children of the undead

[Quickleaf]

I never thought this would come up, but...
How could undead creatures (i.e. mummies, vampires, etc.) create offspring?

So far the ideas my group's come up with:
- Blessed by the gods with ability to procreate for performing some service/good deed
- Mother was pregnant when cursed with vampirism
- Mother was pregnant when resurrected

I have a new PC race partially built around such a concept, but answering this question will determine how I finish the race's abilities/ecology.
Look forward to your thoughts on this demented subject

 

[Alzrius]

Traditionally, the only way most undead can reproduce is if they have the Create Spawn ability, or some variant thereof. Anyone here remember the old Yamara comic in Dragon where Persey (the vampiress) is fantasizing about having "children" of her own? "...I imagine one night we'll come across some innocent young fellow on the highway...and, we'll want to keep him." That's the idea.

Beyond that, there are some instances where a pregnant mother who was made undead can result in half-undead (see Dragon #313 for more on half-undead).

 

[was]

There was a Dragon magazine sometime back with some of these concepts in it. I think the example that was used was a pregant female that became a ghoul. Issue #313 "BORN OF DEATH"
Templates to bring the touch of the grave to your creatures or characters.
By Trent Troop

 

[wingsandsword]

A well worded Wish or Miracle might let an undead (preferably one well physically preserved like a vampire) beget a single child IMHO, with a member of a physically compatible species.

An epic spell could probably do it too, and with fewer catches (after all, Origin of Species is an Epic spell).

As you said, it could be a blessing from some dark deity as a reward for good service, admittedly evil fertility gods aren't common (but I could imagine an island kingdom troubled with overpopulation relative to its food resources could have an evil fertility deity).

Or when Resurrected a former undead goes about his or her life, begets children, and those children have something marking their parents past.

For rules mechanics, the Vampire bloodline from Unearthed Arcana sounds like a good place to start.

 

[Turanil]

IMO: what's the point of having undead if they can reproduce?

Outsiders can reproduce, no problem, so you can have children of demons and the like. On the other hand, sorry, but I find the idea of undead that procreate stupid. Reproduction and evolution should be restricted to life-forms. The same way construct should not be able to reproduce (except in manufacturing other constructs), undead should not be able to reproduce, except in inflicting undeath to formerly living creatures. If you end up having undead that can evolve and procreate this is not undead anymore, but some other template (i.e.: special abilities) added to a creature, nothing more. Undead as to do with DEATH, not life!!!

 

[arscott]

Yeah. Undead getting pregnant seems kinda lame. If you wan't some kind of half undead, then a better way to go would be those who were exposed to energy draining attacks (perhaps while still in the womb) and never fully recovered.

 

[Zappo]

I agree that procreating undead sounds a bit lame. At that point, why are they called "undead"?