Undead Slayer Prestige Class

The undead slayer has taken up a thankless task; to root out and slay undead creatures by mundane means, without the help of magic or divine power.

Why take this path? Well, not all people are cut out to be holy men or high mages. Some even disdain supernatural powers, having been let down by their gods or wizards at an important juncture of their lives. Some were just born under an unlucky star. So some down-and-dirty rogues, rangers and fighters decide that they want to focus on slaying undead creatures, and develop mundane abilities to fight these horrors. A few barbarians, monks and bards might join them, but other classes are rare.

Undead slayers often present a very forbidding look. Surrounded by a faint smell of death, usually dressed all in black, and with the tools of their macabre trade visible or just barely hidden, these men and women do not invite casual conversations. But undead slayers are crafty; they have to be. They use every mundane resource they can get their hands on to try and defeat the horrors of undeath. Makeshift charms and inventions are staples of the undead slayer's trade.

Hit Die: d10

Requirements

To qualify as an undead slayer, the character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Base Attack Bonus: +5 or higher
Alchemy (2 ranks)
Knowledge (undead) (4 ranks)
Iron Will, Great Fortitude

Must have lost a close friend or loved one to the undead.

Class Skills

Alchemy (Int), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (undead) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis).

Skill points at each level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the undead slayer prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Undead slayers are proficient with all simple weapons and martial melee weapons as well as all types of armor and with shields.

Necrophysiologist (ex): You can score critical hits against corporeal undead. This also allows you to use abilities that only work against creatures subject to critical hits, such as coup de grace, Sneak Attack and the ranger’s favored enemy damage bonus, against undead.

Bone Bane (ex): Many undead creatures have some special substance that they are especially vulnerable to. If you know of a substance against which an undead creature is particularly vulnerable, you can refine this substance into a weapon, a lethal lump of refined material. Assuming you have the right material, this takes a full-round action and requires an Alchemy roll of 15. Such a weapon is hurled as a ranged touch attack with a base range of 10 ft., and inflicts 2d6 points of damage. A Bone Bane has a threat range of 20 and causes x3 damage on a critical hit. Note that this is a weapon, and can benefit from various weapon-enhancing abilities, but you do not get to apply your Strength bonus to damage. Anyone can use such a device, and everyone is assumed to be proficient with it. Damage from a Bone Bane bypasses any defences, immunities or damage resistance, and can even affect incorporeal undead with no chance of failure. If not used within a minute per character level, it goes inert.

Living Resolve (ex): You know that to give in to the persuasions of the undead is to lose one's life, soul and sanity. Any time you fail a Will saving throw when in the presence of an undead creature, you may re-roll that save, once. You must accept the result of the second die roll.

Grave Charm (ex): If you know of a substance against which an undead creature is particularly vulnerable, you can use this as an obstacle the undead must bypass to get to you. Wearing such a charm takes up the vest slot. Undead creatures whose vulnerability you know and have incorporated into your grave charm suffer a 50% miss change on their attacks against you, similar to a concealment miss chance. Incorporating a new vulnerability into your grave charm takes five minutes and an Alchemy roll (DC 20), once you know what the vulnerability is and have access to the material in question.

Ectophysiologist: You can now score critical hits against incorporeal undead. This works just like Necrophysiologst, above. You must first somehow negate the usual miss chance against incorporeal creatures. Examples of how this can be done is; by using a Ghost Touch weapon, or through the Bone Bane ability.

Grave Wards (ex): Similar to Grave Charm, but you have now learned to create barriers that undead creatures are very lath to cross. Such a barrier takes 1 full round per 10 ft. to set up, and lasts a number of minutes equal to your class level. During this time, any undead whose vulnerabilities you have found must pass a Will saving throw with a DC of 10 + your Alchemy skill bonus to pass this line.

