OK, now for some responses:

JoshuaZ:
  • Caster Advancement: Actually, I lowered the spellcasting on purpose. As I've said, this class is 90% intended for enemies. I know that this is a similar argument to the one that WotC uses for level adjustment but this is nothing nearly as crippling as losing entire levels.
    In my worldview, a PrC needs to do one of 2 things in order to be notable. It either has to either (1) be mathematically advantageous or (2) perform a specific task in a way that no other class does better. This class' task is very specific but the fact that nobody does cysts better ensures that anyone looking to specialize will at least consider this class.
    In short, I'm obviously trying to cheat all prospective players of this class out of their precious, PRECIOUS caster levels. Muwahahaha!
  • Skills: Good point. I'll change it.
  • As for supernatural and extraordinary abilities, I honestly didn't know what to do. I made necrotic might (Ex) but literally every other ability simply alters your spellcasting, something that seems neither (Su) nor (Ex).
  • As for making the abilities optional, you'll see that the bloating plague already lets the necromancer turn off or turn on the plague in any victim. I suppose that I should do the same for stubborn cysts, though.


draco_nite: I'm pretty sure that peacenlove was trying to say that giving the benefits of spell master (which he knows isn't spontaneous casting) is more reasonable than actually giving spontaneous casting.
I personally think that giving prepared casters a special bonus without giving one to spontaneous casters would be a little unfair (seeing as they already have delayed spell access to deal with).
Also, I'm actually trying to make a Tier 4 class here, defined as a class who can do what it does relatively well but is sometimes upstaged in that department and has very little to do outside of that narrow focus.