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Ralasha
2011-04-30, 06:40 PM
The Tomb Guardian is a spellcaster, and a necromancer, however unlike other necromancers these unusual practitioners prefer to use their abilities in the defense of the dead by allowing the dead to defend their own burial places. A Tomb Guardian may still have undead, however, the participants must be willing to undergo this horrific change. Their reasons are their own. In example, a Tomb Guardian may find a Paladin which fell fighting some evil, and offer it the chance to continue the fight, though as an undead servant.

Requirements:
Alignment: Any Non-Evil, non-Chaotic. Tomb Guardians have rules and laws. And the ways of evil do not well mesh with the ideals of a guardian of the dead.
Spell Casting: Must be able to cast 3rd level spells as a cleric, wizard, sorcerer, or other primary caster.
Feats: Spellfocus (Necromancy)
Domains: Access to the death or the repose domain. The Arcane Disciple feat counts if either the death or repose domain is chosen.
Skills: 8 ranks in Knowledge (Religion), and Knowledge (Arcana).

Hit Dice: D6

Skills: *The character retains the skill list and progression of the primary spellcasting class with which the character takes this class. (Because I'm lazy.)

Level | BAB | FS | RS | WS | Special
1 | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Speak with Dead (Su)
2 | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Undead Guardian
3 | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Detect Undead
4 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Turn/Rebuke Undead
5 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Death Pact

The Tomb Guardian:
Consideration: The character's levels in Tomb Guardian count as though each level were 1 level of cleric for determining the maximum number of hit dice the character may command, this stacks with other classes class features and effects when determining maximum number of hit dice command-able. The Undead Guardian does not count towards this limit.
Caster Level: The Tomb Guardian continues to gain spells known and caster levels as though it had continued taking levels in its primary casting class.
Speak With Dead (Su): The tomb guardian may speak with the dead as a supernatural ability. This ability is usable once per day per point of ability bonus of the character's primary casting score. (Wisdom for a cleric, intelligence for a wizard, charisma for a sorcerer, etc.)
Undead Guardian (Su): The character may chose to find a person who has died recently or in the past, and request their assistance. If they acquiesce the character gains an undead companion. Important note:Unlike standard undead this one has a mind of its own, and retains its own individuality, wisdom and knowledge. Unlike standard undead, these do not decompose, are healed by positive energy, and damaged by negative energy. This has the added effect of meaning that they are turned by rebuke attempts while turning them has no effect. They are otherwise the same as standard undead. The undead is equal to the character's Level in hit dice. The character may chose what type of 'undead' is created, up to the strongest available according to what spells it has for the creation of undead.
*See Special Note below.
The character may communicate with its undead companion as though speaking with another person in their native tongue.
If the undead guardian is killed it is not destroyed, but can instead be brought back to life as though it were a living creature. Alternatively, the character may attempt to find a new companion, leaving its old one to rest after performing proper funeral rites.
Detect Undead (Su): The tomb guardian gains the ability to detect all undead within range. This ability acts as the spell, but the character has an unlimited number of times it can use this per day.
Turn/Rebuke (Su): The character is able to turn or rebuke undead at its discretion as a cleric of it's levels in this class. If it is a cleric, the levels of this class stack with its levels of cleric. Sometimes the best way to defeat a necromancer is to use its own undead against it before putting them to rest. However, misuse of this ability costs the loss of all the abilities of this class until the character has undergone an Attonement. The character may use this ability a number of times equal to 3+Cha Mod per day. This is a seperate pool from the standard cleric's turn/rebuke pool, and may be used to either turn, or rebuke at the character's discretion. (Thus a Lawful Good Cleric 5/Tomb Guardian 4 may use rebuke undead.)
Death Pact (Su): The greatest, and most reveared duty of any tomb guardian is the defense of the dead. The Death Pact class ability allows a tomb guardian to do so. Once perday the tomb guardian may grant all of the dead within any sanctified tomb graveyard or crypt the ability to rise from death in order to defend itself against attackers. Those so risen are as they were in life, at full health, but with the undying type. Making this ability permanent requires 4 days of complicated rituals, and costs four thousand gold in precious holy oils, waters, and other materials with which the dead are anointed, blessed, and given the ability to return.
This ability also allows the tomb guardian to raise all dead within a 60' area temporarily, for 1 minute. Short term use is a full round action, and requires nothing more than a vial of holy water.
This ability does not prevent the recently dead from being raised, resurrected or otherwise returned to life after the effect ends. This time does not count against the time allotted for other spells to bring the dead back to life.
*Special Note:The tomb gurdian turns, rebukes and raises undead through a trick of positive energy. Any undead the tomb guardian creates must first be asked to assist the guardian through the use of its speak with undead ability, or through other means. If it denies the request, the tomb guardian may not raise it as undead. If it says yes, it gains the deathless type when created. Creating these creatures otherwise follows the standard rules for creating undead. All spells that normally create undead instead create deathless when cast by a tomb guardian. Thus a ghoul or other 'undead' created by a Tomb guardian is deathless instead of undead, is good or neutral aligned, and does not eat flesh of living things. Though they may still eat, they prefer food as they ate in life (This includes all undead that eat, such as vampires, ghouls, etc.). All undead created by a tomb guardian have minds of their own, and remember who and what they were in life, as well as retaining the skills they once possessed. These undead do not rot, but instead show a semblance of health, almost as though still living (due to being reanimated through positive energy).

