highlander

[Rowanomicon]

Anyone ever done/seen anything to bring highlander style imortals into d20 srd?
Obviously: (very) Fast Healing, can only die if head severed (crit or coup de grace)

So: How fast the healing? My rules for head chopping work? What to do for sensing others? How to absorb other's power?

[Rowanomicon]

bump
No one else knows what Highlander is?

[The_Shaman]

Technically, you could start with vampires and work from there ;D.

[HellFencer]

Honestly, allowing immortals just a silly idea. Unless you let EVERYONE and their grandmother be immortal too. That way, nobody gets an advantage over another.

Healing:
Immortals from Highlander didn't have super healing, if I recall. Yes, they healed from wounds at a quicker rate, but nothing like the fast healing property. No, this is more like accelerated natural healing. I mean, if they "died" the body appeared dead long enough to be buried. Thus, I'd say something like:

Immortals possess an accelerated healing ability which allows them to heal 20 HP per hour (1 HP every 3 minutes). However, if they're hit points drops to -10 or lower, they appear dead to all those that examine the body. The body reknits itself and comes back to life when all HP's have been restored.

Death of an immortal:
As for severing the head, I'd say a (random) crit would work only on a triple rolled natural 20 (that is, three natural 20's in a row). If, however, the crit is rolled during a called shot to the neck, then I'd say the head is severed as well.

I don't know how well severing heads will be for a game. I mean, yes, its cool and all, but people will spend time figuring out how they can end a fight in a single swing. Yes, this is very cool to do, except when it happens back on them. I know a GM that says "Once you do it to the bad guys, I get to do it back to you"; its a very effective rule, and keeps us from being too cheap to enemies. All I'm saying here, is that it should be relatively hard to just lop a guy's head off.

Sensing other immortals:
Sensing others is automatic. Another immortal ALWAYS knows when another is within ~100 feet of them. I'd just do it like a spidey sense sort of thing, except it costs the immortal a move action (if in combat) or costs them their concentration (if they are trying to stay maintained on something). In the show, it almost appears as if they get a small rush of adrenaline and paranoia from it.

Absorbing powers:
You could just explain this as EXP. However, other players are going to get pissed when one guy keeps stealing all the kills and leveling up. You could say that a "group" of immortals all near the kill equally absorb the powers, as a sort of communicative event. In the movies / show, there were very few occasions (I could be mistaken, as its been a long time) that an immortal died near anybody but the killer. Eventually this ends up with the party having to fight each other at the end of the Gathering.

[Rowanomicon]

I distinctly remember in a movie with Christopher Lambert (I think it was the second Highlander) seeing a bad gash heal in a matter of seconds. However I also seem to remember that through the movies and show their fast healing was somewhat inconsitant.
Of course there is more than one inconsistancy between all the movies and the shows.

I would make the absorbing of powers more than just EXP. Everyone gains EXP, but only immortals can absorb other immortals' power.

Just a thought:
Each immortal starts out with 1 Quickening Point. When an immortal kills another immortal they get get the dead immortal's QP. QP would be divided equally among all immortals within say 30ft or the death, with extras goign tot eh one who delt the killing blow. If you absorb twice your previous QP or more from an immortal your alignment changes to be one notch closer tot heirs in one aspect.
A LG immortal that absorbs twice his QP from a CE immortal becomes either NG or LN.
QP would then control the rate at which an immortal heals, and grant some other bonuses.
What bonuses do you think QP should grant based on how much QP one has?

[HellFencer]

The only problem I see with basing the healing factor off of QP, is the fact that all immortals (basically, despite discrepancies) healed at the same rate. Just because you had absorbed other's powers, you didn't heal faster because of it. Just think of all the times in the show, where the immortals get tired and more or less surrender the fight to the winner, whom then takes their head.

It seems to me that an immortal does NOT heal fast enough during a fight for it to matter. Otherwise, there would be no reason for any of them to EVER stop fighting.

I do REALLY like the idea of the QP points affecting a person's alignment. However, I think it should be cumulative. Rather than it being on a case-by-case basis, it could be a running total, so that when a person absorbs a quickening worth MORE than their total points, it has a potential to change the killer's alignment.

