Undead PC possible?

[redwing]

I'm trying to create a Player Character that was cursed by the gods with immortality. Well, sort of. I want him to be a zombie-like character (yet retaining his intelligenct, etc.). I don't really want any mechanical benefits for this (I'm not trying to powergame). I just want this for some flavor. Is there anyway to model this in the rules? (in 3.x there were appropriate templates with ECL etc.)

 

[1of3]

There is the Revenant race from Dragon magazine. Tastes like "Crow".

 

[Mirtek]

The revenant also has ineed the mechanical benefit of counting as both undead and living and if you take a feat you can count as undead only

 

[Klaus]

I'm trying to create a Player Character that was cursed by the gods with immortality. Well, sort of. I want him to be a zombie-like character (yet retaining his intelligenct, etc.). I don't really want any mechanical benefits for this (I'm not trying to powergame). I just want this for some flavor. Is there anyway to model this in the rules? (in 3.x there were appropriate templates with ECL etc.)

Easy as pie: warforged. You are a "living construct", so just say you're made of dead flesh, instead of metal, stone and wood. You can choose to never fail death saves, and you can mimic a zombie's resiliency with the warforged resolve power. Attached components could be just undead grafts (a battlefist, instead of an ogre-sized gauntlet, is in fact an ogre's severed fist!).

 

[Thanee]

There is the Revenant race from Dragon magazine. Tastes like "Crow".

That one seems very fitting, yes.

If you have access to DRAGON, that is.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nytmare]

If it's just window dressing, I don't see a reason why you can't treat it like eye color or your character's height.

"I'm not THAT kind of undead. I still eat things, and poisons still affect me, but I've been technically not living for over 200 years."

Is there a good reason not to just make the character and slap the undead keyword on it? Is not having to spend money on food and the poison/radiant damage tradeoff too powerful?

 

[Klaus]

If it's just window dressing, I don't see a reason why you can't treat it like eye color or your character's height.

"I'm not THAT kind of undead. I still eat things, and poisons still affect me, but I've been technically not living for over 200 years."

Is there a good reason not to just make the character and slap the undead keyword on it? Is not having to spend money on food and the poison/radiant damage tradeoff too powerful?

That's why I suggested warforged. They already come with "no eating/breathing" off the shelf.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

All the mentioned options are very good solutions, but I thought that I'd offer Shadar-kai as another option if you want some mechanical support for an entirely flavor based conceit, and didn't have access to the Revenant. They'd be dead easy to reskin as a guy who was brought back from the dead.

It would be my third or fourth option, after the others mentioned here, though.



Also in Dragon are Dhampyrs (another undead-ish PC option), but Revenants really fit the concept better.

 

[Klaus]

All the mentioned options are very good solutions, but I thought that I'd offer Shadar-kai as another option if you want some mechanical support for an entirely flavor based conceit, and didn't have access to the Revenant. They'd be dead easy to reskin as a guy who was brought back from the dead.

It would be my third or fourth option, after the others mentioned here, though.



Also in Dragon are Dhampyrs (another undead-ish PC option), but Revenants really fit the concept better.

And technically you can have a dhampyr revenant, for double undead goodness!

 

[robsenworldaccount]

Planescape: The torment

Dude, PLANESCAPE: THE TORMENT. Go play this game now. Its 3.0 dnd rules I believe. Sounds very similar to the character you want to create, only way more awesome. Would give you some great ideas for your character.

cant believe no one else referenced that