Playing Undead in 5e

[Vemynal]

Hey Playground, in 3.5 I loved playing characters who's goals were to transform into a Lich or I'd often play Necropolitan characters. I loved the theme and difficulties that came along with being sentient undead in the world of the living. Using Illusions, enchantments, and disguises to hide who and what I was; etc. In Pathfinder I often would play Dhampir or Vampire for similar reasons. My avatar is a vampire illusionist lmao

My question: are there any 5e sources I might have missed that have rules for playing an undead character? Any announcements on whether they intend to ever release this type of splat? Even as Unearth Arcana?

Finally, in case WOTC never releases content that allows me to fulfill my undead dreams T_T, is there any undead homebrew that is well known for its balanced gameplay?

Sincerely,
All I Wanna Do Is Eat Your Brains

[Grey Watcher]

Hey Playground, in 3.5 I loved playing characters who's goals were to transform into a Lich or I'd often play Necropolitan characters. I loved the theme and difficulties that came along with being sentient undead in the world of the living. Using Illusions, enchantments, and disguises to hide who and what I was; etc. In Pathfinder I often would play Dhampir or Vampire for similar reasons. My avatar is a vampire illusionist lmao

My question: are there any 5e sources I might have missed that have rules for playing an undead character? Any announcements on whether they intend to ever release this type of splat? Even as Unearth Arcana?

Finally, in case WOTC never releases content that allows me to fulfill my undead dreams T_T, is there any undead homebrew that is well known for its balanced gameplay?

Sincerely,
All I Wanna Do Is Eat Your Brains

As of right now, to the best of my knowledge, your best bet would be to take the Unearthed Arcana Warforged and tweak it to suit your needs. Or just homebrew something from the ground up of course. But the Warforged is really the only official (as official as UA is in this edition) not-alive-in-the-conventional-sense PC race out so far. (To the best of my knowledge.)

[Karnack]

There are rules in the DMG for Skeleton and Zombie NPC's, you could always modify these a little bit to suit your needs.

As for non-WoTC sources Kobold Press's Midguard Heroes has rules for Darakhul Ghouls for 5th ed.

[Ralanr]

Shadow sorcerer could help.

[UrsusArctos]

Undying Warlock gets undead-like features and would work well.

[M Placeholder]

And if you are playing a Cleric, there is no Bolster Undead feature.

At least you won't go blind :smallsmile:

[0oMooncalfo0]

Second shadow sorcerer as an excellent option. It's probably the closest you can come at the moment using 1st party materials exclusively.

Since you asked about home-brew, however:
Falco1029 here on the forums has made a 5e mod of the 3.5 Dread Necromancer. I can't post the link, but you can find it on the 10th page of the Homebrew Design forum at the moment (perhaps another user will help me out). One of the paths is based on the old lich transformation, and gives you undead traits as you level. I Feel obligated to promote it, since I've been playing the class myself for 8 levels now and have been thoroughly enjoying it. :smallsmile:

[Madeiner]

One of my players is playing an undead, here's how i modeled it.
Note that this is on top of anything your base races confers you.

Undead (intelligent)
Damage resistances: cold, poison
Damage immunities: necrotic
Conditions immunities: poisoned, sleep, disease
Partial Vulnerabilities: radiant (+50%) /* i used +50% because +100% on a player can be devastating */
Vision: darkvision 60 ft

Undead do not eat, sleep, or breathe
They cannot spontaneously spend HD to recover HP during a short rest, unless they receive necrotic damage during the rest /* This is mostly a thematic effect. This character, as a cleric always had a cantrip to cause necrotic damage to himself (which deals 0 damage thanks to immunity, but you still "suffer") */
They lose their dominant racial traitbut gain a new ability /* this character was a halfling and he lost the "lucky" trait. I decided this for balance, and in order to have some difference between an undead and the original race. */

[Draken]

One of my players is playing an undead, here's how i modeled it.
Note that this is on top of anything your base races confers you.