For example:
Tom has 4 quickening points, and Rob has 6. If Tom kills Rob, there is a chance Tom's alignment will chance (because 6 > 4). Tom would absorb 2 QP (6-4) towards Rob's alignment in both of the L/C and G/E aspects. If Rob is C/E and Tom is L/G, Tom now has 2 points in chaos and evil each, representing the severity in differences.

If Rob was L/E, then Tom would only receive points in the evil category. Suppose Tom previously had 3 points in chaos, and kills the L/E Rob; the 2 QP worth of law from Rob would cancel out 2 points of chaos that Tom already has.

[hr]
The significance of all this, comes down to this: When an immortal has double or more points in a category differing from his alignment, he switches to that alignment.

For example:
Tom has 5 QP and is L/N. Rob has 7 QP and is C/N. Tom already has 4 points of QP in chaos. When Tom kills Rob, he gains the 7 points of chaos and now has a total of 11 chaos QP. This is sufficient to change Tom's alignment towards chaos, making him true neutral. The player needs to keep track of the amount of law points Tom has.

Tom now looks like this:
N/N
Law:5
Chaos: 11
Good: 5
Evil: 0

[hr]
I have a formula for figuring total QP: take the average of points between L/C (Tom: 8) and add them to the average of G/E (Tom: 2.5, rounded to 3). Tom would have a total of 11 QP.

Sound good?

As for powers... I'm not really sure. You could do a level-less system, where they gain stats, skills, HP, etc. through their total of QP. Unisystem would work well for that, as would most level-less systems.

[Miles Invictus]

Decapitation
The only way to kill an Immortal is with a critical hit that takes them below -10 hit points (keep in mind, a coup de grace is an auto-crit). The Immortal still needs to make checks to stabilize, but they do not die at -10 hit points. When an Immortal has less than 0 hit points, any damage that does not inflict a critical hit is counted as nonlethal damage.

If an Immortal takes another Immortal below 0 hit points as part of a full attack, they can sacrifice all of their remaining attacks to coup de grace as a free action. The Immortal cannot coup de grace if they have no attacks remaining, nor if they execute another attack after disabling the Immortal.

Absorbing powers
An Immortal is considered two levels higher for purposes of giving XP rewards to enemy Immortals.

Detecting other Immortals
The Immortal automatically detects the presence of any comparatively powerful Immortal within 100 ft. You cannot detect an Immortal with a hit die less than your own, minus four. (Example: If you are a level ten Immortal, you automatically detect the presence of any Immortal of level six or higher, but you must concentrate to detect any Immortal with less than six levels.)

By concentrating for a number of rounds, the Immortal can glean further information from his surroundings.

First Round:
Discern number of Immortals within 100 ft, regardless of hit die. If an Immortal is in plain sight, you can unambiguously identify them.

Second Round:
Determine the power (read: hit die) of each Immortal, relative to yourself. You can determine which Immortals are weaker than you, which Immortals are stronger than you, and which Immortals are so overwhelmingly powerful that they could crush you like a bug.

Third Round:
Discern the direction of Immortals previously detected, if they are not in plain sight.

Healing
Immortals heal naturally at twice the normal rate (i.e. 2 hit points per character level per eight hours of rest).
Immortals heal nonlethal damage at four times the normal rate (i.e. 4 hit points per character level per hour).

If an Immortal has been reduced to -10 hit points or lower, he cannot be healed by magic, and naturally heals only one hit point per day. (So an Immortal reduced to -15 hit points is in a deathlike state until he is healed back to -9 hit points, which takes six days). A comatose Immortal never takes more than thirty days to return to life.

[HellFencer]

Detecting other Immortals
The Immortal automatically detects the presence of any comparatively powerful Immortal within 100 ft. You cannot detect an Immortal with a hit die less than your own, minus four. (Example: If you are a level ten Immortal, you automatically detect the presence of any Immortal of level six or higher, but you must concentrate to detect any Immortal with less than six levels.)

By concentrating for a number of rounds, the Immortal can glean further information from his surroundings.

First Round:
Discern number of Immortals within 100 ft, regardless of hit die. If an Immortal is in plain sight, you can unambiguously identify them.

Second Round:
Determine the power (read: hit die) of each Immortal, relative to yourself. You can determine which Immortals are weaker than you, which Immortals are stronger than you, and which Immortals are so overwhelmingly powerful that they could crush you like a bug.