Tacitus
2011-04-30, 06:53 PM
I'd look into the Deathless type for the Undead Guardian. They're the opposite of undead for the post-life creature, and pretty much as how you have described.

How can you misuse your Turn/Rebuke? Why would you need to atone? Either give it a bit more of a mechanical guideline or remove it.

Its a spellcaster PrC, but has 0/5 spell progression?

Ralasha
2011-04-30, 06:58 PM
Lets see: How can a GUARDIAN of the DEAD misuse turn/rebuke? How about... by raising an undead army just for the power? By making unwilling undead permanent slaves? By turning another Tomb Guardian's undead companion without reason? I thought it was rather obvious myself.

Yes, no spellcasting progression, unless you find that being able to create undead en mass is totally fitting for say... a barbarian that took no spellcasting levels at all?

The idea was to give good aligned characters a necromancy option.

Zaydos
2011-04-30, 11:26 PM
The Tomb Guardian is a spellcaster, and a necromancer, however unlike other necromancers these unusual practitioners prefer to use their abilities in the defense of the dead by allowing the dead to defend their own burial places. A Tomb Guardian may still have undead, however, the participants must be willing to undergo this horrific change. Their reasons are their own. In example, a Tomb Guardian may find a Paladin which fell fighting some evil, and offer it the chance to continue the fight, though as an undead servant.

Nice, simple fluff. I've seen it used before for good necromancers and it seems the standard, but also best, method of the ones I've seen. Practical and simple, but most importantly usable.


Requirements:
Alignment: Any Non-Evil, non-Chaotic. Tomb Guardians have rules and laws. And the ways of evil do not well mesh with the ideals of a guardian of the dead.
Spell Casting: Must be able to cast 3rd level spells as a cleric, wizard, sorcerer, or other primary caster.

Personally I would just make this must be able to cast 3rd level arcane or divine spells, maybe even just 3rd level spells. It fits with the standard format better, although it does allow bards, duskblades, and even high level paladins with a 1 level cleric dip, or (if you don't say arcane or divine) warlocks with a 1 level cleric dip. Theoretically all of these classes gain less, and lose more, from this class than a primary caster and are harder to gain entry with but could have interesting role-playing applications.


Feats: Spellfocus (Necromancy)
Domains: Access to death domain. The Arcane Disciple feat counts if the death domain is chosen.
Skills: 8 ranks in Knowledge (Religion), and Knowledge (Arcana).

Hit Dice: D6

Pretty standard.


Skills: *The character retains the skill list and progression of the primary spellcasting class with which the character takes this class. (Because I'm lazy.)

