Spheres of Power Wiki

Dreadlord

9 min read

Source: Polished Commander & Warleader

Some commanders lead armies of flesh and blood. The dreadlord has transcended that limitation. They have studied the boundary between life and death not as philosophers, but as generals, and have learned the value of cold flesh and rattling bones.

Class Skills

A dreadlord adds Knowledge (religion) to their list of class skills instead of Knowledge (engineering).

This alters the commander’s class skills.

Casting

At 1st level, the dreadlord gains limited access to certain necromantic magics. The dreadlord treats their class levels as High-Caster levels but only for the purposes of the Death sphere reanimate sphere ability or talents with the (dominion) tag. These caster levels stack normally with those gained from other sources.

Unlike other casters, the dreadlord does not gain bonus magic talents from their casting tradition. If the dreadlord would multiclass and that class would qualify for a casting tradition through other means, the dreadlord receives bonus talents as normal.

Spell Pool

At 1st level, the dreadlord gains a small reservoir of energy they can call on to create truly wondrous effects, called a spell pool. This pool contains a number of spell points equal to their class level + their casting ability modifier (minimum 1). This pool replenishes once per day after roughly 8 hours of rest.

Reanimator Training (Ex)

At 1st level, the dreadlord gains the Warleader sphere as a bonus sphere, plus an additional Death or Warleader talent at each odd level after 1st.

The dreadlord qualifies for the Extra Magic Talent feat for Death sphere talents that modify the reanimate sphere ability or that possess the (dominion) tag.

This alters battlefield operator.

Dread Minions

At 1st level, the dreadlord gains the Death sphere, selecting the necromantic limit sphere-specific drawback for ghost strike.

Beginning at 3rd level, the dreadlord may extend reanimate’s casting time to 1 hour and expend 2 spell points to reanimate a single undead creature as a dread minion. A dread minion is treated as though they were reanimated with the Permanent Undead talent. The dreadlord may have 1 dread minion per 3 dreadlord levels at any given time; if the dreadlord would exceed this limit, they must dismiss a previously raised dread minion as part of using this ability. Dread minions still count against the dreadlord’s maximum number of undead under their control.

If the dreadlord gains the Permanent Undead advanced talent, they increase the total Hit Dice of undead they may have under their control by twice their dreadlord level.

This replaces lingering commands.

Dead Company (Ex)

At 3rd level, undead under the dreadlord’s control may benefit from the dreadlord’s class features and other abilities, such as benefitting from morale bonuses, teamwork feats, and mind-affecting effects, even if they would normally be unable to. If a dread minion receives a bonus to a skill from the dreadlord, they may then use that skill as though trained in its use despite being mindless.

Dreadlord Battlefield Specialties

The dreadlord rules not only over soldiers, but over the land itself — blighted, cursed, and consecrated to their name.

The dreadlord has unique and exclusive access to the following battlefield specialties:

Demesne

The land itself has died here. The soil is wrong, the silence is wrong, and the shadows fall at cloying angles. The dreadlord is home.

This battlefield specialty provides the following effects:

  • Terrain Skill Bonus: Intimidate. This bonus is halved (minimum 1) except when making Intimidate checks to coerce a creature or to improve a creature’s attitude through fear.

  • You roll twice and take the better result on saves against cursed land, effects produced by haunts, and other similar effects. At 10th level, you are immune to effects produced by cursed land. At 20th level, you are immune to effects produced by haunts.

  • You are treated as both a living and undead creature for the purposes of effects that restore hit points or provide a benefit based on whether the target is living or undead. Harmful effects still work normally. This is a supernatural effect.

    Example: A living creature could have their hit points restored by a cleric’s channeled negative energy to heal the undead but would still be damaged by that same cleric’s channeled negative energy to harm the living. Similarly, inflict light wounds could heal a living creature, but slay living could still harm them because it does not affect undead differently.

  • (requires dreadlord 10th level) If you would die or be destroyed (such as undead being destroyed at 0 hit points), you are instead trapped in a profane cage and denied the final release of death. This cage has 3 hit points per dreadlord level and hardness equal to 2 + the dreadlord’s practitioner modifier. This cage lasts for 10 minutes per dreadlord level. So long as this cage is intact, you are not dead or destroyed and instead in a form of suspended animation. You cannot take any actions while in this state. This is a supernatural effect.

    If you receive healing that would bring you at or above 0 hit points, the cage disappears and you receive 1 temporary negative level that lasts for 24 hours (bypassing any immunity to negative levels). You may only be denied death this way once per day.

    If the cage is destroyed, you die or are destroyed normally.

