Twilight Sage

By wresting a soul from life to death, a twilight sage gains a slightly deeper understanding of mortality, fueling her curiosity and eldritch power. As a full-round action, she can consume the life energy of a helpless living creature, killing it. This creature must have 2 or more Hit Dice and be below 0 hit points. The twilight sage adds 2 points to her arcane reservoir if the creature's Hit Dice equaled or exceeded the sage's character level, or 1 point if the creature's Hit Dice equaled at least 1/2 her character level. This ability is a death effect. This ability replaces consume spells.

Twilight sages consider their research into life and death to be paramount, beyond all other concerns. Each day, a twilight sage must prepare at least one necromancy spell of each spell level she can cast.

A twilight sage's arcane barrier differs from those of other arcanists, as it draws upon both negative and positive energy to protect the sage. At 1st level, a twilight sage must choose the arcane barrier exploit as her first arcanist exploit. Whenever an attack removes the last temporary hit point from the twilight sage's arcane barrier, the barrier's negative energy lashes back at the attacker, dealing an amount of negative energy damage equal to the barrier's maximum temporary hit point capacity. This ability alters the arcanist exploit gained at 1st level.

At 11th level, a twilight sage's mastery over life and death allows her to transfer life energy into a fading vessel. Once per day, she can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir while touching a creature that died within the past round to affect that creature as if it had received a breath of life spell, using her arcanist level as the caster level. At the same time, a willing or unconscious living creature within 300 feet that has a number of Hit Dice equal to or greater than the recipient's instantly dies. This ability is a death effect, and if the victim doesn't actually die (such as if it was summoned or is immune to death effects), the recipient doesn't receive the breath of life effect. This ability replaces the arcanist exploit gained at 11th level.

At 20th level, a twilight sage has mastered the relationship between death and arcane power, and has gained a limited ability to surpass her own mortality. Whenever she dies (but not if she becomes undead), if she still has points in her arcane reservoir she appears as an ephemeral spirit in the air above her corpse. She can still cast spells in this form, using her corpse as the origin point and determining whether she can see or target any creature or area as though she were alive in that square. To cast a spell, she must expend a number of points from her arcane reservoir equal to 1 + the spell's level. The spirit disappears if she has no points remaining in her arcane reservoir or she spends a round without casting a spell. The spirit can't move, deliver touch or ranged touch spells, or do anything that isn't part of casting a spell. Her spirit completes the verbal and somatic components of her spells, any material components are consumed from the supply on the corpse, and any focus components must be on the corpse. This ability replaces magical supremacy.