I would say making a custom skill list is advisable although this does work (makes Sorcerer entry less appealing but you weren't getting in as a pure sorcerer anyway). What about Mystic Theurges or other characters with two primary spellcasting classes? Normally you choose each level which one to add casting to, but that wouldn't work with skill list.

As for the other, I believe this is saying each level it gets +1 Caster Level for Existing Spellcasting Class which seems to have been Tacitus's concern with his question. You might want to add that to the table instead of putting it here. If I'm wrong please correct me. If I'm right, I went ahead and added it to the table I quoted so you could click quote then copy paste so that it is clearer to other readers.

Level | BAB | FS | RS | WS | Special|Spellcasting
1 | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Speak with Dead (Su)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2 | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Undead Guardian|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
3 | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Detect Undead|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Turn/Rebuke Undead|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Death Pact|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

The Tomb Guardian:
Speak With Dead (Su): The tomb guardian may speak with the dead as a supernatural ability. This ability is usable once per day per point of ability bonus of the character's primary casting score. (Wisdom for a cleric, intelligence for a wizard, charisma for a sorcerer, etc.)


Flavorful and fairly useful for information gathering. Nice.

[quote]Undead Guardian (Su): The character may chose to find a person who has died in the past, and request their assistance. If they acquiesce the character gains an undead companion. Important note:[spoiler]Unlike standard undead this one has a mind of its own, and retains its own individuality. This does not mean a skeleton can speak, and a zombies words are likely to be slurred as well, however, also unlike standard undead, these do not decompose, are healed by positive energy, and damaged by negative energy. This has the added effect of meaning that they are turned by rebuke attempts. Turning them has no effect. They are otherwise the same as standard undead. The undead is half the character's hit dice at all times. The character may communicate with its undead companion as though constantly under the effects of a speak with dead spell.

Might want to check out the Deathless type (in Book of Exalted Deeds, although I think it's also in the Eberron Campaign Setting) as it is pretty much what you described, with a few immunities to undead specific spells although it can be Rebuked/Commanded by a Turn Undead attempt.


Detect Undead (Su): The tomb guardian gains the ability to detect all undead within range. This ability acts as the spell, but the character has an unlimited number of times it can use this per day.

I'm actually surprised that this, and the next ability, are so late as the Undead Guardian seems the big ability (although getting Turn/Rebuke is potentially better for non-clerics).


Turn/Rebuke (Su): The character is able to turn or rebuke undead at its discretion as a cleric of it's levels in this class. If it is a cleric, the levels of this class stack with its levels of cleric. Sometimes the best way to defeat a necromancer is to use its own undead against it before putting them to rest. However, misuse of this ability costs the loss of all the abilities of this class until the character has undergone an Attonement.

If I'm reading this right they get the ability to Turn or Rebuke Undead 3 + Charisma modifier times per day and could in one encounter use Turn Undead to repulse some wraiths and in the next use Rebuke Undead to Command some skeletons?

If so you might want to state whether they gain a second pool of uses (normally if a good cleric gets Turn Undead it does not but should they somehow get Rebuke Undead they do).

The bolded portion seems to highlight the crux of how they could misuse this ability (rallying undead armies for long terms instead of merely taking an undead army from a necromancer for a short duration while putting him down).


Death Pact (Su): The greatest, and most reveared duty of any tomb guardian is the defense of the dead. The Death Pact class ability allows a tomb guardian to do so. Once per week the tomb guardian may grant all of the dead within any sanctified tomb graveyard or crypt the ability to rise from death in order to defend itself against attackers. Making this ability permanent requires 4 days of complicated rituals, and costs four thousand gold in precious holy oils, waters, and other materials with which the dead are annointed, blessed, and given the ability to return. This ability also allows the tomb guardian to raise the dead in an area temporarily, for 1 minute. This ability does not prevent the recently dead from being raised, resurrected or otherwise returned to life after the effect ends. This time does not count against the time allotted for other spells to bring the dead back to life. This ability is a Full Round action if used for a short time.

