[Base Class] Rot Necromancer


Homebrew and House Rules


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Some years ago I created some classes, one being the rot necromancer for D&D 3.5. Then 4e came out and I didn't really touch upon it, until I got my Midgard campaign setting book in the mail and was inspired to convert my class to pathfinder rules. Which I did, and decided to share with the people here. Below is the plaintext version, but you can get a better looking PDF version from here.

ROT NECROMANCER
The necromantic arts are commonly used by arcane magic users, even if the darker aspects of necromancy are reviled. However in the darkest caves, and deepest tunnels there are some who choose to not only embrace necromancy in all its forms, but who choose to pursue the study of death and undeath above all. One sect unlocked the secrets to the dark energy and how it affects the living, and such were the rot necromancers born.

Rot necromancers take all shapes and forms, ranging from the megalomania to a desire to restore a lost loved one. There are even some who revile the undead and study necromancy as a way to destroy the unliving.
Whatever their reason, the dark nature of their magic can warp any of them. Often this is manifest as an obsession with whatever they became a rot necromancer for, going to any length to accomplish the goal even if it would go against their morals. Sanity is a struggle for rot necromancers, and more often than not the rot necromancer will simply submit insanity willingly.

Role: Rot necromancers prefer to hold back and inflict pain upon their foes from afar while their undead wade into the thick of battle. There are some rot necromancers who choose to join their undead, attacking their enemies from close range.
Alignment: Any non-good.
Hit Die: d6

Class Skills
The rot necromancer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are, Craft (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spell Craft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Points per Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features
The Following are the class features of the rot necromancer.

Weapon Proficiencies: Rot necromancers are proficient with all simple weapons. They are proficient in light armor, rot necromancers do not suffer from arcane spell failure if wearing light armor.

Spells: A rot necromancer casts arcane spells which are drawn from the rot necromancer’s spell list (See Spell Lists section). A rot necromancer can cast any spell from their list spontaneously a limited number of times per day (see table below). When a rot necromancer gains access to a new spell level they automatically know all spells for that level.

To cast a spell the rot necromancer must have a Wisdom score equal to 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a rot necromancer’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the rot necromancer’s Wisdom modifier.

A rot necromancer can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given below. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score (see Core Rulebook).

Rot: Calling upon the same dark magic used to bring the dead to life, the caster attempts to bring death to the living. Rot is a ranged touch attack against a single target and does not allow a saving throw. Rot takes the form of a small ball similar in size as the fireball spell which then explodes on impact, covering the object hit in a faint green liquid. This attack provokes an attack of opportunity.
Rot does 1d6 damage and an additional 1d6 every two levels thereafter. This damage is increased by 1d6 if the target is an area affected by the desecrate spell. If an opponent is killed by this spell, their body becomes completely rotted leaving only the skeleton. Rot is subject to spell resistance but feats such as spell penetration and other abilities that affect spell level when it comes to overcoming spell resistance work with rot. Rot only affects organic material (paper, flesh, wood) and has no effect on non-organic materials (iron, rock, water). As rot uses negative energy, undead are healed instead of damaged.

Base
Attack Fort Ref Will
Level Bonus Save Save Save Special
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Rot 1d6, Undead Augmentation
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 Command Undead
3rd +2 +1 +1 +3 Rot 2d6
4th +3 +1 +1 +4 Undead Augmentation
5th +3 +1 +1 +4 Rot 3d6
6th +4 +2 +2 +5 Undead Familiar
7th +5 +2 +2 +5 Rot 4d6
8th +6/+1 +2 +2 +6 Undead Augmentation
9th +6/+1 +3 +3 +6 Rot 5d6
10th +7/+2 +3 +3 +7 Aura of Fear
11th +8/+3 +3 +3 +7 Rot 6d6
12th +9/+4 +4 +4 +8 Undead Augmentation
13th +9/+4 +4 +4 +8 Rot 7d6
14th ++10/+5 +4 +4 +9 Dark Ritual: Soul Link
15th +11/+6/+1 +5 +5 +9 Rot 8d6
16th +12/+7/+2 +5 +5 +10 Undead Augmentation
17th +12/+7/+2 +5 +5 +10 Rot 9d6
18th +13/+8/+3 +6 +6 +11 Dark Ritual: Life to Unlife
19th +14/+9/+4 +6 +6 +11 Rot 10d6
20th +15/+10/+5 +6 +6 +12 Undead Augmentation

Undead Augmentation: At level first, the rot necromancer chooses that path he will follow for the rest of his life. The path his abilities take is largely affected by the rot necromancer’s reason for studying necromantic magic.

