Midnight Custom Prestige Class: Fell Warden

FELL WARDEN

Undeath in the Last Age is a constant threat to those who live on. In each culture of Eredane, the deceased are treated with dread and caution, for every creature capable of holding its own spirit is also capable of becoming trapped in its decaying shell, and of giving in to the madness of the life after life. Some few study this process with a fascination that seems almost dangerous. As they serve communities by reverently and safely disposing of corpses, or because of a twisted attraction to the power of the undead, some learn the universal cost of the Shattering that effects the termination of all life. Through this understanding of the separation between life and death, these who call themselves fell wardens practice a type of magic that draws upon their singular perspective of the natural process toward decay. Some are twisted by their involvement with malevolent spirits and crazed fell, using this connection to undeath to tyrannize or to serve the Shadow. Some instead serve the people of Eredane by ensuring dignified transitions for loved ones, and protection against those already lost to the madness of undeath.
Hit Dice: d6

The Fell Warden
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Fell familiar, improved spellcasting
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Deathcraft, rebuke undead
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3	Necromantic presence, sense undeath
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Greater necromancy focus, inured to death +2
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Mortal governance
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5	Immortal coil
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5	Inured to death +4
8th	+6	+2	+2	+6	Shared repercussions
9th	+6	+3	+3	+6	Resolute necromancy
10th	+7	+3	+3	+7	Inured to death +6

Requirements

To qualify to become a fell warden, a character must fulfill the following criteria:
Skills: Knowledge (spirits) 8 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks.
Feats: Magecraft (any tradition), Spell Focus (necromancy), Spellcasting (necromancy)
Special: Must have a living familiar with an Intelligence score of at least 8.

