## PizzaMelody's # Race: Undead \page
## Undead *"I am the ancient. I am the land. My beginnings are lost in the darkness of the past. I am not dead. Nor am I alive. I am undead, forever."*
— Strahd von Zarovich, *Tome of Strahd*
In the murmurs of the commonfolk, on the pages of children's books, and forensic reports of investigators lie hints and clues that prove the existence of attainable immortality.
How to achieve it however, is a gruesome, frightening fate. The **undead** that roam the lands are unliving proof that individuals can play god. The cost of this only proportional to their ambitions, goals, and obsessions. ### Death Unchained The undead are, essentially, a bastardization of all forms of life. Neither living or dead, the undead are often feared and avoided as much as possible. Ghouls, ghosts, vampires, revenants, skeletons, and other forms of unimaginable undead horrors stalk the nightmares of all that have heard of them. An undead is often chained to a master, and so does their bidding without question or resistance. However, there have been rumors of adventurers that don't seem to age as the years go by, or those that have never revealed their face, and even those that seem to clatter too loudly and move too stiffly under the weight of their armor. Some undead, by circumstances only determined by fate, can free themselves from an unlife of servitude and roam freely to whatever goal they set themselves upon. While most would prefer a humble life to try and integrate into society, masquerading as mortals for the rest of their existence, others would rather experience the thrill of adventure for themselves, damned the consequences. And so, undead adventurers exist, and no other type is more terrifying than an adventurer that has experienced death, and can deal in it just as effectively. ``` ```
### Lore of the Living Tales of the undead slither through folk stories told by campfire or song. From the most meager of undying vermin to the mightiest of ancient lords, the undead are scattered throughout all forms of folklore. Commoners believe that undead as a story are entertaining and exciting, but referring to them as an attainable possiblity is a taboo that can attract the attention of monster hunters, inquisitors, and all too eager necromancers. So when news of undead sightings are spread throughout a region, its inhabitants become highly fearful and even paranoid to a fault, all to do everything in their power to avoid them. ### The Path to Undeath Any mortal creature can become an undead with the right tools, means, resources, and know-how. A curse could bind a mortal soul and its rotting, moving body in an endless, and often futile quest to settle a score beyond the grave. There are those whose remains are nothing but bones, but even that is not an obstacle, as focused necromantic magics can bring back or create them from these remains alone. Finally, there are those that sacrifice their eternal rest for a chance at eternal life while preserving their youth and charm. Such an existence demands the endless sacrifice of the blood of the innocent, but those that benefit from this feel little regret or remorse towards this endless cycle of bloodshed. \page ### Undead Traits Your character has certain traits that have allowed them to persist as an immortal being. **Ability Score Increase.** One ability score of your choice increases by 2, or two different ability scores increase by 1. **Type.** You are considered a humanoid and undead creature. **Age.** Undead do not grow old nor can they die of old age or the passage of time. **Alignment.** After crossing the veil of death transformed and free from mortal desires, most undead are forever changed into beings of self-indulgence, aimless vice or fanatical obsessions. Therefore, undead in general lean towards evil, though there are always exceptions. **Size & Speed.** All undead appear leaner due to a loss of body mass compared to their living counterparts. Your
*Mortal Race* trait determines your size and speed. **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. Undead typically know a language particular to their upbringing when they were alive, often determined by their race or culture. **Darkvision.** You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. **Undead Resilience.** Mortal afflictions no longer affect you, represented by the following benefits: - You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison and necrotic damage. - You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe. - You are immune to disease. - You don't need to sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep. **Undead's Rest.** When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn't render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.