1.Master of Decay: These rot necromancers seem to revel in spreading death and decay. By studying how their rot ability works at its most basic level, they learn to shape it to become even more destructive. Masters of decay receive the inorganic rot feat (see second post) for free, even if they otherwise would not meet the requirement, however they control one less hit die of undead per level.

o Rotting Touch: At fourth level the rot necromancer gains the ability to use rot as a normal touch attack. If rot is used in this manner, the damage dice is increased to d8 instead of d6 and the attack does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

o Explosive Decay: At eighth level the rot necromancer can cause his rot ability to explode in a twenty foot radius around the initial target. The rot necromancer can choose an empty square as the target of this ability. Explosive decay can be used once per day, but the rot necromancer can give up one use of their command undead ability for the use of explosive decay.

o Corrosive Flesh: At twelfth level the rot necromancer’s flesh takes on a rotted look as the dark powers begin warping their body. As a side effect their skin now protects them from melee attacks. Any creature that attacks the rot necromancer with either its body or handheld melee weapon takes damage equal to half the damage rot would do. Creatures attacking with a weapon from more than five feet away (such as with a lance) do not take damage.

o Corpse Explosion: At sixteenth level the rot necromancer gains the ability to use the corpse explosion dark ritual (see Dark Rituals below). The rot necromancer selects a mindless undead under his control to perform the ritual on. The ritual costs five hundred gold in materials and one hundred experience per hit dice of the undead involved. The ritual takes one hour to perform. Once the ritual is complete the undead becomes an unliving bomb. The undead explodes upon being destroyed, dealing 1d6 damage per hit dice of the undead to anything within thirty feet, the damage acts like the rot ability. The Rot necromancer can choose to destroy the undead at any time as a swift action.

o Return to Dust: At twentieth level the rot necromancer has learned how to use his rot ability in an absolutely devastating manner. Once per day he can summon a magical dust storm that envelops an area one hundred feet around him. Inside this radius all enemies are affected as if by the rot ability depending on their hit points. Creatures with fifty hit points or less are killed instantly. Creatures with fifty-one to one hundred hit points take 10d6 points of damage. Creatures with more than one hundred hit points take 5d6 points of damage.

2.Lord of the Dead: A necromancer’s necromancer, those that take this path care for little more than power over others. They seek this power by using the most basic of necromancer skills and creating unstoppable armies of undead, at the cost of their minions’ individual strength. Lords of the dead cannot control an undead whose hit dice are greater than half the rot necromancer’s level rounded up. The rot necromancer can control an additional number undead equal to his level and use his command undead spell once more per day.

o Life is Cheap: At fourth level the rot necromancer no longer needs onyx when using the animate dead spell.

o Wise Master: At eighth level the rot necromancer gains the ability to control an additional hit dice of undead equal to their wisdom modifier per level.

o Power in Numbers: At twelfth level the rot necromancer’s undead minions begin sharing their latent magical power. Undead under the Rot necromancer’s control give a +1 attack and damage bonus to all other undead under the rot necromancer’s control within thirty feet of each other. The bonus cannot become higher than the rot necromancer’s level.

o Fear of the Masses: At sixteenth level the rot necromancer’s undead army becomes a truly terrifying force, all undead under the rot necromancer’s control give off the rot necromancer’s aura of terror in a five-foot radius around them. If any of the auras, including the rot necromancers, overlaps the saving throw’s difficulty is raised by one per overlapping aura.

o Dark Omen: At twentieth level the rot necromancer becomes able to channel great amounts of negative energy to his undead army. Once per day the necromancer sends out a shockwave one hundred feet around him. Any undead under his control are healed completely, and any undead he controlled that were destroyed within the last hour are revived with one hit point.

