There are much more macabre ways to employ psionic talent than twisting the minds of other creatures. Necrotic puppeteers have found one - they force corpses to rise by means of mere concentrated will that pulls on decaying bodies like puppet strings. As long the animates are being fed by their masters' attention, they exist an obey; bereft of this 'blessing', they defile an perish.

Necrotic puppeteers need no obscure rites to wake the dead; because of that, they see themselves superior to 'primitive' magic-using necromancers who rely on 'strenunous and ridiculous incantations'. Still, only few of them, the true masters of their art, are capable of creating feeling an thinking undead that do not degenerate if left on their own.

Most necrotic puppeteers are humans or elans with psion levels. Members of other races seldom pursue this special and sinister path, if they discover psionic abilities in their minds at all.

 

Hit Die: d4

 

Prerequisites:

Alignment: any nongood

Skills: Concentration 8 ranks, Psicraft 5 ranks

Feats: Iron Will, Combat Manifestation

Psionics: Manifester level 5th

 

Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int)

Skill Points per Level: 2+Int-Modifier

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Wil	Special	Manifesting
1.	+0	+0	+0	+2	Raise Minion	-
2.	+1	+0	+0	+3	-	+1 level of existing manifester class
3.	+1	+1	+1	+3	Drain Organic Essence	+1 level of existing manifester class
4.	+2	+1	+1	+4	-	+1 level of existing manifester class
5.	+2	+1	+1	+4	-	+1 level of existing manifester class
6.	+3	+2	+2	+5	-	+1 level of existing manifester class
7.	+3	+2	+2	+5	Take Over	+1 level of existing manifester class
8.	+4	+2	+2	+6	-	+1 level of existing manifester class
9.	+4	+3	+3	+6	-	+1 level of existing manifester class
10.	+5	+3	+3	+7	Imprint Corpse	+1 level of existing manifester class

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Necrotic puppeteers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

 

Powers Known: At every level indicated on the table, the character gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if she had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, psicrystal special abilities, and so on). This essentially means that she adds the level of necrotic puppeteer to the level of whatever manifesting class the character has, then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly.

If a character had more than one manifesting class before she became a necrotic puppeteer, she must decide to which class she adds the new level of necrotic puppeteer for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

 

Raise Minion (Ps): By attaching a purely mental string to a deceased body, a necrotic puppeteer can raise and control it in a way somewhat similar to telekinesis yet creating a limited flux of negative energy. As a full-round action, she can animate a skeleton or zombie from an appropriate corpse within 30 feet of her. An undead so created may not have more HD than the puppeteer's manifester level. It follows her mental commands and remains under her control until being dismissed as a free action. A dismissed minion gains indifferent attitude toward its former master and her allies and loses 10 hit points per hour.

At any given point of time, a necrotic puppeteer may maintain control over a total number of minion HD equal to twice her manifester level. She cannot raise new minions if doing so would increase the controlled HD amount beyond this treshold, though she may dismiss prebiously created minions before doing so. The control ceases automatically if the puppeteer is slain, rendered unconcious, is separated from a minion by more than 200 feet or finds herself on a plane different from where it is. Though, a puppeteer does not lose the control of her minions when she voluntarily falls asleep or enters a sleep-like trance. While she is sleeping or trance-sunken, her minions remain inactive and helpless.

A necrotic puppeteer must maintain a power point reserve of at least 1 point to use this ability.

 

Drain Organic Essence (Ps): By reaching 3rd level, a necrotic puppeteer learns to utilize dead flesh in another way. She ist now able to drain the fading remainings of life force and warmth from fresh corpses, converting them into psychic energy. Once per day, plus one additional time for every 3rd level thereafter, a necrotic puppeteer can drain the traces of bioenergetic essence from a recently deceased body not older than 48 hours otherwise usable for raising as a zombie to gain 1d6 power points. The body in question must be within 30 feet of the puppeteer and once drained, it decays rapidly turning dry and briddle withing minutes. It then cannot be drained or animated anymore.

 

Take Over (Ps): Skilled puppeteers are not only able to create walking dead by themselves, they also can bind other mindless undead to their will. Upon reaching 7th level, a necrotic puppeteer gains the ability to extend her mental control over any undead within 60 feet of her without Intelligence score as long its HD doesn't exceed her manifester level.  She may even take over several creatures at once, but no more than one creature per four manifester levels. If a given undead is being controlled by another creature, the puppeteer must succeed on a manifester level check (DC 11 + controlling creature's appropriate level (caster/manifester level, cleric/dread necromancer level etc.)). An overtaken undead counts against a necrotic puppeteer's controllable undead HD total and acts just as a normal minion except it does not degenerate if the control is ceased. A minion that has previously being controlled by another master does not fall under his control again when released by a puppeteer.

Using this ability costs 7 power points plus 1 power point per HD of overtaken undead.

 

Imprint Corpse (Ps): The most powerful necrotic puppeteers discover a method to inscribe a realistic and self-developing semblance of personality into a lifeless shape. This process restores some fragments of the percipient corpse's former self as the artificial mind draws upon remnants of information concerved in some way within the body. The very persona of the awakened undead is nevertheless sculpted by the puppeteer herself.

It takes a necrotic puppeteer an hour to awaken a minion she controls. Concentration needed to do so forces her to cease control over all other minions. The recipient minion must remain within 5 feet of her during the whole process.

Upon successful imprinting, the recipient undead gains an Intelligence score of 5 + 1 per 3 puppeteer's manifester leves, the psionic subtype an a power point reserve of 1 point. It regains all weapon or armor proficiencies it possessed in life but never loses those gained by having been transformed into undead. It gains 4 + Int modifier skill points per HD (four times this amount for the first HD) and any two class skills specified by the puppeteer, but no feats a the point of awakening. Extraordinary racial abilities are restored by imprinting, those granted by class levels the particular undead may have posessed in life are not. Its alignment matches that of the necrotic puppeteer in both components.

A personality-imprinted minion no longer remains under its master's control yet it gains the helpful attitude toward her an her allies and remains fully loyal when treated approprieately.  It also does not degenerate as released mindless minions raised by a puppeteer do.

Imprinting an animated corpse is a tiresome process requiring an amount of personal sacrifice. A use of this ability costs 13 power points and also 50 XP per HD of the recipient minion.