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In an effort to relive some of my own "golden years" of gaming, I've brought forward some concepts from other games and mingled them with bits and pieces of Pathfinder to create a necromancer class with an entirely different flavor from what is already available. It uses a "new" spellcasting mechanic to replicate draining your own life to cast spells (and draining the enemy's life to replenish your own), a minion that is intended to harass and hinder the enemy, and a dazzling array of debuffs and control abilities that make your teammates more effective.
I invite all of you to peruse, analyze, criticize, optimize, even abuse this class. Tell me where it's weak, where it's strong, where it's broken. A good deal of effort went into designing this class, and I believe it's solidly in between tier 2 and 3.
Here's a breakdown of the philosophy and intent behind the class:
Primarily I wanted a class that feels like the Everquest necromancer. That entails 3 things - first, having a pet that can either tank or DPS (DPR in this case, I suppose), with spells to augment/select his role. Second, DoTs (damage over time) and debuffs - few actual direct damage spells, very few area spells. Mainly status ailments, like sickened, frightened, nauseated, etc. Some spells that do damage but not quickly (and this is tough to balance, given the average 5-round-long combat in 3.5/PF). Some thematic utility stuff. Also, *specifically*, decent control spells for use against undead. Third, the ability to manipulate HP - healing and lifetap/lifedrain. That's where the casting mechanic comes from - in EQ, necros have a spell line called Lich, which puts a skeleton (or other undead) illusion on them and drains their HP in exchange for faster mana regen. Basically they're casting spells from their own life force, but at a measured rate. This works side-by-side with their lifetap/lifedrain abilities, allowing them to keep up casting (at a non-peak rate) pretty much indefinitely. Sure, they can do some burst damage, but it leaves them low on options until they've had time to regen. In the middle of a tense fight, that's generally a poor choice (but it IS at least an option).
For this concept, I looked at a number of existing classes. None of them had the feeling I was looking for (I know this is pretty subjective, but even with massive reskinning the mechanics just wouldn't allow what I was going for to be effective - even the coolest concept ever isn't much fun if it can't perform in-game). I looked at Druid, Summoner, Cleric/Wizard/Sorcerer/Oracle, Witch, and Alchemist (even a few third-party classes), and didn't find a way I could mix and match to get what I wanted without a lot of difficulty and just general sloppiness. One of my side goals in this was to not slow down play too much. The "archetypal" necromancer from D&D-style fantasy is a guy who has legions of the dead at his command. In-game, however, this has several drawbacks. First, the sheer number of minions required to be effective (using the standard available undead types) is rather high, and this not only stretches the action economy but slows things down for everyone at the table. Second, it's entirely dependent on GM largesse (what creatures are available to be animated and how much onyx is available for purchase/looting, etc). While I don't think anyone in my current group would intentionally gimp a character, it's all too easy to forget to make allowances to let the character do their shtick, and if we get stuck in the wilderness for weeks, or end up racing the clock for some reason, it's entirely possible for multiple levels to pass by with no real advancement (and likely a loss, as the minions would be ablating in combat) in that realm, resulting in wasted character options. Best to simply avoid the possibility.
So, in order to reify this concept properly, I've taken bits and pieces from several classes and put them back together in (what I think is) a coherent fashion.
First, the basic caster concept. Spontaneous casting (doesn't have to memorize spells or worry about a spellbook), no armor, simple weapons. Limit the number of effects known (simplifying decision making in play but increasing challenge when selecting effects known), limits "innate" offensive/defensive capability. Good will save (have to be strong-willed to resist corruption and control life force), good fort save (necro casting is based on his own life energy, so he has to be healthy and full of vitality), poor reflex save (no need to be fast when you have undead to do all the scut work and fight for you, and crawling around in musty damp tombs isn't good for the joints).
Second, the skeleton pet. I took the base idea from here: UA Necromancer Variants, added some buff abilities from the Summoner spell list, added some more buff abilities to match the buffs in EQ and provide some actual utility. Now there's a "sticky" mechanic that lets him tank, along with a few other things. He's commanded (mentally) by spending a move action, so he doesn't ravish the action economy - selecting new targets, positioning, etc. It is completely controllable; it's made with a tiny shred of the caster's soul so it's immune to turn/rebuke/command. It's not truly mindless, but it has no preservation instinct of its own (it does defend the caster if he's injured, etc). Since it's a basic skeleton, even with more HD it sucks combat-wise, so it can be equipped with items of its own (weapons and armor only). It already does get HD advancement equal to the caster, and there are plenty of buff effects he can put on it temporarily to make it good at things (at a cost!), basically granting templates and abilities to it for the duration of the spell. I really don't want to have the same sort of complexity as there is in, say, the eidolon, so I steered away from build points type of improvements for this. It's not really "undead", anyway, more of a homunculus (essentially a constructed body with a little of the caster's life force powering it).
