Come” (Su): Automatically take control of any non-intelligent, uncontrolled undead affected by your Disrupt Hostile Undead ability. They obey your commands as well as their Intelligence allows. They remain under your control so long as they are under the effect of your Disrupt Undead ability. The Necromancer may only control a number of non-intelligent undead equal to his Level plus Charisma Mod with this ability.

At 4th level the Necromancer can also use this ability on Intelligent undead, but they get a Will save, DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma Mod). Failure means that the Necromancer can Command them as a standard action, as per the spell, however they are not completely under his control and can act freely if not commanded. If Intelligent undead are controlled, their number of Hit Dice are counted toward the maximum. The Necromancer's summoned skeletons do not count toward this limit.

“Hands Off!”: Wrest an undead target from the control of another as a Full Round Action. The undead target must either be non-intelligent or its Hit Dice must not exceed your level plus your Charisma modifier. Both you and your rival make contested Intimidate checks, the higher result determines if he retains control. If the current controller wins, he retains control, if he loses, then the undead becomes uncontrolled and uncontrollable for 1 full round. After this round is up, the undead can then be forced into obedience by any appropriate ability.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2qk8eh0.jpg
Summon and Destruction:
The Fugu Wall: The souls of non-believers end up as the mortar of the Fugu wall, a structure protecting the Inner Sanctum of Kelemvor, the God of Death. You are permitted to take freely of this resource, and as such are able to Summon a batch of skeletons from this inexhaustible resource.

At 2nd level, you can summon one CR 1/3 Human Skeleton, this is a standard 1/3 HD human skeleton.

At 3rd Level, you can summon one CR 2 Bloody Human Skeleton, or 1D3 standard skeletons.

At 5th level you can summon one CR 3 Bloody Burning Human Skeleton, or 1D3 CR 2 Bloody Human Skeletons, or 1D4+1 standard Human Skeletons.

At 7th level you can summon one CR 4 skeleton of any type allowed by the rules for creating a Skeleton Variant (Found Here (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/skeleton.html#_skeleton)), or 1D4+1 of any previously available type of Skeleton. Increase the CR of this summonable skeleton by +1 CR at 9th level and by +1 for every odd level there after.

Each use of this ability costs 1 use of your Channel Negative Energy, and the Summoned Skeletons remain for a number of rounds equal to your Necromancer level plus your Charisma modifier. Using this ability before the previous batch of skeletons have been destroyed or unsummoned causes all previously summoned skeletons to disintegrate as the new ones arrive.

Bone and Ash: As a standard action, the necromancer may cause any number of his currently controlled skeletons to explode, each explosion causing 1D6 points of Bludgeoning damage/HD to all adjacent squares, destroying these skeletons as a result. Anyone caught in a blast can make a Reflex save for half damage. All affected squares are then covered in a cloud of thick ash for 1 round, obscuring vision inside, and through that area (20% concealment). This cloud lasts until the end of the next round.

At 7th level the Necromancer can concentrate as a Standard action causing all exploded skeletons to coalesce into a swirling Storm of Bone and Ash starting anywhere within 60'. The storm has a radius of 20'. He is able to move the storm up to 5' per round per Necromancer level, and can move it up to Medium range (100' plus 10' Necromancer level), dealing 1D6 Piercing/Bludgeoning/Slashing damage per Necromancer level to anyone in its path, and leaving a cloud of Ash in its wake. This Storm effect is not constrained to the ground.

