Secret College of Necromancy
3.0
Flayed Man: Among the rarest of undead creatures, a flayed man is a special form of spell-using undead that can only be created from the body of a dead necromancer.
The process for creating a flayed man requires that the body first be skinned, revealing the musculature underneath, and then treated to prevent quick decay.
None knew the secrets to raise The Ghoul’s legions, although the secrets of creating the Flayed Men and skin cloaks were discovered by Baltos Corpse-Hand.
Ghost Hound: ?
Skin Cloak, Hollow Man: The process for creating a skin cloak requires that the body first be skinned (the corpse is often used to create a flayed man). The detached skin is tanned, tattooed, and enchanted with various spells (including animate dead and death mask).
None knew the secrets to raise The Ghoul’s legions, although the secrets of creating the Flayed Men and skin cloaks were discovered by Baltos Corpse-Hand.
Undead War Elephant: Undead war elephants are enormous undead raised from the bones of a mammoth, mastodon, or elephant killed in battle or sacrificed to the Gods of Death. The thick hide of these elephants is covered with necromantic sigils and brandings, their ivory tusks blackened as if by extreme age.
Flayed Man, Rarest of Undead Creatures, Special Form of Spell-Using Undead, Fleshy Undead: ?
Ghost Hound, Dog, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Undead War Elephant, Enormous Undead, Undead Mount, Skeletal Undead: ?
Kuang Shi, Fleshy Undead: ?
Fukuranbou, Fleshy Undead: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: At 13th level, a necromancer gains the supernatural ability to raise corpses as undead with a single touch. This requires burning a spell slot equal to the HD of the undead created and does not guarantee control over the newly created undead.
Upon reaching 20th level, the death knight receives the most prized of rewards—the gift of undeath, granted to him by his his dark patrons.
Necromancy would be impossible without the necromancer’s ability to draw energy from the Negative Energy Plane to animate the undead and constructs they create.
The first reanimation of dead flesh occurred in a time before memory, in the prehistory when the power of magic was first harnessed. Some scholars believe necromancy was the first school mastered, predating even divination. The first ones—be they elves, humans, or some older, long-lost race—gathered around their fires and in the darkness. There were some who sought out spells of beauty and wonder, and then there were others who sought to know forbidden lore. Perhaps it was a bereaved mother willing to do anything to revive her dead child. Perhaps an ancient shaman, denied by the spirits, set out on his own to delay his passing by mastering the secrets of life and death. Perhaps a people now lost to history, their god slain, who turned to dark necromancy to fill the void and seek to recall him. Curiously enough, the most common legends for necromancy’s origin all place the blame soundly on humans. The other races point out that the majority of the undead are human in origin. Ergo, the argument goes, humans must have some special affinity to the dark art and have been the first to dabble in necromancy.
From the Ashes spell.
Leech spell.
Mortal Stike spell.
Skull Eyes spell.
Revenant feat.
Unruly Undead: ?
Undead Familiar: A necromancer may create an undead familiar to serve her. This familiar is unswervingly loyal to its creator and can be a conduit for the necromancer’s spells and senses at higher levels. Creating a familiar takes a week and costs 100 gp per level of the necromancer. The resulting construct or undead is unusually tough and intelligent.
Corporeal Fleshy Undead: At 18th level, a necromancer can use a successful melee touch attack to turn living creatures into undead. An unwilling target is entitled to a Will save. If the saving throw succeeds, the target is unaffected and cannot be targeted with this ability again by the same necromancer. If the save fails, the necromancer must burn a spell slot equal to half the victim’s level or HD and spend 100 XP/level of the victim (the DC for the Will save is the same as if the necromancer were casting a spell of the same level as the spell slot on the target). The target becomes a corporeal, fleshy undead creature of appropriate type and Hit Dice (typically a zombie, but a powerful creature may return as a ghoul, wight, mummy, or even vampire; the GM is the final arbiter). The target is not under the necromancer’s control, though she can attempt to establish control normally through her control undead ability. This is a supernatural ability.
Undead Bat: ?
Undead Raven: ?
Undead Serpent: ?
Flying Skull: ?
Ghost Horse: ?
Sentient Undead:?
Mindless Undead: From the Ashes spell.
Corporeal Undead: ?
Lowliest Undead: ?
Undead Made of Bone: ?
Low-Level Undead: ?
Free-Willed Creature of Darkness: Cannibalize spell.
Mindless Minion: ?
Immaterial Undead: ?
Material Undead: ?
Stronger Undead: ?
