'Living' Undead

[Mongobear]

I know its pretty much a paradox, but was there ever something equivalent to a Warforged but for Undead?

Basically, an Undead race/creature that broke the basic rules of what Undead are, such as having a Con score, immunities, and other traits?

Or, has anyone tried to homebrew such a creation? I was talking with my group about anything and everything D&D a few days ago, and one person brought up that he dislikes how the only real option for a low level Undead PC is the Necropolitan, and wished for something closer to a Warforged, but as an Undead.

[Deadline]

Or, has anyone tried to homebrew such a creation? I was talking with my group about anything and everything D&D a few days ago, and one person brought up that he dislikes how the only real option for a low level Undead PC is the Necropolitan, and wished for something closer to a Warforged, but as an Undead.

Well, there's the Deathless from the Book of Exalted Deeds. They are "Totally Not Undead" versions of Undead that are powered by Positive Energy rather than Negative Energy. There's also the "Tomb-Tainted Soul" feat that could give you the low-level feel of being partially undead. That said, Necropolitan is about as low-level as it gets. Also, if you just wanted to use them like Warforged, you could probably get away with eliminating the ritual cost and just letting them be played at first level.

[Mongobear]

Well, there's the Deathless from the Book of Exalted Deeds. They are "Totally Not Undead" versions of Undead that are powered by Positive Energy rather than Negative Energy. There's also the "Tomb-Tainted Soul" feat that could give you the low-level feel of being partially undead. That said, Necropolitan is about as low-level as it gets. Also, if you just wanted to use them like Warforged, you could probably get away with eliminating the ritual cost and just letting them be played at first level.

That was an idea, but Necropolitan is too good of a 'race' depending on your class, mainly just from the benefits of being Undead. d12 HDs with no Con is argueably better than a d4 or even d6 HD + Con. But becoming a Necropolitan Fighter/Barbarian isnt much of a change, other than the inherent traits of being Undead. At minimum I'd say changing them to a +1 LA might be balanced, in place of the ritual costs, but thats still worse than an 'Undead' Warforged analogue.

[Gnorman]

I wrote this for my E6 project, but it might be helpful to you.

Living Dead Subtype:

Creatures with the living dead subtype are closer to life than their other undead counterparts. They differ from undead in the following ways:

Features:
- Living dead creatures derive their Hit Dice, base attack bonus progression, saving throws, and skill points from the class they select.
Traits:
- Living dead possess a Constitution score. Subsequently, they are no longer immune to effects that require Fortitude saves and use their Constitution score for Concentration checks.
- Living dead are not immune to mind-affecting effects.
- Living dead are subject to death from massive damage, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, ability damage, and stunning.
- Living dead are not destroyed at 0 hit points, but become disabled instead. From -1 to -9 hit points, they are considered "dying". At -10 hit points, they are destroyed.
- Living dead can be raised or resurrected.
- Living dead possess +4 turn resistance.

Living dead retain the following qualities of the undead type:
- 60' Darkvision
- Living dead are immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, and death effects.
- Living dead are not subject to energy drain, fatigue, or exhaustion.
- Living dead are healed by negative energy and harmed by positive energy.
- Living dead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.

[Mongobear]

I wrote this for my E6 project, but it might be helpful to you.

*snip*



This is good, and pretty much exactly what they did for Living Construct, but it seems just a tad stronger compared to Warforged. Was there any ability score modifiers for the race using this subtype? Because I personally think that just having the above benefits is more than enough for an LA +0 race.

[Gnorman]

This is good, and pretty much exactly what they did for Living Construct, but it seems just a tad stronger compared to Warforged. Was there any ability score modifiers for the race using this subtype? Because I personally think that just having the above benefits is more than enough for an LA +0 race.

Well, I hadn't explicitly written a race for it. But the benefits are pretty much the same as for Warforged. Really the only differences are the darkvision, and the ability to be healed by negative energy, while the Warforged is immune to nausea and sickening (not including those immunities may have been an oversight on my part). The Warforged is occasionally extra vulnerable to certain spells, but so is the Living Dead. Given that they were basically comparable in power, I didn't see a reason to give it any LA.

[Aldrakan]

Pathfinder has "half-undead" creatures (well, they have dhampirs as a potential player race and a template in the race builder section). They're healed by negative energy and harmed by positive, have darkvision, and don't take penalties from negative levels; but they die if they acquire negative levels equal to their HD, have a Con score, and they're resistant (+2) to disease and mind control instead of immune.

[ExLibrisMortis]

It's possible to get the living construct subtype on any humanoid creature, by taking 10 levels in Renegade Mastermaker. If that humanoid creature then becomes undead, you'd be Undead (Augmented Humanoid, Living Construct). It's a bit unclear what that does, but it might get you your constitution score back.

[Thurbane]

Half-vampire with the Lichloved, Tomb-Tainted Soul, Tomb-Born Fortitude, Tomb-Born Resilience and Tomb-Born Vitality feats is pretty Undead-ish for a living creature.

Although re-reading the OP, that's not exactly what this thread is about

More on-topic, many (most?) Undead qualify for the Human Heritage feat, which makes them Humanoid with the Human subtype...although they still won't have a Con score.

And then there's the Dolghast, which is a type of "Half-Undead" creature from Eberron, but it's actually an Aberration. Don't known much about these apart from using one once in an EtCR game.

[Jack_Simth]

The Race Builder in Pathfinder has Half-undead subtype (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advancedRaceGuide/raceBuilder/racialQualities.html#half-undead-%285-rp%29), and one of the example races, the Dhampir (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-dhampir), has it.

[ksbsnowowl]

It's a single creature, but it has some special abilities that read much like those granted by a subtype.

Check out the Dolghast from Magic of Eberron. It has an ability called "Half-Dead" that grants several special properties.

FYI - They still have Con scores, and count as both living and dead with regards to certain spells, etc.

[Doctor Despair]

There's the Death-Touched race from a dragon magazine. It's LA+1 and gives undead flavor and really good charisma buffs, but no immunities I'm afraid. Check it out here:

http://chet.kindredcircle.org/pdf/DnD3.5Index-Races.pdf

[weckar]

Taking only a few levels of the vampire savage template progression (web) will allow you to become mostly vampiric before going undead.

[ThinkMinty]

There's also the Dhampir (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-dhampir), for what it's worth. They get healed from negative energy and harmed by positive, but they have a Con score.

[Coidzor]

Frank and K tackled this in their Tome of Necromancy with the Unliving and Darkminded subtypes. Seems pretty solid and isn't at a higher power level like their player options.

[ShurikVch]

If "base humanoid" of Tauric Creature is an Undead with Human Heritage feat, then it will have Con score, but keep all Undead SA/SQs

[GrayDeath]

I´d suggest going the PF way, just take your base race, slap on the Half Undead Termplate and remove an according point-value of regular benefits (or dont if a bit more power is OK).
Voila.