Northwestern Necromancer

March 18th, 2011

Hello everyone and welcome to From the Workshop, where every week we bring you some new little thing for your entertainment. This week, seeing as it’s Necromancer Week, and with April Fools’ day just a little ways away, we thought to present you with a joke prestige class: the northwestern necromancer. If this class looks unbalanced, well, that’s because it is. The class is a joke and you should be very careful before letting anyone (except maybe, MAYBE – and probably not – a major campaign villain) use this.

Northwestern necromancers are the epitome of necromantic power, having learned all the great secrets of dark magic. As characters progress in this class they learn more about the true magic, ignoring less valuable schools of magic and gaining great power though the ancient teachings of the revered masters of necromancy. All northwestern necromancers are specialist wizards of high caliber.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fortitude	Reflex	Will	Class Features	Spell Casting
1	+0	+0	+0	+1	Restricted School, Improved Necromancy	+1 lvl of previous class
2	+1	+1	+1	+1	Greater Workshop	+1 lvl of previous class
3	+1	+1	+2	+1	Restricted School, Improved Necromancy	+1 lvl of previous class
4	+2	+1	+2	+1	Dark Design	+1 lvl of previous class
5	+2	+2	+3	+2	Restricted School, Improved Necromancy	+1 lvl of previous class
6	+3	+2	+3	+2	Enchant Grave Plot	+1 lvl of previous class
7	+3	+2	+4	+2	Restricted School, Improved Necromancy	+1 lvl of previous class
8	+4	+3	+4	+3	Minion Mastery	+1 lvl of previous class
9	+4	+3	+5	+3	Restricted School, Improved Necromancy	+1 lvl of previous class
10	+5	+3	+5	+3	Nefarious Knowledge	+1 lvl of previous class

Requirements
- Must be a wizard specialized in the necromancy school
- Must be able to cast animate dead and at least 3 other necromancy spells of 3rd level or higher
- Knowledge (arcana) 7 ranks; Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks; Spellcraft 7 ranks
- Spell Focus (necromancy), Greater Spell Focus (necromancy)
- Must have a workshop

Spellcasting
Each level, northwestern necromancers gain new spells per day and spells known as though they gained another level in wizard. Additionally, combine levels in northwestern necromancer and wizard to get the total caster level for their wizard spells, etc.

Class Features

Restricted School: At 1st level and every odd level thereafter, the necromancer must choose another school of magic as a restricted school. The necromancer may no longer learn spells from that school, but may still cast any spells from the chosen school he already knows.

Improved Necromancy: At 1st level, and every odd level thereafter, the save DC of all necromancy spells you cast increases by 1.

Greater Workshop: Beginning at 2nd level, a northwestern necromancer learns secrets known only to necromancers of the northwest. The first such secret allows him to dramatically improve the usefulness of his workshop. Magic items created in his workshop cost 20% less to create than they ordinarily would, and wands and staves are created with twice their ordinary charges.

Dark Design: At 4th level the necromancer learns the secrets of the legendary necrolord, Alexander Riggs, and all undead created by his animate dead spell automatically gain the fiendish creature template.

Enchant Grave Plot: At 6th level the northwestern necromancer learns the secrets of the legendary necromancer, Joshua Zaback. He gains the ability to enchant any marked grave, to one of three different ends. Firstly, he can create a loyal skeletal champion servant. To use this ability the necromancer must pour a small amount of his own blood over any marked grave, and then perform a complicated ritual that takes 24 hours; after this time the occupant of the grave rises as a skeletal champion to serve the necromancer. The skeletal champion has the abilities of the creature in life and gains the skeletal champion template; the champion is loyal to the necromancer and obeys any verbal commands issued to it. This skeletal champion counts against the total number of hit dice of undead you can control with your animate dead spell. Secondly, by spreading a small amount of his own tears and performing a ritual that takes 24 hours, he can hide any marked grave from the eyes of anyone but himself. This ability is defeated by a true seeing spell or a see invisibility spell. Finally, by sprinkling plague water over the grave and performing a complex ritual that takes 24 hours, he can cause the occupant of the grave to rise as a nosferatu (see nosferatus in Liber Vampyr) within one week (1d6+1 days). The nosferatu is under no compulsion to obey the necromancer and is completely unaware of his existence. This nosferatu is exceptionally powerful and even sunlight only banishes the creature back to his coffin. However, if the northwestern necromancer dies for any reason, then the nosferatu (and the fiendish spirit empowering it) are instantly destroyed with no chance of recovery. Only one nosferatu may be created this way.

Minion Mastery: At 8th level the northwestern necromancer learns the secrets of the legendary necromancer king Justin Holloway. From then on, all undead created with his animate dead spell, as well as any skeleton champions created with his enchant grave plot ability, gain the advanced template as well as the fiendish template.

Nefarious Knowledge: At 10th level the northwestern necromancer has successfully mastered all the secrets of the great necromancers of the northwest and may control many more undead than he would otherwise be able to. Northwestern necromancers may now control up to 8 times their caster level in hit dice of undead (rather than 4 times).