Undead Spellcaster: ?
Bound Undead: ?
Undead Slave: ?
Reanimated Undead: ?
Fleshy Undead: The bodies of the fleshy undead are imbued with negative energy that animates and sustains them.
Skeletal Undead: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Undead Horse: ?
Undead Infantry: ?
Undead Light Warhorse: ?
Undead Heavy Warhorse: ?
Undead Watchman: ?
Afterwalker: A few of those who dabble in necromancy eventually master the dark art so thoroughly that they are able to transform themselves into free-willed undead before their deaths. The most common of these (although still quite rare) are the lich and death knight, who are created when a 20th-level necromancer or living 20th-level death knight choose to undergo the transformation. Less powerful afterwalkers also exist, usually as the result of mishaps when channeling negative energy for spells like cannibalize or as the result of a necromancer dying while under the effect of from the ashes. The shade also falls into this category.
Afterwalker, Free-Willed Undead: ?
Special Undead: Undead feats can only be learned or performed by those creatures that are no longer living. Necromancers often create special undead that can perform these feats, but the magic used in their creation is a closely guarded secret.
Undead Mount: ?
Undead Lackey: ?
Lesser Undead: ?
Undead Warrior: ?
Undead Humanoid: ?
Undead Cavalry: ?
Undead Warhorse: ?
Wealthy Undead General: ?
Undead Minion: ?
Mindless Soldier: The most infamous of these was a wizard known only as The Ghoul. What he was and his true name are unknown: he is only called The Ghoul in the histories that come down to us from that era. There it is said The Ghoul—despite his name, a living man, at least to appearances—came out of the desert, promising armies and power to one Duke Hamur. Ambitious and fearful of his rivals, the Duke accepted. That night a great spell flowed out from the palace, and the dead walked. The buried clawed their way up out of the graveyards, the drowned rose from the lakes, and silently they stumbled back to their homes to embrace their families and take them into the land of death. When the dawn came, the Duke had his armies—legions of undead created from the slaughter of his own people. Furious at the betrayal, the Duke attacked The Ghoul himself—to no avail. Before that day ended, the Duke joined his own armies as another mindless soldier.
Corporeal Undead, The Ghoul's Progeny: ?
Dry Brittle Undead With Great Powers: ?
Undead General: ?
Undead Homunculi: ?
Undead Experiment: ?
Spirit, Life-Hating Undead: ?
Undead Occupant: ?
Undead Agent: ?
Obedient Undead: Creating obedient undead requires fear—not for the undead, since they are beyond that, but for those who will become undead. It is a ten[e]t of the Secret College’s necromancers that terror and fear, inflicted in life and properly done, carries over into death. In short, a man who fears in life fears the same in death.
Elder Undead: ?
Pascal, Undead Familiar Undead Coral Snake: ?
Phelbus, Intelligent Self-Willed Undead Halfling Necromancer 4, Odd Duck: Formerly, Phelbus was an extremely minor member of the Secret College who owed his membership entirely to family connections (he’s an adoptive nephew by marriage to Marrogan himself, the nearest thing the necromancers of the City have to a recognized leader). That changed after an unfortunate lab experiment—in fact, one sabotaged as a prank on the neophyte member—that somehow transformed the halfling into an intelligent, self-willed undead. Various dissections and experiments, including re-enactments with the person responsible for the accident (now deceased) forced to play a leading role, all failed to discover exactly how Phelbus had been transformed.
Allip: ?
Stronger Than Usual Allip: ?
Banshee: ?
Banshee, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Semi-Bodak, Oddity: Then there are the oddities—e.g., a semi-bodak, created by a diabolist necromancer’s search for pure evil.
Ghast: ?
Ghost, Mere Ghost: Mortal Strike spell.
Ghost, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Most Powerful Ghost: A quicklich is created when a 20th-level necromancer uses the suspend life function spell to ease her transition into undeath. When combined with the lich and hide life spells and a yearlong ritual (three times the normal period, or 360 days), she uses her own body as her phylactery. A quicklich retains the appearance she had in life, rather than the horrid, decayed skeletal visage common to most liches. If her body is destroyed, she can reform it within thirteen days, just as if she possessed the ghost’s Rejuvenation special quality. However, to do so the quicklich must have a fragment of her body separated from the rest (her heart, a little finger, a tooth, etc.) and hidden elsewhere. If this piece is destroyed she cannot again resume physical form and becomes a mere ghost, albeit still a most powerful one.
Vengeful Ghost, D'Gras Haunt: ?