3.Undead Champion: Like lords of the dead, undead champions seek power through undead minions. However, they have a different idea of how to accomplish this. Rot necromancers that take this path concentrate on empowering a select few undead so that they become unstoppable, killing machines. Undead champion’s cannot control more undead than their wisdom modifier, but all undead under their control add the rot necromancer’s wisdom modifier to their strength and dexterity.

o Army of One: At fourth level the rot necromancer has learned how to draw more power out of his animate dead spell. He can now create up to four hit dice per level of undead with one casting of the spell.

o Harm Self: At eighth level the rot necromancer learns how to transmit his own life energy to his undead. By causing injury to themselves, up to 1d4 per level, the necromancer heals all undead under his control by twice that amount.

o Iron Bones: At twelfth level the necromancer infuses his undead, giving them an armor class bonus equal to half his level rounded down.

o Dark Merger: At sixteenth level the rot necromancer empowers one of his undead with his own body. Once per day he can merge with an undead under his control, while merged the undead gains the rot necromancer’s hit points, any bonuses including from gear, and the use of all the rot necromancer’s abilities. The rot necromancer retains control as normal. This affect last for a number of rounds equal to the rot necromancer’s wisdom modifier or until the undead is destroyed. If the undead is destroyed the rot necromancer is thrown from the square into an empty adjacent square and reduced to one hit point.

o Another Self: At twentieth level the rot necromancer takes his powerful undead minions, and transforms the undead into a being of great power, the rot necromancer himself. The rot necromancer gains the dark ritual of Another Self (see dark rituals below). This ritual costs 15,000 gold worth of materials that are destroyed during the ritual and 5,000 experience. The rot necromancer transforms an undead under his control with a number of hit dice equal to or greater than the rot necromancer’s hit dice into an exact copy of the rot necromancer. The copy gains the rot necromancer’s spells and abilities, but retains their original intelligence and still remains under the control of the necromancer. All of the copies hit dice become d12’s and its hit points are rerolled upon completion of the ritual, the copy retains the undead subtype. This undead copy does not count toward the rot necromancer’s limit of controllable.

4.Living Death: A rot necromancer that takes the path of the living death are single mindedly obsessed with their own mortality. Rather than merely becoming a lich like others might, these rot necromancers incorporate aspects of undeath into their living body becoming a true living undead. The living death remain conscience if reduced to zero or lower hit points but still dies at negative ten hit points. In addition, all undead under their control suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls and damage.

o Skeletal Claws: At fourth level the rot necromancer’s finger bones become longer, breaking through the skin and creating a natural weapon just like a skeleton of equal size (1d4 for medium creatures). The rot necromancer adds his wisdom modifier to his attack rolls and damage when attacking with these claws.

o Skin of the Zombie: At eighth level the rot necromancer gains damage reduction equal to half his level, rounded down. The damage reduction can be bypassed by good aligned weapons and abilities. The skin of the rot necromancer becomes taunt and sickly, similar to that of a zombie.

o Wings of Death: At twelfth level the rot necromancer gains the ability to move through the air with grace. The rot necromancer grows skeletal wings from their backs, giving them sixty foot air movement and good maneuverability. If the rot necromancer could fly before obtaining this ability, their speed is increased by thirty and their maneuverability is increased one step. These wings do not function in an area where magic is unusable.

o Consume the Dead: At sixteenth level the rot necromancer forces the negative energy of an undead creature into his body. By eating a mindless undead under his control the rot necromancer temporarily gains the undead template. His hit points increase by four per hit dice, and he gains a plus one bonus to all attack rolls. For every additional undead he consumes this bonus is increased by one to a maximum equal to half his level rounded down. This effect lasts one hour per hit dice of the undead consumed. Eating the undead takes one minute per hit dice of the undead, and the affect starts after he finishes eating.

o Deathless Body: At twentieth level the rot necromancer has finally gained something that before was only available to mages that became a true lich: immortality. The rot necromancer stops aging, cannot be magically aged, and cannot die of old age. The rot necromancer retains any penalties from age suffered before gaining the deathless body.

5.Spirit Channeler: Few rot necromancers see the power of the incorporeal, at least not like those that take this path do. Spirit channelers learn how to not only control the spirits of others, but control the fate of their own spirits as well. Spirit channelers’ rot ability affect incorporeal undead as if it were a force attack, but corporeal undead under their command suffer a +1 penalty to attacks.

o Spirit Tap: At fourth level if an incorporeal undead dies within three rounds of being hit by the rot necromancer’s rot ability, the undead creature is trapped inside a spirit shard. A rot necromancer with a number of hit dice equal to or greater than the undead creature’s hit dice can use the crystal to summon the undead creature and control it for one minute as if under the affects of the command undead spell. After the duration of the spell the undead creature is destroyed.

