Uttercold Necromancer (3.5 Dread Necro Variant) PEACH

[ThiefInTheNight]

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee365/Pilu_mi_i_Lome/AnniqueHessaIstar.png
Necromancer (http://akakuma.deviantart.com/art/necromancer-163114906) by ~akakuma

Required Supplements: Complete Arcane, Dragon Magic, Heroes of Horror, and Spell Compendium (the Dragon Magic requirement isn't that important, though; just one 1st-level spell)

{table=head]Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | 0th | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th

1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Charnel touch, utterfrost field | 5 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | —

6th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Lady of the uttercold, scabrous touch 1/day | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | —

8th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +6 | Advanced learning, negative energy burst 2/day, uttercold empress | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 | — | — | — | — | —

9th | +4 | +3 | +3 | +6 | Uttercold energy resistance | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | — | — | — | — | —[/table]
Armor and Weapon Proficiencies
As normal for a dread necromancer.

Spellcasting
As normal for a dread necromancer, excepting the following modifications to the spell list:
The following are removed from the uttercold necromancer spell list:
Summon undead I
Command undead, summon undead II
Summon undead III
Animate dead, summon undead IV
Summon undead V
Create undead
Control undead, vile death
Create greater undead
Plague of undead
The following are added to the uttercold necromancer spell list:
Cold fireSC, ice gauntletSC, lesser orb of coldSC, path of frostDM

Aura against flameSC, blood snowFB, creeping coldSC, dark waySC, frost breathSC, heat leechFB

Arctic hazeFB, column of iceFB, control snow and iceFB, corona of coldSC, icelanceSC, lesser aura of coldFB

Freeze armorFB, greater creeping coldSC, heartfreezeFB, mindfrostFB, orb of coldSC

Cold snapSC, flesh to iceFB, freezeSC, ice flowersSC, ice to fleshFB

Death hailFB, entombFB, extract water elementalSC, freezing fogSC, freezing glanceFB, fleshshiverSC

Greater aura of coldFB, ice clawSC, elemental bodySC (cold only)

Field of icy razorsSC, fimbulwinterFB, frostfellFB

CometstrikeFB, soul bindFB, winter of the soulF, N
DM Dragon Magic
FB Frostburn
SC Spell Compendium
N New spell described below:
Winter of the Soul
Necromancy [Cold]
Level: Uttercold Necromancer 9
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Short (25 ft. + 5 ft/2 levels)
Target: One living creature
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial; Will partial (see text)
Spell Resistance: YesDarkness surrounds the necromancer's target, and he feels a grave chill. She has started to drag his soul through death's door, to a wintry realm where she maintains control.

Each round, the target must make a Fortitude save, or take 1d6 Con damage.

Further, each round, the target must make a Will save, or grant the uttercold necromancer direct control over his soul, and thereby his body. On any round in which this happens, the target takes at least 1 Con damage. This damage does not stack with any damage it took as a result of failing its Fortitude save.

On any round in which the uttercold necromancer is given access to a target's soul, she may, as an immediate action, dictate the target's actions for the round. If the target fails his Will save, but the uttercold necromancer either cannot use an immediate action or does not wish to, the target simply does nothing for the round. This is not a mind-affecting effect, and therefore any protection against mind-affecting effects is meaningless with respect to this spell.

Focus
Any magical weapon crafted from Stygian Ice (Frostburn pg. 81); any such weapon costs at least 8,300 gp (cost of a masterwork weapon plus the cost of the material plus the cost of magically enhancing it). The caster's bare skin must be in contact with the Stygian Ice; protection from its effects is advised.

In addition, the uttercold necromancer treats the following spells as cantrips:
Arcane mark, detect magic, detect undead, disrupt undead, ghost sound, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic
The uttercold necromancer may cast these cantrips as many times per day as a sorcerer of her level would.

(Author's Note: I recommend adding these cantrips for normal dread necromancers, too.)

Charnel Touch (Su)
As the ordinary dread necromancer class feature, except that in addition to the usual negative energy damage, the uttercold necromancer's Charnel Touch deals cold damage equal to her Charisma modifier.

