D&D General have we had a player race of undead?

[Mind of tempest]

I do not mean in the sense of a prestage class or something nor that is an undead of another sapient population.

a life form that is undead from birth to death that is effectively an undead species?

as that seems sufficiently out there and fantasy for it to be worth a shot?

 

[Vaalingrade]

There was an Unearth Arcana with a Revenant type. Reborn?

And 4e had a feat that let you be a Revenant and like four ways to be a Vampire.

 

[Clint_L]

I do not mean in the sense of a prestage class or something nor that is an undead of another sapient population.

a life form that is undead from birth to death that is effectively an undead species?

as that seems sufficiently out there and fantasy for it to be worth a shot?

I'm not sure how a life form could be undead from birth to death - isn't that contradictory?

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount added Hollow Ones as an official D&D race. They are people who have been killed and subsequently become "beings whose souls have left for the afterlife, yet whose bodies still retain a fragment of their former selves." Marisha Rey's current character on Critical Role, Laudna, is a Hollow One. I like the concept a lot, especially the Unsettling Presence ability: "As an action, you can unsettle a creature you can see within 15 feet of you. The target has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes within the next minute. Constructs, undead, and creatures that can’t be frightened are immune to this feature. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest."

I don't know how you would have undead that is not derived from a formerly living being. Isn't the whole concept of undeath something that lived, died, and then came back but without all of its previous biological functions intact? If something was born, grew up, etc. how would it differ from a living being?

 

[Seramus]

Wouldn't that just be Negative Energy Elementals?

 

[Clint_L]

Wouldn't that just be Negative Energy Elementals?

Yeah, you can have creatures that have totally different biologies, like oozes and stuff, not mention all the extra-planar beings, and constructs. But for me the concept of undeath requires, well, death. In pop culture the closest I can think of is something like Bella's baby in Twilight, which I think is supposed to be born a vampire that will reach maturity in a few years? But that doesn't seem like it can be undead, by definition. Just a different kind of life.

Anyhow, would Hollow Ones work for what you are looking for? They are official WotC material, so even if you don't buy the whole Explorer's Guide you can just buy that species off DnDBeyond for a few bucks.

 

[Steampunkette]

I kinda love the idea of a city of the dead within the Bleak Gate populated by beings born to and of death... Not "Undead" in the standard parlance, that of a creature that perished and was reanimated, but functionally undead.

 

[aco175]

There is the Dhampier from Van Richten's Guide, but they might be listed as humanoid and not undead.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I kinda love the idea of a city of the dead within the Bleak Gate populated by beings born to and of death... Not "Undead" in the standard parlance, that of a creature that perished and was reanimated, but functionally undead.

Did you ever see the Ghostwalk setting?

 

[Andvari]

Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead (3e) has some race and class options for undead PCs, I believe. Though I don't know about life forms that are "undead from birth." That seems like a bit of an oxymoron. Perhaps death forms?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The Dhampir, Reborn, and possibly Hollow Ones (although they're a supernatural gift, not a race) could all work from 5e.