Class Skills

The fell warden’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con),
Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken
individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak
Language (n/a), Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are features of the fell warden prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Fell wardens are proficient with the scythe and sickle, traditional symbols of the harvesting of souls and death. Fell wardens gain no proficiency with any type of armor or with shields.
Improved Spellcasting: Fell warden levels grant similar benefits as channeler levels with regards to the art of magic, bonus spells, and bonus spell energy. This means that fell warden levels stack with channeler levels for the purposes of determining the highest-level spells the character can cast. A character with more channeler and fell warden levels than levels in other classes adds +1 to his character level to determine the highest-level spells he can cast.
Additionally, each time the character achieves a new fell warden level, he gains one new spell of the necromancy school of any level he can cast.
Finally, the character’s maximum spell energy increases by one point for every level of fell warden he gains.
Fell Familiar: The fell warden gains the ability to allow his familiar to become one of the Fell, giving it abilities and advantages that other familiars lack, though at a cost of its life.
The fell warden’s familiar is killed and then reanimated through a dangerous ritual. In order to perform this ritual, the fell warden must spend at least 5 days in preparation gathering components and supplies, and securing solitude, which is typically a single room or cave where disruptions are at a minimum. The ritual takes two full days to complete, at the end of which the fell warden’s familiar becomes an undead Fell.
If a fell familiar is destroyed, the fell warden suffers the same penalties as he would if a living familiar had died. Unlike normal familiars, slain fell familiars cannot be raised from the dead. A destroyed fell familiar must first be replaced by a new living familiar, and then ritually killed and raised as Fell.
A fell warden cannot benefit from the Improved Familiar feat and the Fell Familiar class ability at the same time. Fell warden levels stack with different classes that are entitled to familiars for the purpose of determining any familiar abilities that depend on the master’s level.
Deathcraft (Ex): At 2nd level, the fell warden learns to unlock the secrets of necromancy. The spell energy cost for casting spells from the necromancy school is reduced by 1. The character only gains this reduced spell energy cost on spells with a level equal to or less than his fell warden level, and the minimum cost is 1.
The fell warden’s focus on necromantic magic also allows him to learn inflict wounds spells (level 0: inflict minor wounds; level 1: inflict light wounds; level 2: inflict moderate wounds; level 3: inflict serious wounds; level 4: inflict critical wounds; level 5: inflict light wounds, mass; level 6: harm, inflict moderate wounds, mass; level 7: inflict serious wounds, mass; level 8: inflict critical wounds, mass). These spells are all in the necromancy school of magic, and can be learned the same way other spells are learned. Because these spells channel negative energy into the target, they are capable of healing undead creatures.
Rebuke Undead (Su): At 2nd level a fell warden gains the supernatural ability to rebuke and command undead that are within his presence, as a legate would. To do this, he makes a normal turning check as described in the PHB, with his caster level serving as his cleric levels. A fell warden may rebuke undead a number of times per day equal to three plus his casting ability modifier. The fell warden may take the Extra Turning feat in order to increase the number of times per day he may use this ability.
A fell warden does not use a holy symbol, or the power of any god, to rebuke undead. Instead, he makes known the necromantic power he wields to the undead within his presence. While this ability does not expend spell energy, the attempt to rebuke undead can be detected as though it were a minor channeled spell being cast, with the caster’s fell warden levels determining his caster level for this effect.
Necromantic Presence (Su): At 3rd level the fell warden gains the ability to protect undead minions. Whenever his fell familiar or other undead he controls are within 60 feet, they gain a +4 bonus to their turn resistance. Also, when making a turn attempt to Bolster Undead for his fell familiar or himself, the effective Hit Dice result is +2.
Sense Undeath (Ex): At 3rd level a fell warden gains the ability to sense the difference between life and death in other creatures.
By spending a full round concentrating on a single subject within 20 feet, a fell warden’s knowledge of mortal transition allows him to determine the presence of a spirit, and whether the subject is dead or alive. This requires a secretly-rolled Knowledge (spirits) check, with a DC of 15 + the target’s Hit Dice. A successful roll when studying a corpse means the fell warden can tell if the recently deceased will or will not rise again as Fell, or he can tell if a seemingly alive creature is already Fell. A successful roll for a subject that has not yet died only tells the fell warden that the subject is alive and there is a spirit present, but not the type of spirit. If the roll fails, the fell warden gains no insight as to the fate of the spirit.
A fell warden can use this ability as a standard action by taking a +5 penalty to the DC. For every extra 20 feet of distance from a subject, the DC also increases by +2. If the subject has an Intelligence score of less than 5, the DC increases by +5.
Inured to Death (Ex): At 4th level and at every three levels thereafter, a fell warden gains the listed bonus to his saving throws against spells in the Necromancy school and versus supernatural abilities and spells used by undead (such as Draining Touch, Ghoul Fever, or a vampire’s spells).
Greater Necromancy Focus: At 5th level the fell warden adds +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells from the necromancy school of magic. This bonus stacks with the bonus from Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus.
Mortal Governance (Su): At 5th level the fell warden may use his Rebuke Undead ability to greater effect.
A fell warden may attempt to untether the spirit from the body of the recently deceased and ungral Fell creatures (but not Fell who have deteriorated past this point). By using a turning attempt, the fell warden can instantly free the spirit of someone who has died but has not yet risen as Fell. In order to similarly free the spirit from a Fell creature that has not yet degenerated into being faengral, the fell warden must have at least twice as many character levels as the Fell has Hit Dice.
If a fell warden attempts to bind the spirit of a living creature to its mortal form, he uses a turning attempt and makes a turning check to determine if he can affect a creature with the target’s Hit Dice. If the turning check result is too low to be able to affect the target creature, the attempt fails. If successful, then if during the next week the affected creature dies, the DC to avoid becoming Fell is increased by the character’s fell warden class levels. This effect functions as a curse, similar to the spell bestow curse, and thus can be removed with the spell remove curse or break enchantment.
Immortal Coil (Ex): At 6th level, the fell warden has the option to no longer age naturally. Once he chooses to stop aging as a mortal he becomes immune to aging effects and can never die of old age. At this point, his body begins to undergo a transformation that includes the formation of a bone cyst within his chest. His spirit is now permanently bound to this cyst. If the fell warden then dies, he automatically fails his Will save to resist becoming fell, and there is a 50% chance that he rises again as a ghost, one of the Lost.
The only way for a fell warden to avoid becoming fell is to undergo a similar transformation prior to death. This metamorphosis takes place during a ceremony that ends by changing the fell warden into a lich, at the cost of 10,000 experience points. The cyst in his chest serves is his phylactery.
This is a hard choice for some, who believe the rumors that nothing can be done to prevent becoming evil once turned into a lich. Other rumors say that this is the only means by which any creature has become a lich after the Sundering. When faced with immortality as a powerful undead lord, or as a spirit bound to a decayed and eventually destroyed body, only the most daring or dastardly continue their fell warden training.
Shared Repercussions (Su): At 8th level a fell warden gains the ability to shunt off Constitution damage from the casting of spells to his fell familiar in the form of hit point damage.
To use this ability, the fell warden must be in physical contact with his fell familiar, and the casting time for the spell increases to a full-round action. When the fell warden would take more than 1 point of Constitution damage while sacrificing some of his life essence to power the casting of a single spell, he may choose to siphon off half (round down) of the Constitution damage to his familiar. Rather than causing Constitution damage to the familiar, this injures the familiar, dealing hit point damage equal to the level of the spell for every point of Constitution damage siphoned. Alternatively the fell warden may siphon off all Constitution damage, dealing (2d6 + spell level) hit point damage per Constitution damage siphoned to his fell familiar.
The damage dealt by this ability cannot be healed by any means, other than by the familiar feeding on the blood of its fell warden master. This damage causes violent, maddening pain to the familiar. The fell familiar must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + damage dealt) to avoid biting its master once.
A fell warden may not use this ability on a living familiar.
Example: A fell warden with 2 spell energy points remaining chooses to cast a chain lightning spell, which normally costs 8 spell energy. Rather than take 6 points of Constitution damage, the fell warden summons his fell familiar to his side and casts the spell, siphoning off part of this damage. He still takes 3 points of Constitution damage, but causes his undead familiar 18 points of damage (3 points of Constitution damage were siphoned, for a 6th-level spell). His familiar must then succeed on a DC 28 Will save to avoid biting its master.
Resolute Necromancy: At 9th level a fell warden with the Maximize Spell metamagic feat can maximize spells from the necromancy school as if they were only one level higher, rather than 3 levels higher.