o Animate Spirits: At eighth level the rot necromancer can use a spirit shard as an additional material while casting the animate dead spell to turn the target into a ghost instead of a skeleton or zombie. Ghosts created this way count toward the rot necromancer’s hit dice control limit as normal for the animate dead spell.

o Curse of Undeath: At twelfth level the rot necromancer gains the ability to curse the living. A number of times per day equal to three plus the rot necromancer’s wisdom modifier, he can use a standard action to place a Curse of Undeath on a subject unless they make a will save of 15 + the rot necromancer’s wisdom modifier. When the cursed subject dies, their body is destroyed and the subject becomes a ghost (apply the ghost template to the subject). The ghost is not under the control of the rot necromancer and retains its will as a normal ghost would.

o Ghost Vision: At sixteenth level the rot necromancer becomes able to seek out hidden ghosts and force them into reality. The rot necromancer can see the ethereal realm in the same way ethereal creatures view the material realm. By using a spirit shard the rot necromancer can enter the ethereal realm for a number of rounds equal to the hit dice of the destroyed spirit’s hit dice. Once per day, while in the ethereal realm, the rot necromancer can force any ethereal creatures to appear in the material realm for 1d6 rounds, they are considered incorporeal while in the material realm.

o Inner Spirit: At twentieth level the rot necromancer separates his spirit from his body. If the rot necromancer is killed, his body is destroyed and he instantly becomes a ghost (apply the ghost template to the rot necromancer). Storing his spirit is a dark ritual (see darks rituals below). The ritual costs 30,000 gold in materials and a spirit shard and takes four hours to perform, and all materials are destroyed during the process. If the rot necromancer chooses he can be restored to his body by using powerful spells such as limited wish and wish. If the rot necromancer’s sprit is returned to his body after death the rot necromancer must store his spirit again. If the rot necromancer dies of old age he cannot return to his body.

6.Shadow Hunter: Rot necromancers are creatures of the dark by nature so it should be no small surprise that some learn to use darkness to their advantage, often to surprising effect. The shadow hunter gains stealth as a class skill, however they lose magic device as a class skill.

o Undetectable Undead: At fourth level all undead under the control of the rot necromancer make no sounds by moving and do not give off a noticeable smell. Track abilities such as smell cannot smell the undead, but can smell any equipment the undead might be carrying. The rot necromancer can also make his undead hide and move silently, they use any bonuses the rot necromancer has.

o Deadly Blows: At eighth level undead under the control of the rot necromancer do twice as much damage from physical attacks as they normally would against opponents denied their dexterity bonus. Creatures immune to critical strikes are also immune to this ability.

o Eyes of the Dead: At twelfth level the rot necromancer channels dark energy into his eyes causing them to sink into his skull and be replaced by single pinpoints of faint red light. He gains dark vision 60ft and becomes immune to all gaze based spells and effects. A number of times per day equal to two plus his wisdom modifier he can see through the eyes of any undead under his control as if by the scry spell. This affect lasts until canceled, or either the rot necromancer or targeted undead sustains damage.

o Meld into Darkness: At sixteenth level the rot necromancer’s undead and becomes one with the shadows. Up to three times per day per undead, the rot necromancer can have them meld into a shadow. Once melded into the shadow the undead becomes unable to react. At any time after this the rot necromancer can make any number of these undead appear from another shadow within fifty feet of the rot necromancer as a free action. If the undead emerge from a creature’s shadow they can make an attack of opportunity against that creature. The shadow must be large enough to conceal the undead completely. While merged the undead are in an alternate dimension similar to that of a portable hole.

o Blot the Sun: At twentieth level the rot necromancer can create an impenetrable darkness. Once per day the rot necromancer creates an area of complete darkness in a sphere shape with a thirty foot radius. Inside this area all senses are blocked, and no one can enter or leave during the duration. Creatures with dark vision or blind sight can see in a five foot radius round them, but are denied their dexterity bonus. The rot necromancer and the undead under his control can act normally in this area. This area lasts for a number of rounds equal to the rot necromancer’s wisdom modifier.