See Horror Adventures, Cursed Land and GameMastery Guide, Haunts for more details. See Horror Adventures, Domains of Evil for additional examples of cursed lands.

Unhallowed

The dreadlord’s own hands have sown the energy of death and decay through the land, infusing both the living and dead, and creating a haven the gods no longer gaze upon.

This battlefield specialty provides the following effects:

  • Terrain Skill Bonus: Disguise. This bonus is doubled when attempting a Disguise check to appear alive or otherwise conceal that you are monstrous.
  • You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on saving throws against channeled energy (positive or negative), including abilities that use channel energy such as the Command Undead feat. This bonus increases by +1 per 10 dreadlord levels.
  • At the start of your turn, you convert an amount of lethal hit point damage into nonlethal hit point damage equal to the dreadlord’s practitioner modifier, up to the amount of damage you took since the start of your previous turn. This is not treated as magical healing and is instead “converting” recently taken lethal damage into nonlethal damage. This is a supernatural effect; a creature that is immune to nonlethal damage can still benefit from this effect, bypassing any immunity they may have.
  • (requires dreadlord 10th level) Whenever you kill another creature, the dreadlord may reanimate that creature as an immediate action (even if that creature would not be within the dreadlord’s reanimate range).

Dreadlord Logistics Specialties

Dark Specialists

The dreadlord’s network does not draw from reputable sources. It draws from the desperate, the exiled, and the damned.

The following specialists replace those normally available to a commander through the call in a specialist logistics specialty.

  • Cabalist: Class: Witch or Occultist. Services: The cabalist may also use any abilities or features that curse or debilitate a target, such as hexes or focus powers. If the cabalist possesses the ability to craft, they may craft poisons, potions, and oils with harmful effects for the dreadlord.

    The cabalist can set up a profane altar. This altar is under a permanent unhallow effect and may have a spell the specialist is capable of casting linked to it. The cabalist may only maintain a single altar this way at a time, and must maintain it once a day for 1 hour or it loses its potency.

  • Channeler: Class: Cleric or Soul Weaver. Services: The channeler is a negative energy channeler and will channel to restore the hit points of any undead in the dreadlord’s service. The channeler will also use any spellcasting or abilities they possess, but only to aid or treat the dreadlord’s dread minions.

    In addition, once per day, the channeler may perform an extended ritual taking 1 hour. This ritual restores a destroyed undead back to 1 hit point, provided a majority of the remains are present and the undead has been destroyed for less than 1 day per dreadlord level. This may restore an undead or a creature that heals from negative energy (such as a dhampir). Restoring a creature this way costs 1,000 gp.

  • Grave Robber: Class: Rogue or Investigator. Services: The grave robber can procure corpses from nearby battlefields and mortuaries. The grave robber can locate and deliver a number of suitable corpses equal to 1 + 1 per 5 dreadlord levels. Corpses delivered this way may have up to a number of hit dice equal to the dreadlord’s level - 3. This requires 1 day for animal, humanoid, or vermin corpses, and 1d6 days for other creature types. Corpse availability is subject to GM discretion.

    In addition, the grave robber maintains contacts with black market dealers and implant traders. Through these contacts, the dreadlord may purchase common black market contraband, such as drugs or poisons, but also reagents and tools for raising undead or fleshgrafts and demonic implants (and other similar magic implants).

  • Tyrant: Class: Antipaladin or Vigilante. Services: The tyrant is a feared enforcer whose reputation precedes the dreadlord’s arrival. Unlike other specialists, the tyrant may accompany the dreadlord into combat.

    Once per week, the tyrant can be sent ahead to a single settlement within 10 miles per dreadlord level. After 1d4 days, the tyrant establishes a climate of fear in that settlement: NPCs treat their starting attitude as one step less favorable toward anyone opposing the dreadlord and one step more favorable towards the dreadlord, and Intimidate checks made against residents of the settlement gain a +4 circumstance bonus. This climate of fear lasts for up to 1 week, or until the dreadlord leaves the settlement.

    Once per month, the tyrant instead can be directed to coerce an organization, ruling body, or government within a settlement into compliance. Over a 2d4 day period, the tyrant makes a single Intimidate check with a bonus equal to the dreadlord’s level to make a single significant or costly demand from another group (see Spheres of Guile, Skill Rules). This demand can include opening the city gates, extraditing a prisoner, ceasing trade with an enemy for a period of time, or providing a specific resource. Demands that would require self-destruction are beyond the tyrant’s ability to force, subject to GM discretion.

Archived: Ultimate version (before Polished)