THE FELL FAMILIAR

Once the ritual is complete, the fell warden’s familiar becomes an altered ungral fell (see pgs. 343-347 in the Midnight 2nd Edition book) and gains certain bonuses.
No matter what special ability had been granted by the familiar before, the fell familiar grants its master the ability to control 4 more Hit Dice of undead than he is normally capable of controlling (both through the rebuke undead ability and through spells such as animate dead).

The Fell Familiar
Master Class Level	Natural Armor Adj.	Int	Special
1st–2nd	+1	6	Degenerative hunger, fell bonding, improved evasion, regenerative hunger, share spells, empathic link
3rd–4th	+2	7	Deliver touch spells, damage reduction
5th–6th	+3	8	Speak with master
7th–8th	+4	9	Sense undeath, scare animals of its kind
9th–10th	+5	10	Damage reduction
11th–12th	+6	11	Spell resistance
13th–14th	+7	12	Scry on familiar
15th–16th	+8	13	–
17th–18th	+9	14	–
19th–20th	+10	15	Damage reduction

Fell Familiar Basics: Use the basic statistics for a creature of the familiar’s kind, but make the following changes instead of the changes for standard familiars:
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. Calculate all other aspects of the fell familiar using the following information, however. Size is unchanged.
Note: Undead have no Constitution score and are therefore immune to any effect requiring a Fortitude save (unless it affects objects). Undead are immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromantic effects, and they ignore mind-influencing effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). Undead are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Negative energy (such as an inflict wounds spell) can heal undead creatures, while positive energy harms them. An undead creature is not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is immediately destroyed. Undead have darkvision with a range of 60 feet. Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
Hit Dice: For the purpose of effects related to number of Hit Dice, use the fell warden’s character level or the familiar’s normal HD total, whichever is higher.
Hit Points: The familiar has one-half the master’s total hit points (not including temporary hit points), rounded down, regardless of its actual Hit Dice.
Abilities: Same as the base creature, unless otherwise noted. As undead, fell familiar have no Constitution score. AC: Fell familiars gain an additional natural armor bonus, based on their size. The number noted here is an improvement to the familiar’s existing natural armor bonus gained due to master class level.

Size (Natural Armor Bonus)

Tiny (+1)

Small (+2)

Medium (+3)

Large (+4)

Attacks: Use the master’s base attack bonus, as calculated from all his classes. Use the familiar’s Dexterity or Strength modifier, whichever is greater, to get the familiar’s melee attack bonus with natural weapons. The fell familiar retains all the attacks of the base creature, and also gains a bite attack if it did not have one.
Full Attack: Fell familiars use the bite attack in conjunction with any other attacks it has.
Damage: Fell familiars have bite attacks. If the base creature does not have this attack form, use the appropriate damage value from the table below according to the familiar’s size. Familiars that have other kinds of natural weapons retain their old damage values or use the appropriate value from the table below, whichever is better.

Size (Damage)

Tiny (1d3)

Small (1d4)

Medium (1d6)

Saving Throws: For each saving throw, use either the fell familiar’s base save bonus (Fortitude and Reflex saves are good) or the master’s (as calculated from all his classes), whichever is better. The familiar uses its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any of the other bonuses that the master might have on saves.
Skills: For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master’s skill ranks, whichever are better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar’s total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar’s ability to use.