7.Unholy Slayer: Enigmas among rot necromancers, unholy slayers study necromancy not to create undead, but to destroy them. These rot necromancers often seek to mix divine energy into their arcane powers. Unholy slayers’ rot ability damages undead instead of heals them, but they gain one less spell per day per spell level.

o Touch of the Divine: At fourth level the rot necromancer learns how to use a small amount of divine spells. The rot necromancer chooses one spell per level of spells known and can cast that spell once per day. Upon obtaining a new level of spells, they gain an additional spell known. The spells are taken from the cleric spell list and cannot have the evil descriptor.

o Turn the Dead: At eighth level the rot necromancer begins stepping into holy ground. By giving up a daily use of their command undead ability, they can instead use turn undead as a cleric three levels lower.

o Undead Evasion: At twelfth level the rot necromancer gains the ability to wade through armies of undead to destroy their source. Rot necromancer’s with this ability are invisible to mindless undead, and they gain partial concealment against non mindless undead (20% miss rate).

o Unholy Wrath: Up to three times per day the rot necromancer can unleash rot attacks to attack a number of creatures equal to one plus their wisdom modifier. This is considered a separate attack for each creature, and no creature can be targeted by more than one attack. The rot necromancer gains an attack bonus of five when targeting an undead.

o Power Word Cleanse: At twentieth level the rot necromancer learns how to use the powerful spell Power Word Cleanse. Once per day the rot necromancer can cast this divine spell on an undead creature. If the undead has two hundred or fewer hit points, it is instantly destroyed. This spell is affected by spell resistance.

Command Undead: Same as player’s handbook. At second level the rot necromancer can use command undead as a spell like ability a number of times per day equal to three plus their wisdom modifier. Any undead commanded with this ability count to the same control pool as the actual command undead spell.

Undead Familiar: At sixth level the rot necromancer gains the ability to create a familiar that is slightly more powerful than a normal familiar. The undead familiar ability functions just like the wizard’s familiar ability in the core handbook. The player chooses a familiar from the list available and treats the familiar as if it’s being raised by the animate dead spell. The undead familiar gains all familiar abilities like a normal familiar. The undead familiar does not count toward the rot necromancer’s limit of controllable undead. To create an undead familiar requires a black onyx worth at least ten gold and the fresh corpse of the familiar animal. The ritual takes fifteen minutes to perform.

Aura of Fear: At tenth level the rot necromancer radiates an aura of fear in a ten-foot radius around him. Enemies in this aura must make a will save equal to 10 + ½ class level + wisdom modifier or be affected as if by the fear spell for 1d4 rounds. Whether the enemy is affected or not by the aura, they become immune to the aura for twenty-four hours. The rot necromancer can suppress or release the aura as an immediate action.

Dark Rituals: Dark rituals are among the most powerful spells in a rot necromancer’s arsenal. To perform these rituals takes a carefully made magical altar which costs 10,000 gold and one week to build. This alter gives off the effects of a desecrate spell in a twenty foot radius. Casting the desecrate spell on the altar doubles the effects of the spell. This altar can be built at any level and the desecrate affect applies to anyone in the area, but only the rot necromancer that built the altar can use it for dark rituals.

•Soul Link: At fourteenth level the rot necromancer can perform a ritual that puts a spirit anchor linked to his soul into one of the undead under his control. If the rot necromancer is brought down to negative ten hit points or less, half of the spirit-anchored undead’s hit points are transferred to the rot necromancer. Only one spirit anchor can be active at any given time. Performing the ritual again on a different undead will transfer the anchor from the previous undead. The ritual costs 1,000 gold in materials and requires a living sacrifice (the sacrifice must normally be able to be affected by the animate dead spell and must fail a will save DC 10+1/2 caster level +wisdom modifier). The ritual takes one hour to perform and makes all materials unusable. The sacrifice is absorbed into the undead to create the spirit anchor.

•Life to Unlife: The rot necromancer is a master of turning death to undeath, but after years of experience and study, the rot necromancer has gained the ability to perform the ritual of life to unlife. When performed on a willing sacrifice (mind affecting abilities such as the charm spells do not make the person willing to perform the ritual unless the ability can force the person commit suicide), the subject of the ritual becomes a lich (apply the lich template to the subject) with the rot necromancer acting as the subject’s phylactery. If the rot necromancer dies, any lich created in this way are destroyed. A lich created this way acts like a loyal cohort who is willing to risk their life for the rot necromancer. The ritual costs 20,000 gold in materials and 1000 experience points per hit dice of the subject. The ritual takes six hours to perform.

