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Althaghast, the White Necromancer

Althaghast, the White Necromancer

White Necromancer by Artist Chris McFannWithin the pages of Kobold Quarterly #19, you’ll find the white necromancer, a new class created for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Designer Marc Radle has crafted a character for you that uses the new class, and you can see the result below. Our sample white necromancer has been illustrated by the talented Chris McFann.

Although many necromancers are foul, twisted individuals obsessed with evil and death, a few embrace the knowledge that true necromancy involves manipulating the powers of life as well as death and undeath.

These enlightened few are known as white necromancers.

Althaghast is one of these enlightened few. He does not walk the paths of evil as dark necromancers do. Instead, Althaghast honors the dead and seeks to aid his allies with their power as well as his own. Althaghast has a deeply profound understanding of life’s eternal cycle, which also makes him a potent healer in addition to being a powerful spellcaster.

Althaghast’s penetrating eyes are kind and compassionate. He is tall and thin with long, white hair despite his relatively young age. A sense of quiet power settles around him wherever he goes.

Althaghast

Male human white necromancer 10
NG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses blindsight; Perception +3

DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 deflection)
hp 42 (10d6)
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +11

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 ghost touch quarterstaff +6 (1d6+1)
Special Attacks power over undead

White Necromancer Spells Known (CL 10th; concentration +13 [+17 cast defensively])
5th (3/day) — wall of bones
4th (5/day) — dance of the dead, fear
3rd (7/day) — cure serious wounds, halt undead, ray of exhaustion
2nd (7/day) — bone swarm, invisibility, silence, spectral hand
1st (7/day) — chill touch, cure light wounds, hide from undead, mage armor, remove fear
0 (at will) — bleed, daze, detect magic, disrupt undead, light, ray of frost, read magic, stabilize, touch of fatigue

STATISTICS
Str 11, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 14, Cha 17
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Combat Casting, Eschew Materials*, Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), Greater Spell Penetration, Necrotic Spell (Metamagic), Spell Focus (necromancy), Spell Penetration, Turn Undead*
*Bonus feat
Skills Appraise +2, Fly +2, Heal +10, Intimidate +3, Knowledge (arcana) +12, Knowledge (religion) +12 (+14 death, burial practices, undead or the afterlife), Perception +3, Sense Motive +4, Spellcraft +12, Use Magic Device +3
SQ life bond, life sight, lore of life and death, necrotic transfer, rebuke death, voice of the grave
Gear ring of protection +2, +1 ghost touch quarter staff, cloak of resistance +2, scrolls of breath of life, greater invisibility, ice storm, and raise dead; wands of cure serious wounds and deep slumber

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Evil Necromancy Spells: Althaghast is extremely reluctant to cast evil necromancy spells (spells of the necromancy school and the evil descriptor).  He is not strictly forbidden from doing so, however, and he might occasionally cast such spells if he feels the need is sufficiently justified. When Althaghast casts an evil necromancy spell, he must use up two spell slots of that level.

Life Bond (Su): Althaghast may create a bond between himself and another living creature as a standard action. This power has a range of 90 feet. Each round, at the start of Althaghast ’s turn, if the bonded creature is wounded for 5 or more points below its maximum hit points, the bonded creature heals 5 hit points and Althaghast takes 5 damage. He may have up to ten such bonds active at the same time. This bond continues until the bonded creature dies, Althaghast dies, the distance between Althaghast and the other creature exceeds 90 feet, or he ends it as an immediate action.

Life Sight (Su): Althaghast gains blindsight to a range of 10 feet for 10 rounds per day. This allows Althaghast to detect only living creatures and undead creatures. The sight also tells him whether a creature is living or undead. Constructs and other creatures that are neither living nor undead cannot be seen with this ability.

Lore of Life and Death (Ex): Althaghast adds his Wisdom modifier in addition to his Intelligence modifier when making Knowledge (religion) skill checks pertaining to subjects such as death, burial practices, undead, or the afterlife. In addition, Althaghast adds a bonus equal to 1/2 his white necromancer level to all Heal skill checks.

Necrotic Transfer (Su): Althaghast can transfer some of his life essence to another living creature. As a standard action, when Althaghast touches a subject, he can sacrifice up to 30 hit points from his own body and transfer those hit points to the creature touched. These hit points heal the subject, but they cannot raise the subject’s hit points higher than its normal hit point total.

Power Over Undead (Su): Althaghast has Turn Undead as a bonus feat. He can channel energy 6 times per day, but only to use his Turn Undead feat (DC 18). He can take other feats to add to this ability, such as Extra Channel and Improved Channel, but not feats that alter this ability, such as Elemental Channel and Alignment Channel.

Rebuke Death (Sp): Althaghast can touch a living creature as a standard action, healing it for 1d4 + 5 damage. He can use this ability only on a creature that is below 0 hit points. Althaghast can use this ability 6 times per day.

Spells Althaghast casts arcane spells drawn from the white necromancer spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time.

Voice of the Grave (Su): Althaghast can speak with dead, as the spell, for 10 rounds per day. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. The dead creature takes a -2 penalty on its Will saving throw to resist this effect.

White Necromancy (Su): When Althaghast casts any necromancy spell that creates undead, the spell loses its evil descriptor. Mindless undead resulting from white necromancy are of neutral alignment while intelligent undead created are neutral good.

Intrigued? Check out Kobold Quarterly #19 and start playing a white necromancer today!

(This post is Product Identity.)

15 thoughts on “Althaghast, the White Necromancer”

  1. I’m running a game right now with a neutral good wizard pc who has a keen interest in necromancy. Looks like he just found a mentor…

  2. Very compelling character! The illustration is awesome too! What I like most about the build is it’s versatility: Healer, Wizard, Necromancer all wrapped up in one! Awesome.

  3. Good stuff!

    Someone pointed out at Paizo.com, but his 14 AC will probably be an 18 from Mage Armor when it matters.

  4. I come from the future of 2020 to say, White Necromancer turned out to be a pretty bad class all things considered. Needs a definite rework to fix out all the kinks and bugs.

    1. Yeah, I’m looking at it myself and it definitely needs a rework. They should have playtested this before releasing it. Some elements of it are underpowered. I also wish they had a way to tell us what’s the best spells to expand their spell list from other sources. It feels like they tried to make the opposite of the Dread Necromancer from D&D 3.5, but missed the mark on it quite a few times. At best, this class works for NPCs or for players in campaigns where combat and min-maxing isn’t necessary.

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