D&D 5E PC wants to become undead

[ElterAgo]

Wow! A lot of responses very quickly.

Don't know esteban1997
Unless horribly disruptive I am generally open to trying to make the in-character goals playable in some fashion. the other PC's are also going for kinda wierd stuff. I'm ok with that stuff.
We are playing a modified Storm King's Thunder campaign.
The character build is a half gnome arcane trickster thief named Jed. So far he has mostly just been focused on throwing daggers. Only 4th level at this point.
He really isn't all that much of a power-gamer.
In all honesty I think the real-out-of-game reason that he wants to be undead is that he finds the name "Undead Jed" to be amusing. So he is developing an in-character personality reason to be an undead.
Yes, I believe he wants to keep playing the PC.

I think a rotting smelly zombie would make being a thief very difficult (but I might find it entertaining).
I think he wants to be something that he could manage to pass as a 'normal' living race unless someone looks real close.
I don't think the other players or characters would have too much of a problem with it. Although if the choice required him to kill large numbers of innocents, one of the PC's would have an issue if he finds out about it. (I thought the lich lore said you had to sacrifice massive numbers or people to the ritual. But I may be remembering a previous edition.)

I will look for the Wildemount book.
I also look into the possibility of "...In 3E, there was a "necropolitan" race..."

 

[DND_Reborn]

I think he wants to be something that he could manage to pass as a 'normal' living race unless someone looks real close.

There isn't much undead that can even remotely pass for 'normal' living race IME, but maybe you'll find something. shrug

 

[jgsugden]

Revenant is a possibility. If you want to see how that might be done, there is an example on

Spoiler

Critical Role - Vax becomes a revenant towards the end of the first campaign.

 

[Dausuul]

Not needing to eat-drink-breathe - or sleep - is huge!

I've got a PC in my game who picked up a blessing/curse a while back, that he only needs to sleep one night in thirty. This seemingly-little thing has made a massive difference in the party's ability to keep watch while resting.

Poison immunity is also a pretty big deal if the PC is a Thief or similar, or itself deals in poisons.

Not needing to sleep is a big deal, yes, but that's far from a universal trait of undead, which is why I didn't list it. Plenty of undead are dormant during the day.

The need to eat is generally trivial in D&D--one 1st-level spell slot each day can feed the whole party indefinitely. Not needing to breathe is handy when you need to explore underwater, but seldom relevant otherwise.

Poison immunity is the most significant item, but it's still not a game-breaker by any stretch. It's just a solid racial benefit.

You can set a clone's age???? That's a new one on me!

I've always read it that the clone appears exactly as the caster at the moment of spell resolution, even to the point of including any injuries the caster might have sustained.

The soul transferring from one clone to another is also a new one on me.

From the spell description:

"You can also choose to have the clone be a younger version of the same creature."

"At any time after the clone matures, if the original creature dies, its soul transfers to the clone ... The original creature's physical remains, if they still exist, become inert and can't thereafter be restored to life, since the creature's soul is elsewhere."

 

[DND_Reborn]

Revenant is a possibility. If you want to see how that might be done, there is an example on

Spoiler

Critical Role - Vax becomes a revenant towards the end of the first campaign.

Not, really, with only a year of life... (or "unlife")...

if the PC wants to be immortal.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

In all honesty I think the real-out-of-game reason that he wants to be undead is that he finds the name "Undead Jed" to be amusing. So he is developing an in-character personality reason to be an undead.

And then hoping, no doubt, that someone will ask:
"Who's Jed?"
And someone else will retort:
"Jed's dead, baby. Jed's dead."

 

[DND_Reborn]

@ElterAgo:

Also, keep in mind you don't need a specific "monster" undead to model the PC after. The game has examples (at least one...) of an NPC who is undead, without being considered any specific "monster" undead--it just has the undead type.

You can always just make something up, like a curse that causes the PCs heart to stop, making it so he is "undead" and will live forever, but maybe the trade-off is he only heals half as much or has vulnerability to radiant damage or something?

 

[Lanefan]

Not needing to sleep is a big deal, yes, but that's far from a universal trait of undead, which is why I didn't list it. Plenty of undead are dormant during the day.

"They only come out at night", yes; but I've never read that as their being dormant during the day, more that they have to hide from the daylight. Underground, undead keep going 24/7.

From the spell description:

"You can also choose to have the clone be a younger version of the same creature."

"At any time after the clone matures, if the original creature dies, its soul transfers to the clone ... The original creature's physical remains, if they still exist, become inert and can't thereafter be restored to life, since the creature's soul is elsewhere."

Yikes! When did this come in?

In this case yes, effective immortality* can be achieved by casting Clone every time you get to about (Human-equivalent) age 50 and setting yourself back to (again HE) age 20.

* - as in, not dying of old age. Swords, poisons, falls, and all those other hazards can still get ya...

 

[Lanefan]

You can always just make something up, like a curse that causes the PCs heart to stop, making it so he is "undead" and will live forever, but maybe the trade-off is he only heals half as much or has vulnerability to radiant damage or something?

Would that make him Halfdead Jed?

 

[ElterAgo]

There isn't much undead that can even remotely pass for 'normal' living race IME, but maybe you'll find something. shrug

I would think a vampire or lich could pass as normal if someone wasn't looking too closely. Plus there are always magical disguises and spells.