Requirements

Alignment: Any nongood

Skills: Knowledge (religion) 8 ranks

Feats: Skill Focus (Knowledge religion)

Spells: Able to cast command undead and vampiric touch as arcane spells.

Special: The candidate must have spent three or more days locked in a tomb with animate undead. This contact may be peaceful or violent. A character who is slain by the undead and later raised still meets the requirement, although the resulting level loss may delay compliance with other prerequisites.

Summary

Pale Master is an interesting prestige. It's sort of like Dread Necromancer, Walker in the Waste, and Winterhaunt, where they all eventually want to reach a sort of lich apotheosis type state, except you do not become a full lich, you become partially mummified and gain some undead traits and powerful resistances. The most notable thing ou get is mid level with your undead graft and the touch attacks the Pale Master get are truly insidious. It's weird to build for and has some oft untread ground focusing on touch attacks as a wizard.

Role: Spell DPS

Characteristics: A Spell DPS with devastating touch attacks

Source: Libris Mortis

Game Rule Information

The Pale Master has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Constitution for more HP, you'll need it going into range, Casting stat is obviously a big one, and Charisma for class abilities.

Alignment: Any Nongood

Hit Die: d4

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Pale Master's class skills are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Hide (Dex), Knowledge (any) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis)

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Pale Master.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Pale Master is proficient with No weapons but, light and medium armor.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: Beginning at 2nd level, a pale master gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which he belonged before adding the prestige class level. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (improved chance of turning or destroying undead, metamagic or item creation feats, and so on). If he had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a pale master, he must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day and spells known.

Animate Dead Sp: Starting at 2nd level, a pale master begins to exercise control over the undead. Once per day, he can use animate dead, as the spell, without need of a material component. Use the pale master's highest arcane caster level as the caster level for this effect. All other level restrictions of animate dead still apply. For example, a 6th-level sorcerer/3rd-level pale master can animate up to 16 HD of undead with a single use of this ability. Likewise, he can control up to 32 HD of undead created using this ability, the animate dead spell, or both.

Darkvision Ex: At 3rd level, the dark begins to lose its mysteries to a pale master, who gains darkvision out to 60 feet. If he already has darkvision, its effective distance increases by 60 feet.

Undead Armor Affinity Ex: A pale master has an instinctive feel for undead armor. At 4th level and higher, he treats the undead armor as if its arcane spell failure chance were 10% less. At 8th level, this reduction improves to 20%.

Control Undead Sp: Once per day, a pale master of 5th level or higher can gain control over an undead creature (with Hit Dice equal to or less than his highest arcane caster level) by making a successful touch attack against it. The undead creature receives no saving throw to resist this effect. The control lasts for 1 round per class level. When the duration expires, the undead creature returns to its former allegiance, if any. The newly controlled undead can still be turned or rebuked as normal. This effect is otherwise identical to the control undead spell. This ability is in addition to the number of undead a pale master can control using his animate dead ability.

Deathless Vigor Ex: Beginning at 5th level, a pale master's body becomes more akin to the undying flesh of his undead associates. The character gains a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves except against effects that also work on objects.

Undead Graft Su: At 6th level, a pale master gives in to terrible necrophiliac urges. He cuts off his arm and replaces it with an undead prosthetic, which may be skeletal in form or preserved flesh stitched in place like that of a flesh golem. Regardless of its composition, the graft grants a +4 inherent bonus to the character's Strength score.

Additionally, the undead graft allows him to deliver horrible touch attacks. A pale master can use this ability once per day at 6th level, twice per day at 8th level, and three times per day at 10th level. The character must declare that he is using this ability before making the attack roll; a failed attack roll still expends that use of the ability. Each time he makes a touch attack using this ability, the pale master can select from any of the effects described below for which he meets the prerequisite class level. The save DC for the pale master's touch attacks is 10 + his pale master class level + his Cha modifier.

Paralyzing Touch: Any living foe except for an elf that is hit by a pale master's touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4+1 rounds. Prerequisite: Class level 6th.

Weakening Touch: A living foe hit by a pale master's touch attack takes 1d6 points of Strength damage (no save). A creature reduced to Strength 0 dies. Prerequisite: Class level 7th.

Degenerative Touch: A living foe hit by a pale master's touch attack receives one negative level (no save) and must make a Fortitude save 24 hours later to avoid losing the level permanently. Prerequisite: Class level 8th.

Destructive Touch: A living foe hit by a pale master's touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Constitution drain. Prerequisite: Class level 9th.

Deathless Master's Touch: A living foe of up to one size category larger than a pale master hit by the pale master's touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or die. A slain creature automatically animates 1 round later as a zombie and is under the pale master's control as if he had animated it. Undead created using this power do not count against a pale master's HD total for controlling undead. Prerequisite: Class level 10th.

Tough as Bone Ex: On reaching 7th level, a pale master takes on even more of the qualities of an undead creature. He becomes immune to disease, nonlethal damage, and stunning.

Undead Cohort: A 9th-level pale master gains the service of a loyal undead cohort. The cohort follows the rules for undead cohorts described under the Undead Leadership feat. The pale master does not gain any followers from this ability, only a single cohort. The cohort's effective character level is determined by the pale master's Leadership score and character level exactly as if the cohort had been gained by means of the Undead Leadership feat.

Deathless Mastery Ex: On reaching 10th level, a pale master gains the virtues of his deathless arts. His body becomes partly mummified (though he is not truly undead), and he becomes immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, death effects, critical hits, ability drain, and energy drain, as well as damage to his physical ability scores (Str, Dex, and Con). He still needs to breathe, eat, and sleep as normal for his type, and he still ages normally.

Table 1-1: Pale Master Progression

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Animate dead	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Darkvision	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Undead armor affinity (10%)	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Control undead, deathless vigor	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Undead graft, paralyzing touch	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Tough as bone, weakening touch	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Undead armor affinity (20%), degenerative touch	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Undead cohort, destructive touch	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Deathless mastery, deathless master's touch	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class