Final Call: As a full-round action, the Necromancer can cause any Intelligent undead under his control to explode, dealing 1D6 points of arcane damage/HD to the Undead target, and to all adjacent squares. The target gets a Fortitude save DC (10 plus damage dealt), failure means he suffers the equivalent of a Coup-de-grace. If he survives, any active control the Necromancer has over him ends.

http://i55.tinypic.com/30c2eki.jpg
Coldfire:
Coldfire Cloak: You become enveloped in the cool blue flame of Negative Energy. While active, you may only spend Channel Negative Energy uses on Coldfire and Verge Abilities, and Touch Attacks; however, you gain a +2 Deflection bonus to AC, and all adjacent Hostile targets take 1D6 points of Negative Energy damage so long as it is active. Hostile Undead, however, find their essences pulled toward the Veil, causing damage to their physical bodies instead of healing them. Activate this ability as a Swift action. At 7th level, the Deflection bonus to AC increases to +4. At 11th level the amount of damage inflicted increases to 1D10 per round.

http://i53.tinypic.com/1055yms.jpg
Coldfire Wisps: You must have Coldfire Cloak Active to use this ability. At 7th level, your Coldfire Cloak acts as a window across the Veil into Fugu. 1D4+1 Wisps cross over and surround your Avatar, leaching parasitically from anything Hostile adjacent to you, dealing 1D4 points of Negative energy damage per wisp to all adjacent targets. Hostile Undead suffer also, as these wisps do not heal them, instead they will anchor them to the Fugu, slowly pulling their essence toward their final rest. This damages the Undead's body, dealing 1D6 per wisp. At 11th level, the number of wisps increases to 1D6+2.

True Nature of the Beast: Just as one life is sustained by the death of another, so too does death feed off of life. At 11th level, many hungry, energetic wisps flow through your Coldfire Cloak, attaching themselves to the souls of all adjacent Hostile targets unless those targets make a successful Reflex save DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma mod). Those who fail have their souls slowly leached away, given over to the Necromancer. He need not concentrate, nor remain adjacent; though the wisps will die if they are more than 30' from the Necromancer, or if his Cloak is inactive for more than 1 round. Each round, all affected targets suffers 1D6 points of damage. As well, the Necromancer gains that amount in Temporary Hit Points (up to a maximum equal his Charisma mod times his Level), which last so long as his Coldfire Cloak is active.

http://i55.tinypic.com/2gwgy8k.jpg
Undeath Aspects: In controlling your avatar, part of You rests within it, and as you manipulate your Avatar's limbs and senses, you mimic these functions as you did in life. But the truth is impossible to ignore, your avatar is not alive.. And so you slowly learn to let go of the mechanisms of life, such as filling your lungs with air, coursing blood, and the other stuff of life. As you accept this new existence, you learn to let go and just be what you are... dead.

You are immune to ability drain and negative levels. Undeath aspects are permanent/always active abilities. You may choose any one of the following Undeath Aspects at first level, and then one additional Undeath Aspect at the indicated levels.

Hazemind (Su): Add your Charisma modifier as an Insight bonus to all Saves versus Mind-affecting, Fear, Compulsion, and Charm effects. At 5th level, add this bonus to resist Morale effects. At 8th level, add this bonus to resist Phantasms and Patterns. At 11th level, this becomes a general Will save bonus.

Stillborne (Su): Gain Immunity to Instant Death caused by Coup-de-grace (Though you can still be automatically crit while Helpless). Remain conscious below zero Hit Points. At 6th level, you can suffer a number of negative hit points equal to 10 plus your Charisma modifier before dying. At 12th level, you can suffer twice this amount in negative Hit Points before dying. At 18th level, you can suffer three times this amount.

Wintersoul (Su): Your avatar no longer mimics its state of being when alive. Your organs no longer beat and churn with the stuff of life, and in fact it is not necessary. Add your Charisma mod to resist all disease and poison effects. At 10th level you become immune to disease, and at 13th level you become immune to poison.

Undying Breath (Su): You add your Charisma mod to saves against gas attacks. At 7th level your lungs go still as you realize they are unnecessary; you gain immunity to gas attacks, or anything else that requires you to breathe in, such as drowning.