Fell Familiar Ability Descriptions: All fell familiars have special abilities (or impart abilities to their masters) depending on the master’s combined level in fell warden and other classes that grant familiars, as shown on the table below. The abilities given on the table are cumulative.
Natural Armor Adj.: The number noted here is an improvement to the familiar’s existing natural armor bonus.
Int: The familiar’s Intelligence score.
Degenerative Hunger (Ex): A fell familiar must feed on the still-warm flesh of a physical creature with Intelligence 5 or higher. If it does not consume its own weight in such flesh each week, its mental ability scores each decrease by one. If at any point the familiar has gone one week without eating this amount of flesh and its Intelligence is 7 or lower, it devolves into a faengral. Ability scores cannot be decreased in this manner lower than 3.
A fell familiar that drinks a full dose of its master’s blood is considered to have consumed the required amount of flesh for the purposes of this ability.
Fell Bonding (Ex): As long as the familiar remains within one mile of the fell warden, its craving for the flesh of the living is little more than a slight hunger and it suffers no unusual discomfort in bright light.
While the hunger for flesh may be sated by the normal means of eating a meal of the body of an intelligent creature (Int 5 or higher), the familiar may instead drink a dose of the blood of its fell warden master once per week. Due to the bonding process, this blood not only counts as a full meal for purposes of quenching the familiar’s hunger, but it also prevents the body of the familiar from rotting. This can be all at once, or in doses. A single dose causes 1d10 points of damage to the fell warden, while a half dose is 1d6, a quarter dose is 1d4, and a daily dose is 2 points of damage daily for six days. This is normal physical damage that bypasses temporary hit points and can be healed naturally. Feeding the fell familiar in this manner takes a full minute, regardless of the strength of dose.
The fell familiar must drink a full dose of its master’s blood per week for the rest of its existence, so if a week’s worth of blood is not imbibed, the following week the familiar will need two doses, or start to suffer ill effects. However, fell familiars cannot be given advance doses of blood (3 doses in a week only applies to that week or previous weeks – next week the familiar will need another dose).
Fell familiars who have gone long periods without its master’s blood, and have entered states of extreme decay, can still be restored to proper health with enough blood. A fell warden’s fell familiar begins to decay into the natural state of all Fell if not fed in this manner.
The process of bonding also imbues the fell familiar with a bonus versus turning equal to its Hit Dice + its master’s fell warden levels.
Improved Evasion (Ex): When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, a familiar takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage even if the saving throw fails.
Regenerative Hunger (Ex): For every 10 points of damage it inflicts with its bite attack (or every 10 lbs. of still-warm flesh it consumes), a fell familiar heals 1 point of damage. A full dose of the familiar’s master’s blood heals a quarter of the familiar’s total hit points.
Share Spells: At the fell warden’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his fell familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit. If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the familiar if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the familiar again even if it returns to the master before the duration expires. Additionally, the master may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself. A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (undead).
Empathic Link (Su): The master has an empathic link with his familiar out to a distance of up to 1 mile. The master cannot see through the familiar’s eyes, but they can communicate empathically. Because of the limited nature of the link, only general emotional content can be communicated.
Because of this empathic link, the master has the same connection to an item or place that his familiar does.
Deliver Touch Spells (Su): If the master is 3rd level or higher, a familiar can deliver touch spells for him. If the master and the familiar are in contact at the time the master casts a touch spell, he can designate his familiar as the “toucher.” The familiar can then deliver the touch spell just as the master could. As usual, if the master casts another spell before the touch is delivered, the touch spell dissipates.
Damage Reduction (Ex): If the master is 4th level or higher, the fell familiar gains DR 5/slashing. If the master is 10th level or higher, the fell familiar also gains DR 5/magic. If the master is 20th level, the fell familiar also gains DR 10/silver.
Speak with Master (Ex): If the master is 5th level or higher, a familiar and the master can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand
Sense Undeath (Ex): If the master is 7th level or higher and has gained the Sense Undeath class ability, when master and fell familiar are within 1 mile the fell familiar is able to use this ability as well.
Scare Animals of its Kind (Ex): Because the fell familiar appears sickly and pale compared to other animals of its type, other animals of its type are frightened by its presence. If the master is 7th level or higher, when other animals of approximately the same type as the fell familiar come within 30 feet of the familiar, they must make a DC 15 Will save or become frightened.
Spell Resistance (Ex): If the master is 11th level or higher, a familiar gains spell resistance equal to the master’s level + 5. To affect the familiar with a spell, another spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the familiar’s spell resistance.
Scry on Familiar (Sp): If the master is 13th level or higher, he may scry on his familiar (as if casting the scrying spell) once per day.

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