3.5 Half-Undead Template PEACH

[Jallorn]

Half-Undead
Born of a dark curse, a partial immunity to an evil disease, or some other type of necromancy, Half-Undead creatures are cursed beings whose bodies have been corrupted, usually against their will. Their nature makes them symbols of fear to those who fight the dark magics, and failure to those who practice them. More a wound than anything else, there are however a few twisted necromancers who are not yet ready to give up on life, but desire some of the benefits of being undead.

Size and Type: The Base Creature's size remains unchanged. For the purposes of feats and class skills, the Base Creature is now considered a monstrous humanoid.

Hit Dice: The Base Creature's Hit Dice remain unchanged.

Speed: The Base Creature's speed remains unchanged.

Special Qualities: A Half-Undead has all the special qualities of the Base Creature, plus darkvision out to 30 ft, and immunity to charms, compulsions, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, nonmagical diseases, Death Effects, and both positive and negative energy.

Abilities: The base creature receives the following changes to it's ability scores, -2 Con, -2 Cha.

Bonus Feats: Rapid Metabolism

Taint: The Half-Undead gains a mild corruption effect and adds an effective bonus to his taint equal to one-half the maximum score for a mild taint when calculating taint for class or feat requirements. This corruption effect is in addition to any received from actual taint.

Additional Effects: Upon receiving this template, the base creature's remaining life span is cut in half, and after an amount of time after dying, by natural or unnatural causes, the creature rises as an undead creature. Half-Undead do not need to sleep.

To determine how many days after death the Half-Undead rises, roll 1d4 and add 1/2 the Half-Undead's level. Roll a d% and add 2*(the Half-Undead's level-1) to determine the type of undead:
1-35 Skeleton
36-60 Zombie
61-75 Ghoul
76-80 Ghast
81-90 Vampire Spawn
91-95 Wight
96-100 Vampire
>100 Lich

If the Half-Undead is resurrected before rising, he is resurrected without the Half-Undead template, and does not become an undead if he dies again.


I will also be creating a 10 level prestige class that gains this template in the first 5 levels, and improves upon it for the last 5.

[Jallorn]

Cursed Defiant
A Cursed Defiant, of any alignment, seeks to take the curse of undeath they have and turn it into a strength. Whether out of defiance for the one who cursed them, a desire to return to a more normal state, or simply a desire for power, those who follow this path are strong of will, and have accepted their nature to some degree.

Requirements
Racial: Must have the Half-Undead Template.
Skills: 4 ranks Knowledge (Arcana or Religion)
Saves: Will Save +2

Hit Dice: d8
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Restored Life, Darkvision 60 ft, Con +1, Diehard
2nd|+1|+2|+0|+2|Heal Corruption, Fast Healing, Vital Defense
3rd|+2|+3|+1|+3|Con +1, Positive/Negative Energy Restoration, Half-life Apotheosis
[/table]
Skills: 4+Int modifier Concentration (Con), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana and Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis)

Restored Life
The Cursed Defiant recovers his full life span by causing the living and undead aspects to function together rather than against one another, reducing the physical strain on his body. He still becomes an undead upon dying however.

Diehard
The Cursed Defiant gains Diehard as a bonus feat, even if he doesn't have the prerequisites.

Heal Corruption
Upon reaching 2nd level, the Cursed Defiant heals the damage to his body caused by the necromantic forces that ravaged his body when he was cursed.

Fast Healing
The Cursed Defiant gains the Fast Healing X special ability, where X is equal to 1+1/every 3 HD.

Vital Defense
At 2nd level, the Cursed Defiant is no longer susceptible to critical hits, sneak attacks, and similar effects, though he still dies if beheaded.

Positive/Negative Energy Restoration
Upon attaining complete control of his curse, the Cursed Defiant can restore himself to a more human state, or turn himself further undead. At 3rd level, a good Cursed Defiant regains the ability to be healed by positive energy, although only half as much as a normal person. An evil Cursed Defiant is instead healed by negative energy, and a neutral Cursed Defiant must choose which energy heals him, this choice cannot later be changed. The Cursed Defiant remains immune to the other energy type.

Half-Life Apotheosis
The Cursed Defiant no longer returns to life as an undead. If the Cursed Defiant is returned to life through magic, or reanimated, he is instead returned as a half-undead. The Cursed Defiant also stops taking penalties for aging and doubles his life span.

Ex-Cursed Defiants
A Cursed Defiant who loses his half-undead template, either by being cured or dying and becoming undead, loses all class abilities and cannot gain any more levels in the class until he recovers the half-undead template.

[Eloel]

Is this inherited or acquired?

[Jallorn]

Acquired only.

[Zeta Kai]

Please explain the Rapid Metabolism feat. What is its source? What does it do?

Also, I really don't see why this has an LA at all. You gain some immunities & darkvision, but you get almost nothing else, & in fact you lose quite a bit in exchange for it: -2 to CON & CHA, half of your remaining lifespan, & your tainted by evil. It's almost an even trade compared to many racial traits or LA+0 templates.

Also, if you're immune to both positive and negative energy, you basically cannot be magically healed by any means. No magic healing = SUCK.