lvl 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. 1 - - - - - - - -
2. 2 - - - - - - - -
3. 3 - - - - - - - -
4 4 1 - - - - - - -
5. 4 2 - - - - - - -
6. 4 3 1 - - - - - -
7. 4 4 2 - - - - - -
8. 4 4 3 1 - - - - -
9. 4 4 4 2 - - - - -
10. 4 4 4 3 1 - - - -
11. 4 4 4 4 2 - - - -
12. 4 4 4 4 3 1 - - -
13. 4 4 4 4 4 2 - - -
16. 4 4 4 4 4 3 1 - -
15. 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 - -
16. 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 1 -
17. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 1
18. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2
19. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3
20. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

PLAYING A ROT NECROMANCER
The most common characteristics for rot necromancers and their relationship with others is as follows.

Daily Life: Rot necromancers throw themselves into their studies which usually take the form of experiments on both the living and dead alike. Many travel far and wide in search of rare tomes or even rarer creatures to add to their army.

Religion: Rot necromancers tend to worship death, so it is not unlikely that a Rot necromancer follows an evil god that promotes killing or death in general, otherwise they focus on their studies of necromancy and ignore the gods altogether.

Other Classes: Rot necromancers do not generally care one way or another about other classes, but are often untrusted by everyone. Good aligned divine classes may tolerate an unholy slayer, but will seek to hunt down any other rot necromancer.

Advancement: Rot necromancers seem in all respects no different than a sorcerer at lower levels; they’re rot ability being the only real clue to the dark powers they seek. As their powers grow, however, they become obsessed with their studies, trying to draw out more and more power. Even unholy slayers with their noble causes can fall prey to this lust.

ROT NECROMANCER IN THE WORLD
This section if for ideas for implementing rot necromancers intro a campaign.

Notables: Master of decay Pride is considered an enemy by all those good and just. His actions are unpredictable and his location is discernable only from the empty towns and villages left in his wake. Envy, considered to be the first and most powerful of the living death, takes pleasure in preying upon helpless commoners, transforming them into soulless minions and then feasting upon their undead flesh. Few exist on the mortal plane that are as depraved as Envy.

Organizations: Rot necromancers, while not necessarily rare, are spread thinly over large areas. Except for unholy slayers, rot necromancers rarely group in any sizable number. There are rumors of small cults spreading the ideas of the unholy slayers, and the members of this cult look down upon other likeminded fellows that refuse to join their ranks.

NPC Reaction
Rot necromancers find few friends and even fewer safe heavens. Rot necromancers are distrusted even more so than other necromancers, even races that approve of necromancy find the rot necromancer’s methods distasteful.

NEW FEATS

Improved Undead Familiar
You’ve gained the ability to create a better undead familiar
Prerequisites: Ability to acquire new undead familiar, sufficiently high level
Benefit: You can create an undead familiar using the list of improved familiarlist. You do not need to match the creature’s alignment. Normal rules for creating an undead familiar still apply.

Inorganic Rot
You’ve learned how to destroy any object using the rot spell
Prerequisites: Wis 14, Rot 2d6
Benefit: Rot does half damage to inorganic items and completely breaks down the inorganic item if rot destroys it.

Spell Lists
1st Level
Bane
Break
Cause Fear
Chill Touch
Detect Undead
Death Watch
Doom
Hide from Undead
Ray of Enfeeblement
Scupt Corpse
Undetectable Alignment

2nd Level
Animate Dead, Lesser
Blindness/Deafness
Command Undead
Darkness
Death Knell
Dust of Twilight
False Life
Ghoul Touch
Scare
Spectral Hand
Summon Swarm

3rd Level
Animate Dead
Crushing Despair
Gentle Repose
Halt Undead
Pain Strike
Ray of Exhaustion
Speak With Dead
Vampiric Touch

4th Level
Bestow Curse
Contagion
Death Ward
Enervation
Fear
Giant Vermin
Phantasmal Killer

5th Level
Blight
Cloudkill
Insect Plague
Magic Jar
Nightmare
Pain Strike, Mass
Slay Living
Symbol of Pain
Undeath to Death
Wave of Fatigue

6th Level
Acid Fog
Circle of Death
Create Undead
Eyebite
Harm
Symbol of Fear
Undeath to Death
Unwilling Shield

7th Level
Control Undead
Destruction
Finger of Death
Phantasmal Revenge
Symbol of Darkness
Waves of Exhaustion

8th Level
Clone
Create Greater Undead
Horrid Wilting
Symbol of Death

9th Level
Astral Projection
Energy Drain
Soul Bind
Suffocation, Mass
Wail of the Banshee


Very Nice, Seems somewhat similar to the Dread Necromancer from 3.5 Libris Mortis. Did that serve as any inspiration for this?

