Marcloure
2016-12-28, 01:56 AM
I'm design a post-apocalyptic "Darksouls"-esque and "MadMax"-esque world. There, the undead is a common faction of the civilization, and have their own city and "lifes" to attend to (something like "Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi").
So, as DM, I'll let my players be an undead if they want. I took advantage of this option to penalize and limit revival, so death, for and of PC and NPC, starts to have real meaning.
To contextualize a bit, being an undead is a dishonor and unholyness in the eyes of most people and for the Empire of Sun. So, there are undead hunters all over the tiny world. If any of you are interesting in the world itself, here is a full post about it: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?510561-The-Wasted-Lands&p=21543341#post21543341
Here are my frist thoughts about the undead for players and NPC:
__________________________________________________ _____
Beign an undead is a possibility for any race.
Choosing to be an undead can be done at the creation of the character.
.
It must be a valid choice for any class, maybe not completely balanced, but not bad or obligatory.
Being an undead isn't in the intention of gaining or losing numbers.
.
Overall, an undead is a little weaker in-combat, but tougher against survival conditions.
Undeads are immune to effects that doesn't affect undead, as Cure Wounds or Harm, and are vulnerable to those effects that does affect undead, as Turn Unholy and the bonus damage from Divine Smite. Overall, I think it's worse than better for the character.
Undeads don't need to drink or eat (they still need to breath). They are not immune to poison, charm, so on, so forth. They can never reach 6th level of Exhaustion and they recover half their Exhaustion level (rounded down) per long rest.
.
A character shall become undead if it dies and come back to life many times.
The frist way I thought to do this, was through Wisdom loss. Everytime a character dies, he would lose 2 points of Wisdom score. If that character has 4 Wisdom score or less, he become an undead at the next sunset. This way, I kind of put the options: "dump Wis and has less chances to revive, be a Wis user, or waste some points on it". A character could forgo the ability loss by becoming an undead at any time he died, or at the Character creation.
Thing is, even if dying would be a common thing, losing 2 Wis score being a Monk or Cleric hits the character way harder then losing 1 out of 2 "living-lifes" for the barbarian with Wis 8. So, I promptly give up to do this way.
I came with 2 other ways. The frist, whenever a character dies he loses 2 points of the smaller Mental Atribute. None of the classes needs all Mental Atributes, and now even barbarians had a reason to pump up Int/Wis/Cha. But then, he would need to have a 9 in all three atributes for a bonus life. And I am not sure if punishing too hard will be fun. No one likes to lose Atribute Score.
The second way, and the best in my opinion, is to create a new atribute: Soul. In this system, almost everyone has the same chances of dying.
A living mortal (basic races) has 12 Soul score;
a superior undead (lich, mummy lord, player undead option) has 8;
an inferior undead (skeleton, zombie) has 0;
a lost undead (wright, wrath, banshee) has 3;
a living semi-planar (tiefling, Aasimar, Genasi) has 13;
and a living immortal (Devil, angel, Genie) has 15.
When any of those dies, that person loses 2 Soul points. If, somehow, it is brought back to life, it's new "Soul power" is that of a creature inferior to what he once was. The mortals are said to always have a second chance, so they have 12 Soul score. The semi-planar are one step closer to immortality (in my setting at least), so they have 1 more chance.
A player loses control of his character when it reaches 3 or less Soul score, so the game has a limit for how many times someone can die (2 times as undead + 1/2 times being mortal).
If the player choses to start as an undead, he has 8 Soul score.
.
Undead are virtually immortal.
Undead can't be revived, but they always come back to "life" at sunset. They then has 2 Souls score less than they had, as explained above.
If an undead reaches 0 Soul point, it has no more Soul (don't you say), what is left is just an empty cask.
I have also thought of other stuff to add, but maybe it's an overextension:
- Undead always starts with 1 success and 1 failure at Death Saving Throws (for what reason?).
- Undead has Darksoul Touch, a per long rest ability which drains some hp from target. As an undead can't be healed by teammates, they may need something like this.
- Maybe some way to recover Soul, to a maximum of 6. Dealing a killing blow with Darksouls Touch? This way, undead people would start to hunt and killing living people, so they don't "go hollow", and they could potentially "live and die" forever.
