I think it's about time wizards get a pass. We already have thread about Eldritch Knight:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...it-competitive

So I would like to make a similar thread about Pale Master.

- Wizard's pet (familiar) -

This is the first change that needs to be done to Pale Master tree:

Remove "Skeletal Knight" tier 1 enhancement from Pale Master tree and give it to all wizards as feat on level 1, renamed to: "Find Familiar: Skeleton".

The name "Find Familiar" is for pen and paper reasons. And i separated it because it affects wizard as a whole, not just Pale Master tree.

Thi is the ONLY pet change that needs to be done for Pale Master pass. Skeleton pet could be improved further by making it like other pets (pet tab and enhancements), but that can be done later. As for the Pale Master tree pass, only removing this from tree and making it a feat for all wizards (like in other pet classes) is enough.

- The Changes -

Core 1: Level 1
Dark Reaping: Stays the same.

[Note: I would add passive effects to Shroud cores]:

Core 2: Level 3
Shroud of the Zombie: Shroud stays the same.
Passive: Your practice of the zombie form made your body more resistant to physical damage, you gain +5 PRR

Core 3: Level 6
Shroud of the Vampire: Shroud stays the same.
Passive: Your practice of the vampire form made your body more resistant to magical damage, you gain +5 MRR

Core 4: Level 12
Shroud of the Wraith: Shroud stays the same.
Passive: Your practice of the wraith form made your body more flexible, you gain +1 dodge

Core 5: Level 18
Shroud of the Lich: Shroud stays the same.
Passive: Your practice of the lich form made your body more resistant to magical effects, you gain +5 Spell Resistance (stacking like Monk's)

Core 6: Capstone
Master of Death: Changes in bold: You gain +2 to intelligence, wisdom and constitution, deathblock and immunity to energy drain.
When you have a Shroud toggle active, receive 5% more healing from Negative Energy, when not in Shroud, receive 5% less damage from negative energy (absorption effect).

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Tier 1 Enhancements

Necrotic Touch: Make it scale with 100% spellpower. Reduce cooldown to 9/6/3 seconds, and make it a renamed Chill touch for HP cost (meaning no save for damage, fortitude for strength damage and will for undead fear).

Deathless Vigor:: Stays the same or nerfed to +5/10/15 HP for 1 AP cost each rank (since we now have EK tree which also has HP enhancement).

Spell Critical: Negative Energy I: Unchanged

Skeletal Knight: Replaced by: Necromantic Spellcraft: +1/+2/+3 to Concentration, and Spellcraft. Rank 3 also makes Negative energy spellpower based on Spellcraft instead of Heal skill.

Negative Energy Conduit: Changed to: When you have a Shroud toggle active, receive 6%/12%/20% more healing from Negative Energy, when not in Shroud, receive 6%/12%/20% less damage from negative energy (absorption effect). (Pale Master should be more resistant to negative energy while living, and more vulnerable only when in undead form).


Tier 2 Enhancements

Efficient Metamagic: Stays the same, but I would consider removing this and replacing it with some new enhancement since we already have metamagics in Archmage tree.

Spell Critical: Negative Energy II: Unchanged

Corpsecrafter: Your Undead pets and summons gain a +2/+4/+6 Profane Bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution

Bone Armor: Unchanged.


Tier 3 Enhancements

Necrotic Bolt: Make it scale with 100% spellpower. Reduce cooldown to 12/8/4 seconds and change it to be ranged Chill Touch (no save for damage, strength damage on fortitude save, and fear for undead). The bolt should be a bit faster and home its target

Cloak of Night: Make it a less powerful duration-based spell that only gives beneficial protection: Reduces the effectiveness of Positive Energy, Repair, and Light damage on you by 10%/20%/30% for 30/45/60 seconds. Cost: 30/20/10 SP.

Spell Critical: Negative Energy III: Unchanged

Eternal Servitude: Your Undead pets and summons gain a +2/+4/+6 Profane Bonus to AC, and a +5/+10/+15 Profane Bonus to Physical Resistance.

Constitution or Intelligence, Choose one: Unchanged.


Tier 4 Enhancements

Necromantic Focus:: Unchanged, but moved to tier 4 (from tier 5)

Spell Critical: Negative Energy IV: Unchanged

Dark Furor: Your Undead pets and summons gain 15%/30%/45% Doublestrike, 10%/20%/30% Doubleshot, 1/2/3 Spell penetration, and their attacks bypass 5%/10%/15% of enemy Fortification.

Constitution or Intelligence, Choose one: Unchanged.


Tier 5 Enhancements

Necrotic Blast: Make it scale with 100% spellpower. Reduce cooldown to 15/10/5 seconds and change it to be ranged AOE Chill Touch (no save for damage, strength damage on fortitude save, and fear for undead).

Animate Ally: Damage over time should be reduced to increase the duration, players that are animated should be able to remove this "animated" effect (damage over time) by clicking on the resurrection shrine or by casting Raise dead or Resurrection spell. This should also work like Raise Dead on undead pet.

Improved Shrouding: I would just reduce Juju Zombie's attack speed penalty from 20% to 15%, and increase Master Vampire attack heal from 1 to 1d2 HP heal, stacking with weapon vampirism.

Escape Death: New enhancement: If you are reduced to 0 or less HP when you have a Shroud toggle active, instead of dying, you gain 10% of your max HP back and your shroud is toggled off. This can happen only once per rest.


Since we get HP costing Chill Touch SLA (named Necrotic Touch) from this tree, I would also replace Chill Touch in Archmage tree (first core) with Ghoul Touch.

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In the end, here are some major things we get from this:
  • Pet for all wizards that does not waste 6 AP on one tree.
  • Negative energy spellpower can be gained by increasing Spellcraft skill instead of non-class Heal (removing the need to splash Cleric).
  • HP consuming damaging SLAs now deal normal damage, are somewhat close to Warlock SLAs. Even though I did not give them metamagic, 100% spellpower scale with no "save for half damage", strength damage and 1 second less cooldown on all SLAs should be enough damage increase).
  • Enhancements that improved skeleton pet now also improve undead summons (including epic lich).
  • Cores now also give some passive benefits
  • Capstone now also gives you level drain immunity while not in undead form
  • Cloak of Night can now be used as defence when needed, for a short time, but without negative healing penalty.
  • Animate Ally is now useful SLA, at least for raising your skeleton pet, but can also help other dead players reach resurrection shrines without the need to die next to it.
  • Escape Death would be nice to avoid death with weak wizard from time to time.