Ghostwalk Prestige Class : Bone Collector
A bone collector is a person who draws personal power from the destruction of undead. Bearing tokens and trophies of her kills, the bone collector is often mistaken by the ignorant for a common necromancer, when in truth most oppose necromancy and seek to undo its works. A rare few are parasites to necromancers, using cast-off bits of discarded experiments in undeath to increase their own power.
A bone collector is usually a fighter, cleric, or paladin, although some good-aligned beings avoid this career because of the constant association with undead and negative energy. Some rogues, bards, and monks become bone collectors, adorning themselves with strange icons to advance their other skills. Rarely do barbarians, druids, rangers, sorcerers, or wizards become bone collectors, either opposing the gathering of residual undead energy or else having more effective ways to do so.
Bone collectors are usually loners, although in places where undead are more common, they sometimes gather in groups to plan their attacks and trade items. Such groups either oppose (if good) or ally with (if evil) active groups of necromancers and undead. More than once has a cabal of necromancers been undone from within by their supposed allies who found a sudden need for undead parts.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Bone Collector, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Concentration 3 ranks, Craft (alchemy), Craft (armorsmithing, bowmaking, or weaponsmithing) 1 rank, Heal 5 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 3 ranks.
- Feats: Endurance, Great Fortitude.
- Base Attack Bonus: +5.
- Special: The character must have been knocked unconscious or killed by an undead creature or necromancy spell, or must have received a negative level or ability damage or drain from an undead or a necromancy spell.
Class Skills
The bone collector's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, and Sense Motive.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Bone collectors gain no proficiency with any weapons, armor, or shields.
Spells: A bone collector has the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the bone collector must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell's level, so a bone collector with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Bone collector bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + spell level + the bone collector's Wisdom modifier (if any). When the bone collector gets 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1st-level spells at 1st level, she gets only bonus spells. The bone collector's spell list appears below. A bone collector prepares and casts spells just as a cleric does.
- 1st Level: bonerattle, chill touch, cure light wounds, detect undead, disrupt undead, invisibility to undead, magic stone, protection from possession.
- 2nd Level: consecrate, endurance, ghoul touch, ghost touch armor, lesser restoration, shroud of undeath.
- 3rd Level: forced manifestation, negative energy protection, searing light, vampiric touch.
Recognize Undead (Ex): A bone collector has trained her senses to such an extent than she can more easily recognize an undead creature for what it is. She gains a +4 bonus on Spot checks or Will saving throws to penetrate an undead's disguise or an illusion spell that changes its appearance. If an undead creature is not attempting to disguise its nature or naturally appears much like a living creature, the bone collector gains a Spot check (DC 10 + undead's Cha modifier) to realize the creature is undead. See the description of the Disguise skill in the Player's Handbook for information on repeat attempts to penetrate a disguise.
Lesser Bone Armor: Using her knowledge of undeath and magic, a bone collector can craft certain kinds of magical armor (including shields) that imitate or hamper undead abilities. She can craft armor with a +1 enhancement bonus or imbue magic armor with any of the following properties: death ward, energy drain, shadow, silent moves. This ability works as if she had the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat and met all prerequisites for the abilities being added (so she could create shadow armor even if she didn't otherwise have access to the invisibility prerequisite of the shadow property). All other rules for creating magic armor apply (cost to create, creation time, and so on). Any armor the bone collector crafts bears a noticeable motif of death; it may be decorated with actual bones, bear images of skulls, and so on.
A bone collector with another spellcasting class and the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat adds her class level to her other spellcasting class level to determine her effective caster level for meeting the special requirement for crafting armor with enhancement bonuses, so a Clr 8/Bone collector 4 is counted as a 12th-level spellcaster for the purpose of crafting magic armor and therefore could craft armor with a +4 enhancement bonus (see Creating Armor).
Lesser Bone Weapon: In a fashion similar to the lesser bone armor ability, a bone collector of 2nd level or high can craft certain kinds of magic weapons that imitate undead attacks or harm undead. She can craft weapons with a +1 enhancement bonus or can imbue magic weapons with any of the following properties: flaming, ghost touch, truesilver. This ability works as if she had the Craft Magic Arms And Armor feat and met all prerequisites for the abilities being added (so she could create a /laming weapon even if she didn't otherwise have access to the fireball prerequisite of the flaming property). All other rules for creating magic weapons apply (cost to create, creation time, and so on). Any weapon the bone collector crafts bears a noticeable motif of death; it may be decorated with actual bones, bear images of skulls, and so on.
A bone collector with another spellcasting class and the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat adds her class level to her other spellcasting class level to determine her effective caster level for meeting the special requirement for crafting weapons with enhancement bonuses, so a Clr8/Bone collector 4 is counted as a 12th-level spellcaster for the purpose of crafting magic weapons and therefore could craft a weapon with a +4 enhancement bonus (see Creating Weapons).
Negative Energy Shroud (Su): By surrounding herself with a weak aura of negative energy, a bone collector of 3rd level or higher can confuse attempts to discern her living nature. Undead creatures perceive her as a fellow undead, spells such as detect undead and deathwatch perceive her as an undead creature, and so on. Mindless undead ignore her unless they have specific orders to attack other undead creatures, and intelligent ones are likely to assume she is a vampire or other sort of undead that looks alive. The shroud gives her a +2 bonus on saving throws against attacks based on negative energy (such as enervation and inflict spells), but causes all healing spells cast upon her to cure only half the normal damage.
Actions by the bone collector may give observers clues to her living state (such as reacting to pain or holding her breath when entering water). Attacking an undead creature causes this ability to end immediately. This ability may be used once per day and lasts up to 10 minutes per class level.
Greater Bone Armor: In a fashion similar to the lesser bone armor ability, a bone collector of 4th level or higher can craft armor (including shields) with up to a +3 enhancement bonus or with the following properties: absorbing, cold resistance, etherealness, ghost touch.
Greater Bone Weapon: A bone collector of 5th level or higher can craft weapons with up to a +3 enhancement bonus or with the following properties: disruption, flaming burst, ghost bane, undead bane, vampiric.
Undead Channel (Su): Once per day, a 6th-level bone collector may absorb any one magical effect from an undead creature's attack, such as an ability score drain or damage, a negative level, a corrupting touch, or a paralyzing touch. This absorption does not require a readied action and can be activated by a bone collector in response to an attack by an undead. The absorbed attack has no effect upon the bone collector, but remains as a stored magical effect within her body up to 24 hours after the attack. She may activate this stored effect as a free action and discharge it upon a target by making a touch attack, affecting the target as if the original undead creature were making the attack. Once activated, the stored effect works like a touch spell and triggers upon the next creature or object she touches.
For example, Shelda the bone collector is attacked by a vampire and decides to use her undead channel ability to absorb the creature's energy drain attack. She later slays the vampire and hunts down Tellon the enchanter, with whom she has an old grudge. Finding him, she activates the latent energy drain within her and makes a successful touch attack. Tellon immediately gains two negative levels, just as if the vampire had struck him personally.
| Bone Collector | Hit Die: d8 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells | ||
| 1 | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Lesser bone armor, recognize undead | 1 | - | - |
| 2 | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Lesser bone weapon | 2 | 0 | - |
| 3 | +2 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Negative energy shroud | 2 | 1 | - |
| 4 | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Greater bone armor | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Greater bone weapon | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 6 | +4 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Undead channel | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Source: Ghostwalk
Older Prestige class adapted to 3.5