Nice ability, and definitely the highlight of the class, though I'm a little unclear on how it works. Would you have to reanimate them as a full round action at some point later, or do they gain some ability to sense their surroundings (if so what range, does it grant any darkvision, low-light vision, blindsense, etc) and can spend a full round action at some point themselves to fully animate?

Ralasha
2011-05-01, 03:11 AM
The primary spellcasting class... example: Sorcerer 5/Cleric 1: primary class: Sorcerer.
Wizard 5: Wizard
Cleric 5, Paladin 1: Cleric.

The primary functions of the death pact ability are outlined in the description. I will explain, the permanent ability allows them to reanimate themselves if their tomb (graveyard, crypt, or whatever structure they may be buried in) is being raided, or if enemies enter it in order to defend themselves, this means peaceful people would not be bothered, and they would not rise.

The duration for the permanent version is permanent, they are capable of rising for any period of time required in order to rid their burial places of the offenders. It takes them a full round, because presumably, they will not be entombed, enshrined, or buried standing up. This makes it so that it takes them 1 round to get up and ready, as in standing.

The dead raised in this manner are as the undead guardian, intelligent, having their own minds and skills, presumably, if a carpenter were buried in a tomb, with tools which cannot rust or corrode for his trade, he could repair any faulty woodwork in the tomb himself, assuming he had the supplies required.

This would have the added bonus of meaning tombs protected by a Tomb Guardian would not need people to repair them so long as those buried had the necessary skills to keep it in good repair, and those buried were supplied with the required materials in order to make such repairs themselves. After all, a roof coming down because the supports have weakened is a danger to those buried, and they can therefor repair it.

^.^ Something I hadn't thought of, is that you could visit with your family.

If someone would enter their tomb with hostile intentions, they would be alerted as a part of the pact. In return the Tomb Guardian would have a safe haven. That is why it is a pact, the Guardian allows them to defend themselves, and in return, they defend the Guardian. (When the guardian is there.)




Turn/Rebuke (Su): The character is able to turn or rebuke undead at its discretion as a cleric of it's levels in this class. If it is a cleric, the levels of this class stack with its levels of cleric. Sometimes the best way to defeat a necromancer is to use its own undead against it before putting them to rest. However, misuse of this ability costs the loss of all the abilities of this class until the character has undergone an Attonement.
The bolded portion seems to highlight the crux of how they could misuse this ability (rallying undead armies for long terms instead of merely taking an undead army from a necromancer for a short duration while putting him down).
^^ I'm glad to see you understood. I fixed it:

Turn/Rebuke (Su): The character is able to turn or rebuke undead at its discretion as a cleric of it's levels in this class. If it is a cleric, the levels of this class stack with its levels of cleric. Sometimes the best way to defeat a necromancer is to use its own undead against it before putting them to rest. However, misuse of this ability costs the loss of all the abilities of this class until the character has undergone an Attonement. The character may use this ability a number of times equal to 3+Cha Mod per day. This is a seperate pool from the standard cleric's turn/rebuke pool, and may be used to either turn, or rebuke at the character's discretion. (Thus a Lawful Good Cleric 5/Tomb Guardian 4 may use rebuke undead.)

A note was added at the end of the description of the tomb guardian, explaining that undead created by a tomb guardian are made through reanimation rather than through negative energy. They gain the deathless type instead of undead, and they have minds of their own.

Glimbur
2011-05-01, 03:10 PM
Yes, no spellcasting progression, unless you find that being able to create undead en mass is totally fitting for say... a barbarian that took no spellcasting levels at all?

The idea was to give good aligned characters a necromancy option.

This class requires five levels in a spellcasting class to enter

Spell Casting: Must be able to cast 3rd level spells as a cleric, wizard, sorcerer, or other primary caster.
so the example of a barbarian entering this class is unfounded. It is atypical for a class that requires so many levels (5 or 6) of a spellcasting class to not advance spellcasting at all.

