Lord of the Dead

Lords of the dead are servants of a god of death, favored for their ability to spread the plague of undeath amongst the world of the living. They lead cults of the god of death, initiate pestilences and pandemics, and create undead wherever they can.

Necro-lords are overwhelmingly clerics and necromancers (both living and undead), though vampires, ghouls, wights, and other spawn-creating undead can also take up the mantle of a lord of the dead.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To qualify to become a lord of the dead, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Alignment: Any evil.

Base Attack Bonus: +4.

Skills: Heal 2 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 2 ranks.

Deity: A god of death.

Special: Ability to create undead. The ability to cast animate dead, create undead, or create greater undead qualifies, as does many undead’s Create Spawn ability. Using magic items, however, does not qualify.

Class Skills

The lord of the dead’s class skills (and the key ability for each) are Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: Lord of the Dead
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special Spell Progression
1st +0 +1 +0 +1 Gluttony, one with death, plaguebearer
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd +1 +1 +1 +1 Create food and water
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
3rd +1 +2 +1 +2 Spawn mastery
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th +2 +2 +1 +2 Greater plaguebearer, heroes’ feast
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th +2 +3 +2 +3 Cheat death, truly one with death
+1 level of existing spellcasting class

Class Features

The following are class features of the lord of the dead prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Lords of the dead gain no new proficiencies with any armor or weapons.

Gluttony (Ex)

A lord of the dead requires twice as much food and water as he would otherwise.

One With Death (Ex)

A Lord of the dead lives at the intersection of life and death. A living lord of the dead becomes immune to damage from negative energy, while an undead one becomes immune to damage from positive energy. (Other effects relying on negative or positive energy, such as Turn Undead, work normally, they simply deal no damage.)

At 5th level, a lord of the dead is healed by both positive and negative energy.

Plaguebearer (Su)

A lord of the dead is immune to non-magical diseases. However, the lord of the dead may choose at the time of infection to become a carrier for the disease. A carrier shows all superficial signs of a disease (such as sores, boils, a cough, etc.) and can infect others, but suffers no ability damage or other serious ill effects. A carrier can attempt Fortitude saves to recover (or choose not to) or be magically healed as normal.

Additionally, a lord of the dead may cast contagion or remove disease each once per day as a spell-like ability. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Spells per Day

When a lord of the dead gains a level, he gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of lord of the dead to the level of whatever other spellcasting class he has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before he became a lord of the dead, he must choose which class he adds each lord of the dead level to for the purpose of determining spells per day.

If the lord of the dead has no levels in a spellcasting class, he instead gains one 1st-level spell slot, which he may use to prepare spells from any of a god of death’s domains as if he were a cleric. His caster level is equal to twice his lord of the dead class level. With each new lord of the dead level, he gains a new spell slot for a spell level equal to his class level. A 5th level lord of the dead would thus have a spell slot for one domain spell from 1st to 5th level spells. The lord of the dead’s Wisdom score determines the number of bonus spells and spell save DCs.

Create Food and Water (Sp)

At 2nd level, a lord of the dead may cast create food and water (CL 1st) once per day as a spell-like ability, save that the food and drink produced is delicious, in addition to being nourishing.

Spawn Mastery (Su)

At 3rd level, whenever a lord of the dead would create a free-willed undead, that undead is instead under the lord of the dead’s control. A lord of the dead can control up to 4 HD of undead per lord of the dead level in this manner. Excess undead are free-willed unless previously controlled undead are released.

Greater Plaguebearer (Su)

At 4th level, a lord of the dead becomes immune to magical diseases as well, and may cast contagion and remove disease each twice per day.

Heroes’ Feast (Sp)

At 4th level, the lord of the dead may cast heroes’ feast (CL 3rd) instead of create food and water.

Cheat Death (Ex)

At 5th level, if a lord of the dead is ever slain or destroyed, his soul steals away, just as their god did ages ago. The lord of the dead rises as if affected by raise dead 1d4 hours after its death. This affects even destroyed undead, but not a creature that has been dismembered or had its body destroyed.

However, escape from death is fleeting. A creature restored in this manner will simply drop dead after 2d6 days, unless otherwise restored to full life. The GM should roll this secretly, so the lord of the dead does not know how much time remains. A raise dead or similar spell will restore a living creature to life. Undead creatures, such as a lich, can replace a destroyed phylactery. As most undead cannot be restored to life (or unlife), they will be destroyed when the effect ends.

Truly One with Death (Ex)

At 5th level, a lord of the dead is healed by both positive and negative energy.

Section 15: Copyright Notice
Wayfinder #1. © 2009, Paizo Fans United. Author: Adam Daigle, Charles Evans, Clinton J. Boomer, Colter “Dreamweaver” Guthrie, Craig “flash_cxxi” Johnston, Cristian “Cicattrix” Bodea, Dennis “daOgre” Baker, Eric “Epic Meepo” Morton, Ernesto “Montalve” Ramirez, Guy Humual, Hal Maclean, Ian “cappadocious” Cunningham, Kelly “Gotrek22” Gragg, Jeff “Shadowborn” Lee, Jonathan “Wicht” McAnulty, Joshua “Zynete” Blazej, Justin “Black Fang” Sluder, Larry “Larcifer” Wilhelm, Lissa “SunshineGrrrl” Guillet, Matthew “The Twitching King” Stinson, Michael “Ask a Shoanti” Kortes, Mike “taig” Welham, Neil Spicer, Ross Byers, Russ Taylor, Paris Crenshaw, Tae-Bin “Nerrat Dei” Gulliver, Theodore “Zuxius” Thompson, Troy E. Taylor.
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