__________________________________________________ _________________________
I would like to hear any thought you guys may have about this. Also suggestions, tips, maybe someone have done something similiar.
So, as DM, I'll let my players be an undead if they want. I took advantage of this option to penalize and limit revival, so death, for and of PC and NPC, starts to have real meaning.
To contextualize a bit, being an undead is a dishonor and unholyness in the eyes of most people and for the Empire of Sun. So, there are undead hunters all over the tiny world. If any of you are interesting in the world itself, here is a full post about it: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?510561-The-Wasted-Lands&p=21543341#post21543341
Here are my frist thoughts about the undead for players and NPC:
__________________________________________________ _____
Beign an undead is a possibility for any race.
Choosing to be an undead can be done at the creation of the character.
.
It must be a valid choice for any class, maybe not completely balanced, but not bad or obligatory.
Being an undead isn't in the intention of gaining or losing numbers.
.
Overall, an undead is a little weaker in-combat, but tougher against survival conditions.
Undeads are immune to effects that doesn't affect undead, as Cure Wounds or Harm, and are vulnerable to those effects that does affect undead, as Turn Unholy and the bonus damage from Divine Smite. Overall, I think it's worse than better for the character.
Undeads don't need to drink or eat (they still need to breath). They are not immune to poison, charm, so on, so forth. They can never reach 6th level of Exhaustion and they recover half their Exhaustion level (rounded down) per long rest.
.
A character shall become undead if it dies and come back to life many times.
The frist way I thought to do this, was through Wisdom loss. Everytime a character dies, he would lose 2 points of Wisdom score. If that character has 4 Wisdom score or less, he become an undead at the next sunset. This way, I kind of put the options: "dump Wis and has less chances to revive, be a Wis user, or waste some points on it". A character could forgo the ability loss by becoming an undead at any time he died, or at the Character creation.
Thing is, even if dying would be a common thing, losing 2 Wis score being a Monk or Cleric hits the character way harder then losing 1 out of 2 "living-lifes" for the barbarian with Wis 8. So, I promptly give up to do this way.
I came with 2 other ways. The frist, whenever a character dies he loses 2 points of the smaller Mental Atribute. None of the classes needs all Mental Atributes, and now even barbarians had a reason to pump up Int/Wis/Cha. But then, he would need to have a 9 in all three atributes for a bonus life. And I am not sure if punishing too hard will be fun. No one likes to lose Atribute Score.
The second way, and the best in my opinion, is to create a new atribute: Soul. In this system, almost everyone has the same chances of dying.
A living mortal (basic races) has 12 Soul score;
a superior undead (lich, mummy lord, player undead option) has 8;
an inferior undead (skeleton, zombie) has 0;
a lost undead (wright, wrath, banshee) has 3;
a living semi-planar (tiefling, Aasimar, Genasi) has 13;
and a living immortal (Devil, angel, Genie) has 15.
When any of those dies, that person loses 2 Soul points. If, somehow, it is brought back to life, it's new "Soul power" is that of a creature inferior to what he once was. The mortals are said to always have a second chance, so they have 12 Soul score. The semi-planar are one step closer to immortality (in my setting at least), so they have 1 more chance.
A player loses control of his character when it reaches 3 or less Soul score, so the game has a limit for how many times someone can die (2 times as undead + 1/2 times being mortal).
If the player choses to start as an undead, he has 8 Soul score.
.
Undead are virtually immortal.
Undead can't be revived, but they always come back to "life" at sunset. They then has 2 Souls score less than they had, as explained above.
If an undead reaches 0 Soul point, it has no more Soul (don't you say), what is left is just an empty cask.
I have also thought of other stuff to add, but maybe it's an overextension:
- Undead always starts with 1 success and 1 failure at Death Saving Throws (for what reason?).
- Undead has Darksoul Touch, a per long rest ability which drains some hp from target. As an undead can't be healed by teammates, they may need something like this.
- Maybe some way to recover Soul, to a maximum of 6. Dealing a killing blow with Darksouls Touch? This way, undead people would start to hunt and killing living people, so they don't "go hollow", and they could potentially "live and die" forever.
__________________________________________________ _________________________
I would like to hear any thought you guys may have about this. Also suggestions, tips, maybe someone have done something similiar.