True Necromancer Reduxe (Not what you expect.)

[Takhisis]

There are some PrCs that have awesome flavor but in crunch just fail. Thus, I have taken it upon myself to transform and reinvent some of these maligned PrCs, keeping the concepts and some of the powers of these classes while making them into fully playable base classes that keep the spirit of the original PrC. Since I love necromancers, the first one I thought I would tackle is the True Necromancer. While the class was made into a Theurge class in 3.5e, in 3.0 it was originally a class that advanced either arcane or divine casting, not both at once. Thus, drawing from the early flavor of the class, I have made the True Necromancer an arcane caster who possess some cleric-like powers over the undead.

However, I as I will do with all these reinventions, I take the class beyond what it once was and make it something more. When I hear the name "True Necromancer" what I envision is the archetypal, villainous necromancer who walks around in a black cloak wardrobe and excels at commanding legions of undead. The wizard can do the black cloak part but not the undead legion thing. The cleric and DN can do the undead legion thing but their imagery is not the same as the classic necromancer....however, being a "True Necromancer" to me is more then just adhesion to cliche's...it's about doing what the necromancer archetype was created to do, be an antagonist. Thus, with that in mind, my base class interpretation of the True Necromancer aims to be more then a just a Necromancer. Rather the True Necromancer base class is made to create a truely villainous character who's spells do other, villainous things beyond necromancy, The True Necromancer is able to control and torment the minds of others, twist and corrupt the enviornment, travel between plains and even bind and summon monsters and outsiders to do his bidding. The True Necromancer thus is just as much a villain as he is a necromancer and the class was designed with the primary aims of making a class that keeps the flavor of the TN as a necromancer while making it a necromancer class worthy of BBEGs. Since BBEGs where in mind when I made this, the main issue of this class is obviously it's balance.

I am not that experienced a homebrewer as far as crunch gose and usually use other people's hombrew crunch rather then my own. Thus, I want your opinions on the class. While it is designed primarily for BBEGs, I would also love to see this class, or at the least a watered down version of it as a PC base class. While I am sure the class as it stands now is overpowered, I want your opinions. Is it really that overpowered or is it actually sutiable for PCs as well as BBEGs? I am not looking for rude comments and brutally honest answers which are overly brutal. What I am looking for however is constructive criticism, helpful tips, and ideas for how to improve it since I am quite inexperience at crunch based homrbrew.(As stated before I usually homebrew my own fluff and then use other people's crunch if I desire homebrew in my games.)

So, I introduce the rough draft of the True Necromancer Base Class:


True Necromancer

Class Skills:
Concentration(Con), Spellcraft(Int), Knowledge(Arcane){Int), Knowledge(Religion)(int), Knowledge(The Planes(Int), Knowledge(History)(Int), Bluff(Cha), Intimidate(Cha), Diplomacy(Cha) Profession(Wis)

Hit Dice: d8

Skill Points: 2+ Int modifier(x 4 at first level)

Alignment requirements: Any Evil, though the focus on commanding minions and dominating others that this class has tends draw characters of the lawful evil alignment more then any others.

Proficiencies:
A True Necromancer is proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, quarterstaff and scythe, but not any type of armor or shield. A True Necromancer suffers arcane spell failure while wearing armor or carrying a shield just as a wizard dose.

BAB: As Cleric

Saves:
Will: As wizard
Fort: As wizard
Ref.: As wizard

Spells per day/spellcasting advancement: As Cleric

Spellcasting:

A True Necromancer casts arcane spells as a wizard dose. However, unlike a wizard a True Necromancer has a somewhat limited(though not specialized to the same extent as other classes like the Dread Necromancer) spell list but to make up for it he dose need not learn spells as a wizard. Rather, a True Necromancer, like a cleric, automatically knows all spells on his spell list of every spell level he can cast. To cast a spell, a True Necromancer must have an charisma score equal to at least 10 + The spell’s level, and the DCs for their spells are 10+ the spell’s level +the True Necromancer’s Cha modifier. Like a wizard, a True Necromancer must prepare these spells ahead of time and rest in the same exact manner as a wizard.(Including the time taken to prepare and rest.) A True Necromancer can also cast Necrotic Cyst spells without taking the Mother Cyst Feat and for the effects of those spells is considered to have a Mother Cyst even if he did not take the feat.


True Necromancer Spell List:

Level 0 Spells: Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Touch of Fatigue, Ghost Sound, Message, Ray of Frost, Acid Splash, Inflict Minor Wounds, No Light, Slash Tongue.