Undead (intelligent)
Damage resistances: cold, poison
Damage immunities: necrotic
Conditions immunities: poisoned, sleep, disease
Partial Vulnerabilities: radiant (+50%) /* i used +50% because +100% on a player can be devastating */
Vision: darkvision 60 ft

Undead do not eat, sleep, or breathe
They cannot spontaneously spend HD to recover HP during a short rest, unless they receive necrotic damage during the rest /* This is mostly a thematic effect. This character, as a cleric always had a cantrip to cause necrotic damage to himself (which deals 0 damage thanks to immunity, but you still "suffer") */
They lose their dominant racial traitbut gain a new ability /* this character was a halfling and he lost the "lucky" trait. I decided this for balance, and in order to have some difference between an undead and the original race. */

Fun fact. Only incorporeal undead (also Death Knights and Mummies) are immune to necrotic damage. And for the most part, lower undead (Ghouls, skeletons and zombies, also, hilariously, Death Tyrants) are not even resistant to it. Every single one of them is immune to poison, however. On a similar vein, radiant vulnerability is not found on any undead in the Monster Manual. Not even vampires have it, it just disables their regeneration.

[Madeiner]

Fun fact. Only incorporeal undead (also Death Knights and Mummies) are immune to necrotic damage. And for the most part, lower undead (Ghouls, skeletons and zombies, also, hilariously, Death Tyrants) are not even resistant to it. Every single one of them is immune to poison, however. On a similar vein, radiant vulnerability is not found on any undead in the Monster Manual. Not even vampires have it, it just disables their regeneration.

Yeah, i know my rules might alter the undeath theme a bit, but i had to also accomodate for gameplay and personal campaign themes.

These are some of the things i kept into consideration when designing it:

- consistency with older editions. I'm also ruling that cure spells work as their inflict counterparts on undead, and vice versa. I had to have immunity to necrotic for that.
Failing this, the character would be left out of the healing mechanics, and i can't allow that for my playstile. (Sooner or later i will design a dungeon where any healing spell is doubled or tripled, or something like that, and the "meta" changes to heavily favor healing)

- i avoided immunity to poison, because i wanted poison to still be a possible theme in the game, for everyone. I decide case by case if a specific poison can affect that character or not. Something in the food in the tavern, it can't. That poison aura in the dungeon that halves everyone's HP so that i can change the "meta" for this dungeon cannot be resisted by that character.

- i wanted to have a vulnerability, as it was thematic for our campaign for story reasons. Radiant was the go-to choice. The character now has a reason to be scared of angels and other good creatures, more than the other party members.

[JackPhoenix]

Fun fact. Only incorporeal undead (also Death Knights and Mummies) are immune to necrotic damage. And for the most part, lower undead (Ghouls, skeletons and zombies, also, hilariously, Death Tyrants) are not even resistant to it. Every single one of them is immune to poison, however. On a similar vein, radiant vulnerability is not found on any undead in the Monster Manual. Not even vampires have it, it just disables their regeneration.

Vampires aren't resistant or immune to poison, but I think they are the only exception.

[Draken]

Yeah, i know my rules might alter the undeath theme a bit, but i had to also accomodate for gameplay and personal campaign themes.

These are some of the things i kept into consideration when designing it:

- consistency with older editions. I'm also ruling that cure spells work as their inflict counterparts on undead, and vice versa. I had to have immunity to necrotic for that.
Failing this, the character would be left out of the healing mechanics, and i can't allow that for my playstile. (Sooner or later i will design a dungeon where any healing spell is doubled or tripled, or something like that, and the "meta" changes to heavily favor healing)

- i avoided immunity to poison, because i wanted poison to still be a possible theme in the game, for everyone. I decide case by case if a specific poison can affect that character or not. Something in the food in the tavern, it can't. That poison aura in the dungeon that halves everyone's HP so that i can change the "meta" for this dungeon cannot be resisted by that character.

- i wanted to have a vulnerability, as it was thematic for our campaign for story reasons. Radiant was the go-to choice. The character now has a reason to be scared of angels and other good creatures, more than the other party members.

Reasonable.


Vampires aren't resistant or immune to poison, but I think they are the only exception.

I am not sure how I overlooked that.