Grave Presence (ex): Over time, your life has become so focused on undead that you can appear as dead as those you hunt. You enter a drone-like state resembling undeath. To casual observation, you appear to be a zombie. You can only take partial actions in this state, but undead creatures must make a Will save (DC 10 + your Will save modifier) to take notice of you. If they fail, they will ignore you as if you were under the effect of an invisibility to undead spell. It takes a minute of motionless concentration to enter this state. You can remain in this state indefinitely if you want, but getting out of it takes a short while; after you end the effect, you may still only take partial actions for the next three rounds.

Creature Charm (ex): Though undead are your chosen enemies, you can use some of your abilities against other foes as well. Your Grave Charm ability can now be used against any creature whose weakness you know. Only things that cause extra damage or bypass damage resistance count as vulnerabilities in this case.

Doom of the Undead (ex): Though undead are generally immune to fear, intelligent undead still have a healthy does of self-preservation. An undead creature whose vulnerability you know and to whom you have demonstrated such knowledge may get second thoughts about it's ability to fight you. When you successfully use Bone Bane to cause damage to an undead creature with an intelligence score of 6 or more, that creature must make a Wisdom roll (DC equal to it's own Intelligence) or start to look for the exits for the next minute. During this time it must spend time to move each round, and thus cannot take full-round actions. It need not actually move, but will consider tactics and movement to distraction.

Dust to Dust (ex): You can now prepare Bone Bane attacks as a free action, and use Bone Bane as a regular touch attack, adding your Strength bonus to damage when you do so.

Sidebar: Undead Vulnerabilities The many undead slayer abilities require you to know the vulnerabilities of undead. But what counts as a vulnerability, and how can you use it? Clearly, a vampire is vulnerable to garlic, mirrors and water. Mummies are vulnerable to fire. But what are other undead vulnerable to? First, for undead with damage resistance, anything non-magical that can penetrate their damage resistance counts as a vulnerability. So a bodak is vulnerable to silver, for example. A skeleton is vulnerable to blunt objects, by a similar logic. Some undead have an attack based on a specific effect or element. The allip uses sound, the nightshade uses cold, and so on. You can use the opposite of such effects as a weakness; the allip is sensitive to sound-dampening sheets of cloth and the nightshade to white-hot coals. In some cases, this might contradict a given resistance, such as the nightshade's fire resistance, but your skills and ingenuity as an undead slayer overcomes such limitations. Many undead are vulnerable to sunlight, and undead slayers have discovered means to create flares that reproduce enough of the sun's power to use their abilities against such creatures. You can only use mundane objects, not magical ones, as a focus for your abilities. So you cannot use holy water, for example. You must know that a creature is vulnerable to something in order to use that vulnerability against it. Guesswork won't help. This means that you must have seen it work, read or heard reliable and detailed witness reports, or otherwise have a fairly accurate idea of how the weakness works in order to use it against the undead. This represents the fact that you are not merely using the substance as it is to protect yourself; you have refined the aspect of the substance to which the creature is vulnerable. So the vulnerability to sunlight of a vampire and a nightshade is slightly different, and just because you have incorporated what vampires dislike about sunlight into your grave charm, does not man that it will protect you against nightshades.

Designer's Notes

The ability of this class to exploit the vulnerabilities of undead are and used by methods akin to science. This is what is commonly called weird science. This is a staple of pulp fiction, not fantasy. But this class is written to work in fantasy; it will fit many worlds with a gothic horror inclination, but not in all 'regular' fantasy worlds.

These abilities cannot be explained strictly by the rules of magic. You must accept the spurious logic presented in the "undead vulnerabilities" sidebar. If you do, this class can be great fun and just in the mood. If you don't, if you want to reserve the ability to fight undead for those using magic, then this class should not be included in your world.

DMs who keep throwing the same types of undead against their undead slayers time and again will find this class overpowered. Part of the limitations of the class is the need to unravel the vulnerability of new types of undead.

This class could be rewritten to fight some other supernatural menace, such as outsiders, using pretty much the same rules.