Vengeful Ghost, Tormented Spirit: ?
Macabre Figure, Ghostly Terror: ?
Ghoul: Various necromancers have come up with formulae to create ghouls, with limited success (it can be done but is difficult and dangerous).
The process for creating a ghoul requires the fresh body of a particularly wicked individual (a cannibal is best), components to the cost of 2000 gp, and a week of time. After the appropriate spells are cast and the components placed on the corpse, it must be buried in a graveyard for seven nights. On the last night the ghoul must be dug up and the final incantations uttered. All told it is quite a bit of work and expense for so simple a creature, but the advantage is that created ghouls will heed their master, although they still exist only to kill.
Double-HD Ghoul: Legion of Ghouls spell.
Ghoul, Corporeal Fleshy Undead: Touch of Undeath Necromancer power.
Ghoul, Fleshy Undead: ?
Lacedon, Aquatic Ghoul: ?
Lich: The [20th level] necromancer may create a phylactery and undertake the transformation into a lich with automatic success.
Lich embalming involves all of the difficulties of mummy embalming, but with the further challenge of preserving the brain and other organs, withered and desiccated but in place, as well as the skills and memories of the target by arcane means. Any necromancer hoping to become a lich must be able to either prepare her own body for embalming (difficult at best, but usually done with instructions to mindless undead) or must teach an apprentice the art. In many cases, this apprentice is a master embalmer taken on for just this one duty.
Most of the book [Wormatia] is written in dark elven, and the spells themselves are all written in ghost writing between the lines of the elven text. Thus, it appears to be nothing more than a work of praise for the God of Death and Undeath, with long passages describing (in flowery and often allegorical terms) how the state of undeath is superior to that of living creatures. Its hints about this may help a necromancer pass from life into lich status.
Table 1-7: Embalming
Desired Result DC
Ready for Burial 12
Prepare for animation as skeleton 15
Taxidermy 18
Prepare for animation as zombie 19
Prepare for animation as mummy 25
Prepare for animation as Lich 30
Lich spell.
Mortal Strike spell.
Lich, Powerful Undead, Skeletal Undead, Afterwalker, Free-Willed Undead, Undead Master of Magic: ?
Necromancer Lich: The Road to Lichdom
For many necromancers, their entire lifetime is spent in a preparation for their death; most if not all necromancers aspire to become liches, undead masters of magic. To become a necromancer lich requires that the necromancer’s body be correctly embalmed and prepared, that her corpse be enchanted with the proper spells and wards before her death, and that she have prepared a working phylactery.
This last item is crucial; the phylactery is the foundation of lichdom. Without it, a necromancer cannot essentially raise herself into undeath. The lich uses the phylactery to store its life-force while the body is prepared for its new undead form, and to store its life-force whenever its body is destroyed and it prepares to inhabit a new one.
Enchanting a Phylactery
Each would-be lich must make her own phylactery; as repositories of life-energies, these items are too personal to be borrowed, repaired, or reused. Making the phylactery requires the use of the Craft Wondrous Item feat, a necromancer of at least 11th level, and the successful casting of the permanency spell. For purposes of the feat and spell, the lich phylactery is an item worth 120,000 gp; thus its manufacture takes 120 days and costs 4,800 XP and 60,000 gp in raw materials. Its material components include black diamond dust, black lotus powder, the dried blood of a spellcasting outsider, the still-liquid blood of a virgin, an umbilical cord animated with animate dead and braided around the outside of the container like twine, as well as a special incantation written with a toad-bone stylus and a pint of pure shadow ink.
Part of the enormous cost of enchanting a phylactery involves placing part of the caster’s arcane spellbook within the phylactery. Each spell so added contributes twice as many days and gold pieces to the cost of construction, as if the spell were being written as a scroll; the phylactery cannot hold more than 1 spell per level plus any Intelligence bonus the necromancer is entitled to. For example, an 11th-level necromancer can cast cantrips and spells from 1st to 6th level; a phylactery she makes can contain one 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-level spell, plus one extra 1st-, one extra 2nd, and one extra 3rd-level spell for her Intelligence of 16; this adds 10 days and 10,000 gp to the cost. The lich can rememorize spells placed within the phylactery as normal even while it is bodiless (see “Perpetual Undeath” below). Only necromancers are capable of adding spells to a phylactery this way; their understanding of undeath is much greater than that of wizards or sorcerers who aspire to lichdom.
