Divine casting Prestige Class with Shadowdancer's Summon Shadow

[Spore]

I am looking for a prestige class that advances divine spellcasting and offers a shadow companion like the Shadowdancer. I feel a creeping shadow is a great minion for an upstart necromantic cleric. Due to the tendency of most of my groups to be good and honor the will of the fallen as well as brazenly ignore the will of fallen "subhumans" like ogres or animals or dragons or magical creatures, I would prefer a well hidden undead minion that I do not have to pay for and that is scaling.

Delaying divine casting for a single level is okay, as is 1-2 feat and skill tax, if a dip into a noncasting class. BoVD is out. Other 3.x material is okay as long as the fluff req. aren't as steep.

[gorfnab]

Master of Shrouds - Complete Divine

[Psyren]

Master of Shadow (ToM) also gives a shadow companion (an elemental though) and can be entered by a divine casting class. It is 9/10 casting and you will need 5 ranks in Know (Arcana).

[Spore]

The Master of Shrouds is closer to the concept I am aiming for. How would you change the class to fit into Pathfinder then?

The prerequisites are easier:

Alignment: Any nongood.
Base Save Bonus: Will +5.
Skills: Concentration 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks. barring concentration, how high would you situate the skill req?
Feats: Augment Summoning, Spell Focus (conjuration).
Spells: Able to cast protection from good as a divine spell. locks me into a neutral cleric (or an evil bones oracle)
Special: Able to rebuke undead. channel negative energy

The class progression is a bit harder:
Extra Rebuking (Ex): A master of shrouds may use her rebuke undead ability four additional times per day. Would you give him an extra 4 channel negative attempts or with the common clause of "only to control undead"? The class is intended to control vile spirits and not destroy living creatures with additional energy.

Improved Summoning (Ex): Beginning at 5th level, a master of shrouds summons more powerful undead creatures than normal. Whenever she casts a summon undead spell or when she uses her summon undead class ability, the summoned creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls. Is there a Summon Undead spell line? Or is this referring to the Summon Undead Class feature?

[Psyren]

Skills: Concentration 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks. barring concentration, how high would you situate the skill req?

The standard conversion is X-3, so 2 ranks.


Spells: Able to cast protection from good as a divine spell. locks me into a neutral cleric (or an evil bones oracle)

Also Shaman, Adept and Inquisitor. (All of these can get negative energy channel via Adept Channel or VMC Cleric)



The class progression is a bit harder:
Extra Rebuking (Ex): A master of shrouds may use her rebuke undead ability four additional times per day. Would you give him an extra 4 channel negative attempts or with the common clause of "only to control undead"? The class is intended to control vile spirits and not destroy living creatures with additional energy.

The answer to this is actually easy - can the Master of Shrouds extra Rebuke uses be used for other things? e.g. can they power things like DMM, or in particular, the Variant Turning from Complete Divine that inspired Pathfinder's Channel? If yes, then they can be used to grant generalized Channel Energy. If no, then you would restrict it to commanding in the same way. (Naturally, if the channel of the base class is restricted in some way, e.g. Bones Oracle, then these additional attempts would be too.)



Improved Summoning (Ex): Beginning at 5th level, a master of shrouds summons more powerful undead creatures than normal. Whenever she casts a summon undead spell or when she uses her summon undead class ability, the summoned creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls. Is there a Summon Undead spell line? Or is this referring to the Summon Undead Class feature?

These are spells that exist in 3.5 but not PF. You might have to change it to apply to Animate and Create Undead, or port those spells over along with the class.

[Firest Kathon]

The Master of Shrouds is closer to the concept I am aiming for. How would you change the class to fit into Pathfinder then?

Skills: Concentration 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks. barring concentration, how high would you situate the skill req?
I would keep the skill requirements at 5. Usually you would convert it to (ranks - 3), as Psyren posted, so you can enter it at the same level as in 3.5, but keeping it at 5 will force you to be at least 5th level to enter, which I think is appropriate for a prestige class.

Spells: Able to cast protection from good as a divine spell. locks me into a neutral cleric (or an evil bones oracle)
You could also be an evil cleric.

Special: Able to rebuke undead. channel negative energy
You could also require the Command Undead (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/command-undead---final) feat. I would add this as a prerequisites, I think it fits the fluff of the class as you described it.

Extra Rebuking (Ex): A master of shrouds may use her rebuke undead ability four additional times per day. Would you give him an extra 4 channel negative attempts or with the common clause of "only to control undead"? The class is intended to control vile spirits and not destroy living creatures with additional energy.
Extra channel attempts, but only to use the Command Undead feat and any feats which have it as a prerequisite.

Improved Summoning (Ex): Beginning at 5th level, a master of shrouds summons more powerful undead creatures than normal. Whenever she casts a summon undead spell or when she uses her summon undead class ability, the summoned creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls. Is there a Summon Undead spell line? Or is this referring to the Summon Undead Class feature?
While there are no Summon Undead spells, you could grant the class the ability to use Summon Monster spells to summon undead creatures (i.e. additional options in addition to the usual list).

[Psyren]

I would keep the skill requirements at 5. Usually you would convert it to (ranks - 3), as Psyren posted, so you can enter it at the same level as in 3.5, but keeping it at 5 will force you to be at least 5th level to enter, which I think is appropriate for a prestige class.

The "Base Will Save +5" does that already though (6th level), unless the character dips two other classes to get in at level 4, in which case they have set a chunk of their caster progression on fire for the privilege.



While there are no Summon Undead spells, you could grant the class the ability to use Summon Monster spells to summon undead creatures (i.e. additional options in addition to the usual list).

I like this idea.

[Spore]

The "Base Will Save +5" does that already though (6th level), unless the character dips two other classes to get in at level 4, in which case they have set a chunk of their caster progression on fire for the privilege.

While screwing up your T1 advantage this DOES allow you to get an easy-to-use Shadow Summon as early as 5th level. I can see how this can be perceived as "overpowered" because it just destroys the early game. However in an overall arch it weakens the character considerably.

I'm imagining a Witch 1 (Misfortune Hex)/Wizard 2/Master of Shrouds 2 attacking some poor chap with ray of enfeeblement and a Shadow. Or just sending the Shadow into the house and through its walls, killing the defenseless inhabitants. If you loose a Shadow, just summon one of the other 5 castings you have.

But according to the Fetchling Shadow Caller Summoner, Shadows are more like stuff of 7th level characters (SM IV).