Expanded Options: Advanced Death and Necromancy (Patreon)

New Spells

Corpse Detonation

School necromancy; Level Magus 2, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3;

CASTING

Casting Time 1 standard action

Components: V, S

EFFECT

Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)

Target one corpse of controlled undead

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw Reflex; Spell Resistance see text

DESCRIPTION

You infuse a single corpse or a single zombie or skeleton which you created using animate dead and is under your control with negative energy until it explodes, raining pointed shards of bone and negative energy upon all creatures within 20 feet or the corpse or undead creature. Corpses exploded by this spell cannot be turned into undead or raised by raise dead, and undead exploded by this spell are immediately destroyed.

Each creature within the area suffers 1d6 points of negative energy per 2 caster levels, and 1d6 points of piercing damage per 2 Hit Dice of the exploded undead or the exploded corpse’s hit dice in life (minimum 1d6 piercing) . A successful Reflex save halves this damage. Only the negative energy dealt by this spell is affected by spell resistance, and this negative energy does not heal or damage creatures normally healed by negative energy.

Create Undead

In addition to the normal effects of this spell, a caster of 11th caster level or higher can create an apocalypse zombie. The caster must cast contagion on the corpse as an additional requirement for creating an apocalypse zombie.

Extract Awakened Specter

School necromancy [evil]; Level cleric/oracle 6, medium 6, occultist 6, shaman 6, spiritualist 6, sorcerer/wizard 6, witch 6;

CASTING

Casting Time 1 standard action

Components: V, S, M (an onyx gem worth at least 50 gp per Hit Die of the created specter)

EFFECT

Range touch

Target one touched corpse

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

DESCRIPTION

This spell functions as extract greater specter, save that the specter you animate copies the mannerisms, memories and intelligence of the base creature. It gains the alignment, feats, proficiencies, languages, personality, memories, mental statistics and skill ranks of the base creature it was extracted from. An awakened specter always treats Fly and Stealth as class skills.

An awakened specter is still under your control, treats you as an ally, and will obey most of your commands, but does not necessarily consider you its friend. The specter will attack any target you command it to and move to any location you require, but will attempt to ignore any other orders it would not have willingly performed in life (such as sharing any secrets or information it would not wish to tell you, or taking a suicidal action). Ordering such an action requires the specter to make a Will saving throw to resist the order. If an awakened specter successfully makes this saving throw it may ignore that order for 24 hours.

Advanced Magic

Death Sphere Advanced Talents

Amalgamate Horror

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Corpse Manipulation, 3rd CL or higher.

You can merge multiple corpses into a single horrific amalgamate by spending 1 hour and 1 spell point. Select a single corpse to act as the base of the amalgamate horror. This corpse determines the horrors initial size, base statistics, abilities, and Hit Dice. You may take racial Hit Dice from additional corpses used as part of this talent, and add them to the base creature. You cannot add more Hit Dice than the additional corpses have racial Hit Dice. The base corpse receiving the benefit of this talent does not gain any other abilities of the additional corpses beyond the increase in Hit Dice, although its own abilities are recalculated using the higher Hit Dice. These additional Hit Dice are bonus Hit Dice, not racial Hit Dice, and thus do not grant ability score increases that creatures gain for every 4 Hit Dice they possess. The corpse of the amalgamate horror can then be reanimated as if it were an intact corpse. If the horror is destroyed, or before it has been reanimated, you can return all of the corpses melded together by this talent to normal by touching them as a standard action, and spending 1 spell point.

For every 3 Hit Dice added to the base corpse using this talent, you gain 1 amalgamate point to spend on any of the following qualities or abilities to add to the base corpse. These abilities can be purchased multiple times unless they grant an ability that only has a singular benefit (such as a feat, or a special quality).

1 point amalgamate abilities

• Add 2 claw attacks that deal damage appropriate to the base corpses size (requires 2 free arms).
• Add 2 secondary wing buffet attacks that deal damage appropriate to the base corpses size (requires a free set of wings).
• Add a bite attack that deals damage appropriate to the base corpses size (requires a free head without a bite attack).
• Add 2 additional arms.
• Add 2 additional legs, increasing the corpses base movement speed by 10 feet and granting a +2 bonus to CMD against trips.
• Add an additional head, giving the undead created from the base corpse +4 to Perception checks.
• Grant one of the corpses natural attacks the grab universal monster ability.

