Necromancer (Wizard Archetype)

While most Wizards tend to lean towards the study of great arcanic magics that have descended over the years through the teaching and uprising of dragons, Necromantic Wizards look towards the ancient texts and passages of godly and demonic beings to gain knowledge over life and death. Neither wholly Arcane or Divine, they draw inspiration from whatever source of magic they can, not being inclined to one or the other.

Other casters in the magic department may be drawn to power and temptation, while most Necromancers would not be affected by such things. They seek knowledge of things they don’t know so that they can face death and the future without fear. They believe that they can create their own age where no one will have to fear death and have humanity govern the world on their own without the aid of higher beings. That being said they are not unfamiliar with resorting to the aid of particularly fair and useful deities and demons to help them get to their own ends. Although this is the case for most Necromancers, do not be deceived into thinking that all will follow this path. There are many that are under the service of others that have more sinister and twisted goals.

Role: The role of the Necromancer is to create a situation where they are in complete control over the flow of battle. This can take part through Curses, manipulation of undeath, and even usage of sinister arcane magics. As potent healers and powerful spell casters, a Necromancer can be useful in any situation where they have time to think and prepare for their coming actions. However, get caught off-guard and it might be your undoing.

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

Alignment: Any Evil

Class Skills
Hit Die: d8

Starting Wealth: 2d6 × 10 gp (average 70 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

The Necromancer’s class skills are  Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Bonus Skills and Ranks: The Necromancer selects three Cleric skills to add to his class skills in addition to the normal wizard class skills, one of which must be Heal.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Necromancers are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor interferes with a necromancer’s movements, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail. But he is proficient with special “Bone armour” he can create with the proper spell.

Necromantic Focus
A Necromancer must be of an evil alignment. If he becomes non-evil, he can still use his powers but can’t progress any further as a Necromancer.

This alters alignment.

Spells
A Necromancer casts Arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list (excluding evocation), all Conjuration and Necromancy spells from the Cleric spell list, and all Necromancer unique spells. A Necromancer can choose spells the earliest level he could learn them across the three spell lists. A Necromancer must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time.

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the necromancer must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a necromancer’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the necromancer’s Intelligence modifier.

A necromancer can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Necromancer. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).

A necromancer may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his necronomicon. While studying, the necromancer decides which spells to prepare.

Starting Spells (See Necronomicon below): A necromancer begins play with a necronomicon containing all 0-level wizard and cleric spells plus three 1st-level spells of his choice. The necromancer also selects a number of additional 1st-level spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the necronomicon. At each new necromancer level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new necromancer level) for his necronomicon. At any time, a necromancer can also add spells found in spellbooks or other necronomicons to his own (see Magic).

Spells Gained at a New Level: Necromancers perform a certain amount of spell research between adventures. Each time a character attains a new necromancer level, he gains two spells of his choice to add to his necronomicon. The two free spells must be of spell levels he can cast.

Necromantic Dominion (Ex or Su)
Since Necromancers are neither tied fully to the Arcane or Divine, they tend to differ on whether they choose to follow a school or domain for themselves.

At 1st level, a Necromancer chooses to either gain an Arcane school, or a Cleric domain from the following list.

Arcane schools:Necromancy (Pure, Death, Life), Conjuration (Pure), Abjuration (Banishment), Illusion (Shadow)

Cleric domains:Death (Pure, Plague, Undead), Evil (Corruption), Healing (Resurrection), Water (Ice)

All abilities from the chosen specialization scale on Intelligence if they do not already do so.

If a Necromancer has an Arcane bond, he cannot choose Necromancy as his opposition school.

If a Necromancer has a domain, she gains one domain spell slot for each level of necromancer spell she can cast, from 1st on up. Each day, a necromancer can prepare one of the spells from her domain(s) in that slot. If a domain spell is not on the necromancer spell list, a necromancer can prepare it only in her domain spell slot.

At 8th level, you gain an additional Domain from the Domain list giving you either an Arcane school and a Domain, or two Domains.

This alters arcane school.

Undead Expertise (Su)
At 1st level, the Necromancer is highly proficient with the summoning of Undead. With this, the Necromancer can summon twice as many undead as he normally would be able to. Using the “Raise Skeleton” spell for example, the necromancer can raise two skeletons for every 5 levels the necromancer has, not one as given in the spell.

At 5th level, the necromancer can also maintain the summoning of more undead than he could before. When determining the number of hit-die you can maintain when summoning undead, add twice your Intelligence modifier to that number. In addition, undead you summon are no longer considered to be staggered if they would be normally.

At 11th level, you instead add four times your Intelligence modifier when determining the amount of hit-die you can maintain.

This replaces scribe scroll.