Utterfrost Field (Su)
As a standard action, an uttercold necromancer may make a turning check as a cleric of her level would. However, apply the check against all creatures in range, not just the undead. Those who are affected are neither turned nor rebuked, but have their movement speed halved and can neither run nor charge for one round, and lose their swift action for the round. A target may choose to lose their move action, instead, and may make this choice once it is his turn. If a target has already used an immediate action this turn or decides to use one before his next turn (i.e. has no swift action in that turn), then he must lose his move action.

This class feature replaces the dread necromancer's Rebuke Undead class feature. Like Rebuke Undead, it may be used a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modfier; Extra Turning increases this number as it would for Rebuke Undead.

Utterfrost Field also counts as Rebuke Undead for the purposes of prerequisites, and its uses may be dispensed to power other features (such as Divine feats) as if it were Rebuke Undead. Classes which advance Rebuke Undead may advance Utterfrost Field in the same way. Utterfrost Field does not, however, actually rebuke the undead, nor can it be used with other features that require doing so.

Negative Energy Burst (Su)
As the ordinary dread necromancer class feature.

Advanced Learning
As the ordinary dread necromancer class feature, except that an uttercold necromancer may choose to learn any cleric or wizard spell that is either from the college of Necromancy, or has the [Cold] descriptor, instead of only being able to choose Necromancy spells.

Scabrous touch (Su)
As the ordinary dread necromancer class feature.

Lady of the Uttercold
At 6th level, an uttercold necromancer gains Lord of the Uttercold (Complete Arcane pg. 80) as a bonus feat, even if she does not meet its prerequisites.

She may also use the feat "in reverse", changing a spell which does Negative Energy damage to deal half Cold, half Negative Energy damage.

Finally, she may apply this to her Charnel Touch and Negative Energy Burst class features, as well. When applied to her Charnel Touch, the total damage is halved between cold and negative energy (instead of being 1d8+1/4 levels negative energy damage +Cha cold damage).

Uttercold Empress
Beginning at 8th level, the Lord of the Uttercold metamagic feat no longer causes the casting time of an uttercold necromancer spell to be extended (it does not prevent this from happening if other metamagic effects are applied, however).

Also, all spells that an uttercold necromancer modifies with the Lord of the Uttercold metamagic feat deal extra damage equal to her Charnel Touch damage; this damage is still half cold, half negative energy. This feature may still be used with Charnel Touch itself; this effectively doubles Charnel Touch's damage (but the doubling does not apply to other effects!).

Further, she may apply Lord of the Uttercold in a new way: she may apply it to any spell with the [Cold] descriptor, or any spell that utilizes negative energy in its description, even if it does no damage, plus also to her Utterfrost Field class feature. These spells and abilities also become half cold and half negative energy, and may now (at the uttercold necromancer's option) deal damage equal to her Charnel Touch (this damage is negated if the spell or ability is saved against or otherwise prevented; if an effect offers no save and requires no attack roll, the uttercold necromancer must make a touch attack or ranged touch attack, as appropriate, to apply the damage).

This change means that those immune to cold or immune to negative energy are not immune to these spells, including their non-damaging effects (immunity to both cold and negative energy still blocks the spell, however).

Spells and abilities affected by Lord of the Uttercold cannot carry an uttercold necromancer's Scabrous Touch or Enervating Touch class features; if she has activated either, it is not discharged and remains available until the next time she uses Charnel Touch normally.

This class feature replaces the dread necromancer's Undead Mastery feature.

Uttercold Energy Resistance
As the dread necromancer's Negative Energy Resistance, but applied to cold effects as well as negative energy effects.
3Basically, I like the dread necromancer (Heroes of Horror pg. 84-88) class a lot, but I'm not a fan of the minion-master archetype, and not being a minion-master eliminates a lot of the DN's class features. This is a variant dread necromancer that avoids that, becoming more of a blaster/debuffer.

The spell list is arguably a bit better; there's certainly more spells gained than lost. For the most part, these are simply just different damage effects, so I don't think it greatly increases the class's versatility, especially when compared to the undead summoning and animating spells (which have enormous versatility).

I've also given her Lord of the Uttercold as a bonus feat, basically for free. I don't like that it's free, but it would be a hideous feat tax otherwise, plus it's right there in the name!