Third Round:
Discern the direction of Immortals previously detected, if they are not in plain sight.
I don't agree with this on the basis that any immortal can detect any immortal. Its a racial thing, rather than a power thing. Makes no sense to me.

[Miles Invictus]

It's mainly to explain why you don't have Immortals tracking down Immortal infants and killing them before they become a threat. It also provides a nice way for a GM to indicate "Yeah, this guy would eat you alive."

[HellFencer]

It's mainly to explain why you don't have Immortals tracking down Immortal infants and killing them before they become a threat. It also provides a nice way for a GM to indicate "Yeah, this guy would eat you alive."
Er.... It doesn't matter what power level an immortal is. Even babies give a quickening (as I think happened in one of the episodes). Thus, it should be totally valid as to allow them to sense the weaker opponents. Otherwise, what happens if you have one guy that's killed every other immortal in the world, except for this baby that was just born, and he can't detect him? I hear "mass genocide" in the future...

And the ability to warn players about immortals... Again, I disagree; immortals are supposed to be ready for anything. And if not, you die. If you aren't strong enough, you run away. Its a simple fact of immortal life.

[Were-Sandwich]

Isn't there a template in SS that makes something unkillable except by decapitation?

[Rowanomicon]

The reason Immortals don't go around killing baby Immortals is because an Immortal is born a normal Human and when he dies he becomes Immortal and stays at the age he died at forever.

[kanachi]

From what I remember of Highlander in its many guises there are two very different explanations as to how immortals came to be.

The first appears in Highlander 2 where immortals are explained to actually be beings from another planet who were prisoners of a war against a tyrannical regime. Their punishment was to be exiled to our world where their memories would be erased and they would be driven to fight one another until only one remained. Basically this idea was pants.

The second explanation is probably more what you’re after and far more commonly used throughout Highlander in its many guises. Basic put anyone has the possibility of becoming immortal its just that the chances are so minimal that it often appears as though those who achieve immortality are in some way special. Immortals were once human and will live and die as a human unless they suffer a violent and traumatic death, should this occur it is possible (though highly unlikely) that the individuals essence will remain bound to their body.

An immortal is later explained as a basically being “one who lives through memory and emotion” this is supposed to explain why an immortal can be severed in half at the waist yet will not die unless they loose their head… in other words their body looses access to their emotions and memories and thus dies. Upon having their head removed their emotions and memories are released and possibly absorbed by other immortals.

Other factoids that may interest you…

The quickening is the sensation an immortal feels when they become an immortal. It’s an awakening to the powers of nature and life upon which an immortal draws to maintain long life. Much like the force in star wars a good immortal joins with nature while an evil immortal operates at nature cost. The term “quickening” is sometimes also used to explain the experience an immortal has when they take another immortals head, or encounter another immortal.

“The Prize” (what an immortal gains once they are the only remaining immortal) is basically two-fold, firstly it allows the victor to become mortal and human once more and secondly it grants them a flawless bond with the powers of life and nature which they can use or abuse as they see fit. Its not explained entirely what they can do with this power, though it is said that it allows them to feel and listen to all living things simultaneously and assist them in some way (I assume by somehow directing the energies of life toward them). It would be logical to also assume that should an evil immortal win the prise they would be able to reverse this flow of life energy.

An immortal has a natural bond with life and can entire a kind of spiritual bond with creatures and the world around them in order to experience the emotions they are feeling (this is probably most commonly known to you all in the sequence in Highlander 1 with the stag).

Immortals are also acutely linked to the world around them and can somehow experience memories of a powerful nature contained either within a location, around an item, or those of a human or other immortal. These memories often come to them in fairly random flashbacks which can be shocking and sometimes a little disorientating (some even seem to provoke a physically painful response - stomach cramps, headaches and nausea).

An immortal can sense another immortals presence and will experience flashbacks either of occasions they shared or (in the case of immortals they don’t know) powerful experiences within the immortals life.

Immortals are infertile

Immortals heal faster than humans however they do not regenerate injuries to their necks (Ramirez’s cut upon the Kurgan’s neck remains a prominent scar while other injures sustained seem to heal without a scar).

Fin!

Hope some of that helps anyway :)