Also may I suggest that as this class is very focused on the Undead that you move the Animate Dead spell to a 3rd level spell slot(as Clerics) I never saw why a Specialized Necromancer Wizard gets Animate Dead at 7th level whereas any old cleric can cast it at 5th level. And now that Lesser Animate Dead is out, Clerics can start building undead armies at level 3, whereas Arcane casters still have to wait till 5th level to get lesser animate dead.


The dread necromancer is one of the many things I studied at the time while making the class, but I carried over very few of the ideas because the class just didn't fit how I think a necromancer should be. Dread necromancer was heroes of horror though (great book), Libris Mortis had the utterly useless true necromancer.

I agree with you on the level of the animate dead spell, I think one version did have that changed but got lost when WotC destroyed their old forums. I didn't even know about the lesser version of the spell though, thanks for mentioning it. Gonna make some changes now.


Quite Right, I tend to confuse the two. Libris Mortis did have the Pale Master prestige class which had some interesting points about it.

Some 3rd party sources had a cantrip which let you animate a tiny low hd animal, kinda like a skeletal familiar (I once threw an undead monkey into the face of a wood golem, not that it affected it).

Same source (I think it was a Mongoose publishing book) had 1st level animate skeleton and 2nd level animate zombie spells.

Edit: http://grandwiki.wikidot.com/ean2, Warning: Mongoose publishing is oft considered overpowered.

I actually have a self-created Pathfinder version of the Dread Necromancer if you'd like to take look.


Fantastic! Love the flavor and the various paths. My only complaint is the uber-limited spell-list, though I can see why it is so given the dedicated nature of the class and the mechanics/abilities it gets. Great work, and very on-theme for Midgard IMHO...


Always interested in something related to necromancers. Honestly 3.5 had a ton of great support for necromancy, and the spell list was a lot longer. I trimed out any spells I couldn't find in the pathfinder core books. If anyone were to point out other pathfinder sources for spells (do they have an equivalent of Libris Mortis or Heroes of Horror?) I would update the spell list.

Thank for your compliment Ocean, and the spell list being small is partial on purpose. It was a bit longer before when I had more sources as mentioned above. However because rot necromancers have their unlimited use of rot, a smaller spell pool with few uses per day had to be added to counteract the potential to it becoming unbalanced.

One of the reasons I fell in love with Midgard (and have funded a few of their things) is how well necromancy and the undead are represented. If anyone is interested I have a generic lore for the reason the seven branches came to be I can post, and write out a short campaign specific lore bit for Midgard.

Verdant Wheel

Animate Dead could be conceived as a I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX...


Kahoshi wrote:

Always interested in something related to necromancers. Honestly 3.5 had a ton of great support for necromancy, and the spell list was a lot longer. I trimed out any spells I couldn't find in the pathfinder core books. If anyone were to point out other pathfinder sources for spells (do they have an equivalent of Libris Mortis or Heroes of Horror?) I would update the spell list.

Thank for your compliment Ocean, and the spell list being small is partial on purpose. It was a bit longer before when I had more sources as mentioned above. However because rot necromancers have their unlimited use of rot, a smaller spell pool with few uses per day had to be added to counteract the potential to it becoming unbalanced.

One of the reasons I fell in love with Midgard (and have funded a few of their things) is how well necromancy and the undead are represented. If anyone is interested I have a generic lore for the reason the seven branches came to be I can post, and write out a short campaign specific lore bit for Midgard.

Understood Kahoshi! And by all means post Midgard-flavoured necromancer stuff!!!

(%€)-[---{=== (undead emoticon).


Sorry I haven't posted anything yet, just started a new job and the early mornings have left me dead lol. I'll try and have something this weekend.

To rainax, while animate dead could work like that I find the balance struck within animate dead (and its lesser version) already works fairly well and I don't like changing spells just to fit one of my classes. 3.5 had summon undead for the various spell levels though, and I always loved that spell. At the very least it gave the class undead on call from level 1.

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