Purpose (Su): You no longer sleep, expended abilities return in full each night at Midnight. If your avatar is destroyed, you do not die. You enter a state of Torpor for 72 hours while your avatar begins to regenerate, this is an unconscious state where you cannot communicate nor be contacted. At the end of 72 hours, your avatar rises again, though you suffer a permanent -1 Charisma modifier. This ability may only ever be used a number of times equal to your Natural Charisma Modifier. After the last regeneration, death is final.

http://i54.tinypic.com/2zo9gzp.jpg
Touch Attacks: Starting at 3rd level, your avatar channels the properties of the Fugu plane, which he can bestow/inflict on his targets through touch. At 3rd level, he automatically gains Ethereal Rend, and may also select one additional touch attack. A Necromancer may deliver a touch attack as a Standard action, delivering any and all of the effects he knows in that single touch.

Each Touch Attack takes up only 1 use of Channel Negative Energy for the Day, regardless of the number of effects chosen.

Ethereal Rend (Su): You can cause terrible wounds to appear on a creature with a melee touch attack. This attack deals 1d6 points of damage/odd level to any hostile target, living or undead; they make make a Fortitude save DC (10 plus 1/2 Level plus Charisma mod) for half. Alternately, he may choose to use this ability to heal an undead creature for the 1d6 points of damage/odd level, and grant that target a +2 channel resistance for 1 minute.

Soul Slice (Su): As a melee touch attack, disjoint your target's soul and body, causing him to fall prone and become helpless for 1 round. The target gets a Fortitude save DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma Mod). Whether your target makes his save or not, this ability may only be used on a specific target once per day.

Terrify (Su): As a melee touch attack, you reveal the Veil to your target who then perceives a massive vortex drawing him ever in. The victim will suffer from the Cowering condition unless he can make a Will save, DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma) [Fear, Mind-affecting] or spend the next round mentally fighting against being pulled into the Fugu. He remains in this state each round until he makes his save, or until he takes damage, is shaken violently, or by similar means, or until the end of this effect's duration.

Fire and Ice (Su): Your melee touch attack ignites the targets nerves, causing them to suffer the sensation of being both frozen and burned at the same time. Targets make a Fortitude save DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma mod), or suffer the Staggered condition.

Eat Senses (Su): Your melee touch attack snatches a piece of your target's soul away, specifically one of its sensory organs. You may choose one of the following: Sight, Sound, Sensation, Smell, or Taste, causing the target to permanently lose that sense unless they make a Fortitude save DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma mod). This effect can be restored by any appropriate spell, such as Remove Blindess/Deafness, etc.

Return and Obey (Su): Any creature affected by one of your touch attacks at any point this combat automatically return after it is killed as if affected by the Animate Dead spell, using your Necromancer level as your Caster Level. The animated creature's Hit Dice count toward the Maximum number of HD that you can control per day (see "I Said Come!" above). This effect lasts until the creature is destroyed.

Nether Maggots (Su): Those whose souls are not guided out of Fugu by an agent of their God are doomed to become part of the Fugu Wall, which protects the inner sanctum of Kelemvor, the God of Death. To keep the wall at a manageable size, he employs carrion eaters; Nether Maggots among them. You infect your victim with these Maggots which begin to decompose the target's internals almost immediately. Targets must make a Fortitude save versus Disease DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma mod) or suffer 1D6 points of ability damage to one attribute of the Necromancer's choosing. If they failed their first save, they must make a second save a round later or suffer an additional point of ability damage to the same attribute. At levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, the maggots can affect an additional attribute of the Necromancer's choosing (so save or suffer 1D6 damage to both of two attributes at level 4, etc).