Level 1 Spells: Cause Fear, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Command, Curse Water, Deathwatch, Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Detect Undead, Doom, Inflict Light Wounds, Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Summon Monster I, Angry Ache, Heartache, Slow Consumption, Sorrow, Stupor, Suspend Disease, Tongue of Baalzebul, Seething Eyebane, Necrotic Awareness, Ray of Enfeeblement, Summon Undead I.

Level 2 Spells: Align Weapon, Command Undead, Calm Emotions, Darkness, Death Knell, Delay Poison, Desecrate, Enthrall, Hold Person, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Shatter, Silence, Summon Monster II, Undetectable Alignment, Addiction, Sap Strength, Spores of the Vrock, Wave of Grief, Wither Limb, Devil's Tongue, Fangs of the Vampire King, Lahm's Finger Darts, Necrotic Cyst, Necrotic Scrying, Summon Undead II, Ghoul Touch, Specteral Hand

Level 3 Spells: Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Contagion, Deeper Darkness, Dispel Magic, Glyph of Warding, Inflict Serious Wounds, Invisibility Purge, Magic Circle Against Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Obscure Object, Speak With Dead, Summon Monster III, Circle of Nausea, Clutch of Orcus, Devil's Eye, Shriveling, Vile Lance, Wrack, Absorb Mind, Love's Pain, Red Fester, Rotting Curse of Urfestra, Serpents of Theggeron, Touch of Juiblex, Necrotic Bloat, Protection from Negative Energy, Protection from Positive Energy, Sheltered Vitality, Summon Undead III, Vampiric Touch

Level 4 Spells: Death Ward, Dimensional Anchor, Dismissal, Imbue with Spell Ability, Inflict Critical Wounds, Scrying, Poison, Repel Vermin, Restoration, Sending, Spell Immunity, Summon Monster IV, Damning Darkness, Hell's Power, Indentify Transgressor, Psychic Poison, Stop Heart, Absorb Strength, Consumptive Field, Necrotic Domination, Summon Undead IV, Enervation, Fear, Lesser Geas

Level 5 Spells: Break Enchantment, Greater Command, Dispel Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Insect Plague, Nightmare, Plane Shift, Slay Living, Summon Monster V, Symbol of Pain, Symbol of Sleep, Unhallow, Charnel Fire, False Sending, Heartclutch, Morality Undone, Resonating Resistance, Forbidden Speech, Power Leech, Claws of the Bebilith, Haunt Shift, Incorporeal Nova, Necrotic Burst, Summon Undead V, Dominate Person, Magic Jar, Lesser Planar Binding

Level 6 Spells: Animate Objects, Antimagic Field, Antilife Shell, Banishment, Blade Barrier, Create Undead, Greater Dispel Magic, Forbiddance, Geas/Quest, Greater Glyph of Warding, Harm, Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds, Summon Monster VI, Symbol of Fear, Symbol of Persuasion, Word of Recall, Cloud of the Achaierai, Fiendish Quickening, Snare Astral Traveler, Thousand Needles, Consume Likeness, Ghost Trap, Necrotic Eruption, Planar Binding, Circle of Death

Level 7 Spells: Blasphemy, Control Weather, Destruction, Dictum, Ethereal Jaunt, Limited Wish, Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, Regenerate, Repulsion, Finger of Death, Greater Restoration, Greater Scrying, Summon Monster VII, Symbol of Stunning, Symbol of Weakness, True Dominate, Bestow Greater Curse, Fiendish Clarity, Imprison Soul, Wretched Blight, Death by Thorns, Rapture of Rupture, Greater Consumptive Field, Energy Ebb, Necrotic Tumor, Control Undead

Level 8 Spells: Create Greater Undead, Dimensional Lock, Discern Location, Greater Planar Binding, General of Undeath, Greater Harm, Horrid Wilting, Mass Inflict Critical Wounds, Mind Blank, Shield of Law, Greater Spell Immunity, Summon Monster VIII, Symbol of Death, Symbol of Insanity, Unholy Aura, Befoul, Bodak Birth, Pestilence, Evil Weather, Plague of Nightmares, Mass Death Ward, Necrotic Empowerment, Mass Restoration, Veil of Undeath

Level 9 Spells: Astral Projection, Energy Drain, Etherealness, Gate, Mass Harm, Monstrous Thrall, Mind Rape, Dominate Monster, Soul Bind, Summon Monster IX, Despoil, Spread of Savagery, Wish, Were-Doom, Apocalypse from the Sky, Storm of Vengeance, Implosion, Necrotic Termination, Plague of Undead, Wail of the Banshee



Class Features:

Rebuke Undead: True Necromancers are the ultimate masters of the undead and thus much like a cleric or dread necromancer have learned how to channel negative energy to command undead. The True Necromancer Rebukes undead as a Cleric of the same class level. This ability functions in the exact same manner as the cleric power and can be used a number of times per day equal to 3 + the True Necromancer’s Cha modifier. Any Prestege class which would advance rebuking advances this rebuking as normal.