Abomination (Su)
At 1st level, the Necromancer gains a tiny familiar called an Abomination. This acts as a sloth wizard familiar granting all the benefits a normal sloth familiar would give enhancing skills, senses and magic. In addition, it has the Undead subtype.

This replaces arcane Bond.

Channel Negative Energy (Su)
At 2nd level, a necromancer can channel negative energy as a Cleric. Channeling negative energy causes a burst that affects all creatures of one type (either undead or living) in a 30-foot radius centered on the necromancer. The amount of damage dealt or healed is equal to 1d6 points of damage plus 1d6 points of damage for every two necromancer levels beyond 1st (2d6 at 3rd, 3d6 at 5th, and so on). Creatures that take damage from channeled energy receive a Will save to halve the damage. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the necromancer’s level + the necromancer’s Intelligence modifier. Creatures healed by channel energy cannot exceed their maximum hit point total—all excess healing is lost. A necromancer may channel energy a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Intelligence modifier. This is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. A necromancer can choose whether or not to include herself in this effect.

Channel Versatility: At 3rd level, a necromancer gains Command Undead and Turn Undead as a bonus feats, treating his necromancer level as his cleric level and using Intelligence as his modifier for purposes of the gained feats.

This replaces bonus feats gained at level 5 and 10.

Abomination Growth (Su)
At 3rd level, a necromancer’s Abomination grows to a greater size and gains necromantic power. The Abomination has increased and power and now functions as if it was a Summoner’s Eidolon of his level instead of a familiar with a few changes.

An Abomination has the same alignment as the necromancer that calls it and can speak all of his languages. Abominations are treated as summoned creatures with the Undead subtype. As such, their default Charisma is replaced with their default Constitution, and they lose their Constitution score. They are not sent back to their home plane until reduced to a number of negative hit points equal to or greater than their Charisma score. In addition, due to its tie to the necromancer, an Abomination can touch and attack creatures warded by protection from evil and similar effects that prevent contact with summoned creatures.

A necromancer can summon his Abomination in a ritual that takes 1 minute to perform as long as there is a suitable corpse nearby of its size to summon it. When summoned in this way, the Abomination hit points are unchanged from the last time it was dismissed or banished. The only exception to this is if the Abomination was slain, in which case it returns with half its normal hit points. The Abomination does not heal naturally. The Abomination remains until dismissed by the necromancer (a standard action). If the Abomination is sent back into to the earth due to death, it cannot be summoned again until the following day. The Abomination cannot be sent back into the earth by means of dispel magic, but spells such as dismissal and banishment work normally. If the necromancer is unconscious, asleep, or killed, his Abomination is immediately banished. The Abomination takes a form of an undead bipedal golem. The Abomination’s Hit Dice, saving throws, skills, feats, and abilities are tied to the necromancer’s class level and increase as the necromancer gains levels. In addition, each Abomination receives a pool of evolution points, based on the necromancer’s class level, that can be used to give the Abomination different abilities and powers. However, the Abomination replaces its claw attacks with the Slam evolution, and its first 3 evolution points are spent on the Improved Natural Armour and Sickening evolutions. Whenever the necromancer gains a level, he must decide how these points are spent, and they are set until he gains another level of necromancer.

This replaces bonus feats gained at level 15.

Death Bond (Su)
Starting at 3rd level, a necromancer forms a close bond with his Abomination. Whenever the necromancer takes enough damage to send it back into the earth, the necromancer can sacrifice any number of hit points. Each hit point sacrificed in this way prevents 1 point of damage done to the Abomination. This can prevent the Abomination from being sent back into the earth.

In addition, the Abomination and the necromancer must remain within 100 feet of one another for the Abomination to remain at full strength. If the Abomination is beyond 100 feet but closer than 1,000 feet, its current and maximum hit point totals are reduced by 50%. If the Abomination is more than 1,000 feet away but closer than 10,000 feet, its current and maximum hit point totals are reduced by 75%. If the Abomination is more than 10,000 feet away, it is immediately returned into the earth. Current hit points lost in this way are not restored when the Abomination gets closer to its necromancer, but its maximum hit point total does return to normal.

Magic Siphon: At 4th level, the necromancer gains the ability to, as a swift or move action, use touch based spells through their Abomination and other creatures/undead they summon.

At 6th level, the necromancer can use this ability as a free action.

Golem Mastery (Su)
At 7th level, the necromancer gains even further understanding in the things she summons. The Necromancer’s Golems she summons gain +10 feet to their movement speed and gain +1hp per hit-die. In addition, the necromancer’s Abomination gains +20 feet to their movement speed and +2hp per hit-die

At 17th level, the bonuses from this ability are doubled.

This replaces bonus feat gained at level 20.