Enervate (Su): The soul is a collection of tiny fragments of experience, emotions, and dreams, like many iron shavings bound together by strong magnetism. You see this, and brush many away with a sweep of your hand. Target must make a Fortitude save DC (10 plus 1/2 Level plus Charisma mod) or Lose 1 point of Ki, Arcane Pool, 1 charge of Channel Energy, 2 rounds of Rage, one use of a Spell-like ability or 1 spell slot (always the lowest unused spell slot in the caster's list of spell's per day) for the day. Classes that do not possess any of these mechanics suffer -2 to all Save DC's for a number of rounds equal to the Necromancer's Charisma mod plus Level.

http://i53.tinypic.com/21jn69l.jpg
Vergerist: Just as you gain Insights into the reality of life and death, so too do you learn to manipulate the space between life and death, pulling your avatar to and fro across the veil. This ability allows the Necromancer to Vanish (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/spells/vanish.html#vanish) as a free action any time he stands still (Stealth DC 15) while concealed by Shadows (when ever he gains a concealment bonus for being in low light). Any action or event that breaks stealth breaks this ability. When engaged in melee, if he moves more than 5' from all hostile targets, he may make a new Stealth check to become invisible.

Verge abilities cost only 1 use of Channel Negative Energy for the day, and unless instantaneous last a number of rounds equal to your Necromancer level plus Charisma Modifier.

Veiltrip:
Jaunt (Su): Your avatar does not run, he is moved. You realize that his physical limitations are a product of your memory of moving about while alive. You've gotten better at manipulating him regardless of natural limitations, seeing as you are moving him with your mind. While this ability is active, gain +10 Speed at level 1, and an additional +5 to your speed for every 3 Necromancer levels.

Strobe (Su): When making a move action, you are able to hop back and forth across the Veil. You may become invisible and undetectable for a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier plus your Necromancer level, though these square do not have to be consecutive. Activating this ability is a Swift Action and lasts until the end of your turn.

Cross the Veil (Su): Once per day, you may yank your avatar across the veil between the realms of life and death. This is an immediate action, and can be used at any time in response to a threatening event, happening before negative effects hit the Avatar. Your avatar crosses the veil for 1 round, and then is returned to any space within 30' of his initial location, but he may not take any actions in this round. You may pay to use this ability additional times per day at levels 7, 13, and 20.

Return:
Ethereal Grapple (Su): You realize that as you can freely manipulate your own avatar, you can reach across the Veil and push around others. So long as your Avatar is adjacent to a target, you can impose your true self upon their mechanisms of movement. They must succeed at a Reflex saving throw DC (10 plus 1/2 Level plus Charisma mod) or suffer the Grappled Condition, though you are not also under the Grappled Condition. Your avatar will then suffer the Staggered condition as your attention is diverted to your target, though he is free to move away after an Ethereal Grapple is initiated. You may only Grapple one target at a time. On their turn, targets may attempt to break out of the Ethereal Grapple by making a new Reflex save.

Good to be Home (Su): You flood back into the prime material plane in your True Form, that of a living shadow, anchored to your avatar. Your true form acts as a Supernatural Darkness, covering a Close area, granting your Avatar total concealment from normal lighting conditions and partial concealment from magical light. The real You can only be targeted by Banish effects, and takes no damage from any source as you are merely shadow. The Real You can see in all directions, granting your Avatar immunity to Flank attacks; as well, you and your avatar are immune to effects that hinder sight (even light-based attacks).

Bind and Tow (Su): Once per day, you may designate a location, any location in which your Avatar stands, and plant a 'seed' of your true self across the Veil. This seed lasts for 24 hours. At any time, you may yank your avatar into Fugu, and then return him and any worn equipment to that location regardless of distance, so long as it is on the same plane of existence as the 'seed.' Travel is instantaneous, but takes a standard action to initiate. You may plant additional seeds at levels 8, 13, and 20. You may have multiple seeds active at one time.

Enshadow:
Enshadowist (Su): You may activate this ability in any lighting condition that provides concealment (aka even straight darkness). At 1st level, you gain Darkvision 60', at 4th level it expands to 120', 240' at level 7, and at 11th level to any distance within your line of sight. At 5th level, you can see through magical darkness. While this ability is active, you may teleport (via Dimension Door) to any other shadow or magically darkened area that you can see.