Sacrificial Lamb: The True Necromancer is a villain through and through, and thus he learns one of the most vile spellcasting methods in all the planes, their ability to cast corrupt spells without feeling their negative effects. There however, is a price to pay for this ability. Instead of taking the damage or debilitating effects of a corrupt spell, the True Necromancer may have an ally take the damage or debilitating effect instead. Animated Undead and Summons count as allies for this ability. If the ally chosen lacks the ability score which any ability damage would effect that ally is not a valid target and the True Necromancer must chose a different ally or take the damage himself.(So for example, if the True Necromancer was going to use this power to have an ally take CON damage he could not chose any summoned or animated undead as the ones to take the damage in place of him due to the fact undead possess no constitution score) Allies targeted with this ability, even if unwilling, gain no save against the effects or damage you place on them with this power.

Necromantic Infusion: The True Necromancer learns to infuse his body with negative energy, granting him added resilience against enemy's attacks. The True Necromancer uses his Cha modifier in place of his dex modifier for calculating his AC. In addition, at 5th level and every five class levels after 5th he gains an additional +2 to his AC. (So at 10th level he would gain +4 AC, at 15th +6 and so on and so forth.)


Domain: At 2nd level, the True Necromancer chose and gains access to one of the following cleric domains: Death, Deathbound, Undeath, Evil or Corruption. He gains the granted power of that domain. In addition, the True Necromancer gains domain spell slots as a cleric and can prepare the chosen domain’s spells in those slots.(and ONLY those spell slots.) These domain spells are still cast off of the True Necromancer’s primary casting stat, Charisma.

Sinister Aura: At 4th level True Necromancer gains an aura that radiates evil as the aura of an evil cleric of his character levels would.

Bonus Feat: At 5th level, the True Necromancer gains a bonus feat for which he qualifies that must be chosen from the following list: Spell Focus(Evil), Spell Focus(Necromancy), Greater Spell Focus(Necromancy), Undead Leadership and all Corpsecrafter feats.

Legions of Undeath: At level 8 the True Necromancer becomes so adapt at necromancy that he can control more undead then any other spellcaster. The True Necromancer can control triple his level in Hit Dice of Undead created by the spell “Animate Dead” rather then double his level. At 13th level, this increases to quadruple his level.

Zone of Desecration: A 10th level True Necromancer is a master of negative energy. The True Necromancer gains a 20 foot zone of negative energy that constantly follows him everywhere he goes. This zone is treated as if it where desecrated and thus gives undead who are within it the same bonuses and benefits a desecrate spell would provide.

Bonus Feat: At 12th level, the True Necromancer gains a bonus feat for which he qualifies that must be chosen from the following list: Spell Focus(Evil), Spell Focus(Necromancy), Greater Spell Focus(Necromancy), Undead Leadership and all Corpsecrafter feats.

Major Zone of Desecration: As the True Necromancer becomes even more powerful, the size of his zone of desecration increases. At 15th level his Zone of Desecration extends 10 feet per 2 class levels.

Bonus Feat: At 16th level, the True Necromancer gains a bonus feat for which he qualifies that must be chosen from the following list: Spell Focus(Evil), Spell Focus(Necromancy), Greater Spell Focus(Necromancy), Undead Leadership and all Corpsecrafter feats.

True Immortality: At the height of his power the True Necromancer surpasses the chains of mortality. At level 20 the True Necromancer becomes immortal. He no longer ages and his appearance, if not already youthful, returns to a youthful state. In addition, if the True Necromancer is killed he becomes a ghost and automatically succeeds his rejuvenation check.

 

[Celebrim]

It's alright.

To me it feels like a specialist wizard (necromancy) with a d8 HD, one extra spell per level, and a few other extra minor abilities. Personally, if I must introduce this class to the game, I'd at the least lose the 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level bonus feats and go down to d4 HD, as otherwise I can't see how this loses anything compared to a wizard besides gaining a lot.

I'm always skeptical of limited spell lists like that, especially if you mean that to be a balancing feature. Spell lists have a tendency not to stay so limited once you start adding to the core material, and presumably there are many necromantic spells out there that are reasonable for a necromancer but not on your list.

