Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead

Almost every culture on the planet has its own legends of restless spirits, blood-drinking fiends, and the animate corpses of beloved relatives coming back to haunt their unsuspecting relations. Libris Mortis collects many of those bits of folklore, literature, and pop culture and presents them in formats appropriate for D&D. Within these covers the DM can find new horrors to include in his game, ideas for how to incorporate the undead in his campaign world, tips and tricks for running undead encounters, and a range of sample undead and undead encounters to drop right into his game. Players will find optimal tactics for battling the undead, new tools for the fight -- including equipment, magic items, spells, feats, and prestige classes -- and even some guidelines for playing an undead creature as a player character. So whether you like your undead pustulent and hungry for brains or aristocratic and thirsty for blood, you won't go wrong with this book. A word to the wise, though: you might want to leave the lights on while you read.

• New Feats
• New Prestige Class (master of radiance)
• New Monster Classes and Templates (wight, hooded pupil, revived fossil)

Libris Mortis: New Prestige Class

Master of Radiance

Master of Radiance

Masters of radiance channel the pure, undiluted power of the sun. Often originating in a good-aligned druidic sect that reveres the sun, they have a holy purpose to scour the earth clean of undead. Wielding the sun's radiance as a weapon, they are the bane of any evil creature that lurks in the darkness.

Most masters of radiance are druids, due to their historical connection to sun-worshiping sects. Clerics with the Animal or Plant domain have Knowledge (nature) as a class skill and can easily qualify to enter the class; such clerics often revere Pelor or another sun deity and choose Sun as their second domain. Some cleric/rangers and even rare paladin/rangers can also qualify for this class, bringing a combination of holy zeal and reverence for nature to their crusade against the undead. Other characters rarely have the combination of skills and spellcasting to become masters of radiance.

NPC masters of radiance prefer to work proactively against evil, seeking out the lairs of undead and other darkness-dwelling monsters and destroying them with ruthless efficiency. They often cluster in druidic sects to pool their efforts, and frequently ally themselves with other religious groups who share their outlook, such as temples of Pelor.

Hit Die: d8.

Requirements

To qualify to become a master of radiance, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Any nonevil.

Skills: Knowledge (nature) 8 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks.

Spells: Able to cast daylight as a divine spell.

Class Skills

The master of radiance's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player's Handbook for skill descriptions.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the master of radiance prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A master of radiance gains no proficiency with any weapons, armor, or shields.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: Beginning at 2nd level, the master of radiance gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if she had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which she belonged before adding the prestige class level. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (metamagic or item creation feats and so on, but see Turn Undead, below). If she had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a master of radiance, she must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day and spells known.

Turn Undead (Su): Master of radiance class levels stack with levels of all other classes that grant the ability to turn undead for the purpose of determining the character's effective cleric level for turning. See Turn or Rebuke Undead on page 159 of the Player's Handbook. For example, a 7th-level cleric/5th-level master of radiance turns undead as a 12th-level cleric.

Radiant Aura (Su): Beginning at 1st level, the master of radiance can emanate an aura of brilliant light that weakens undead creatures. The aura provides bright illumination in a 30-foot radius around the character, and shadowy illumination for an additional 30 feet beyond that. Creatures that take penalties in bright light also take them while within the radius of this aura. In addition, undead creatures within the radius of bright light take a -2 penalty to attacks, damage, and saves.

Activating the radiant aura is a swift action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. While her radiant aura is active, the master of radiance casts spells with the light descriptor at +2 caster level.

The master of radiance can use this ability once per day at 1st level, twice per day at 3rd level, and three times per day at 5th level. Each use lasts 1 minute.

The radiant aura is the equivalent of a 5th-level spell with the light descriptor for purposes of interacting with spells and effects with the darkness descriptor.

Searing Light (Sp): Beginning at 2nd level, the master of radiance can cast searing light as a standard action once per round as long as her radiant aura is active. Treat the character's caster level for this effect as equal to her highest divine caster level, including the +2 caster level adjustment for the radiant aura (for example, a druid 7/master of radiance 2 would cast this effect as a 10th-level spellcaster).

Beam of Sunlight (Sp): A 5th-level master of radiance can evoke a dazzling beam of intense light (the equivalent of a beam from the sunbeam spell) once per round as a full-round action as long as her radiant aura is active. Treat the character's caster level for this effect as equal to his highest divine caster level, including the +2 caster level adjustment for the radiant aura (for example, a druid 7/master of radiance 5 would cast this effect as a 13th-level spellcaster).

Table 3-3: The Master of Radiance

• New Feats
• New Prestige Class (master of radiance)
• New Monster Classes and Templates (wight, hooded pupil, revived fossil)