Shadowfect (Su): At 7th level you can turn any enshadowed area into Rough Terrain, as you cause those shadows to grow dense and viscus. The range of this ability is Close.

At 11th level, shadows at Close range become like liquid, forcing all within the radius to move as if underwater (swim speed, swim skill, etc). However, you ignore the difficulties caused by this effect. You may activate this ability in any lighting condition that provides concealment (aka even straight darkness).

Haunt of the Eclipse (Su): At 9th level, you may cloak your Avatar in shadow, becoming Ethereal, and also gain the ability to fly (Good maneuverability) while Ethereal. You may activate this ability in any lighting condition that provides concealment (aka even straight darkness).

http://i56.tinypic.com/bf599e.jpg
Undead Ally: Just as you take advantage of the Living to accomplish your goals, so too are the Undead worthy tools. At 4th level, gain access to a powerful Skeletal Scion. This companion functions like the Summoner's Eidolon, except that the Necromancer's effective Summoner level is equal to his Necromancer level – 3, ignoring any irrelevant abilities such as Share Spells, etc. Additionally, the Scion may only be of the Biped base form.

The Scion may be summoned by a ritual lasting 10 minutes; this ritual makes him immune to banish effects. He remains active until destroyed (-10 Health) or unsummoned by the Necromancer. The Necromancer may resummon his Scion any number of times in a day using a 1 minute ritual, however, his Scion is not Immune to banish effects and returns at only half health.

The Scion does not count toward the HD limit of the undead that he controls.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2r2rplw.jpg
Stretching the Canvas: Sometimes brute force is the better way. Once per day at 6th level, the Necromancer may merge with his Undead Scion as a full-round action, becoming one fearsome entity. During this merger, your scion flays your avatar down the back, crawling inside his flesh. However, the flesh doesn't grow to accommodate, and so covers only a portion of your Scion, leaving a horrible stretched distortion of his facade. As unsettling and awkward as it seems, your power grows considerably.

You become Large Size as your bones merge, modify +8 Strength, +4 Constitution, -2 Dexterity, +2 Natural Armor, and increase your damage die type for being Large (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/universalMonsterRules.html#table-3-1-natural-attacks-by-size). In addition, replace your stats with the Scion's Attacks, Evolutions, and Senses. Gain the use of his Combat Feats, and add his Hit Points and Natural Armor to your own. This transformation lasts 1 hour/Necromancer level. Gain additional uses of this ability every even level after 6th.

You may still use any of your other Necromancer abilities under the same conditions, except that all abilities with a cost now take two uses of your Channel Negative Energy.

Simulacrum: Once you accept that Undead are useful and not just enemies, you come to appreciate their qualities. Firstly, they need to be destroyed anyhow, and so you take no issue with transferring the damage that your Avatar might take, onto any of the undead under your control. As your mastery over Simulacrum increases, so too does the amount of damage that you can redirect.

You must have one use of Channel Negative Energy available, though this ability does not cost any uses.

Simulacrum I: As a swift action, you may transfer damage you receive equal to your Charisma mod times your Necromancer level, to one undead under your control up to Close range. You can transfer more damage than the controlled undead has health, though he is destroyed as a result.

Simulacrum II: As Simulacrum I, but you can now transfer damage you receive as an Immediate action to Any Number of undead under your control.

Simulacrum III: As Simulacrum II, but you may now attempt to redirect damage you receive to an uncontrolled, hostile undead target. They get a Fortitude save DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charisma mod), failure means they take all redirected damage. Success means they take no damage and you take the damage as normal.

Simulacrum IV: As Simulacrum III, but they now take half damage if they succeed at their saving throw, and you take the other half.

Simulacrum V: Your mastery over life, unlife, and death is deadly surgical, you may now transfer a killing blow against you to any undead target, controlled or hostile. Hostile Undead get a Fortitude Save DC (10 plus ½ Level plus Charima mod) or die, leaving you at 0 Hit Points. This ability may only be attempted once on any particular undead per day.