> ##### Becoming an Undead Character > There are times when adventurers are presented with the option to give up their mortality in exchange for undeath. If you choose for your character to become an undead, work with your DM to determine the process and aftermath. If the attempt is successful, adopt the undead racial traits in the following manner: > > **ASI** Keep your ability scores as they were, and only add your chosen undead subrace's ASI. > > **Mortal Race**. As an undead, you no longer have access to racial traits particular to your previous mortal race and subrace, exchanging them for those of undeath instead. Use the *Mortal Race* table to adjust your new racial traits accordingly. ``` ``` **Mortal Race.** Choose one race from the table below. Your choice determines your size, base walking speed, and a bonus racial trait relevant to the race you were a part of as a mortal creature before becoming an undead. You can find detailed descriptions of each race and their traits in *Player's Handbook*. The options are: | Mortal Race | Size &
Speed (ft) | Racial Trait | |:----|:-:|:---| | Dwarf | Medium, 25 |*Stonecunning*| | Elf | Medium, 30 |*Keen Senses* &
*Fey Ancestry*| | Halfling | Small, 25 |*Halfling Nimbleness*| | Human | Medium, 30 |*Skills* & *Feat*| | Dragonborn | Medium, 30 |*Draconic Ancestry*
& *Breath Weapon*| | Gnome | Small, 25 |*Gnome Cunning*| | Half-Elf | Medium, 30|*Skill Versatility*| | Half-Orc | Medium, 30 |*Menacing* &
*Relentless Endurance*| | Tiefling | Medium, 30 |*Hellish Resistance*| **Turn Immunity.** Starting at 3rd level, you are immune to effects that turn undead. **Play Dead.** At 5th level, you learn the *feign death* spell and can cast it on yourself only requiring no components. After casting it with this feature once, you can do so again after a long rest. **Subrace.** The path to undeath is paved with curses, necromancy, or blood; sometimes all three. Undead adventurers come in one of three varieties: Revenants, Skeletons, and Vampires. Choose one of these options for your character. **Drawbacks**. Some racial traits are labeled as a Drawback. These traits are optional. You can pick & choose them for your character or omit them entirely. \page #### Revenant Your body and soul were brought back by a curse or some other means of unorthodox magic, whether willing or forced, with a powerful purpose. An undying wish, unfulfilled, chains you to the land of the living. A score unsettled, a love unmet, a promise unkept, or an old life abandoned, this hollow feeling binds and drives you. **Ability Score Increase.** Your Wisdom ability score is increased by 1. **Regeneration.** If your current hit points are below half your maximum, you can use your bonus action to recover a number of hit points equal to half your character level rounded down. You cannot recover more hit points beyond half your maximum with this trait. If you took fire or radiant damage a round prior, you cannot use this trait on the round after. **Undeath.** After dropping to 0 hit points and failing three death saving throws, your body lies unconscious indefinitely but you never die. Your soul, unable to pass on, lingers with the promise of fulfilling your undying wish. And so, after 8 hours, you are brought back as if by means of a long rest. **Killing Blow.** You die permanently if your unconscious body is burnt thoroughly until no flesh remains. Alternatively, should you fulfill your undying wish, your soul finds peace, and you die after 24 hours. If you are dealt your killing blow, your body turns to dust, and you cannot be brought back unless by means of a *wish* spell. **Drawback: Frightful Visage.** You have disadvantage on Persuasion checks made to interact with commonfolk, or anyone that sees the undead as hostile. A clever disguise or illusion that makes you appear as a living creature nullifies this drawback. **Drawback: One-Track Mind.** If your undying wish is within a 1 mile radius, the way to fulfill it is clear and the means are immediately available, you have disadvantage on ability checks on any activity unrelated to fulfilling your undying wish.
##### The Undying Wish Revenant undead only exist when the soul of the subject was left wanting right before dying. Some revenants held lifelong grudges,which they never got to square off. Others never got to accomplish a goal held throughout their lifetime. The table below provides options that can define your character's undying wish, their driving force and goal through their undeath: | d6 | Undying Wish | |:----:|:-------------:| | 1 | I must complete a quest no mortal would dare undertake | | 2 | I will end my family's blood feud| | 3 | I will avenge my murdered loved one(s) | | 4 | I must possess a priceless artifact I crave for | | 5 | I will uncover a vital truth about my past | | 6 | I will savor and enjoy all that which I couldn't in life |
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##### The Alibi Skeleton undead can be created for a plethora of reasons. A necromancer's ritual could have gone awry. Maybe Orcus himself has created you as his minion. Even your own intentional arcane experiments have brought you back, barely, post-mortem. The table below provides options that can define your character's alibi for existence: | d6 | Alibi | |:----:|:-------------:| | 1 | I was created by an accomplished necromancer | | 2 | A powerful fiend has summoned me | | 3 | I attempted to become a lich | | 4 | I was assembled with the bodies of many different people. Who am I really? | | 5 | My culture's arcane wisdom has allowed me to endure past its collapse | | 6 | I have seen how skeletons dance. I want to be just like them |