In appearance, the phylactery itself is almost always a small container usually of metal or stone. The container’s contents are one of the great secrets of the road to lichdom, and they seem to vary from lich to lich. In some cases, the phylactery holds a contract that created the lich, a contract that constitutes the physical embodiment of a dark pact. This dark pact is usually written in ghost writing on a scroll made not of paper but of enchanted wind. This makes the paper impossible to burn, cut, or even rot—it also means that the scroll is invisible and the phylactery appears empty to the casual observer. Other phylacteries are said to contain no contract, but instead hold a blasphemous denial of the gods of death, a way of spitting in the eye of the divine and the afterlife, a renunciation of mortality and all its burdens. Still others are said to be empty but for the dust of a lich or demilich slain by the necromancer. Some believe that the only way to become a lich is to first destroy one, and this accounts for the relative rarity of liches despite generations of effort by devoted necromancers to achieve lichdom.
Not every phylactery is a container. A few examples of phylacteries made as jeweled rings and carved with runes are known, as are a few examples of crowns and even goblets. These are incredibly rare and are rarely made by necromancers. Such soul-phylacteries contain no necromantic spellbook.
Rebirth as a Lich
The phylactery is magically able to cast spells that the necromancer has memorized, functioning as a caster of the same level that the necromancer had at the time she became a lich (levels acquired later are never reflected in the spellcasting ability of the caster while within the phylactery).
Once the phylactery is made, the necromancer must memorize two instances of a body-switching spell such as magic jar, possess, spirit self, soul switch, suspend life function, or lich. The first of these is used to switch her soul into the phylactery; the second allows the soul to return to its body. Since there is no soul within the phylactery to switch into her own body, casting the spell means that her physical body immediately dies. This allows the necromancer’s body to be embalmed, imbued with resins, covered with the proper arcane sigils, and finally shocked into undead status with a bolt of pure negative energy. Doing so requires a successful Craft (Embalming) check with a DC of 30. In many cases, the necromancer prepares her own body using a puppet master spell from within the phylactery.
Finally, the necromancer must return her spirit from the phylactery to her original body. However, since the body is now undead, it is difficult for her soul to find its way home, and the transformation to sentient undeath is not always smooth. Depending on the spell used and the caster’s level, the journey can be simple or arduous. The necromancer must succeed in a special Undeath check with a DC 30 (Charisma bonuses apply). Apply the bonuses from Table 3-3 if the necromancer uses powerful magics to aid her rebirth as a lich, sacrifices life energy levels, or spends enormous sums on her phylactery.
If the check succeeds, the lich’s spirit finds its way back into its body. If the check fails, the soul is forever lost and can only be restored by a wish or miracle (and this restores only a living body, not granting the status of a lich on the target).
If all of these conditions have been met successfully, apply the lich template to the character. She retains all necromancer levels and gains all benefits and restrictions of lichdom.
Table 3-3: Lich Preperations
Method Bonus to Undeath Check
Lich spell +20
Soul switch +15
Magic jar +12
Spirit self +11
Possess +10
Suspend life function +5
Additional cost +1 per additional 60,000 gp spent (maximum +5 bonus)
Life energy* +1 per level sacrificed (no maximum)
20th-level Necromancer Automatic success
*The levels sacrificed must be her own; the necromancer casts energy drain on herself while holding the phylactery.
Desiccated Undead Lich: The phylactery also provides shelter to a lich’s life force when its body is destroyed. Unless the phylactery is located and destroyed, the lich always reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death. When its body is “killed,” the lich’s life force automatically returns to the phylactery, no matter how distant the phylactery is or how the lich is killed. The lich retains all its existing spells and memories despite the sudden transfer.
Once there, the use of a cloned body can restore the lich to a new body identical to its previous body (if the necromancer has prepared for this event carefully enough) or the lich can simply use puppet master, magic jar, possession, or similar body-snatching spells to take over a new body within range. The target creature is entitled to a Will save; if it succeeds, the lich’s attempt is thwarted and the undead must find another host. If the attack succeeds, the victim immediately transforms into a desiccated undead lich, losing all its existing skills, levels, and feats but gaining those of the lich, whose personality destroys the soul that formerly inhabited that body.
Quicklich, Living Lich: A quicklich is created when a 20th-level necromancer uses the suspend life function spell to ease her transition into undeath. When combined with the lich and hide life spells and a yearlong ritual (three times the normal period, or 360 days), she uses her own body as her phylactery. A quicklich retains the appearance she had in life, rather than the horrid, decayed skeletal visage common to most liches. If her body is destroyed, she can reform it within thirteen days, just as if she possessed the ghost’s Rejuvenation special quality. However, to do so the quicklich must have a fragment of her body separated from the rest (her heart, a little finger, a tooth, etc.) and hidden elsewhere. If this piece is destroyed she cannot again resume physical form and becomes a mere ghost, albeit still a most powerful one.