Necromancer Specific Feats:
Extra Deathdream Insight, select one additional Deathdream Insight that you qualify for. You may select this ability multiple times, choosing a different Deathdream Insight.

Extra Verge, select one additional Verge that you qualify for. You may select this Feat multiple times, choosing a different Verge.

Extra Touch Attack, select one additional Touch Attack that you qualify for. This ability may only be selected once.

Extra Evolution (Found Here (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/ultimateMagicFeats.html#extra-evolution)).

Paulcynic
2011-09-18, 01:29 AM
Developer Comments:
The idea is that a Necromancer has a focused set of abilities (like the Witch), which he can use a limited number of times per day. He is a Str/Cha based class, and so suffers a Stat-tax. Not only that, he is vulnerable to Positive Energy. He has a major advantage in that many of his melee abilities are Touch-based. He has D6 HD which makes him vulnerable w/o enough minions to Simulacrum. Being a minion class, he can bolster them in combat.

Tier: The Necromancer is a Tier 3 Class as he does not excel at dealing melee damage, but he is an excellent debuffer through his melee touch attacks. He cannot cast spells, but can heal himself and his minions through his power over negative energy as well as cause crippling Save-based debuffs. He gains significant advantages in battle field mobility in the early levels through his connection to the Ethereal and Shadow planes. He is a pet-class, with some interesting twists on how he can use his primary minion, either as a separate entity or in a melded form similar to the Druid's Wildshape. He can also destroy his minions for explosive aoe damage, as well as aoe 'storm' effects, but this requires concentration. So all in all, he has a decent range of battle-field control, even while he falls down the middle in direct damage and survivability. However, he is an anti-undead specialist, hunting down and destroying powerful death-cheaters, and so he is a competitive class at the highest character levels.

Dryad
2011-09-18, 06:32 PM
I like the ideas you've displayed; there's some wording difficulties (okay; more than 'some.' I get what you mean, but it makes the mechanics a bit hazy at times) and I personally think you should simply rewrite the class. Not from scratch, mind, but your phrasing is simply lacking in a lot of departments.

Examples:
-The table shows you gain Deathdream Insight every so often. But the text of the ability implies that you can use any one of those listed 'spells' when you first gain the ability. It doesn't say you have to choose, and it doesn't say how many you can choose per time you attain the ability. It just says you can do all that.
-Deathdream Insights implies that you can activate all effects simultaneously by spending 1 Channel Negative Energy use... And that those effects will remain active for an entire day, yet dissipate after a couple of rounds, but you've already spent your point for the day.
-"I see your stitches" does not specify a target; as soon as you activate it, all undead everywhere take a penalty. No save. (Sadly, this could render your skeletal minions somewhat useless).

If Intelligent undead are controlled, their number of Hit Dice are counted toward the maximum.
You are permitted to take freely of this resource, and as such are able to Summon an inexhaustible number of Skeletons
Two abilities quoted above; the one telling me that controlling something counts towards my maximum, while the other tells me that, at least where skeletons are involved, I don't HAVE a maximum.
Also, the text tells me that activating the summoning ability does not cost any Channels; I can use the resource freely.

Each new casting replaces the previous one, causing all previously summoned skeletons to disintegrate.
This is strange, since the same ability tells me the number I can summon is inexhaustible.

Every odd Necromancer level after the 1st, this ability improves to the next level of Summon Monster.
That's nice, I suppose, but I can freely use the ability anyway. I don't cast any spells, so I don't use Summon Monster (at least, this ability tells me outright that I do not use Summon Monster) so effectively, this bit is unrelated to the ability, and I can still use it without limit.
I know that that is not what you meant, but unfortunately, it is what you wrote.
-Bone and Ash... Can deal an unlimited amount of d6 damage at lvl 1. No save.
-The class' flavour text informs us that the Character is undead. Yet the character receives a d6 HD, and gains undead immunities relatively late (but starts out immediately with undead weaknesses).

