Any chance of changing a Pale Master's summons? Did some looking and noticed that the other prestige classes with summons (Blackguard & Shadowdancer) have much better summons in relation to the level received.
Here's how they compare:
Pale MasterLevel 4
GhoulLevel 6
ShadowLevel 7
GhastLevel 8
WightLevel 9
Wraith/
Mummy WarriorLevel 10
SpectreBlackguardLevel 3
GhastLevel 5
SuccubusLevel 7
Doom KnightLevel 9
VrockShadowdancerLevel 3
ShadowLevel 6
Shadow FiendLevel 9
Shadow LordWhen you compare the three classes, note that:
- Being a prestige class, the Pale Master summons are typically gained at levels that already make them ineffective and only useful as extremely short-lived cannon fodder
- While the Pale Master also gets Animate Undead, these summons are mostly useful as cannon fodder too.
- The level 3 Shadowdancer Shadow has 30/+1 damage reduction and Turn Resistance +10, whereas the Level 6 Pale Master Shadow has 5/+1 and Turn Resistance +2
- At level 3 the Blackguard gets the same summons a Pale Master has to wait seven levels to get. And it's not even a good summons.
- At level 5 the Blackguard gets a succubus that has: "20/+2 damage reduction, and 20/- acid, cold, and fire damage resistance, as well as 100% immunity to electrical damage. In addition, this creature is immune to poison and has a spell resistance of 12. A succubus' slam attack drains a single level on-hit. This creature can cast a number of spells as spell-like abilities (cannot be countered or interrupted) with a caster level of 12. These abilities are charm monster, clairaudience/clairvoyance, darkness, and doom, each usable three times per day. In addition, this creature can summon tanarri once per day." At level 10, a Pale Master gets a slightly stronger shadow that has ability/level drain, +3 AB, and 45 hit points.
The summons of a Pale Master are vastly underpowered compared to others that the other classes get. Now, looking at the PnP version of the Pale Master, a couple of the abilities stand out and I think the Pale Master could stand to benefit from having the current Animate Dead and Summon Undead reworked.
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.
Considering that Pale Master levels after level one are added to the Arcane class levels for effective caster level, the total hit dice of animated undead can get high pretty quick for our server. However, looking at the other classes, almost all of the summons are effectively the prestige class level +1 worth of HD. At level 5 they summon a 6HD creature. At level 9 they summon a 10 HD creature. The Pale Master class doesn't follow this and pretty much lags behind by several levels worth of comparable HD at each level. If we could get summons in a comparable fashion, things would be better. Come to think of it, the Animate Undead spell could also use a bit of an upgrade along these lines.
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.
Since my recommendation for Animate Undead would effectively replace the current Summon Undead with a similar but improved function, the current Summon Undead should be replaced with the PnP Control Undead, which is at its heart a Dominate Undead type of ability without a saving throw (though I'd imagine an undead PC would still get one).
So, to summarize, instead of two lame summons, the Pale Master would get Animate Dead summons comparable to the other two prestige classes with summons, and a dominate undead type of ability.