``` ``` #### Skeleton The arcane school of necromancy can spawn abominations that defy the laws of magic. Sentient skeletons are one of them. Rigidly assembled through necromantic magic, yet bound to no master, a skeleton carries on to whatever it decides to do unrestricted. As walking husks of mortals, their visage warrants mixed reactions, rarely positive, and are considered outcasts for the most part, regardless of their deeds or character. **Ability Score Increase.** Your Constitution ability score is increased by 1. **Necromantic Siphon.** You learn the *chill touch* cantrip. It does not count against your number of spells known. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for it. When a living creature you target takes damage from this cantrip, you recover a number of hit points equal to half the damage dealt, rounded down. You do not recover hit points from constructs or undead targets. **Undeath.** After dropping to 0 hit points and failing three death saving throws, your body lies unconscious indefinitely but you never die. While in this state, your body is in shambles as a pile of bones, each of which can be manipu-lated as an object. So long as your skull remains intact, your body reconstructs itself with necromantic magic within 8 hours. After the condition is met, you are brought back as if by means of a long rest. **Killing Blow.** You die permanently if your skull is destroyed while you're unconscious. As an object, your skull has an AC of 10 and a number of hit points equal to your
level + your Constitution modifier. If you are dealt your killing blow, your body turns to dust, and you cannot be brought back unless by means of a *wish* spell. **Drawback: Frightful Visage.** You have disadvantage on Persuasion checks made to interact with commonfolk, or anyone that sees the undead as hostile. A clever disguise or illusion that makes you appear as a living creature nullifies this drawback. **Drawback: Necrobeing.** Your body emanates powerful necromantic magic when pinged by spells like *detect magic* or similar effects. Additionally, you cannot recover hit points by means of spells of divine origin cast by creatures other than yourself. \page #### Vampire Creatures of myth, folklore, and the night. Vampires are notorious beings recounted through cautionary tales across centuries. Monsters in a suspended, eternal youth and uncanny allure. They effortlessly charm their way through the masses and feed on those that fall susceptible to their wiles. **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma ability score is increased by 1. **Blood Drain.** You can use your vampire fangs to drain the blood of a living creature as an unarmed attack. In this way, the unarmed attack deals 1d4 piercing damage + your Charisma modifier + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (with a minimum total modifier of 0). You recover a number of hit points equal to the damage dealt. Constructs and undead cannot be drained. **Undeath.** After dropping to 0 hit points and failing three death saving throws, your body lies unconscious indefinitely but you never die. You can be brought back in one of two ways: your body is placed in a closed coffin or buried in graveyard soil, neither of which can be hit by sunlight, for 8 hours. After either condition is met, you are brought
back as if by means of a long rest. **Killing Blow.** You die permanently if a
creature stabs you through the heart
with a stake while you are unconscious. If you are dealt your killing blow, your body turns to dust, and you cannot be brought back unless by means of a *wish* spell. **Drawback: Nightborn** While in direct sunlight, natural or magical, you have disadvantage on ability checks and are vulnerable to fire and radiant damage. **Drawback: Bloodthirst.** If you do not use your *Blood Drain* trait to consume a number of hit points equal to your character level before every dawn, you gain a point of exhaustion. Consuming the required number of hit points removes all points of exhaustion caused by it. A point of exhaustion gained this way cannot be removed via spells or a long rest. You do not die upon accumulating 6 points. Instead, you are left unconscious indefinitely until you are fed blood.
##### The Origin Vampire undead sprout from the masses, and are as mysterious as they are alluring. Many start as lesser spawn under the servitude of ancient vampire lords. Others have been around long enough to see the rise and fall of entire kingdoms. Some even just saw it as a chance to attain endless power over people. The table below provides options that can define your character's origin and purpose: | d6 | Origin | |:----:|:-------------:| | 1 | I am a vampire lord's spawn | | 2 | My bloodline is as ancient as the earth beneath me| | 3 | I survived an encounter with a feral vampire | | 4 | I traded my family in exchange for immortality | | 5 | I bought time to further my work across the ages | | 6 | I became a vampire to get the life of romance that I couldn't as a mortal |
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> ##### Art Credit > In order of appearance: > > **Strahd** - Daarken, Wizards of the Coast > > **Transylvanian Castle** - Darek Zabrocki > > **Fane, God King** - Joachim Vleminckx, Larian Studios > > **Talion** - Philip Straub, Monolith Productions, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment > > **Fane** - Joachim Vleminckx, Larian Studios > > **Astarion** - Unknown, Larian Studios > > ##### Created by: u/PizzaMelody > ##### Created using Homebrewery!