Third, the casting mechanic. Vancian magic just doesn't do it for me. I tend to play spontaneous casters if I play caster at all, since memorization is bloody annoying (and makes very little sense to begin with, given a bit of thought). So, spell points/pool. Problem there is, it gets ridiculous because of the way spell slots work, plus the fact that damage spells are horribly underpowered. So, limited pool (like ki points, basically) that gets bigger as you level, so you can do more before you need to tap into your life force. Since it IS life force, I based it on Con. Added a class ability to regain pool by spending HP (which is always risky in combat, especially with the d6 hit die of casters), also scaling up with level. The balance point here is being able to use two of your highest level effects before needing to recharge (sometimes 3 if you have pact going before you start using the effects, which gives you 2 rounds worth of regen while you cast), or several lower level ones if you don't "need" the extra oomph, or a couple of "maintained" effects and one big one every few rounds, etc etc. Interesting Choice is the primary concept. Speaking of maintained effects - added an option to let necromancers sustain some effects (generally buffs/debuffs) at an ongoing cost. They're limited in several ways: first, the point cost - you spend casting pool points every round to keep the effect going. Second, pool size - as small as the casting pool is, you just can't have a bunch of effects running at once. Third, every sustainable effect is single target. Finally, hard power limit - you can only have a number of effects sustained equal to your casting stat mod. That done, I provided a limited way to mitigate the sustain cost, since the class is themed around DoT and debuffs - a focus item that can sustain one instance of a single effect at no per-round cost. The effect it sustains is chosen at creation, and only a limited number can be used at once (*very* limited). Sustain effects are much like concentration-duration spells, they work as long as you pay their cost every round, and then (some of them) for a little while after that.
Fourth, the "spells". I use quotes because these effects are balanced differently than the normal spell system. They're balanced against what a Fighter can do, using level appropriate equipment and abilities. In point of fact, they're balanced noticeably *below* what a Fighter could do, specifically because the necro gets a pet that can keep him out of melee (up to a point). Fighters, of course, do less damage than rogues (only when SA'ing) or barbarians or paladins (only vs undead/evil) (or clerics/druids, if they're built for melee) or rangers (vs favored enemy). So, this class won't be putting anyone out of a job damage-wise. Most of the better necro effects are spread across multiple rounds (like the Darkness line that reduces movement - limited utility but it's something that can be maintained, at a continuing cost, as long as necessary and as long as the caster has HP to burn for it). Nearly everything scales with level, but in a much more limited fashion than normal spells. And of course, he chews through his own HP like candy to maintain casting, so *every* cast is a risk. The effects on the Veil Magic list balance out moderately (slight but noticeable) more powerful than the equivalent wizard spell *at the level it becomes available*, but they do not scale up as much, so the power curve drops behind at higher levels. This also has the pleasant side effect of encouraging the necromancer to use higher level effects, with their corresponding higher cast cost (hooray for self-balancing!). This is sort of a "dark side of the force" flavor - quicker, easier, but not really more powerful.
As an aside here, I think, after looking at a *lot* of math, I found the source of the "quadratic wizard" problem. It's because *everything* about spellcasting scales with level. The number of spells you have per day (including activated items and bonus slots for casting stat), the difficulty in resisting the spells (spell penetration, spell focus, casting stat mod increase), the effect of the spells (damage dice, empower, maximize), the power level of the spells (spell level), the sheer versatility/number of different effects that become available, eventually the number of spells you can cast in a round (quicken, familiar + wand, contingency). Not only does a caster become more powerful as he levels, he becomes more powerful *faster* with every level. I think I've mostly alleviated this with the necromancer, since the effect of the spells doesn't increase nearly as fast, or as much, as standard ones. The versatility is also greatly reduced, since Veil Magic has extremely low overlap with other spell lists in terms of available effect, and no overlap at all in terms of "spell list" per se, so a necromancer would need UMD to use pretty much any wand/scroll (and likewise, other classes would need UMD to take advantage of any Veil Magic items; I actually lean towards Veil Magic effects not even being allowed as scrolls/wands, though some would be okay as potions/staves).
Fifth, thematics. The necro is focused around manipulating life force in its raw form, so of course he gets healing effects. Nothing even close to what the cleric gets, and even if it was, the cleric really shouldn't be healing 95% of the time anyway, it's so massively underpowered compared to his other options. No channeling ability, so no elemental wackiness; no lay on hands; just the pure transfer of life energy (most of it stolen from monsters/enemies anyway), and always at the cost of some of his own (the casting cost, or simple direct transfer). He also gets some limited versatility by way of "undead-like", poison/cold/ghost/scary-type stuff.
One thing I've been pleasantly surprised by, is that as I flesh out (ha!) the effect list, I'm finding that there is plenty of variety in terms of saves, durations, schools, etc. I had been a little concerned that everything would end up being necromancy and conjuration.
So, that's where it's all coming from. Now to see if it gets there...
Class writeup
Tables, minion stats, effect list (note there are multiple tabs on this one)
Nothing at all? Hmm.