The "Lady of the Uttercold" and "Uttercold Empress" class features are so-named because I followed WotC's convention of using the female pronoun, so it made sense to use the female terms here. A male uttercold necromancer would have "Lord of the Uttercold" and "Uttercold Emperor", instead. :smallwink:

[Andorax]

Not sure what I'd add to this, but I can definately say that I like what you're doing here. I could definately see drawing upon this set of ACFs for a RttToH rebuild into 3.5 (those familiar with it would know why).

Is it all-or-nothing, or can you pick and choose which levels of the ACF you want to take? Do you get the modified spellcasting list for taking any one of the four levels (typically, ACFs add, but don't remove from, spell lists...but for balance, I see why there's the need).


This, and a Winter Warden (variant Druid, Dragon 311), would make for a very unusual and interesting duo.

[Silva Stormrage]

Um I can see a MAJOR problem with Emperor of the Uttercold. It will make any damage spell near instantly kill the target with little chance of the target surviving.

At level 8 the Dread Necromancer casts orb of cold. The Dread Necromancer can easily have 22 Charisma at this point so we are looking at. Add in empower spell (simple to get with practical metamagic or a slaymate)

(8d6 + 48) * 1.5 Points of damage if it hits. Averaging for 114

A Raging Barbarian has on average 20 con (16 base + 4 from rage) For 97 HP With averaged rolls.

Might want to tone that ability down a bit or correct me if I am misunderstanding something

[ThiefInTheNight]

Not sure what I'd add to this, but I can definately say that I like what you're doing here. I could definately see drawing upon this set of ACFs for a RttToH rebuild into 3.5 (those familiar with it would know why).
Heh, I'm not, so I don't know why. That's OK though.


Is it all-or-nothing, or can you pick and choose which levels of the ACF you want to take? Do you get the modified spellcasting list for taking any one of the four levels (typically, ACFs add, but don't remove from, spell lists...but for balance, I see why there's the need).
No, they're not Alternate Class Features, it's a Variant Class (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm). It's basically a totally separate class, with the caveat that one person can't be a multiclass Dread/Uttercold Necromancer. So yeah, no mixing and matching. That's necessary because otherwise every Dread Necromancer ever picks up Lord of the Uttercold absolutely free (which... I'm not terribly opposed to, but that's not the point of this), and gains free +4 to saves against Cold effects, since the 6th and 9th levels only add to the Dread Necromancer.


This, and a Winter Warden (variant Druid, Dragon 311), would make for a very unusual and interesting duo.
Sounds interesting! I'll have to dig through my group's Dragon trove to see if we have that one.


Um I can see a MAJOR problem with Emperor of the Uttercold. It will make any damage spell near instantly kill the target with little chance of the target surviving.

At level 8 the Dread Necromancer casts orb of cold. The Dread Necromancer can easily have 22 Charisma at this point so we are looking at. Add in empower spell (simple to get with practical metamagic or a slaymate)

(8d6 + 48) * 1.5 Points of damage if it hits. Averaging for 114

A Raging Barbarian has on average 20 con (16 base + 4 from rage) For 97 HP With averaged rolls.

Might want to tone that ability down a bit or correct me if I am misunderstanding something
Ah, ya know what? I mis-remembered how the Warmage's Warmage Edge feature worked. Yeah, that needs fixing. Hmm, it should probably be based on class level, since Undead Mastery was....

Also, cool! You have an Uttercold-thingy, too, I see in your sig. I'll take a look at that, but I won't steal anything, promise!

[ThiefInTheNight]

I hate to do this, but could I get some feedback on the Utterfrost Field and updated Uttercold Empress features?

[Wavelab]

This might be a bit late, but the the reason people usually take Dread Necro is for the Undead Mastery ability at level 8. Your variant doesn't give it which means most of the reason for taking the class in the first place is rendered void.

[ThiefInTheNight]

This might be a bit late, but the the reason people usually take Dread Necro is for the Undead Mastery ability at level 8. Your variant doesn't give it which means most of the reason for taking the class in the first place is rendered void.
That was entirely intentional. I don't like minion-master characters; they're a pain to run and cause headaches at the table. The entire point of this project was to replace Undead Mastery with something equally useful.