Friendly Lich: ?
Enslaved Mohrg: ?
Mummy, Normal Mummy: Mummy embalming is an extremely long and involved process that requires desiccation of the body, soaking in natron salts, removal of the brain and organs, varnishing with resin and preservatives, and wrapping with long bands of linen interspersed with protective symbols, charms, and amulets. A successful check doubles the expected duration period of a mummy and provides it with a +2 bonus against fire (see page 52).
Table 1-7: Embalming
Desired Result DC
Ready for Burial 12
Prepare for animation as skeleton 15
Taxidermy 18
Prepare for animation as zombie 19
Prepare for animation as mummy 25
Prepare for animation as lich 30
Natron Salts
Special chemical salts used as desiccating agents for the preservation of bodies, particularly when creating mummies.
Constructing a mummy is a difficult and time-consuming task. Of course it begins with a body, still living. The embalming rituals that follow both preserve the body and bind the spirit to the body. The process involves drugging the subject and then removing and preserving the organs, keeping the victim alive for as long as possible. Once death finally occurs (usually when the heart and lungs are removed), the flesh is cured with natron salts (packed into the newly-created body cavities) and embalming resins, and the body wrapped in linen strips that have been enchanted to seal the embalming. When the embalming is complete, the final spells and rituals must be uttered over the body. If all is done right (and there are several opportunities to err) the mummy will awaken to unlife. Aside from the materials—the body, salts, resins, etc.—the process requires an expenditure of 10,000 gp for everything from ritual robes and a ceremonial copy of The Book of Coming Forth by Day (also known as The Book of the Dead) to incenses made from exotic woods and ground gems. The process requires six to nine months of work, during which time the necromancer is not available for other activities (such as adventuring).
From the Ashes spell.
Touch of Undeath Necromancer power.
Double-HD Mummy: Legion of Mummies spell.
Mummy, Fleshy Undead Creature: ?
Mummy, Skeletal Undead: ?
Mummy, Powerful Creature: ?
Mummy, Victim: ?
Mummy, Powerful Servant: ?
Nightshade: ?
Shadow, Normal Shadow: ?
Double-HD Shadow: Legion of Shadows spell.
Shadow, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Shadow, Conjuration: ?
Shadow, Sentient Being Made Partly of Negative Energy: ?
Shadow, Sentient Being Made Wholly of Negative Energy: ?
Skeleton, Animated Skeleton: Preparing a skeleton for animation involves removing all skin and flesh by boiling but preserving cartilage and ligaments in place for proper range of motion of the animated bones. It also hardens foot and hand bones for greater durability. A successful check doubles the expected duration period of a skeleton.
Table 1-7: Embalming
Desired Result DC
Ready for Burial 12
Prepare for animation as skeleton 15
Taxidermy 18
Prepare for animation as zombie 19
Prepare for animation as mummy 25
Prepare for animation as lich 30
It would seem with the ability to use animate dead to create skeletons and zombies any necromancer could raise an unstoppable army (or at least a really big one), just like The Ghoul, and conquer the world.
Skeleton, Talking Undead: Ancient Wisdom spell.
Skeleton, Undead Made From Bone, Skeletal Undead: ?
Intelligent Skeleton: Cannibalize spell.
Double-HD Skeleton: Legion of Skeletons spell.
Blood Skeleton: ?
Skeleton, Daily Servant: ?
Skeleton Servant: ?
Spectre: ?
Spectre, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Strangling Specter: ?
Vampire: Mortal Strike spell.
Touch of Undeath Necromancer power.
Vampire, Corporeal Fleshy Undead Creature, Powerful Undead, Fleshy Undead: ?
Neith, Vampiric Necromancer: ?
Wight: From time to time, necromancers have attempted to create wights, but while these experiments have met with limited success the resultant undead are invariably so difficult to control that the necromancers eventually abandon that line of research for more reliable ghouls, mummies, or constructs.
Touch of Undeath Necromancer power.
Wight, Corporeal Fleshy Undead, Fleshy Undead: ?
Tamed Wight: ?
Wraith: ?
Double-HD Wraith: Legion of Wraiths spell.