Ralasha
2011-05-01, 08:32 PM
It may be Atypical, however, the class grants other abilities equivalent to spells at will, a companion, the ability to rebuke undead as a good aligned character (something normally unheard of), the ability to raise a temporary army of corpses through a full round action, and the ability to speak with the dead. It also gets good fort and will saves.

This type of PrC is not unheard of, If you wish, I'll take away the spellcasting requirements and make it knowledge religion and arcana only. Perhaps you would be happier with that? After all, that way a human could take its first level in this class at 3rd level through the use of the skill specialization feat.

Silva Stormrage
2011-05-01, 09:22 PM
It may be Atypical, however, the class grants other abilities equivalent to spells at will, a companion, the ability to rebuke undead as a good aligned character (something normally unheard of), the ability to raise a temporary army of corpses through a full round action, and the ability to speak with the dead. It also gets good fort and will saves.

This type of PrC is not unheard of, If you wish, I'll take away the spellcasting requirements and make it knowledge religion and arcana only. Perhaps you would be happier with that? After all, that way a human could take its first level in this class at 3rd level through the use of the skill specialization feat.

Um not to sound rude but all of its abilities are no where near as good as casting. The companion while nice is still less than what animate dead can give. Rebuke undead is highly overrated because you can't really control strong undead at high level due to inflation of HD.

This class seems to be very NPC orientated too since a lot of its class features only work near crypts or tombs.

Ralasha
2011-05-01, 09:49 PM
This class seems to be very NPC orientated too since a lot of its class features only work near crypts or tombs.
One of its abilities works around burial sites, not just tombs and crypts, the rest work anywhere.

How pray-tell is one ability 'a lot of its abilities'?

Silva Stormrage
2011-05-01, 10:06 PM
One of its abilities works around burial sites, not just tombs and crypts, the rest work anywhere.

How pray-tell is one ability 'a lot of its abilities'?

Sorry I should say a lot of its unique or useful abilities. As I said in my previous post the ability to rebuke undead is very very overrated. The ability to duplicate a situational 3rd level spell when they have to be able to cast 3rd level spells to get into the class doesn't seem very strong or useful. Detect Undead is situational but effective when it is needed. The companion with poor bab and half your HD in HD will be lucky to hit anything.

Death Pact is really the only unique ability and is very strong around burial places and tombs. Something that doesn't come up in a lot of games that I play. Especially since most commoners won't care if you say you are asking their spirits before raising them and will just riot on you. Therefore you have to find somewhat isolated burial grounds not just ones within towns.

Zaydos
2011-05-01, 10:37 PM
I'd say it should advance casting. The strongest ability it gets is Rebuke Undead. Death Pact might be stronger, but only depending upon what kind of creatures are available. You list ghouls in the example, but what about other undead such as vampires, ghosts, liches, mummies, wights, gravetouched ghouls, mohrg, shadows, etc? Those get rather a bit stronger. Even, then, though you can't take them with you on adventures so it is an ability of questionable usefulness (good for defending your base but not for much else) and compared to 5 levels of casting is pretty little. It's a highly limited version of Create Undead or maybe Greater Create Undead depending upon what undead are available; which they'd get at 11th or 15th level had they remained pure classed (instead of getting Death Pact at 10th).

I'd advise giving it casting progression; even then it's not a particularly powerful optimization choice because either you'd already have Rebuke Undead, or the feat tax of Arcane Disciple. Maybe make them lose 1 level of casting (most full casting PrCs are much stronger than the base class, with -1 level of casting this is still possibly a worse idea than pure wizard and almost certainly than pure cleric).

Ralasha
2011-05-01, 11:04 PM
Indeed. However, let us say Mordenkainen died. I'm a Tomb Guardian, I ask him, for some reason he says ok, and becomes my companion. I now have access to his wisdom and knowledge.

You view it from a very narrow perspective, ignoring the fact that it plainly states they remain intact mentally. Why, yes, every necromancer would want some useless peasant that knows nothing.

The companion is now equal in hit dice.

Hyooz
2011-05-01, 11:07 PM
Dread Necromancer literally does everything this class does and better in every respect.