[Jallorn]

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Rapid_Metabolism

I wasn't really sure about the LA, I figured I should leave it at a bit high rather than too low, but yeah, I agree.

Also, yeah, that's kind of the point of the immunity.

[Scorpions__]

Can they still be healed by effects such as body adjustment?




DM[F]R

[Jallorn]

As long as it doesn't use positive or negative energy, yeah.

[Milskidasith]

This *really* isn't worth taking. Necropolitan has all the goodies, with no drawbacks! For fluff reasons, sure, but this isn't worth taking when you can get necropolitan for less than the cost of LA 1 buyoff.

[Jallorn]

This *really* isn't worth taking. Necropolitan has all the goodies, with no drawbacks! For fluff reasons, sure, but this isn't worth taking when you can get necropolitan for less than the cost of LA 1 buyoff.

what would you recommend to make it more worthwhile?

[Milskidasith]

what would you recommend to make it more worthwhile?

Well, I'm comparing it to a fairly overpowered template (Necropolitan) but this loses too much. Loss of ability scores and the loss of the ability to be magically healed are just not worth it when, for a minimal price, you can gain all the benefits of this template *without* losing those (or, rather, getting healed by negative energy instead, but still.)

I really can't make any recommendations; it's still probably a solid template to take, just because undead immunities are nice, but it's worse than another good template. It's hard to explain my meaning here, but basically it has the problem that it's good but not *as* good as another template, like if you had the race Dwarf and the race Superdwarf for the same LA, nobody would ever take dwarf.

[Jallorn]

Well, I'm comparing it to a fairly overpowered template (Necropolitan) but this loses too much. Loss of ability scores and the loss of the ability to be magically healed are just not worth it when, for a minimal price, you can gain all the benefits of this template *without* losing those (or, rather, getting healed by negative energy instead, but still.)

I really can't make any recommendations; it's still probably a solid template to take, just because undead immunities are nice, but it's worse than another good template. It's hard to explain my meaning here, but basically it has the problem that it's good but not *as* good as another template, like if you had the race Dwarf and the race Superdwarf for the same LA, nobody would ever take dwarf.

Ah, I thought you were referring to the PRC. No, the template is probably done. It's probably going to serve more as a curse that a DM can throw at a player or players. Then it can be a quest to find a cure or learn to cope with the curse. I am considering condensing the PRC into a 3 level class instead of 5 though.

Also with the dwarf/superdwarf thing, people more concerned with RPing than min-maxing might take the dwarf, just like this template. I'm okay with a slightly weaker fluffed template.

I would like to point out as well that this is intended for use in a very undead and necromancy rife setting. That means that many of the enemies you'll face are likely to use positive or negative energy, and being completely immune to those is a serious bonus in this situation.

[drack]

In my opinion giving it undead traits AND immunity to positive/negative covers a massive weakness in the theme of undead :smallannoyed: which still leaves it susceptible to many ways to kill it, but positive/negative is THE primary attribute that makes undead so different and undeath/life is the only application of positive/negative energy (unless we are talking about negative energy creatures that aren't undeads which I myself have made all too many of), and removing that it seems almost as if it isn't alive or dead (though that's probably the point I mean it more in the since of an object, or some golem).

Also if it's gaining undead abilities shouldn't it also have d12 HD?
also the speed unchanged are we to assume it can run, and if so is this basically a running zombie when applied to the masses?

Finaly there is a -2con -2 cha i was wondering which undead you were crossing (generaly speaking) because many undead templates add cha or loose int, and either way they tend to gain strength.

many of these comments may just be my opinion on how undeads should work, and all in all I like the idea, it's just that despite the (almost) undead traits this class doesn't seem too undead-like

[hamishspence]

Maybe, because it's immune to positive and negative energy, Repair Damage spells work on it instead?


Or maybe use spells that grant fast healing or regeneration?

[Jallorn]

In my opinion giving it undead traits AND immunity to positive/negative covers a massive weakness in the theme of undead :smallannoyed: which still leaves it susceptible to many ways to kill it, but positive/negative is THE primary attribute that makes undead so different and undeath/life is the only application of positive/negative energy (unless we are talking about negative energy creatures that aren't undeads which I myself have made all too many of), and removing that it seems almost as if it isn't alive or dead (though that's probably the point I mean it more in the since of an object, or some golem).

Also if it's gaining undead abilities shouldn't it also have d12 HD?
also the speed unchanged are we to assume it can run, and if so is this basically a running zombie when applied to the masses?

Finaly there is a -2con -2 cha i was wondering which undead you were crossing (generaly speaking) because many undead templates add cha or loose int, and either way they tend to gain strength.

many of these comments may just be my opinion on how undeads should work, and all in all I like the idea, it's just that despite the (almost) undead traits this class doesn't seem too undead-like

It's not modeled after an undead. It's half-undead. It is neither fully living, nor fully undead. It still has a Con score, so no d12s, the loss to charisma is due to the fact that it looks sickly, and the positive/negative energy thing is because half gets healed by the positive/negative energy while the other half is being damaged by it an equal amount.