Wraith, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Zombie, Animated Zombie: At 13th level, a necromancer gains the supernatural ability to raise corpses as undead with a single touch. This requires burning a spell slot equal to the HD of the undead created and does not guarantee control over the newly created undead. Thus, to create a zombie (2 HD), she must expend a 2nd-level spell slot; to control it, she must make a successful control undead attempt.
A zombie embalming preserves the corpse from quick decay, keeping the flesh intact by draining the most easily corrupted fluids and removing unnecessary organs (such as the lungs and intestines) that are often the first site of decay. A successful check doubles the expected duration period of a zombie.
Table 1-7: Embalming
Desired Result DC
Ready for Burial 12
Prepare for animation as skeleton 15
Taxidermy 18
Prepare for animation as zombie 19
Prepare for animation as mummy 25
Prepare for animation as lich 30
It would seem with the ability to use animate dead to create skeletons and zombies any necromancer could raise an unstoppable army (or at least a really big one), just like The Ghoul, and conquer the world. Obviously it hasn’t happened. Why?
Touch of Undeath Necromancer power.
Zombie, Corporeal Fleshy Undead Creature, Fleshy Undead: ?
Double-HD Zombie: Legion of Zombies spell.
Fresh Zombie: ?
Zombie, Talking Undead: Ancient Wisdom spell.
Intelligent Zombie: Cannibalize spell.
Zombie, Daily Servant: ?
Zombie, Cheap Manpower Solution: ?
Zombie Servant: ?
Ancient Wisdom
Necromancy
Level: Nec 1, Clr 1
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Effect: Target skull becomes inhabited by spirit
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
The target skull becomes home again to the spirit that once inhabited it. The skull does not gain mobility or any attacks, nor can it feel pain. It can see what is in front of it (darkvision to 60 feet) and can hear and speak normally. The skull is under no compulsion to answer questions put to it but can sometimes be convinced to cooperate with the caster by use of successful Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate checks. It still speaks the languages it knew in life.
Many necromancers use this spell on close relatives or departed loved ones, late masters, unlucky apprentices, or hated rivals. (Having the spirits of one's greatest enemies imprisoned on one's laboratory shelves can be very satisfying.) Skulls can be attacked as objects (Hardness 1, hp 2).
Ancient wisdom can be combined with animate dead to create talking undead, such skeletons or zombies. Note, however, that the skull has no control over the body it is attached to unless the caster allows it.
If the skull is destroyed, the spirit flees.
Cannibalize
Necromancy
Level: Nec 3
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Hp transfer from undead
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: See below
Spell Resistance: No
You steal hit points from low-level undead to heal your injuries. For each HD of undead destroyed by the spell, you gain 1d3 hit points. You cannot gain hit points beyond your maximum, merely replace those lost by injury or disease. The spell affects undead of up to 4 HD.
However, the process is dangerous, because it infuses negative energy into a living body. If you gain hit points equal to two-thirds of your total by this method, you must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 19). Failure results in immediate transformation into an undead state as a free-willed creature of darkness—typically an intelligent skeleton or zombie. Despite the danger, this spell can be immensely handy in a tight spot, buying a necromancer time to escape or regroup by sacrificing mindless minions.
From the Ashes
Necromancy
Level: Nec 7
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: A 1-week ritual
Range: Personal
Effect: Allows slain caster to spontaneously animate as undead
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: No
This necromantic contingency allows you to return from the dead. However, unlike divine spells such as raise dead and resurrection, it has no power to restore life; instead, you return as one of the undead.
You must make a successful Will saving throw when you die (whether by violence or natural causes makes no difference). If successful, you become an undead creature with Hit Dice equal to your level. Your personality remains intact.
If unsuccessful, you become mindless undead of a type whose HD equal to one-half your level (rounded down). For example, a 12th-level necromancer who made her save might become a vampire (12 HD); one who failed might become a mummy (6 HD) or stronger than usual allip (6 HD). The manner of your demise is also important, since affects the possible outcome—a necromancer whose body is destroyed cannot become any type of corporeal undead but instead defaults to the next lowest type of immaterial undead.
Material Component: An elixir compounded from the bodily remains of undead types which the caster could potentially become. These include ground bone from a skeleton, juice from rendered zombie and ghoul fragments, mummy powder, vampire and lich dust, and captured essences from a shadow, wight, wraith, spectre, and ghost. Drinking this concoction renders you helpless for 10 days, minus one day for every three points of Constitution.
