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Bonethrall: The description of this ability matches nearly verbatim the cleric feat called command undead but it links to a spell of the exact same name--command undead, but which is extremely different and doesn't appear to be in line with the rest of the Gravewalker archetype. Is this a mis-link?
If so, it resolves a lot of ambiguity about their other abilities: aura of desecration and possess undead.
The original source clearly references the spell and not the feat by the formatting... but the bonethrall ability, as well as the gravewalker's other abilities, all make much more sense if one assumes bonethrall was supposed to reference the feat, instead. That's how I already run it in my own games, and I would not play a gravewalker in another game with the ability as printed.
Everything about bonethrall, from the saves to the hit die limit to the level its acquired to the gravewalker's 'aura of desecration' bonus to the DC of 'channeled negative energy' effects to the kind of control the grave walker's flavor text seems to imply it grants to the the kind of creatures it seems to imply it grants it over to the Gravewalker's access to the spell command undead anyway (and without hit die caps or other restrictions) screams that bonethrall was meant to mimic 'Command Undead', not 'command undead'.
Admittedly a greater concern for the archetype is the seeming lack of any means of replacing a lost or destroyed spell poppet, unless I missed an faq somewhere. Though their spellbook substitute may be less vulnerable to random attacks then that of a normal witch, the lack of any means of replacing it means the character is basically one sunder attempt away from the garbage bin at any time, barring friendly DM interpretation allowing the poppet to be replaced as a normal witch can replace a lost familiar.
It's a pretty neat archetype otherwise, but really needs those two fixes to function properly.
These are the ambiguities I was talking about.
1) Aura of desecration modifies energy channeling. If bonethrall mimics the feat, it would qualify. If it's like a spell, then Gravewalker's can't channel energy. Why not just skip this and put its range limit on bonethrall and possess undead?
2) Possess undead is like magic jar which doesn't work on mindless undead, but if a witch does this to a "minion" that she doesn't actually control (only commands like the spell), then it will likely break her control immediately after and attack her.
3) If command undead is what makes an undead her minion, then she can have lots of minions that are susceptible to her possess undead by casting that spell; not just her pool of HD from bonethrall. I think they intend it to work only on those she actually controls, and that kind of control requires the effect of the feat.
I'm not sure that I agree magic jar cannot target mindless undead. It targets 'life forces', not 'souls'. If a skeleton doesn't qualify, it would be by virtue of being undead, in which event intelligent undead would likewise be untargetable. However, I've never seen anything in the rules to imply that undead don't have a 'life force', and have always assumed that they do - just one of negative energy instead of positive - and as such they could still be targeted by magic jar in the same way that creatures with 'life sense' can sense living and undead creatures, but not constructs. May be worth a separate thread.
The possession does seem like it means to be able to target intelligent undead minions of the witch, though, and that again implies that bonethrall wants to reference command undead and not Command Undead, as otherwise a witch can never really have an intelligent undead minion, since command undead merely grants charm person like influence over intelligent undead, and I know no context in which a mere charm effect would be enough to consider a creature your 'minion'. Heck, with most DMs I've played against, charm isn't even enough to get a hostile minion to stop attacking the caster's allies, let alone get it to fight for the caster against its former friends.
Whoops, it seems creatures with 'life sense' can't sense undead creatures. I wonder why I thought they could? Now I'm not sure magic jar can target undead at all under normal circumstances. Gonna post a separate thread about it.
Magic jar can definitely affect sentient undead. They have a life force that is powered by negative energy rather than positive. The spell addresses it specifically. The only question is whether possess undead can affect them because it only affects her "minions". Is the spell effect described by command undead sufficient to call something that?
Let's say it does. Then is it treated as an attack, thereby breaking her control? Does it attack her the moment the possession ends? That would make this hex particularly impractical to use to say the least.
The source material is pretty clear that is is referencing the spell, not the feat. Spells in written products are italicized while Feats are Capitalized.
That said, I just don't see the problem. The feat and the spell have a lot of similarities.