Ralasha
2011-05-01, 11:08 PM
Dread Necromancer canb't be taken if you're a paladin or a good aligned cleric.

Thrice Dead Cat
2011-05-01, 11:12 PM
Dread Necromancer canb't be taken if you're a paladin or a good aligned cleric.

To be fair, a Paladin or cleric of a good deity would simply go about being just that and do more or less as they would. Having to cast 3rd level spells means a Paladin won't get into this class until terribly late, and a cleric would simply be a cleric instead.

Sir_Chivalry
2011-05-01, 11:14 PM
Dread Necromancer canb't be taken if you're a paladin or a good aligned cleric.

To be fair, neither can this in most situations. Name five gods besides Wee Jaas who can have non-evil clerics or arcane disciples with access to the Death domain. Now look at that list, and eliminate all the gods from splatbooks. So Wee Jaas. This is a prestige class for Wee Jaas.

If you want a god specifically, homebrew one with the Death domain, though it would need a pretty explanation why it doesn't have the Repose domain instead.

Hyooz
2011-05-01, 11:14 PM
Dread Necromancer canb't be taken if you're a paladin or a good aligned cleric.

It certainly can. The only thing preventing that is a non-mechanical note in the Alignment section that casting certain spells is considered evil, and that's a fix much simpler than losing 5 spellcasting levels. I'm not entirely sure why a Good-aligned character needs to animate the dead via some ill-defined trick of positive energy in order to defend them, either.

Ralasha
2011-05-01, 11:18 PM
Repose domain is now also accepted. Caster level and spells per day are undeterred.

Thrice Dead Cat
2011-05-01, 11:27 PM
The Tomb Guardian*fluff*

Requirements:
Alignment: Any Non-Evil, non-Chaotic. Tomb Guardians have rules and laws. And the ways of evil do not well mesh with the ideals of a guardian of the dead.
Spell Casting: Must be able to cast 3rd level spells as a cleric, wizard, sorcerer, or other primary caster.
Feats: Spellfocus (Necromancy)
Domains: Access to death domain. The Arcane Disciple feat counts if the death domain is chosen.
Skills: 8 ranks in Knowledge (Religion), and Knowledge (Arcana).

The requirements are easy enough. I dislike alignment requirements, but that's just me.


Hit Dice: D6

Skills: *The character retains the skill list and progression of the primary spellcasting class with which the character takes this class. (Because I'm lazy.)

HD are whatever. It's a caster prestige class: this could range really from d4 to d8, so no biggie. Skills, however, should actually be fleshed out, as the line there would give a bard coming into this class more skills per level than a cleric or wizard... which is kind of nonsensical.


Level | BAB | FS | RS | WS | Special
1 | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Speak with Dead (Su)
2 | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Undead Guardian
3 | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Detect Undead
4 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Turn/Rebuke Undead
5 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Death Pact

Saves and BAB look legit for a more than likely divine based PrC. The lack of casting progression is super anti-synergetic, though. Consider revising that bit.



Speak With Dead (Su): The tomb guardian may speak with the dead as a supernatural ability. This ability is usable once per day per point of ability bonus of the character's primary casting score. (Wisdom for a cleric, intelligence for a wizard, charisma for a sorcerer, etc.)

This is rather underwhelming, considering that Speak with Dead is often a "one use per day, tops" type spell. The fact that you're blowing a level on casting that could instead get you an extra spell, period, is rather underwhelming.


Undead Guardian (Su): The character may chose to find a person who has died in the past, and request their assistance. If they acquiesce the character gains an undead companion. Important note:Unlike standard undead this one has a mind of its own, and retains its own individuality, wisdom and knowledge. This does not mean a skeleton can speak, and a zombies words are likely to be slurred as well, however, also unlike standard undead, these do not decompose, are healed by positive energy, and damaged by negative energy. This has the added effect of meaning that they are turned by rebuke attempts. Turning them has no effect. They are otherwise the same as standard undead. The undead is equal to the character's Level in hit dice. The character may communicate with its undead companion as though constantly under the effects of a speak with dead spell.

