#undead lord

[parabutno]

*throws my old art at you because im emotionally attached but also lost the files so i can't finish them*

All these characters are from the game CDO2. Sadly, the development has stopped due to the artist group quitting. Buuuut is still updating the leaderboards and new challeges weekly. Give the game a try <3

[quarkmaster]

Demithyle

Here is some box art I did for Sideshow Collectibles about a year ago for the figurine Demithyle. I hope you enjoy!

My Official Site: www.jrcoffron.com

J. R. Coffron

[quarkmaster]

more work

White Queen

[dailycharacteroption]

Undead Lord (Cleric Archetype)

Evil Clerics make pretty darn good necromancers, better even than actual necromancers back in the days of Third Edition, though not so much in pathfinder due to the way arcane schools work and non-divine healing options for undead in Advanced Class Guide.

Still, a cleric is able to channel energy, making keeping alive their undead minions is a piece of cake. That being said, undeath is merely a single aspect of divine magic, and not the entirety of the cleric’s focus, save for those who worship gods of undeath.

Enter the undead lords, masters of the undead, specializing in their control and creation beyond other clerics. They might be the high priests of undeath-centric religions, or specialists in other faiths that act as taskmasters of the clergy’s deathly minions.

I said “evil clerics” at the beginning of this article, but as always, I firmly believe that the practice of necromancy and the presence of undeath does not automatically denote evil. While the clergy of dark gods that create hordes of undead slaves that serve their living and dead masters certainly do exist, other faiths that do not classify as evil but still have an alternate view of the sanctity of the dead still make use of this archetype.

  As worshippers of death, these clerics learn only the domain associated with their interests, specifically the Undead subdomain, granting them power over life and death, while limiting them only to those spells and abilities.

Using secret rites that take up a long amount of time, they can animate an undead servitor that is eternally loyal to them, though it is a mere zombie or skeleton, it exists separate to any other powers and influences that determine how many undead they can have enthralled at a time. They can even modify the ritual to create skeletons and zombies of greater power, though doing so decreases the overall potency of the life they can reanimate in doing so. Additionally, the animating forces that control the corpse are so interwoven with the master that they can end it with a thought, returning them to inert flesh, perfect for when you discover a new corpse that would make an even better minion.

All undead lords learn how to control the dead with channeled energy, and their training into those arts also lends them towards similar techniques, manipulating the channeled energy to smite, channel swiftly, with more potency, or more times in a day, learn the secrets to summoning skeletons from thin air, and even improving their capacity for undead domination.

Finally, these priests are masters of healing the undead, and can focus their channeled and cast negative energy spells to heal the dead above and beyond what those spells and abilities would normally do, keeping their minions fighting fit for as long as possible.

Not only are undead masters skilled at keeping their minions alive, but thanks to the death domain and undead subdomain abilities, they can even heal themselves and allies by treating them both as undead. This makes them actually quite useful to team up with a party or other allies. As befitting their necromantic focus, Build for debuffing and reanimation, alongside buffs for your undead minions, with a selection of other spells for whatever situations might arise that day.

  Evil necromantic clerics have quite enough inspiration out there, so how do we roleplay the more benevolent among them? They might be devoted to a philosophy of waste-not, want not, while others come from cultures that place no value on the body, or see their work as granting a second chance at valor or vengeance to the dead. Of course, there is also the classic weird kid character that treats the unliving like pets or good friends, and insists that they are kindly beings.

    Material is scarce on the Aetherealm, and every scrap must be recycled, lest settlements starve. Devotees of the Gray Traveller search for such abandoned towns and reanimate and bind any undead residents for use in work teams, hiring out to other cities. Just be sure you can pay them, lest you join the drifting horde.

  Suspicious of arcane magic, hobgoblin armies that utilize the undead prefer clerics to help rein in the walking dead. This is indeed the case with the Five Swords army, but what they do not know is that their war clerics are actually agents of the Hungering Grave, a malicious god-being that would see all living beings bent under the joke of undeath. When the time is right and the dead outnumber the living, they will strike, creating a new army from the remains of the Five Swords and their enemies.

  Sietha sings to her undead every single day, keeping their bones polished and their flesh preserved. Many find her odd, but there is no one better to ask for aid when dealing with the dead in the Reaches of Fallenster. Her corpse companion is an unnaturally quick mobat zombie that possesses all of the skill in flight that it had in life.