2 point amalgamate abilities

• Add a set of wings, giving it a fly speed of 20 feet with clumsy maneuverability. Selecting this ability multiple times increases its fly speed by 10 feet per selection and improves their maneuverability by one step. Skeletal amalgamate horrors cannot use these wings to fly. If the base creature already had wings, the first selection grants a 10 foot increase to its fly speed and increases its maneuverability by one step.
• Add 2 secondary talon attacks that deal damage appropriate to the base corpses size (requires 2 free legs).
• Add a gore attack that deals damage appropriate to the base corpses size (requires a free head without a gore attack).
• Increase either the Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma scores of the base corpse by +1.
• Grant the corpse the constrict special attack, dealing damage equal to a slam attack one size category larger than the corpse.

3 point amalgamate abilities

• Increase the size of the base corpse by 1 step (to a maximum of colossal). Each time the base corpses size is increased it gets a +8 bonus to Strength, a -2 penalty to Dexterity, and size bonuses and penalties appropriate for its new size. If the base corpse was bipedal, its natural reach increases by 5 feet.

Aura of Desecration

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Desecrated Terrain, 5th CL or higher.

You can choose to cast Desecrated Terrain as an aura centered on yourself, rather than as a burst. This aura has the same radius as the burst and lasts for the same duration.

Additionally, you can choose to double the spell point cost of the Desecrated Terrain talent, increasing its duration to 1 hour per caster level. This doubling in cost also applies to the additional costs to increase the effects of the talent at caster level 10. This can be done with both Desecrated Terrain or Aura of Desecration.

Awaken Specter

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Animate Specter, 5th CL or higher.

When you reanimate a specter you can choose to awaken it, granting it the alignment, feats, proficiencies, languages, personality, memories, mental statistics and skill ranks of the base creature it was animated from. An awakened specter always treats Fly and Stealth as class skills.

An awakened specter is still under your control, treats you as an ally, and will obey most of your commands, but does not necessarily consider you its friend. The specter will attack any target you command it to and move to any location you require, but will attempt to ignore any other orders it would not have willingly performed in life (such as sharing any secrets or information it would not wish to tell you, or taking a suicidal action). Ordering such an action requires the specter to make a Will saving throw to resist the order. If an awakened specter successfully makes this saving throw it may ignore that order for 24 hours.

If you have the Summon Spirit advanced talent, you can choose to use a spirit as a component when creating an awakened specter instead of requiring a corpse that has died within 1 day per caster level (Will negates if unwilling; if the spirit makes its save, it immediately returns to the afterlife as if it had made its original saving throw). The awakened specter uses the spirit’s personality, memories, mental statistics, and skill ranks. The awakened specter created this way is under your control, as normal for the talent.

Devouring Prison

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Tomb of Flesh, 5th CL or higher.

When you absorb a creature using Tomb of Flesh they are shunted into a pocket dimension of devouring maws. Your interior with Tomb of Flesh gains any bonuses to Natural Armor or Deflection AC you possess, and it deals an additional 3d6 piercing damage plus your Strength modifier each round. If a creature attempts to cut its way free with a light slashing or piercing weapon, it needs to deal a total amount of damage equal to your caster level plus your casting ability modifier, or one-tenth your maximum hit points, whichever is higher. Your hit points are not reduced by damage you take to your interior.

Additionally, the number of undead you can store is increased to 1 plus 1 for every 2 caster levels you have.

Improved Corpse Bomb

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Corpse Bomb.

When you use your Corpse Bomb talent, you may cause creatures within the area of effect to take 1d6 piercing damage plus 1d6 per 3 Hit Dice of the exploded corpse or undead creature. This damage is halved on a successful saving throw, and counts as magical damage for the purposes of bypassing damage reduction.

In addition, by spending 1 additional spell point when using the Corpse Bomb talent, you may delay the explosion for up to 1 hour. By spending 3 additional spell points instead, it can be delayed for up to 24 hours. This explosion is triggered in one of the following ways, chosen by you when the talent is used:

• The Corpse Bomb explodes after a set period of time, up to a maximum of its duration (1 hour or 24 hours). This explosion happens even if used on an undead who is destroyed before this time passes.
• The Corpse Bomb explodes if the dead or undead creature is disturbed or touched (if the undead attacks, it explodes if the attack hits, after the damage of the attack is rolled).
• The Corpse Bomb explodes when the undead creature is destroyed.
• The Corpse Bomb explodes by spending an immediate action while it is within Medium range of you.

If the duration of the Corpse Bomb passes without being triggered, the magic harmlessly disperses.

Infusing Sustenance

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Sustained Necromancy.

While you are concentrating to sustain an undead with Sustained Necromancy, that undead gains an extra standard action each round. This does not stack with other abilities that grant extra actions or attacks each round, such as the haste ability of the Time sphere. If you have multiple undead reanimated by Sustained Necromancy at a time (via the Mass Sustenance advanced talent) only a single undead gains this extra action, chosen at the beginning of each of your turns.

