The Necropharmacant

[jdrich]

The Necropharmacant

Some necromancers destroy life energy. Others restore it.

Hit Die

d4.

Requirements

To qualify to become a necropharmacant, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment

Any non-evil

Skills

Heal 4 ranks

Feats

Spell Focus [Necromancy]

Spells

Able to cast False Life as an arcane spell.

Special

The character must have been reduced to negative hit points and revived by healing magic at least three times.

Class Skills

The necropharmacant’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge [Arcana] (Int), Knowledge [Religion] (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at Each Level

2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All the following are Class Features of the necropharmacant prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Necropharmacants gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Spells per Day

At second, fourth, and fifth level, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in whatever spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of necropharmacant to the level of whatever other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

If a character had more than one spellcasting class before he became a necropharmacant, he must decide to which class he adds each level of necropharmacant for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Diehard

At first level, the necropharmacant gets the diehard feat for free, even if he doesn’t meet the prerequisites.

Necrophilial Attrition

At first level, the necropharmacant gets a +4 competence bonus to his Will saves against targeted spells that deal negative energy. He also subconsciously and automatically attempts a saving throw against spells of the Healing subschool.

At third level, the necropharmacant automatically makes any Will saving throw against targeted spells that deal negative energy and saving throws against spells of the Healing subschool.

Necropharmacy

At first level, add the spells Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds, Cure Critical Wounds, and Lesser Restoration to the necropharmacant’s spell list.

Whenever the necropharmacant attempts to cast a spell of the healing subschool, the target of the spell subconsciously and automatically attempts a saving throw against the spell.

At third level, add the spells Delay Poison, Neutralize Poison, Remove Paralysis, and Restoration to the necropharmacant’s spell list.

At fifth level, add the spells Heal, Raise Dead, Regenerate, Remove Blindness/Deafness*, Remove Disease*, and Greater Restoration* to the necropharmacant’s spell list.

All spells are of the levels listed for the Cleric class, unless otherwise noted.

* Note: Marked for possible deletion?

Necromantic Healing

The necropharmacant casts all spells of the Healing subschool as spells of the Necromancy school instead of the Conjuration school. This applies to feats such as Spell Focus as well as uses of the Spellcraft skill and spell effects that detect magical auras.

Spontaneous Necropharmacy

At third level, a necropharmacant learns to channel stored spell energy into healing spells that the necropharmacant did not prepare ahead of time. The necropharmacant can "lose" any prepared spell in order to cast any spell of the Healing subschool that he knows of the same spell level or lower.

In doing so, he takes 1d8 negative energy damage per level of the spell, with a will save against the spell save DC for half. This effect counts as a targeted spell effect that deals negative energy for the purposes of the Necrophilial Attrition ability.

[hr]

Well? Comments, questions, suggestions, all that.

[Gralamin]

Necromantic Healing and Spontaneous Necropharmacy don't have a level, additonnaly Necrophilial Attrition is so bloody rigged. Even if it blocks all healing spells, you may now be immune to many death effects. also you basiccaly Nullifyed a Planar trait.

[Brickwall]

So...it's a guy who's hard to hurt with negative energy, but near-impossible to heal and loses any ability to heal effectively, which gets worse at progression. This seems like the perfect class to take only one level in, as everything past level 1 is more bad than good.

[Rei_Jin]

I was looking at it, and thinking "this is a nice class" then I saw the spells they get for losing 2 levels of spellcasting.

I will say no more, but that it is crazy overpowered. Maybe give them access to the healing domain or something else, but that's just nuts.

[jdrich]

Necromantic Healing and Spontaneous Necropharmacy don't have a level, additonnaly Necrophilial Attrition is so bloody rigged. Even if it blocks all healing spells, you may now be immune to many death effects. also you basiccaly Nullifyed a Planar trait.

Fixed on one account. Unless otherwise noted, the ability (necromantic healing in this case) is gained at first level.

Actually, most death effects don't have Will saves but Fortitude, and not all deal negative energy damage.

So...it's a guy who's hard to hurt with negative energy, but near-impossible to heal and loses any ability to heal effectively, which gets worse at progression. This seems like the perfect class to take only one level in, as everything past level 1 is more bad than good.

How can a necromancer lose any ability to heal effectively if they never had one?

I will say no more, but that it is crazy overpowered. Maybe give them access to the healing domain or something else, but that's just nuts.

What spells in particular are overpowered? I was thinking Greater Restoration may be, but I didn't know if I should remove it. I tried to keep all of the spells below level 5, except for that one.

[Brickwall]

How can a necromancer lose any ability to heal effectively if they never had one?