Leech
Necromancy
Level: Dkn 3, Nec 3
Components: S, M
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 ft./level
Effect: Drains life force
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
This spell drains hit points from a single living target creature within range and transfers them to the caster. If the target fails its save, it loses 1d6 hit points for every two of your caster levels (round down), to a maximum of 5d6 hp. Simultaneously, you gain half as many hit points as the target lost (the transfer is not very efficient, the remaining points simply being drained away by the Negative Energy Plane). These are temporary hit points, like those granted by an aid spell, lasting only 1 round/caster level.
A target killed by leech has a 5% chance, plus 5% per every five levels of the caster, of spontaneously animating as an uncontrolled undead within 24 hours.
Arcane Material Component: A remora scale, and blood sucked from a giant leech.
Legion of Ghouls
Necromancy
Level: Nec 8
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: A circle 40 ft. in diameter
Effect: Creates ghouls
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No
As legion of skeletons, but creates 1d4 ghouls/level of the caster. They have double the normal Hit Dice of ghouls.
Material Component: One hundred ghoul claws.
Arcane Focus: A war horn looted from a grave.
Legion of Mummies
Necromancy
Level: Nec 9
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: A circle 40 ft. in diameter
Effect: Creates mummies
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No
As legion of skeletons, but creates 1d6 mummies/level of the caster. The mummies have double the Hit Dice of normal mummies.
Material Component: One hundred jeweled scarabs pried from powdered mummy bandages (2,000 gp).
Arcane Focus: A pharaoh’s crown, crook, and flail.
Legion of Shadows
Necromancy
Level: Nec 8
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: A circle 40 ft. in diameter
Effect: Creates shadows
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No
As legion of skeletons, but creates 1d6 shadows/level of the caster. They have double the Hit Dice of normal shadows.
Material Component: A shadow bottle.
Arcane Focus: Twenty flickering candles.
Legion of Skeletons
Necromancy
Level: Nec 7
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: A circle 40 ft. in diameter
Effect: Creates skeletons
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No
You create a small army of undead skeletons, which claw their way out of the earth at the end of the round and attack opponents as you direct. Legion of skeletons creates 1d6 skeletons for each of your caster levels; these skeletons appear in a circle roughly 40 feet in diameter, with the caster at the center. They have double the normal Hit Dice of skeletons. They can be turned or rebuked normally, but their circular formation means several turning attempts are usually required to cover all of them. If cast in an unhallowed graveyard or catacombs, the number of skeletons increases to 2d6/level.
Material Component: One hundred teeth from humanoid skeletons.
Arcane Focus: A war horn looted from a grave.
Legion of Wraiths
Necromancy
Level: Nec 9
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: A circle 40 ft. in diameter
Effect: Creates [wraith]s
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No
As legion of skeletons, but this spell creates 1d3 wraiths/level of the caster. The wraiths have double the Hit Dice of normal wraiths.
Material Component: Ashes from hundred burnt burial shrouds.
Arcane Focus: An iron crown blessed by the God of Death.
Legion of Zombies
Necromancy
Level: Nec 7
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: A circle 40 ft. in diameter
Effect: Creates zombies
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No
As legion of skeletons, but this spell creates 1d4 zombies per level of the caster. They have double the normal Hit Dice of zombies.
Material Component: One hundred powdered skulls.
Arcane Focus: A war horn looted from a grave.
Lich
Necromancy
Level: Nec 9
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 week
Range: Personal
Effect: You become a lich
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: Fortitude (see text)
By drinking a potion compounded of rare herbs, deadly poisons, and pure negative energy distilled into liquid form, you pass over the border from life to death, and from death into undeath, and become a lich. This spell allows the caster to compound the proper liquid and ceremony that must precede the transformation. If the potion succeeds, you gain the lich template. If not, you die upon drinking the potion and remain dead. This spell cancels any other contingency in effect on the character, including from the ashes.
Arcane Focus: Your phylactery. This spell does not create a lich’s phylactery, but the phylactery must be complete and ready for use when the ritual begins.
Mortal Strike
Necromancy [Mortal Curse]
Level: Nec 9
Components: V or S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Special, see below
Effect: One or more creatures
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
You curse your killer with your dying breath. The target must be present and within line of sight. Like a contingency, this spell is cast ahead of time but doesn’t take full effect until later— specifically, when the caster dies by violence. Unlike other mortal curses, a mortal strike can target either an individual or a group, so long as they played a significant role in the caster’s death. The caster’s life-force is converted into negative energy, strikes the target(s), and bestows negative levels upon them at the rate of one negative level per HD/level of the caster. This posthumous attack takes two forms, an arc or a burst.
