Do undead heal naturally?

[Oni]

The reason that intelligent undead heal is because they have or are souls. Mindless undead are just empty shells. That is the reason constructs don't heal, souless.

 

[Ruvion]

Originally Posted by -Ekimus-
i will reply as a simple No, cept vamps, lichs and were animals.

Hhmmm...did not know the were creatures were creatures infected with undeath as well.

 

[Oni]

All fear the mighty were-zombie!!!

 

[kenjib]

The reason that intelligent undead heal is because they have or are souls. Mindless undead are just empty shells. That is the reason constructs don't heal, souless.

Ah, I see. That makes sense and is an interesting take on it. So does that mean that the body of someone who has been magic jarred, astrally projected, or the like, shouldn't heal either?

 

[PenguinKing]

Ah, I see. That makes sense and is an interesting take on it. So does that mean that the body of someone who has been magic jarred, astrally projected, or the like, shouldn't heal either?

Leave it to somebody to base an argument on the fact that books don't explicitly cover every bizarre eventuality one can pull out of one's arse.

But, yes, kenjib, if it ever actually becomes relevant to your campaign to know how fast a comatose-but-technically-alive body with no soul recovers hit points, it would indeed be reasonable to rule that they do not do so naturally.

- Sir Bob.

P.S. Nih!

 

[Oni]

Ah, I see. That makes sense and is an interesting take on it. So does that mean that the body of someone who has been magic jarred, astrally projected, or the like, shouldn't heal either?

Though I can't really cite anything to support this I more or less agree. Under Magic Jar it specifically describes the body as being lifeless and alternatively refers to the transfer of the lifeforce and soul. Considering the duration the question of a person healing under the effects of a magic jar isn't very likely to come up, but I would say that the casters body could not heal without some sort of outside assistance. Astral projection is a complete different issue as the soul remains connected to the body, however the end result is the same as the physical body of the person using Astral Projection is in suspended animation and thus could not heal damage.

 

[hong]

EDIT: I'd probably house rule that intelligent undead don't heal either. It doesn't make any sense that intelligence would allow them to heal. It smacks of meta-rules for game balance sake with no feasible explanation.

Game balance is infinitesimally affected by whether or not intelligent undead heal.

 

[kenjib]

Game balance is infinitesimally affected by whether or not intelligent undead heal.

Good point. Right-O.

 

[Doc_Souark]

I alway said that they "Healed" or rather came back togather via their connection to the negitive plane . A evil Cleric repaired the undead faster with a cause wounds spell in my campaigns too.

 

[Deadguy]

Personally I have always ruled that the the Undead do not heal naturally at all. The mindless animated dead don't care about recovery. All the rest have something they can do to recover hits:

• Ghouls and the like eat the flesh of the dead to recover (yuck!)
• Shadows drain Strength to recover hit points (okay House Rule, but consistent! )
• Wraiths drain levels and recover hit points per the original description of the effects of level drain from the undead
• etc

This way the Undead must hunt and feed to recover, and thus authomatically make a fearsome enemy.