By getting healing spells at first level like this guy does. But you removed the part that makes his healing against others fail, and made the attrition worse. He is now impossible to magically heal. He will die against goblins at times. GOBLINS. Ones without class levels. Sure, he's got a lot of power both offensive and defensive, but he will die in one dungeon with no magical healing.

[jdrich]

What makes him immune to magical healing? I would appreciate knowing that. Cure spells have a save for half, not a save to negate.

Others are still resistant to his healing, as they have to make a saving throw, they can't automatically fail as usual.

Also, because his spell focus and such are included in the save DC, most people will probably not make thier DCs (surely not fighters) against the spells.

The spell DC for a Cure Light is likely going to be 10+1(Spell)+4(Int)+1(Focus)+1(Greater Focus) for a DC of 17, meaning your average 10th level fighter will only make his save on a 14 or higher, or 30% of the time. Even then, you have to consider:

It's only a first level spell.

He still heals half of what is rolled for healing.

[anime713]

So, I can either bring along an unarmored arcane healer caster, and I have to make a will save every time he tries to heal me, or I can bring along a Cleric, who's armored, armed, and can cure me easily, every time?

I can see where you're coming from, though. Not something I'd personally use and allow, but better than others I've seen.

[Brickwall]

What makes him immune to magical healing? I would appreciate knowing that. Cure spells have a save for half, not a save to negate.

Others are still resistant to his healing, as they have to make a saving throw, they can't automatically fail as usual.

Also, because his spell focus and such are included in the save DC, most people will probably not make thier DCs (surely not fighters) against the spells.

The spell DC for a Cure Light is likely going to be 10+1(Spell)+4(Int)+1(Focus)+1(Greater Focus) for a DC of 17, meaning your average 10th level fighter will only make his save on a 14 or higher, or 30% of the time. Even then, you have to consider:

It's only a first level spell.

He still heals half of what is rolled for healing.

Fine, pardon me for not knowing that a save I've never seen used is actually a save for half. And consider that the penalties increase at higher levels. A 10th level fighter is likely going to be needing CSWs than CLWs. Even though he has a smaller chance of succeeding, it's basically the same as with arcane spell failure. That 10% chance could easily cost the life of a party member. And if you auto-succeed every of these saves, you may as well be dead since you receive only half of the regular magical healing.

Oh, and this guy could very well be a cleric already, anime, but it would be stupid seeing as how he'd lose effectiveness quickly by healingonly 90% of the time. And at higher levels, a CSW spell will be saved against a nice amount of the time.

[jdrich]

Not true, actually. A CCW would have a save of 21, meaning that even a 20 fighter with 14 WIS wouls only save about 40 % of the time. A 10 fighter with 14 WIS against a CCW will save only 20$ of the time.

Not to mention that he can heighten them with ease, at higher levels.

More than a fair trade for being able to heal as an arcane caster, I think.

[McDeath]

Looks interesting, but kinda odd...There's one thing I'd change. The name. I mean come on, you're playing a cool "good" necromancer, and he's a...necropharmacant?!

[Brickwall]

40% of the time is a lot, and think about this.

A heal spell (level 6 spell) has a Will negate. It cures 150 hp at 15th level. A 15th level fighter with 14 wisdom being healed by a 10 wizard/5 necrophant with 18 intelligence will save...20% of the time unless I miscalculated. That's a lot of HP to miss out on. Then the guy might try a CCW spell (level 4 spell), which the fighter will save against 30% of the time. That's only two unlucky rolls you have to get to be deprived of necessary healing. And that also makes two spell slots. Would you prepare a spell that says "there's a 5% chance of this spell not working no matter what"? Unless it's a high-end spell to which that is a necessary sacrifice, I'd hope not. And what about getting healed yourself? Still a problem when CCW only gives an average of 20-some points of healing. A critical hit from a level one fighter can do more damage than that heals. Basically what I'm trying to say is: this class is only effective for a group who wants to sacrifice offensive power and is feeling very lucky. That dimension door you didn't prepare to trade for a not-fully-fuctional cure critical wounds has a good chance of being much more valuable.

I vote just multiclassing to cleric. A wizard 10/cleric 10 will heal much better and fight better and cast a few levels worse than a wizard 15/necropharmacant 5. Make this class convince me to take it rather than a class with higher BAB, more spells, and cures that always work. Oh, and channeling energy, more save bonuses, being able to be healed, casting half of his spells and being able to wear armor at the same time...

Edited to reflect below post. Please, make a table. It would help us much.

[jdrich]

'Tis only a five level class. I guess I should have noted that somewheres.