Arc: The dying spellcaster chooses a specific target for the mortal curse and singles out that target by word, glare, or gesture. A great black bolt of negative energy arcs from her body to strike the target (no attack roll needed, no save permitted). The target acquires negative levels equal to the caster’s levels.
Burst: If the caster does not specify a single target, the negative energy explodes in a shock wave, bestowing negative levels on all who contributed to her death. These negative levels are divided equally among her killers, with any excess going to the creature that struck the final blow. The caster’s allies are not harmed by the burst; undead allies temporarily gain extra HD/levels equal to the average negative levels bestowed on a given foe.
Once laid, a mortal curse is difficult to lift. Victims gain no save to resist initially acquiring the negative levels. Those negative levels are harder than usual to remove before they create permanent level loss: all Fort saves suffer a –5 penalty, plus –1 per point of the deceased caster’s Charisma bonus. Even restoration requires a successful Fort save to have any effect.
A character killed by a mortal strike becomes an undead of appropriate type and Hit Dice. If free-willed, he or she becomes a convert who carries on the work of the deceased necromancer.
The spell’s chief component is the caster’s ebbing lifeforce; hence it can only take effect upon your demise. Since the mortal strike converts life-force explosively into negative energy, the caster cannot later be resurrected or raised from the dead. Instead, she has a 50/50 chance of either being destroyed outright or transformed into undead (typically a ghost, vampire, or lich). If she becomes undead, treat her as the beneficiary of a ghost’s Rejuvenation power (cf. MM page 213, except that the DC for her save is 30, not 16).
Undead spellcasters can cast mortal strike, but in these cases the spell is powered by their animating energies and they are invariably and irrevocably destroyed by its activation. Liches often place this mortal curse on their phylactery, so that if it is destroyed and their essence lost they gain a parting shot at their destroyer(s).
Skull Eyes
Necromancy, Divination
Level: Nec 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Personal
Effect: See life energy
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No
Your eyes become black hollows, yet with them you can detect life forces and the energies of the undead. The amount of information gained depends on the strength of the target creature’s life energies. You see all creatures hidden in shadow, incorporeal creatures, and the true type of creatures hidden by illusion. You cannot see invisible creatures or constructs, and you do not see the true type of polymorphed creatures.
For each creature in line of sight, you can make Spellcraft skill checks to determine creature type (Humanoid, Fey, Animal, etc.). Make one check per creature (DC 16). If successful, you detect the level or Hit Dice of the creature.
Table 2-2: Skull Eyes
Level/HD Strength
less than 1 Dim
1 to 3 Faint
4 to 6 Moderate
7 to 9 Average
10 to 12 Strong
13 to 15 Very Strong
16+ Overwhelming
For the duration of the spell, the caster has the undead subtype, with all its benefits and hindrances.
Revenant (General)
The character returns from the dead with a single purpose: to avenge herself on the person or things who wronged her.
Prerequisites: Iron Will, Wis 15+, character level 5+.
Benefit: A character reduced to –10 hp or less becomes a revenant thirsty for vengeance. The character’s type changes to undead and HD type increases to d12. The revenant retains its base attack bonus, spell complement, feats, and skills. This return from death occurs 1d6 days after the character’s death. In addition, he gains the ability to regenerate 4 hp per round. He is effectively under a geas to find and kill the creature(s) that reduced him to 0 hp or less; this compulsion cannot be removed. When the last of his killers is dead, the revenant returns to the earth, permanently dead.
Special: Death knights, as violent as they are already, are far more likely to get up after death to wreak vengeance on the source of their demise. A death knight may gain this feat without requiring the Iron Will prerequisite. Death knights with the Unnatural Vigor ability do not become revenants until they are actually dead.
Touch of Undeath
At 18th level, a necromancer can use a successful melee touch attack to turn living creatures into undead. An unwilling target is entitled to a Will save. If the saving throw succeeds, the target is unaffected and cannot be targeted with this ability again by the same necromancer. If the save fails, the necromancer must burn a spell slot equal to half the victim’s level or HD and spend 100 XP/level of the victim (the DC for the Will save is the same as if the necromancer were casting a spell of the same level as the spell slot on the target). The target becomes a corporeal, fleshy undead creature of appropriate type and Hit Dice (typically a zombie, but a powerful creature may return as a ghoul, wight, mummy, or even vampire; the GM is the final arbiter). The target is not under the necromancer’s control, though she can attempt to establish control normally through her control undead ability. This is a supernatural ability.