[Wavelab]

That was entirely intentional. I don't like minion-master characters; they're a pain to run and cause headaches at the table. The entire point of this project was to replace Undead Mastery with something equally useful.

In that case it's pretty good. It seems to have enough cold spell to keep it busy, it turns the dread necro into a good enough blaster while still keeping the nice abilities. I like it. Just a note charnel touch does a lot of damage at lower levels but at higher levels it starts to lose it's effectiveness, the charisma mod to damage helps but that average of 19 extra damage won't do too much, maybe give it a little bit more?

[ThiefInTheNight]

I agree that it's kind of weak, but the assumption is that they're mostly using spells. I dunno, did you have something in mind? It currently caps at 10d4+2*Cha, which is better than, say, Eldritch Blast (I know, I know)...

[Wavelab]

This is Uttercold (Su):
At 8th level the Lord of the Uttercold has become so focused on combining cold and negative energy that any uttercold spell he casts instead deals 100% cold and 100% negative energy damage, in essence dealing damage twice.

That's an ability from my homebrew Lord of the Uttercold. Maybe incorporate something like that, feel free to use it, change it, discard it, do what you like with the ability.

[Andion Isurand]

If Dungeon Magazine is allowed, I would recommend looking at issue 109, page 50 and 51.

Upon those pages lie three worthy Necromancy [Cold] spells and the Death Frost Spell metamagic feat, which is good for adding a bit of cold damage and the cold descriptor to most necromancy spells.

[ThiefInTheNight]

That's an ability from my homebrew Lord of the Uttercold. Maybe incorporate something like that, feel free to use it, change it, discard it, do what you like with the ability.
Interesting idea; I like it and I might change Uttercold Empress to do something like that. My main concern is that Undead Mastery is class-level-based; its replacement, I think, should be too...


If Dungeon Magazine is allowed, I would recommend looking at issue 109, page 50 and 51.

Upon those pages lie three worthy Necromancy [Cold] spells and the Death Frost Spell metamagic feat, which is good for adding a bit of cold damage and the cold descriptor to most necromancy spells.
Cool, will take a look.

[Zakaroth]

As a fan of blaster classes and necromancers, I must say I really like this variant. I might give it a shot! However, one thing seems out of place to me, and its Undermaster as a 9th level spell. It has nothing to do with cold, negative energy or necromancy in general? So, I was wondering why did you put it up there? I would suggest Frostfell (Frostburn, 95) as a replacement.

[ThiefInTheNight]

Mostly because it has a cool name and a neat effect. You're right; it doesn't really fit. Frostburn has a lot of really appropriate spells, actually...

[gkathellar]

I'm in love with this variant. It makes the DN into a class that I actually really want to play.

[ThiefInTheNight]

OK, so... the obvious question is, do I go for Shivering Touch? It's obviously fitting... and obviously overpowered. Thoughts?

[Silva Stormrage]

Don't put it in. If DM's see it has shivering touch then they might not allow it. if the dm is cool with shivering touch than they can learn it through advanced learning anyway.

[ThiefInTheNight]

Probably the right call.

As for the Dungeon spells and feats... they look pretty weak to me. The cold-to-nonlethal thing is kind of cool, I suppose. +2d6 cold damage for one spell level is... meh as anything.

Anyway, I'll be adding some Frostburn spells.

[Andion Isurand]

well, the thing about adding the cold descriptor to necromancy spells via the death Frost Spell is that you can then use cold focused feats on them

and I thought Icefane Corpse was good, since it allows an undead creature to turn cold damage into healing, which is great if you go necropolitan or something similar

[ThiefInTheNight]

Yes, Icefane Corpse is solid, but not really what this class is about (since I want to get away from minion-mastery).

And Snowcasting is much better for adding the [Cold] descriptor.

[tempestman]

One guy in my group likes playing necromancy-focused characters (although right now he's playing a druid). If his character dies he's already planning on making a necromancer, so I'll probably show this to him.

[ThiefInTheNight]

I added a bunch of spells from Frostburn; I'm afraid I may have overdone it. I did remove the blade of pain and fear, the sword of darkness, and the black blade of disaster; these struck me as not in keeping with the theme (though they are really cool spells). Since I wasn't satisfied with cometfall as a 9th-level spell (it's really poor), I also added a custom spell. Let me know what you think.