[Screen Name] Disciple of The Chris

[TheChris]

Kidouses had seen his share of pain and misery. Parents killed by bandits, siblings sold into slavery, he would have been too if not for his ability to run and hide. By the age of eight he was alone and angry. Few people noticed him but one man did. His dark robes seem to make light flee from them and his eyes seemed to know the sadness of the world. Looking back, Kidouses would never know why he followed him, but he did. The man told him about the ways of The Chris. Existence had been corrupted and was useless. The only way to fix the problems was to start again. Kidouses embraced the teachings with a passion and began the path.

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Twenty disciples stood in a circle, each member wore those shadowy dark robes Kidouses saw on the first day. All but the leader of the circle. His robes were the shadowy black but on those robes were red symbols. “Brothers,” the leader spoke, “today is a momentous day! Choosing the path of The Chris is not easy and proving your worth is harder. Today, we recognize such proof. Kidouses, once you were an outsider now we bring you into our fold. You are us and we are you.” There was a moment of silence followed by low chanting of the others. The chanting became louder and louder till Kidouses thought his very head would burst. The leader raised his arms and chanted the loudest and suddenly it was silent. Kidouses was confused because he could see the disciples chanting as fervent as ever and that is when he heard, “Welcome my son. You have proved yourself and together we will remake this world”
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It had been years since Kidouses had first been in a circle. He was only a young man then, now he was older. He was far from being the oldest disciple, but some days he felt as though he was. This circle was different though. There was no initiate; there was only the cabal and him. “Do not worry my son, you are honored” the voice told him. He knew to believe, it was painful if you did not….he would make it painful for disobedience. As the circle began the chanting, Kidouses stood quiet. Slowly he walked to the middle of the circle. There was no blinding flash, no darkness, nothing. Once the chanting stopped, Kidouses simply opened his eyes. He spoke with a voice that was not his own, which brought everyone to a knee, “My children. It is time we ended this existence”

Disciple of The Chris

The Chris was not a deity but instead was a simple man who was dedicated to destroying all of existence. Those who follow The Chris are exceptionally knowledgeable about Necromancy and the undead and usually spend their lives in the practice and study of necromancy. They hope that by harnessing the negative power of magic that they can end all life. Most disciples feel that the life on this planet no longer deserves to exist for one reason or another and feel that things must start over. While The Chris is not a deity, he is loved by many. The gods of death and destruction have given him a special place in the afterlife for which he is appreciative.
Most Disciples of The Chris were once wizards or sorcerers, but rogues and druids have also been known to join.
Those of The Chris are usually alone by their nature. They prefer not to associate with those who are not like them. After all, those are the ones who must die. But then again, none of them are ever alone. Once a disciple is accepted into the following he is linked to The Chris in a special way. If The Chris so wishes he can speak to each one of them through their minds and the disciple can speak back. While in a cabal of other disciples they cooperate together in an organized manner. But individually each member is constantly grabbing for power and ways to increase their knowledge and bring the day of rebirth closer. Those who follow The Chris are usually secretive of their ways but many people consult them for their knowledge of death, especially those who have just lost a loved one.
If someone is found to be a disciple they are usually cast out for the organization is considered a threat by most all societies and is outlawed.

Hit Die: d4

Requirements:
Alignment: Non lawful and Non good.
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks.
Special: Must be able to cast at least 4th level arcane Necromancy spells, Spell Focus: Necromancy, Must be initiated into the order by a cabal of at least four disciples

Class Skills: bluff(cha), concentration(con), decipher script(INT), Forgery(INT), Intimidate(cha), Knowledge(arcana) (INT),Knowledge(religion) (INT), Sense Motive(wis), and Spellcraft(INT)

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int

Lev BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +0 +0 +0 +2 sight of dead, control death
2 +1 +0 +0 +3 Death premonition
3 +1 +1 +1 +3 Death Dealing +1, The Calling
4 +2 +1 +1 +4 Death Feed 1/day
5 +2 +1 +1 +4 Death Dealing +2, Poison Immunity
6 +3 +2 +2 +5 The Calling Leader
7 +3 +2 +2 +5 Death Dealing +3 Death Feed 2/day
8 +4 +2 +2 +6 Snuff Out
9 +4 +3 +3 +6 Death Dealing +4. Death Feed 3/day
10 +5 +3 +3 +7 Death Dealing +5, The Calling Vassal
*In addition for each level the Disciple gains one level of existing arcane caster class

Class Features
Sight of Dead (Su): By merely touching a corpse the Disciple is able to see the past 30 minutes of the corpse’s life as though he were living it. The disciple becomes oblivious to the outside world and appears as though he were in a trance. This will work on corpses that have been dead for 1 day + 1 day/level. Range Touch

Control Death (Ex): Having an intricate understand of death and how it works each disciple is able to stabilize himself immediately after going into negative hit points

Death Premonition(Sp): The target sees his own death as a very violent and fear causing event. The fear is so intense that the target is frozen for 1d4 rounds in the same fasion of a hold person spell. Range 60 ft. Target: 1 living creature. Will negates.

