Lord School

Lords place everything, and everybody, in one of two categories: useful or not. Even the best of them see people as game pieces they can move (for their own good of course). They consider magic their ultimate justification as it forever separates them from the common herd. However, while they rely on it, they also have little respect for abstractions, airy theories, or pure research. Lords are firm believers in practical magic. As the name suggests, most lords are interested in claiming, and then ruling, territory. Some settle for controlling organizations instead but all lords have the ego and ambition to grab for power whenever the opportunity arises. Patience and a crafty nature are all but mandatory for lords since it typically takes considerable time to build up a domain. Lords with the character to keep their drive for supremacy in check tend to rule with a certain benevolence and noblesse oblige. Those without that moral compass usually end up ruthless despots.

Lords approach adventuring with the same calculation they do everything else. It gives them opportunities to develop their magic and stockpile wealth. They also see adventures as a straightforward way to build their reputation and to cultivate useful allies or gain followers. Similarly, adventures give lords a chance to tackle rivals, real or merely potential, before they manage to further consolidate a power base. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, adventures present lords with the perfect chance to scout out lairs and territory, especially since the current owners usually end up dead or driven away.

School Powers

Lords develop abilities that enable them to make creatures under their control more effective, coerce obedience, and to draw power from their thralls.

Goad (Su)

You can push creatures under your magical control beyond their normal limits. Any one creature currently required or inclined to obey you due to a spell you cast, whether because you created it, summoned it, seized control of its mind, or for some other reason gains a +1 enhancement bonus on its attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, all skill and ability checks, and hit points per Hit Dice. This bonus increases by an additional +1 for every five wizard levels you possess up to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. You can also apply this bonus to a different creature for each plus granted. For instance, at 10th level, you grant a +3 bonus meaning you can goad three different creatures. In addition, if you control multiple creatures that are essentially identical (i.e. using the same stat block) you can apply this bonus to a number of extra creatures equal to half your wizard level (minimum of 1). This still counts as just a single use of your goad ability no matter how many identical creatures you actually enhance. At 20th level, you can apply this to each use of your goad ability where you control identical creatures instead of just one.

Compulsion Noose (Sp)

You can, as a standard action, unleash a twisting stream of a dark fibrous material that wraps itself around the neck or other body part necessary for survival of any creature you can see within 30 feet. If the target is amorphous or, at the discretion of the GM, otherwise lacking such a body part, the attack fails. As part of the attack you must determine a specific action the creature must either do or not do in order to avoid causing the noose to tighten. You cannot declare an action that is physically or morally impossible for the target to perform. Creatures with an Intelligence of 1 or higher always have some sort of instinctive notion of the action they must do or shun. You need not share a language or even state your terms out loud. However, an excessively complicated requirement might confuse a less intelligent creature causing him to bungle your instructions. If the target disregards your command he takes 2d4 points of bludgeoning damage, +1 for every two levels you possess (minimum of 1) before the noose snaps. If the creature finishes carrying out your order the noose flakes off but it otherwise remains for 1 day/level or until removed. It has a hardness equal to your Intelligence modifier and hit points equal to half your level (minimum of 1). You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier. You cannot target a creature with more than one compulsion noose at any given time.

Necessary Sacrifice (Su)

At 8th level, you can draw power and vitality from creatures under your magical control. You can cause creatures you can see, up to a maximum of half your wizard level, currently required or inclined to obey you due to a spell you cast, whether because you created it, summoned it, seized control of its mind, or for some other reason to take 2 points of damage and to also suffer a –1 penalty on all attack rolls, checks, and saving throws for 1 minute (this penalty stacks if you use it on the same creature multiple times). Draining your thralls in this way allows you to immediately gain any one of the following benefits:

• Gain 1 temporary hit point for each affected creature. Hit points gained in this way do not stack with each other over multiple uses; only the current highest one applies.
• Grant yourself a deflection bonus to AC for one round equal to the number of affected creatures.
• Teleport yourself up to 10 feet for each affected creature. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
• Increase the damage dice of the next applicable spell you cast (within one minute) by 1 for each affected creature. This does not allow you to exceed the normal maximum number of damage dice generated by that spell. Alternately, if the spell has reached its maximum damage dice, or applies damage in some other way, you can instead choose to add 1 extra point of damage for each affected creature instead. You apply this damage to each creature harmed by that spell.
• Increase the duration of the next applicable spell you cast (within one minute) by 1 of its normal time increment (rounds, minutes, hours, etc) for each affected creature. You cannot apply this to spells with an instantaneous duration.

Using this ability does not count as an attack for the purpose of spells that allow creatures new saving throws or to try other actions to break your control if you attack or harm them.

Lord School Spells

• Cantrips—mage hand, open/close
• 1st level—cause fear, charm person, dancing lantern, decompose corpse, illusion of calm, memory lapse, mount, restore corpse, summon minor monsters, summon monster I, unseen servant
• 2nd level—command undead, haunting mists, mount (communal), pilfering hand, scare, sculpt simulacrum, sentry skull, summon monster II, summon swarm
• 3rd level—animate dead (lesser), anthropomorphic animal, halt undead, mad monkeys, marionette possession, phantom driver, phantom steed, raging rubble, rain of frogs, shifting sand, suggestion, summon monster III
• 4th level—agonize, animate dead, charm monster, control summoned creature, familiar melding, fear, geas (lesser), ghost wolf, malicious spite, phantasmal killer, phantom chariot, shadow conjuration, share senses, simulacrum (lesser), summon monster IV, touch of slime
• 5th level—dismissal, dominate person, mage’s faithful hound, planar binding (lesser), soothe construct, summon monster V, unbreakable construct
• 6th level—conjure black pudding, create undead, eyebite, geas/quest, planar binding, suggestion (mass), summon monster VI, vengeful outrage
• 7th level—banishment, control construct, control undead, phantasmal revenge, shadow conjuration (greater), simulacrum, summon monster VII
• 8th level—binding, call construct, charm monster (mass), create greater undead, demand, planar binding (greater), summon monster VIII
• 9th level—dominate monster, shades, summon monster IX, weird, wooden phalanx