Sever Skin (ghost strike)

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Corpse Manipulation, 7th CL or higher.

By spending 1 spell point you may make a ghost strike that severs the skin of a target, animating it under that target’s control. Against an unwilling target, this talent lasts for 1 round per caster level (Fortitude negates). Against a willing target, this talent lasts for up to one hour per caster level.

When affected by this spell, the target’s current hit points are halved, and their skin separates and appears in an adjacent square of their choice. The target’s skin has all of the abilities and statistics of the target, except in the following ways: Its hit points are equal to the hit points the target lost when first affected by this spell, and cannot be healed above that maximum; it has the undead type, traits, and immunities; Strength 3, Con —; DR 10/piercing or slashing; and the compression universal monster ability. The skin gains the benefits of any continuous magic items or spells affecting the target when this spell was cast on them. When the target is first affected by this spell, they may have the skin take any carried or worn items of their choice (such as armor, weapons, scrolls, wands, a backpack, etc).

The target’s mind is split between the location of its body and the location of its skin, allowing it to perceive both locations at once. This splitting of perception and movements is particularly disorienting, imposing a -2 penalty to AC, CMD, and Reflex saves. The skin receives no additional actions of its own, however, the target can choose to give up any number of its actions to have the skin perform that same action.

When the target’s skin is split from its body it cannot heal the damage it took from this spell naturally, nor can spells or special abilities that cure hit point damage restore it. If the target is affected by the Regeneration advanced talent (or similar spells or abilities) or regains Hit Points from the regeneration universal monster ability, the target immediately heals an amount equal to the hit points they lost from this spell and the target’s skin immediately dies.

If the target and its skin are in adjacent squares, as a full-round action they can attempt a Fortitude saving throw to rejoin their skin to their body (a willing target does not need to make a Fortitude save). On a success, the target regains hit points equal to the skin’s remaining hit points, all items held or worn by the skin are placed back on the target, and the spell ends. If the spell ends and the target is adjacent to their skin, the skin automatically rejoins their body.

If the spell ends and the target is not adjacent to their skin, the skin dies, dropping any held or worn items in the square it was occupying, and allowing any hit points lost from this spell to be healed normally. If the target’s body is slain while this spell is active, they may continue to use their actions as their skin until the spell ends, after which the target dies regardless of how many hit points the skin has left (unless their body is returned to life before the spell ends).

If the skin is slain, it drops any held or worn items in the square it was occupying and this spell ends, allowing the target to once again heal any hit points lost from this spell normally.

Spectral Empowerment

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Animate Specter, Lingering Necromancy, 3rd CL or higher.

You may increase the spiritual energy of animated specters under your control using your powers over death. By spending one full round in meditation and by spending 1 spell point you may grant a single one of your animated specters an additional racial Hit Die. The additional Hit Dice counts against the control cap of your reanimate ability as normal for specters you control. You may use this ability multiple times on a single specter if you wish to.

You cannot grant a specter Hit Dice if it would raise their Hit Dice to higher than your Death sphere caster level or if it would cause you to go over your control cap.

Recalculate the specters statistics for its new Hit Dice (including its base attack bonus, HP, saves, AC, ability scores, and the damage of its deadly touch). Awakened Specters do not gain any additional skill ranks or feats from Hit Dice gained through this talent. At the GM’s discretion, a Permanent Awakened Specter benefiting from this talent may eventually gain skill ranks or feats from these racial hit dice through training.

If you release a specter benefiting from this talent from your control, it loses any racial Hit Dice it gained from this talent and any benefits associated with those Hit Dice.

Mass Sustenance (dominion)

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Mass Death Magic, Sustained Necromancy, 5th CL or higher.

You can combine your Mass Death Magic and Sustained Necromancy talents, allowing you to reanimate multiple Sustained Undead at once by spending a spell point as a full-round action. The concentration required to sustain more than one undead at a time is strenuous, requiring you to spend a full-round action each round to concentrate (or a standard action if you have the Easy Focus boon). Undead sustained in this way must remain within your dominion range. If they leave the area of your dominion, they stop being animated.

Reanimated Archmage

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Reanimated Mage, 10th CL or higher.

When you grant spheres of magic to your undead you control, you can grant a single talent you possess of one of those spheres as well. This talent must have no prerequisites besides the base sphere.

You may select this advanced talent multiple times; each time you do, you grant an additional talent you possess to the undead in one of the spheres it has been granted.

Tomb of Undeath

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Tomb of Flesh.