Death Feed(Su): As battle rages on the Disciple becomes more and more engrossed in what’s going on around him. When living creatures die he becomes zealous and finds strength for his own cause. This causes him to gain 3 temporary hit points for the day. This only takes affect during an encounter. Throughout the day the Disciples veins are more pronounced and his eyes turn blood shot.

Snuff Out(Su): Ends the life of one creature. It is a melee touch attack and if is successful then the creature dies. Fortitude will cause only partial damage of 6d6 damage.

The Calling (Ex): The Calling is a ceremony preformed by a cabal of at least 4 disciples and a leader. The purpose of The Calling is to summon the spirit of The Chris into the midst of the circle. When in this form they may converse with him as normal and receive their commands. If there is a leader who is also a Vassal then The Chris will take possession of the body of the vassal. This is rarely done except for days of great ceremony or meaning to the order. Being able to be a part of the Calling shows that the disciple is a true believer. The disciple gains +4 to intimidate checks due to his zeal and dogma

Death Dealing (Ex): Starting at the 3rd level the Disciple gains a bonus that increases his caster level for the purpose of spells that have variables that depend on spell levels. This also applies to anything that uses a caster level check. Note: this only applies to spells that deal damage*. Any other spells function as normal

"Darkness before Dawn, Emptiness before Substance, Death before Rebirth." –The book of Rebirth

*This is direct damage like fireball, lightning, etc. Summoning monsters, controling creatures, and traps do not count.

** All DCs for this class are the basic D&D saving throws. DC= 10+level of the spell +bonus relevant ability(INT in this case) Example: Kidouses with an int modifier of +5 casts snuff out and hits. The temple guard has to make a fortitude save of 10+8(spell level)+5(intel modifier) which is 23.

[Starbuck_II]

I have a question about the DCs:
What is the Dc for Sniff Out & Death premonition?

Druids aren't arcane casters, how can they benefit from +1 level of existing arcane caster?

Does Death Feeds stack? Example Lv7 Disciple can do this twice/day. Can I use it twice and possibly gain +6 temporary Hps?

[TheChris]

Snuff out is a Fort save
Premonition is a Will save
Normal saving throws. DC= 10+level of the spell +bonus relevant ability(INT in this case)

You're right druids don't cast arcane magic. The point of including druids and whatnot is that it's not a pure wizard organization. A druid who cross classes into wizard would be just fine. Though I should edit that to be more specific.

And yes death feed does stack. So if you killed 2 creatures you could gain 6 hp.

[Zherog]

Originally Posted by TheChris

<<snipped flavor text>>

Nice flavor text. Explains the class well.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Hit Die: d4

Requirements:
Alignment: Non lawful and Non good.
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks.
Special: Must be able to cast at least 4th level arcane Necromancy spells

The hit die is OK for the class. The pre-reqs are really easy. I'd recommend adding, "Special: Must be initiated into a cabal yadda yadda yadda." You could also probably add Spell Focus (Necromancy) and not hurt the flavor of the class any.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Class Skills: Alchemy(INT), bluff(cha), concentration(con), decipher script(INT), Forgery(INT), Intimidate(cha), Knowledge(arcana) (INT),Knowledge(religion) (INT), Sense Motive(wis), and Spellcraft(INT)

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int

Alchemy is actually Craft (Alchemy). I'd lower it to 2 + int mod per level. Wizards are going to have a high INT bonus, meaning they're gonna end up maxing just about every skill in the class list. Lowering the number of ranks to 2 forces the character to make some decisions.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Class Features

You forgot to list armor and weapon proficiencies. Additionally, you need to specify whether these abilities are Ex, Su or Sp.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Sight of Dead: By merely touching a corpse the Disciple is able to see the past 30 minutes of the corpse’s life as though he were living it.

What sort of action is it? Does he touch the corpse and instantly see the full 30 minutes, or does he have to spend real time - if he wants to know all 30 minutes, he needs to spend 30 minutes? Does it work on any corpse, no matter how long they've been dead?