To be fully honest though, if a player came to me with this class, I think I'd turn your essential ideas of the class into a list arcane feats and tell you to play a specialist wizard and take the feats you wanted.

To that end:

1) Rebuke Undead as a Cleric: Worth a feat, with appropriate prequisites, especially if it allows you to rebuke at something less than the full cleric progression.
2) Sacrificial Lamb: Unbalanced as written. The general idea of 'take less negative penalties' is worth a feat, but as written its like a Wish spell that lets you get more Wishes. Besides which, its bad practice to break the general rule that unwilling subjects always get a saving throw - even if you are doing it with that nebulous term 'ally'.
3) Necromantic Infusion: Unbalanced as written. See the spell Shield, etc. wizard to obtain the equivalent effect. A hardened body sort of feat that gave you inherent natural armor might be ok, but not one that was this good either in terms of the scale or in giving you that all stackable dodge bonus. This one ability alone is eventually worth like +12 to AC. That's way better than any spell or feat and indeed most magic armor with far fewer drawbacks.
4) Side effect: Bundle this into the feat that let's you rebuke undead as an arcane caster.
5) Legions of Undeath: Worth a feat.
6) Zone of Desecration: Worth a feat
7) Major Zone of Desecration: Make the feat you made for 'zone of descration' scale, or else make an 'Improved Zone of Descration'. I'd favor the former, because the effect is narrow and circumstantial.
8) True Immortality: Worth an epic feat (or at least, quasi-epic, first attainable at 20th level).
9) Domain Spells like a Cleric: See Spell Mastery, wizard.
10) Cleric Domain Powers: Worth a feat each, with appropriate requisites, especially if they don't scale with full character/class level.

Essentially, to my mind, this is a a Wizard with a particular way of chosing his 11 or 12 feats.

 

[Takhisis]

That would work, to some extent. Though there is still the issue that Wizards don't get undead animation spells until 4th level casting while a cleric still gets it at level 3. As for the lack of desecrate, a zone of desecration feat which was an arcane caster exclusive feat would help that issue a lot and actually make a wizard based necro on par with a cleric as far as boosting his undead goes. Rebuking as a feat would be nice and fine, but it would have to be full rebuking. In addition, rebuke could become an ACF for necromancy specialists. Instead of getting a familiar and scribe scroll you get full rebuke and something else....perhaps a single cleric domain from a thematically appropriate list. That would be an ok trade off in my mind since clerics get two domains, better all around stats, a spell list that is basically equal to yours sans a few powerhouse spells you have at higher levels, heavy armor and the ability to cast in it AND full rebuke, and all that comes at first level. Oh, and there is also the fact clerics auto learn all their spells while you as a wizard are stuck trying to hunt for scrolls or spend your time hoping your DM has magic-marts in every town.

The only other issue beyond the aforementioned level 4 animate dead and everything else mentioned is the lack of healing via inflict spells. That could be solved, however, simply by porting some spells over from Neverwinter Nights into 3.5e. Negative Energy Burst and Negative Energy Ray, to be exact. The burst especially would be a great healing resource for wizard based necros and if those two spells are not enough you can just homrbrew a line of "Negative Energy X" spells that are basically more or less special applications of negative energy. I could see something like a negative energy burst with a larger AOE, a negative energy orb, a negative energy cone ect... That kind of thing can easily be created simply by taking existing spells and changing their energy type to negative and their school to necromancy. Burning Hands could become "Hands of the Reaper", fireball could become "Negative Energy Sphere" a higher level one could be something like "Negative Energy Wave" and so on and so forth. Of course, another way to handle that would be a feat which gives you a power similar to the pathfinder cleric's energy channeling but for negative only and keyed off Cha, like rebuking.

So, I suppose your ideas work out if you add a few more feats to the mix. Also, as for the class being overpowered, I realize that it is. I even mentioned that in the OP. I did not make it with PC use and balance in mind. It was created more or less to be a tool for creating BBEGs and was the product of my boredom. So yeah.

As for all these feats, they would have to be arcane caster exclusive, the reason being if a cleric could take them as well clerics would once again laugh at how pathetic wizard necros are at necromancy and that's not a good thing.

Also, as for sacrificial lamb, it dose not work with wish. I never intended it to. Your reading of it applying to such spells comes from the fact I worded it completely wrong. That ability was only supposed to work with CORRUPT spells and that's all. It was meant to only apply to corrupt spells due to many corrupt spells hitting cha, the class' casting stat and I wanted the class to have a way to cast corrupt spells without completely nerfing themselves in the process. I am sorry that my ****** grammar makes the ability read as if it effects all spells, and that was not my intent.