I'm not going through all of it, but you can see that there's quite a lot of ambiguities in the text.

Conclusion: I think it can be absolutely awesome, but you'll need to edit your phrasing to make it work.

Paulcynic
2011-09-19, 01:19 AM
Rewrote :) Thank you for the props and helpful editing.

Dryad
2011-09-21, 02:22 PM
Okies; thanks. The whole thing has a lot more clarity, now. ^^
Hmm..
I still think the class has too little Channels/day. Reason being: All of its special abilities require channel expenditure, and since the uses/day don't scale with level, the class might get into serious troubles in later levels. It's fine for lvl 1 through maybe three, but after that, you'll have to be really careful with Channel expenditure. Too careful, in my opinion.

So overall: Really neat class! I like the special abilities. :)

Paulcynic
2011-09-21, 10:16 PM
Good stuff, we've been having a blast play testing it. At level 6, our test Necromancer has 10 uses of Channel Negative Energy. 3 base plus 5 from Charisma plus 2 from the feat Extra Channel (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/feats.html#extra-channel).

Because most of the abilities have a duration, which last for a number of rounds equal to the Necromancer's Charisma plus Level, there's little need to reactive them. Most of his abilities also scale with level in both power and DC to save. In testing, my buddy activated one, maybe two sustained abilities, and then went straight to his Touch Attacks.

Its looking like most of the uses/day go to Touch attacks, and in this case one use of Channel Negative Energy can deliver every Touch effect he knows, so its a reasonably powerful ability that scales well with level. Once he ran out of charges, he kept one for Simulacrum, and then used Stretching the Canvas to rock out in melee. That was in one long boss fight though; in most other cases he did his part to weaken the big foe so that the other's could finish it off in a round or two, and was left with plenty of his 'ki' resource for the next encounter.

So far its playing well, seems to scale very well for a T3 base class; is similar to the Witch in simplicity and specificity, only his 'ki' pool knocks him down the Tier tree.

I hope others who've checked out this class are having similar results, if not, I'd love again to get some play-test feed back, however brief.

Dryad, thank you again for showing interest and support, you make this forum a good place to share ideas :)

--PC

Paulcynic
2011-10-01, 12:11 AM
After some extensive play testing, updated and tweaked the verbage and use of many abilities.

1. Improved the native effect of Deathdream to provide a way to counter the effects of positive energy. This burns up uses of his valuable 'ki' mechanic.

2. Improved Bone and Ash so that it can now be sent after targets in the positive z-axis :P

3. Cleaned up the lingo of the Coldfire Block of abilities, improving the number of Coldfire Wisps to +1 and +2 respectively. Added note stating that Coldfire abilities are individual effects, and so work additively (minor issue for one of mah players :P).

4. Hazemind now becomes a general Will save at level 11.

5. Fleshed out Return and Obey to include it as part of the Necromancer's max # of controllable HD, and to specify that this creature remains until destroyed or released by the Necromancer.

6. Added Enervate to his list of Touch Attacks.

7. Generally improved the native Vergerist ability to Vanish while enshadowed. Playtesting has shown this to be a critically needed improvement in combat, as well as an exciting ability to use when sneaking about.

8. Improved Stobe to make the Avatar invisible and undetectable for an increased number of squares while moving.

9. Improved the verbage of Ethereal Grapple, as well as the mechanical justification for the Reflex save.

10. Clarified the mechanics and benefits of Stretching the Canvas :) DPR analysis on a level 6 Necromancer under this effect is 43 DPR, which is about right for a straight melee striker. Playtesting also shows these changes to be acceptable and needed in order to keep this ability relevant and interesting.

11. No changes to Simulacrum :) Hasn't come into play yet, will update if needed!!!!