Prestige Class Spotlight 11: Agent of the Grave
(art by Lulolana on DeviantArt)
It’s time for another specials on Prestige Classes, but this one is a bit different this time, because this is a rare prestige class that only has 5 levels of progression. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes there are less than 10 levels in a prestige class.
In any case, this time we’re focusing on a necromantic class with ties to the infamous organization, the Whispering Way!
For those who don’t know, the Whispering Way is a cultish secret society devoted to a philosophy of rejecting mortality and viewing undeath as the true state of existence. As such, they seek to spread the secrets of how to turn oneself into an undead horror, all other living things being fodder for that apotheosis.
Given his role in the creation of the philosophy, one of the primary goals of the organization as a whole was to find a way to free the Whispering Tyrant from his prison, which, unfortunately, they succeeded late into first edition, kicking of the second with him being sulking threat steadily regaining his strength after being humiliated by heroes that stymied his initial resurgence and destroyed his superweapon.
While the Whispering Way now walks more openly and brazenly, they still find value in secrecy, so today’s subject, these Agents of the Grave, have value regardless of the era that you play in.
Having served in the cult faithfully for a year, many members are finally allowed access to greater secrets, and can begin working on their apotheosis. While all have some mastery over necromancy, they spend comparatively little time building up a multitude of undead servitors and instead focus on their final apotheosis.
Additionally, as their name suggests, they also act on the organization’s behalf, particularly in regards to recruitment. Such agents infiltrate various learned institutions for years, even decades, subtly using their influence to twist the beliefs of those around them and find receptive souls to twist and mold into potential recruits themselves.
The result with this archetype is a spellcaster that has greater insights into how to control their own undead minions and being a bit tougher than normal, while still leaving room for the character to grow along their normal class progression. All they have to do is be evil, be steeped in mystical and sacred lore, and being able to cast a basic undead animation spell, which admittedly limits you to classes and archetypes that gain access to those spells.
Much like other spellcasting prestige classes, these agents continue to master the spells, but not the other mystical abilities, of their previous class, though there is a brief lull in them in the earliest stage.
Their mastery of the secrets of necromancy gives them greater control over the undead they create, allowing them to hold a greater number of skeletons and zombies they have created under their sway.
Many aspire to become liches, and even those that do not learn how to channel negative energy with a touch to sap the live away from their foes and bolster the undead.
As their bodies become more and more deathlike, they can choose to have some of their vitality be based on their force of personality rather than the healthiness of their bodies.
Normally the undead ignore mind-affecting spells that would have targeted them in life, such magic only working on a living mind. However, these agents learn secrets similar to the arcana of many undead-blooded sorcerers, but refined, letting them use spells on the undead based on what they were in life, modifying them to affect them as if they still breathed.
Their power eventually grows so that they can project an unholy aura, bolstering nearby undead as well as guaranteeing that any dead they raise will be bolstered.
Of course, as infiltrators, they must also learn how to use magic to mask their aura, as well as showing up as a blank to divination spells. However, they can only do one or the other once a day.
Eventually their transition reaches the edge and they become sustained by negative energy, healing from it while being harmed by the positive.
At the zenith of this path, they learn the secrets of necromancy spells that are normally outside of their discipline, adding them to their arsenal.
Additionally, they finally have all the materials and knowledge they need to go through with their own personal apotheosis into undeath, making the process much easier, and even protecting their minds and souls from losing themselves if that path involves becoming an undead spawn of some contagious form of undeath, though beings that rise again without class knowledge still do not retain those secrets upon reanimating. Thus, lichdom, graveknight-hood, vampirism, and other similar paths are obviously preferred over becoming a lowly ghoul or wight.
Playing an evil necromancer seeking undeath, or need a villain with some nasty necromancy secrets? This prestige class has you covered, including having a built-in angle for protecting them from magical scruitiny as well. You only lose out on one level’s worth of spellcasting too, so you don’t end up too far behind. Naturally, the exact nature of your previous class will determine what your build will be, be it a wizardy necromancer laying down supporting fire behind your undead minions, a grave walker witch laying down curse after curse, a cleric or oracle bolstering their undead army, an occultist pursuing undead through relics and secrets, and so on. But don’t forget this is also an infiltrator class, meaning that illusions and enchantment are also very useful.
While this prestige class is firmly set in the “undeath good, manipulate people from the shadows” evil camp, you could modify it to be less sinister for those who seek undead apotheosis without being evil if your setting and campaign allow for it.
Poppy the vine leshy has been on edge for weeks. She knows that something evil has crept into the wildnerness that she watches over, but she has not found any trace of it or it’s whereabouts. What she doesn’t realize is that her dearest friend has been swayed by the way of the skull, and is seeking transformation into a dread siabrae undead, the only way to protect nature, or so he believes.
Though she is a warpriest of the Eternal Soldier, Vlan has always had a fascination for how acid eats at the body, and when she was corrupted into the Burden Takers, a heretical cult that seeks undeath to fight forever, she knew she wished to become an eternal warrior what wielded not just a sword, but acid as well. As such, she has begun crafting a magic suit of armor from the acid-spitting black spitter beetles, and ready a sacrifice to transform herself into a graveknight.
There is a change in the demeanor of many new students of the academy, a cold contempt that they seem to have trouble concealing. The headmaster suspects some awful new clique has grown among the student body, but the truth is far more insidious: One of the faculty, who has feigned loyalty for years, is finally ready to twist the curriculum to one glorifying the worst necromantic arts, and secure her own transformation into an undead horror.