While an interesting idea, it needs to be fleshed out more. It would be better to make this a unique type of undead, rather than this ambiguous "maybe a zombie, maybe a skeleton with these odd but not defined differences." I can see where you're coming from, but it does need more details down here.


Detect Undead (Su): The tomb guardian gains the ability to detect all undead within range. This ability acts as the spell, but the character has an unlimited number of times it can use this per day.

Honestly, you may as well just copypasta the text from the Paladin's Detect Evil class feature and then replace the words as necessary. For three levels that don't give casting, this is also rather underwhelming and you could, instead, basically just blow slots on either detect evil or detect undead.


Turn/Rebuke (Su): The character is able to turn or rebuke undead at its discretion as a cleric of it's levels in this class. If it is a cleric, the levels of this class stack with its levels of cleric. Sometimes the best way to defeat a necromancer is to use its own undead against it before putting them to rest. However, misuse of this ability costs the loss of all the abilities of this class until the character has undergone an Attonement. The character may use this ability a number of times equal to 3+Cha Mod per day. This is a seperate pool from the standard cleric's turn/rebuke pool, and may be used to either turn, or rebuke at the character's discretion. (Thus a Lawful Good Cleric 5/Tomb Guardian 4 may use rebuke undead.)

A) This should not be a separate pool, considering the precedent (and the presence of DMM) and B) This is not a class feature worth much in and of itself. It's just underwhelming and nothing new, especially four levels in.


Death Pact (Su): The greatest, and most reveared duty of any tomb guardian is the defense of the dead. The Death Pact class ability allows a tomb guardian to do so. Once per week the tomb guardian may grant all of the dead within any sanctified tomb graveyard or crypt the ability to rise from death in order to defend itself against attackers. Making this ability permanent requires 4 days of complicated rituals, and costs four thousand gold in precious holy oils, waters, and other materials with which the dead are annointed, blessed, and given the ability to return. This ability also allows the tomb guardian to raise the dead in an area temporarily, for 1 minute. This ability does not prevent the recently dead from being raised, resurrected or otherwise returned to life after the effect ends. This time does not count against the time allotted for other spells to bring the dead back to life. This ability is a Full Round action if used for a short time.
*Special Note:[spoiler]The tomb gurdian turns, rebukes and raises undead through a trick of positive energy. Any undead the tomb guardian creates must first be asked to assist the guardian through the use of its speak with undead ability, or through other means. If it denies the request, the tomb guardian may not raise it as undead. If it says yes, it gains the deathless type when created. Creating these creatures otherwise follows the standard rules for creating undead. All spells that normally create undead instead create deathless when cast by a tomb guardian. Thus a ghoul created by a Tomb guardian is deathless instead of undead, is good or neutral aligned, and does not eat flesh of living things. Though they may still eat, they prefer food as they ate in life. All undead created by a tomb guardian have minds of their own. These undead do not rot, but instead show a semblance of health, almost as though still living (due to being reanimated through positive energy).

So, this ability is super interesting, but needs more rules text to it. What type of undead? How are they to be statted? As they were in life? As zombies? Skeletons? Something else entirely? You should also probably differentiate between the "permanent" effect and the one minute effect. You could also reasonably bring this down to once a day, rather than once a week.

Overall, it's really just underwhelming and doesn't bring anything new to the table that couldn't have instead been duplicated by another five levels of spellcasting, a metamagic feat or two, and maybe another item. This is not good for design.

EDIT: Revise your text on caster level. There is a big difference between "caster level" and "more spells" as can be seen in the Greenstar Adept prestige class.

Ralasha
2011-05-03, 07:21 PM
Caster level progression has been fixed. It is at the beginning of class features.

Undead Guardian has no limit on what type of creature. It is up to the Tomb guardian. I suppose I should put in some type of limit as per the character's total hit dice, similar to the improved familiar feat.

Updated.

I will edit the Death Pact ability to make it more usable, and separate the short term and long term abilities into separate paragraphs.

Finished.

No other issues?