I'd recommend the ability be Su, it be a standard action to initiate and require concentration to maintain. The "movie" begins at the beginning, and keeps going until The DoC stops concentrating. If he stops and restarts, he starts from the beginning. I'd suggest the corpse be fresh - one day + one day per level in the class.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Control Death: *Having an intricate understand of death and how it works each disciple is able to stabilize himself immediately after going into negative hit points

Nice flavor. I'd suggest it be an Ex ability.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Death Premonition: The target sees his own death as a very violent and fear causing event. *The fear is so intense that the target is frozen in panic for 1d4 rounds. *Will negates.

You should list the save DC, and what type of action to activate the ability. Does the DoC have to touch the target, or just look at him? I'd recommend this be an Su ability, require a standard action and function on anybody the DoC has line of sight on within 60' and targets.

Also - remember that "Panicked" is an actual game mechanic with the following meaning (from the SRD):

Characters who are panicked are shaken, and they run away from the source of their fear as quickly as they can. Other than running away from the source, their path is random. They flee from all other dangers that confront them rather than facing those dangers. Panicked characters cower if they are prevented from fleeing.

This doesn't exactly fit the flavor of your ability. I'd reword that to say something like, "as though effected by a Hold Person spell".

Originally Posted by TheChris

Death Feed: As battle rages on the Disciple becomes more and more engrossed in what’s going on around him. *When living creatures die he becomes zealous and finds strength for his own cause. *This causes him to gain 3 temporary hit points for the day. *This only takes affect during an encounter. *Throughout the day the Disciples veins are more pronounced and his eyes turn blood shot.

Do temporary hit points gained in this manner stack? That is, if the DoC watches 3 creatures die, does he gain 9 temporary hit points? If so, these seems highly abusable to me. The DoC can easily increase his temp hit points to a really high number by killing off commoners and simple animals.

I'd suggest the Temp Hit Points only last for the encounter. I'd make this ability an Su type.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Snuff Out: *Ends the life of one creature. *It is a melee touch attack and if is successful then the creature dies. *Fortitude will cause only partial damage of 5d6 damage.

You need a save DC. I'd recommend this ability also be of the Su type.

Originally Posted by TheChris

The Calling: *The Calling is a ceremony preformed by a cabal of at least 4 disciples and a leader. *The purpose of The Calling is to summon the spirit of The Chris into the midst of the circle. *When in this form they may converse with him as normal and receive their commands. *If there is a leader who is also a Vassal then The Chris will take possession of the body of the vassal. *This is rarely done except for days of great ceremony or meaning to the order. *

This has good flavor, but doesn't do anything mechanically. How about adding something minor. For example, when you become a "Leader" you gain half your class level as a bonus to a skill (Intimidate, perhaps). And when you become a vassal, it increases to you class level as the bonus.

If you add the skill bonus, the type should be Ex.

Originally Posted by TheChris

Death Dealing: *Starting at the 3rd level the Disciple gains a bonus that increases his caster level for the purpose of spells that have variables that depend on spell levels. *This also applies to anything that uses a caster level check. *Note: this only applies to spells that deal damage. *Any other spells function as normal

Let's make sure I understand.... If I'm a 9th level caster and I cast a Fireball I'm treated as a 10th level caster? However, the same caster who casts Summon Monster V is treated as his true caster level (9th)?

For a better fit to the flavor of the class, I'd suggest doing one of two things. You could:

A) grant the bonus to all necromancy spells or
B) grant the bonus to all spells with the [Death] descriptor.

The second is weaker, since it would effect fewer spells.

This would be either an Ex or Su ability.

***

Interesting class. The abilities match the flavor nicely, and it's power progresses nicely.

[TheChris]

Updated with new changes. Mostly mechanics of the class. Probably more to come but we shall see.

[mimicgogo]

Wow, that goes as far as to be creepy. This may be the best necromancer PrC I've seen. True necromancer and pale master both appear in Tome and Blood, but neither nails the class as well on the head. An idea though, wouldn't it be cool if the disciples got a cleric-esque bonus to controlling undead? Overall a fantastic class, well done.

[Alarra]

I think this is a very fun class. Very evil and I enjoy the flavor text of it thouroughly. Kudos and nice work! =)

[TheChris]

Why thank you my dear. Though the flavor is no where near as good as yours the comments make me smile =)

[TheChris]

My wonderful girlfriend, you know her as the all powerful goddess of pudding Alarra, drew this for me. Behold a Disciple of The Chris