Master Necromancer (3.5e Prestige Class)

Master Necromancer

Necromancers are not specialist wizards or sorcerers anymore... They are specially dedicated spellcasters. Necromancers are masters of the black art of undead and adept of the special discipline of blood and bone magics. Some are granted this "gift" by a careful master or even by the lord of death himself. Not matter their origin their art is vile and lifeless, mostly hated by anyone.

Prerequisites

Alignment: Any non-Good, no good person would venture in such a vile art.

Feats: Spell Focus (Necromancy), Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy)

Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 10 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 10 ranks, Spellcraft 10 ranks.

Spells: Knowledge of at least 7 Necromancy spells. You must have spells from at least 4 different levels.

Special: Must have been the apprentice of a necromancer for about 1 year or worship Khrone, Vecna or a similar evil god.

Table: The Master Necromancer

Hit Die: 4

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day/Spells Known
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Rebuke Undead, Bone Magic, Black Art (1 Charge)	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3		+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Blood Magic, Black Art (2 Charges), Necromantic Lore	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4		+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Necromantic Surge, Black Art (3 Charges)	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
6th	+3	+1	+1	+5	Necromantic Lore	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
7th	+ 3	+2	+2	+5	Black Art (4 Charge), Undead Mastery	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6		+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
9th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Black Art (5 Charge), Necromantic Lore	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Black Art Mastery, Undeath	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
Class Skills 2 + Int modifier per level) Knowledge (taken separately), Craft (Alchemy), Spellcraft

Class Features

All the following are class features of the Master Necromancer:

Rebuke Undead (Su): When a Necromancer takes his first level, he gains the supernatural ability to rebuke undead. He may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his charisma modifier. He turns undead as a cleric of two levels lower would.

Bone Magic (Su):Necromancer may draw the remaining energy from the remnant of a creature (bone, ash etc.) to a number equal to his Master Necromancer level per day. He may choose to

• Restore his spell per Day number: The necromancer can restore a level worth of spells by 2 HD of the former creature, a 1 Hd creature restore only 0 spells. A 9 level creature can restore 4 level worth of spell, one level 4 spell slot or four level one slots.
• Restore his black art charges: For each 5 HD of the former creature, the necromancer can restore one charge.
• Empower his spell: For each 5 Hd of the former creature, the necromancer can add +1 to his caster level for 24 hours, the bonus are stackable to a maximum of +5.

The incantations necessary take a full round, during which the remnant can never be further than 5 ft from the necromancer. A corpse used in this manner cannot be the target of any Necromancy spell afterward.

Condition:

• The Necromancer cannot use a fresh corpse, the remnant must have been dead for at least a year.
• The Necromancer cannot take energy from the remnant of a creature that has had a sacred burial (saint, kings etc.).

Black Art (Su): Master Necromancer are master of necromantic magic, also called the black art. The spell casted with black art doesn't need any material component, but other spell requirement must be respected. By example, the Soul Bind black art create his own gem made of pure dark magic. The charges are determined by the level of the Master Necromancer (see The Master Necromancer Table).

Table Black Art

Ability	Charges Consumed
Animate Dead	1
Create Undead	2
Finger of Death	3
Create Greater Undead	4
Soul Bind	5

Black Art Mastery: At level 10 the necromancer can add his Intelligence or Charisma modifier to his number of charges, whichever is highest.

Blood Magic (Su): The necromancer is able to draw power from blood in order to restore his magical ability. He can use this ability at will, he can use it:

• On himself: He must sacrifice 10 hp per Spell level he want to restore, 0 spell level cannot be restored that way. So a 1rst level spell slot would cost 10 hp and 9th would cost 90 hp to the necromancer. An emergency power indeed.

• On a willing allies: As above but on a willing creature (charmed and dominated creature do not count as willing, see unwilling)

• On an unwilling creature: Same as above, but the necromancer must deal all the damage through a single melee, after the necromancer must succeed a grapple check and begin uttering incantation. If he manage to hold the subject until the end of the incantation (a full round), the subject is granted a will save (DC15 + The Necromancer's level (HD)) to void the effect. If all the conditions are fulfilled, the necromancer is granted his power.

Necromantic Lore: The necromancer may add a single spell from the necromancy school to his spells known and Spells per day.

Necromantic Surge (Su): Once per day the necromancer can unleashes massive amount of negative energy. The lightning-like blast deals the necromancer's level in d8 (max 20d8) + the Necromancer's charisma modifier of negative energy damage (thus can heal undead), but the arc hitting many creatures. Basically it ignores the caster (except if stated otherwise) but not the caster's allies. The blast prioritises targeting enemies. Each time an enemy is struck, subtract their HD from the damage (if a 20d8 blast hits a level 18 creature, the next creature will take only 2d8 damage). If the blast hits any undead along the line, the spell ends. The blast max range is 30 ft (from each creature), thus if a creature is 31+ feet away from the nearest victim of the surge, it will not be affected.

Undead Mastery: For the purpose of summoning undead, the necromancer is considered 2 level higher. (+2 caster level)

Undeath: Once the necromancer reach level 10 he may turn into an undead creature, because of so much exposure to negative energy. His type becomes undead but still retains his intelligence score. The changes to the necromancer are listed below:

• Stop ageing, remove penalties from ageing.
• 12-sided Hit Dice.
• No Constitution score.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, and death effects.
• Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects.
• Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
• Uses its Charisma modifier for Concentration checks.
• Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is immediately destroyed.
• Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. "These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead" the necromancer turn back into an undead 3 day after being resurrected.
• Do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
• This transformation decrease the DC for the Ritual Lichdom by 4.

The necromancer's appearance doesn't change much, respect the player preference for that matter. However it is almost sure that at least 2 of the trait listed below appear on the necromancer.

• Skin become paler
• Eyes pupils become red
• Hair become white
• Take the characteristic of an older person.
• Lost of hair
• Eye become white (rare)
• Become Gaunt
• Smell bad

The Epic Master Necromancer

Table: The Epic
Master Necromancer

Hit Die: 12

Level	Special
11st
12nd	Black Art (6 Charges)
13rd
14th	Black Art (7 Charges)
15th
16th	Black Art (8 Charges)
17th
18th	Black Art (9 Charges)
19th
20th	Black Art (10 Charges)
Skill Points Per Level See The Necromancer Table above.

Class Features

All the following are class features of the Epic Master Necromancer

Black Art: Epic Necromancer get one extra charge of their Black Art class feature each 2 Epic Necromancer level.

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