Necrocarnal (3.5e Class)

Necrocarnal
Necrocarnals are powerful wielders of Necrocarnum. They differ from other members of the Incarnum path by being capable of investing it into others, specifically those who are currently dead.

Making a Necrocarnal
Necrocarnals primarily fight by animating corpses to do their bidding. That said, they do have to stay in the frontlines.

Abilities: Necrocarnals use the power of Incarnum, so they need a good Constitution score. Wisdom improves the saving throws for whatever class abilities you have that grant them. Other than that, they benefit from having a high dexterity, to give them decent defensive abilities.

Races: Generally, races like the Cardomor would be particularly interested in this class, since they have an innate talent for animating the dead. Since the Mortem do not have a strong fear of corpses and mortality, they are more likely to become a Necrocarnal than those who are afraid of death.

Alignment: Any nongood. Some random badly defined connection between undead, negative energy, and evil prevents them from being good. That said, nothing really stops them from being nice, kind, and generous.

Starting Gold: 4d4&times;10 gp.

Starting Age: Complex.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Necrocarnal.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Necrocarnals are proficient with light and medium armor, shields (except for tower shields), and simple weapons, and martial weapons that only deal bludgeoning damage.

Once you gain the ability to shape soulmelds, you can shape any soulmeld with the Necrocarnum descriptor. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a soulmelds is equal to 10 + number of points of essentia invested in the soulmeld + your Wisdom modifier. Your meldshaper level is equal to your Necrocarnal level.

The Necrocarnal can only shape a limited number of soulmelds per day, as listed under the "soulmelds" column. If your Constitution score - 10 is lower than that number, you are limited to your Constitution score - 10 soulmelds instead.

At 1st level, you also gain access to a pool of essentia, as listed under the "essentia" column. As a swift action, you can reallocate your essentia among your soulmelds, feats, corpses, etcetera. You cannot invest essentia into corpses you do not already have essentia invested in unless you are within 5' of them.

A Necrocarnal does not rest and prepare soulmelds in advance, but does require 1 hour of meditation to shape his soulmelds for the day.

The "Chakra Binds" column determines the number of soulmelds you can have bound to chakras at any one time. At 3rd level, you gain the ability to bind soulmelds to your Crown chakra. At 7th level, you can bind soulmelds to your Feet and Hands chakras. At 11th level, you can bind soulmelds to your Shoulders and Brow chakras. At 15th level, you can bind soulmelds to your Arms and Throat Chakras. At 19th level, you can bind soulmelds to your Waist and Heart chakras.

A corpse with 1 point of essentia invested in it functions like a corpse animated by the Animate Dead spell. Removing all points of essentia from a corpse returns it to a corpse-like state. You cannot have more corpses with essentia invested in them than it says in the column labeled "corpses", the total Hit Dice of all undead you control in this way cannot be more than twice your meldshaper level, and no undead you control in this way may have more hit dice than you do.

For every point of essentia beyond the first invested in a corpse, you may grant it one of the following abilities:


 * Fast Healing: The corpse gains Fast Healing equal to its hit dice.


 * Sturdy: The corpse gains 2 hit points per meldshaper level. When the essentia granting this health is uninvested, the corpse loses that health.


 * Smart: The corpse's intelligence, charisma, and wisdom scores all become 12.


 * Skilled: The corpse has all the skill ranks that you do. This bonus can only be granted if the corpse is Smart.


 * Featful: The corpse has all the feats that you do. This bonus can only be granted if the corpse is Smart.


 * Competent: The corpse's Base Attack Bonus improves to 3/4ths, and its Reflex save becomes Good. This bonus can only be granted if the corpse is Smart.


 * Fast: +10' to all move speeds it possesses.


 * Shifty: The corpse can teleport 20 feet as a move action. It does not need line of sight or line of effect for this ability. This bonus can only be granted if the corpse is Fast


 * Deflective: +4 Deflection bonus to AC.


 * Explosive: The corpse can explode as a standard action, dealing 1d6 damage per meldshaper level to everyone within 10' of it, to a maximum of 8d6 for a medium creature. Divide the limit by 2 for every size category smaller than medium, and multiply by 2 for every category larger than medium. A Reflex save for half damage is permitted.

Ex-Necrocarnal
Good characters cannot continue gaining levels in Necrocarnal. Interferes with undeadness and all that.