You can command corporeal undead under your control to consume a foe, as Tomb of Flesh. On the undead’s turn, it will attempt to consume the target as a standard action. This target must be one size category smaller than the undead you command to consume it. The undead uses its statistics to make the attack roll, and its HP and CMD when determining if the consumed creature can break free, but you use your caster level when determining the damage the Tomb of Flesh deals and the Reflex save required. You may only have a single creature consumed by one of your undead using this talent at any given time.

This talent can be selected multiple times, allowing an additional creature to be consumed by undead you control for each time it is selected. A single one of your undead can consume multiple creatures if you command it to do so.

If you have the Devouring Prison advanced talent, use the undead’s Strength score when determining the piercing damage dealt each round, and use your caster level plus your casting ability modifier to determine the hit points of the interior space.

Undying Champion

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Greater Undead, Lingering Necromancy, Permanent Undead, 10th CL or higher.

You may spend 5 spell points and one hour of casting to animate an intact corpse as either a skeletal champion or a zombie lord. Unlike a normal skeletal champion or zombie lord, the undead created with this talent does not gain any additional racial Hit Dice normally granted by the template, nor do they gain the racial class skills associated with those Hit Dice (unless they had racial Hit Dice before becoming undead). This is an instantaneous effect, creating a permanent undead that cannot be dispelled. This process has an additional requirement of precious gems and special reagents worth 100 gp per hit die of the resulting undead creature that are expended as part of casting this talent. Unlike a normal undead creature, this undead creature retains the alignment it had in life. This created undead is not under your control.

Zombies of the Apocalypse

Prerequisites: Death sphere, Expanded Necromancy, Inflict Disease, 10th CL or higher.

When you reanimate a creature, you may spend an additional 3 spell points to animate it as an apocalypse zombie. This zombie has the apocalypse zombie template. A created apocalypse zombie is not under your direct control but still counts against the number of total undead you may have reanimated at once. Despite not being under your control, the apocalypse zombie (and any zombies it may create) will not attack you as long as it is included amongst the undead you are controlling with reanimate. If you choose to release an apocalypse zombie from your control, it (and any zombies it creates) may attack you as normal for a mindless undead creature. If the apocalypse zombie has a duration, when that duration expires any apocalypse zombies it has created are destroyed as well. If the apocalypse zombie is destroyed, any zombies it has created may attack you as normal for a mindless undead creature for the remainder of their duration (if they have one).

When reanimating an apocalypse zombie, it counts as three times its Hit Dice against the total number of undead you may have reanimated at once.

Bestiary

Apocalypse Zombie

These zombies are truly fearsome creatures, bringers of plague and destruction that threaten to convert the world into mindless undead horrors.

Creating an Apocalypse Zombie

Challenge Rating: As a normal zombie +2.

Hit Dice: An apocalypse zombie has two more Hit Dice than a normal zombie of its size.

Speed: Increase the base creature’s land speed by 10 feet. An apocalypse zombie gains a Climb speed equal to half of the creature’s new base land speed.

Attacks: In addition to gaining a zombie’s normal slam attack, an apocalypse zombie gains a bite attack that deals damage based on the zombie’s size. This bite attack gains grab quality, usable against opponents of the zombie’s own size or smaller.

Defensive Abilities: An apocalypse zombie does not gain DR 5/slashing.

Special Attacks: An apocalypse zombie gains the following special attacks.

Brain-Eating (Ex)

After killing an opponent, the zombie’s ravenous nature takes hold and it uses its next turn to break open its victim’s skull and eat the brain. This prevents others from raising the body from the dead by any method that requires an intact corpse, but does not prevent that creature from rising as an apocalypse zombie.

Death Burst (Ex)

When an apocalypse zombie dies, it explodes in a burst of decay. All creatures adjacent to the apocalypse zombie are exposed to the zombie’s disease as if they were struck by a slam attack and must make a Fortitude save or contract zombie rot.

Disease (Su)

The zombie’s natural attacks carry the zombie rot disease.

Zombie Rot: Bite or slam—injury; save Fort DC 10 + ½ the apocalypse zombie’s Hit Dice + their Charisma modifier; onset 1d4 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d2 Con, this damage cannot be healed while the creature is infected; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Anyone who dies while infected rises as an apocalypse zombie in 2d6 hours unless the corpse has the Restore Health talent or remove disease spell used on it (or a similar ability that removes diseases) during this time.

Quick Strikes (Ex)

Whenever an apocalypse zombie takes a full-attack action, it can make one additional slam attack at its highest base attack bonus.

Abilities: As a standard zombie, except its Dexterity is increased by 2 instead of reduced by 2.

Special Qualities: An apocalypse zombie does not gain the staggered special quality. In addition, it gains the scent universal monster ability

Skills: An apocalypse zombie gains a +4 racial bonus when tracking monsters by scent.