Faerûnian Prestige Class : Horned Harbinger

At the end of the Time of Troubles, Myrkul, the Lord of Bones, former god of the dead, was destroyed off the coast of Waterdeep by Midnight, the mortal wizard who became the new Mystra. What little remained of Myrkul's sentience was trapped inside the shattered remnants of an ancient Netherese artifact stored in nearby Blackstaff Tower. Over the course of the next decade, the last vestiges of Myrkul's energy slowly restored the unholy artifact, imbuing it with the fallen deity's personality and memories. Once the Crown of Horns was completely reconstituted, Myrkul teleported to many places across Faerûn, briefly settling on the brows of many living and undead former servants just long enough to create hordes of a undead in each location. The most recent known bearer of the Crown of Horns, who bore it for at least a year, is believed to have been Nhyris D'Hothek, a male pureblood yuan-ti who disappeared from his haunts in the subterranean port of Skullport in 1370 DR after being transformed into a lich by the Crown of Horns. More detail on the Crown of Horns can be found in Magic of Faerûn.

The horned harbingers are agents of the fallen Lord of Bones. Some claim their creation heralds the restoration of Myrkul's mantle of godhood, while others view their continued existence as the last remnants of Myrkul's dwindling power. Each horned harbinger has touched the Crown of Horns at some point since the Time of Troubles, although not all creatures who have done so have become members of this class.

Most horned harbingers are clerics, wizards, or necromancers, and many are undead. Almost all once venerated the Lord of Bones but later turned to deities such as Cyric, Jergal, Kelemvor, or Velsharoon after the Time of Troubles and the death of their deity. Upon adopting this prestige class, the faith of a horned harbinger must revert to that of the Lord of Bones, although it is unclear which god grants his divine spells. Clerics turning to the worship of Myrkul maintain the domain spells of their previous deity. Failure to venerate Myrkul results in the loss of all abilities stemming from this class, with the exception of Hit Die, base attack bonus, and save bonuses. Horned harbingers often live in large crypts or necropolises and haunt old battlefields. They rarely, if ever, interact with living creatures except to acquire more corpses. Such beings are often found in the company of large numbers of servitor undead. If not already undead, most are actively pursuing lichdom.

Requirements

To qualify to become a Horned Harbinger, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Class Skills

The horned harbinger's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Profession, and Spellcraft.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

The following are class features of the horned harbinger prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A horned harbinger gains no weapon or armor proficiencies.

Bone Horns (Ex): Horned harbingers grow six short curved horns of bone from their skull, as if wearing a crown of bone. These horns are considered natural weapons for the creature, collectively dealing 1d6 points of piercing damage. They do double damage when used as part of a charge.

Rebuke Undead (Su): The character can rebuke or command undead as a cleric of a level equal to his horned harbinger class level. If the character could already rebuke undead, these levels stack with that ability.

Death Domain: Upon adopting the horned harbinger class, the character gains access to the Death domain, described in the Player's Handbook, as well as the granted power of that domain. Levels in this prestige class stack with cleric levels for determining the effect of the granted power. If the horned harbinger has no cleric levels, only horned harbinger levels are used for the granted power.

Deathwatch (Ex): At will, a horned harbinger can view the world as if he were using a deathwatch spell.

Bonus Feat: At the indicated levels, a horned harbinger may take a bonus feat. These feats are drawn from the following list: Divine Vengeance, Empower Turning, Extra Turning, Heighten Turning, Quicken Turning, Leadership (undead cohorts only), Weapon Focus (bone horns).

Animate Dead (Sp): Beginning at 2nd level, the character can east animate dead once per day as a spell-like ability. His caster level for this ability or casting animate dead as a spell is his horned harbinger level plus his Charisma bonus (if any), which stacks with any other class the character has which can cast animate dead. For example, a clr7/horned harbinger 2 with Charisma 13 casts animate dead as a 10th-level cleric, whether using this spell-like ability or casting the spell as a cleric. This caster level is also determines the maximum number of undead animated with animate dead that the horned harbinger can control (so a character with caster level 10 for this power could maintain control over 20 HD worth of undead). Beginning at 4th level he may use this ability twice per day.

Captain of Undeath (Ex): At 5th level, a horned harbinger's limit for controlling undead animated with spells increases to 5 times his caster level instead of the normal 2 times his caster level. His limit for undead controlled through the use of his command undead ability increases from his effective cleric level to 2 times his effective cleric level.

Create Undead (Sp): Beginning at 6th level, the character can cast create undead once per day. His caster level for this ability is the same as the caster level for his animate dead ability. The horned harbinger may cast animate dead instead of using his create undead spell-like ability, similar to an evil cleric spontaneously converting a prepared spell to an inflict wounds spell.

Ranged Animation (Su): At 7th level, any use of animate dead, whether as a normal spell or a spell-like ability, has a range of medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level) instead of touch. In other words, the horned harbinger can use animate dead at a distance, without having to touch the corpses. If cast as a spell, the material components are still consumed but do not need to be placed on the corpses.

Create Greater Undead (Sp): Beginning at 8th level, the character can cast create greater undead once per day, with his caster level the same as the caster level for his animate dead ability. The horned harbinger may cast animate dead or create undead instead of using his create greater undead spell-like ability, similar to an evil cleric spontaneously converting a prepared spell to an inflict wounds spell.

General of Undeath (Su): At 10th level, a horned harbinger's limit for controlling undead animated with spells increases to 10 times his caster level. His limit for undead controlled through the use of his command undead ability increases 5 times his effective cleric level.

Horned HarbingerHit Die: d8
CLBABFortRefWillSpecial
1st+0+2+0+2Bone horns, rebuke undead, Death domain
2nd+1+3+0+3Deathwatch, animate dead
3rd+2+3+1+3Bonus feat
4th+3+4+l+4Bonus feat
5th+3+4+1+4Captain of undeath
6th+4+5+2+5Create undead
7th+5+5+2+5Bonus feat, ranged animation
8th+6+6+2+6Create greater undead
9th+6+6+3+6Bonus feat
10th+7+7+3+7General of undeath

Source: Faiths & Pantheons

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