Holy crap. I'm undead!

[Dalebert]

We haven't been playing it completely right so far. I'm playing Curse of Strahd with a lore bard who died in Death House and came back with the undead type (and also the ability to move through solid objects at night by spending a hit die). A different DM has been running the book since then and he has only been treating my character as undead for detect affects, like detect good and evil or detect life that some undead have. He even said, "Do you want to be immune to Cure Wounds and Healing Word? Because that's what happens if you're treated as undead." I thought that would suck. But we reread this last night to be clear. "You are treated as undead for spells, and effects such as turn undead."

Holy crap! I AM immune to Cure Wounds, which sucks. I've decided to switch one of my Magical Secrets to Goodberry. We figured potions also work--no undead disclaimer on them.

The original DM was handling it correctly. Ghouls can't paralyze me. Ghosts can't horrifying visage me. Hold Person doesn't work on me either. It's a handicap and a boon. I figure I'll get the curse removed after I leave Barovia but considering how often we encounter undead with so many affects that don't work on undead, I'll make do with it.

[treecko]

leave Barovia

haha that's cute

[Corran]

We haven't been playing it completely right so far. I'm playing Curse of Strahd with a lore bard who died in Death House and came back with the undead type (and also the ability to move through solid objects at night by spending a hit die).
Interesting, I am doing sth similar with my character, not a CoS campaign though. Emphasis mine, very interesting idea. Out of curiosity, where did you inspire this from? Is it sth you just thought, or is there some other reason you just thought this ability was relevant?



A different DM has been running the book since then and he has only been treating my character as undead for detect affects, like detect good and evil or detect life that some undead have. He even said, "Do you want to be immune to Cure Wounds and Healing Word? Because that's what happens if you're treated as undead." I thought that would suck. But we reread this last night to be clear. "You are treated as undead for spells, and effects such as turn undead."
I was facing the same choice. In the end, I decided to take the middle route, as not being affected by healing powers (and we happen to have both a cleric and a druid in our group) would be very problematic imo. So I ended up having my character not being an actual undead, but not exactly living either. I decided to pair the quirks of the shadow sorcerer (my main class) with a few added features (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?487854-Adding-a-few-undead-like-traits-to-a-character) that were suggested to me in this very forum. I am thinkking that upon character's death, or upon the end of the campaign (we often play different campaigns in the same world), or at some time later in the campaign, I will have my character go full undead (wight-style). And at this point, I just consider my character to be slowly dying from a curse of sorts (necromantic magic, courtesy of a cult of sorts, well, OOC, a cult of Vecna).


Holy crap! I AM immune to Cure Wounds, which sucks. I've decided to switch one of my Magical Secrets to Goodberry. We figured potions also work--no undead disclaimer on them.Hmm, that;s interesting, though I personaly wouldn't be willing to let it work in good conscience, as it seems a bit silly to me.


The original DM was handling it correctly. Ghouls can't paralyze me. Ghosts can't horrifying visage me. Hold Person doesn't work on me either. It's a handicap and a boon. I figure I'll get the curse removed after I leave Barovia but considering how often we encounter undead with so many affects that don't work on undead, I'll make do with it.
It certainly has both positives and negatives. And though I am not exactly sure that a remove curse would work, why bother with that in the first place? You just achieved immortality! Spit back at all those who frawn upon you just because of your ''condition''. Then find a place of impressive scenery (at the top of a mountain perhaps, at the edge of a waterfall, etc), and shout: ''I'M GOING TO LIVE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''

[Temperjoke]

I wonder, how do you repair undead things in this edition, assuming that potions and goodberry isn't intended to work?

[Dalebert]

I wonder, how do you repair undead things in this edition, assuming that potions and goodberry isn't intended to work?

But they are intended to work. They work on any creature. In fact, a mammoth or giant ape can get all the nourishment for a day from one goodberry just like a rabbit can. which is another interesting thing about them.

[MaxWilson]

Note that undead are affected normally by Aura of Vitality, which is the best healing spell in any case.

[Dalebert]

Note that undead are affected normally by Aura of Vitality, which is the best healing spell in any case.

Good to know. I'm thinking of going through and making a list of spells and effects that work differently for undead.


It certainly has both positives and negatives. And though I am not exactly sure that a remove curse would work, why bother with that in the first place? You just achieved immortality! Spit back at all those who frawn upon you just because of your ''condition''. Then find a place of impressive scenery (at the top of a mountain perhaps, at the edge of a waterfall, etc), and shout: ''I'M GOING TO LIVE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''

But I'm not living forever. I'm thinking folks aren't familiar with what I'm talking about. This isn't some homebrew thing. If you die in Barovia, you come back cursed. There are 4 possible effects that you roll randomly for per the book and this is one of them. A Remove Curse will get ride of most of it except for some mostly fluff things. Per the curse, I am "treated as undead for spells, and effects like turning undead". That is literally the effect of it. I'm not an undead in any other way. I'm not a specific undead like a wight or ghost. I'm choosing not to get the curse removed for now. We have a cleric in the party who could do it. With all the undead that are in Barovia, and considering many have harmful effects that don't work on undead, I've chosen to tough it out and keep the curse until we can get out.

[Saeviomage]

Seems like the people who wrote the rider in cure wounds didn't really think too hard about it. They put the line in for tradition most likely, but forgot to add it to some spells, and additionally didn't add the reverse to inflict wounds.

[Safety Sword]

haha that's cute

*Knowing Smile*

[Dalebert]

So Crawford has confirmed on Twitter that you can revivify undead and they come back as they were so my character could be revivified. Raise Dead doesn't work on them at all.

Here's my question. The dark gift can be removed by a Remove Curse. Can someone cast Remove Curse on my corpse and then Raise Dead? My understanding is the curse remains even after death which implies there is, in fact, a curse sticking around that can be removed.

[Belac93]

This happened to my character as well. Luckily, I'm playing a warlock (although bladelock), but I figure I can just rely on temporary hit points and a decent armour class to see me through, as well as quite a few short rests.

And the great thing about him is that he will live forever. He is an elf, giving him a lifespan of 700-800 years, and an undying warlock, multiplying it by 10. With only needing 4 hours of (proper) rest, and eventually no sleep, he could live for another 6000-7000 years. Translated into human history, 7000 years ago was about 5000 B.C, which was the millennia wheels were invented. So he would live to the Bardovian equivalent of the year 5000 A.D. Pretty neat.


Anyway, to get back on track, I would suggest getting goodberry, and maybe a level of life cleric to heal 40 hp instead of 10.

[Dalebert]

Anyone going to take a stab at answering my question about Remove Curse followed by Raise Dead?

[rhouck]

Anyone going to take a stab at answering my question about Remove Curse followed by Raise Dead?

That should work fine.

Remove Curse targets a creature or object -- no requirement that the creature be living.

And Raise Dead even suggests what you want to do, saying "This spell doesn't, however, remove diseases, curses, or similar effects; if these aren't first removed prior to casting the spell, they take effect when the creature returns to life." That suggests that diseases, curses, etc. can be cured/removed/etc from a dead creature before the spell is cast.

FYI in case your DM is interested, AL just released an expanded "dark gift" table so there are 20 options (not just the original 4).

[Dalebert]

FYI in case your DM is interested, AL just released an expanded "dark gift" table so there are 20 options (not just the original 4).

Probably a good thing. As it was, people were dying on purpose until they got the one(s) they wanted. Maybe that will discourage them if it takes dying an average of 20 times to get what you want!

Note: I did not try that. I died once and this is what I got.