Dargaron
2021-02-14, 01:41 PM
(EDIT: I hope Homebrew is the right place to put this. It seemed the closest fit for making up new abilities.)
So, I'm putting together a list of undead "powers" for a potential campaign where everyone wakes up as a newly-free-willed undead. The idea is that everyone has a thematic extra ability because the group as a whole is fairly new to 5e (except one player), and the goal is to give the party more staying power (instead pf power bursts) in order to help avoid the 5 minute adventuring day. In addition, most of the group was part of a GURPS game I GM'd last year, so I got in the habit of coming up with fun, personalized power-ups for the players when they "leveled up."
So far what I've got is:
-The fighter or fighter equivalent is a Battlewraith. Their soul inhabits a piece of armor (probably a bracer or something like that), and can possess a dead humanoid body that wears the armor (including their own). They have passive out-of-combat regeneration and cannot die permanently unless their armor is thrown into the Fires of Mount Doom or something similarly catastrophic. However, any body besides their own that they possess is irrevocably destroyed after X time. Their original body can be restored via ritual.
-The Arcane Spellcaster is a Soul Eater. They have the ability to trap the soul of a creature if it dies while "tagged" as a result of a (fairly weak) negative energy ray ability, and can "spend" (release) captured souls to regain X spell slots. However, the Soul Eater *must* use up souls of X level per [time period] or start losing spell slots until their next feeding. Also, having souls "in the tank" causes an increasing chance each turn to simply lose an action, to prevent hording (fluffed as "the various captive souls attempting to break free")
-The rogue or rogue equivalent is a Greater Ghoul. They have paralyzing touch (as normal), and can consume the flesh of humanoids in order to power their active abilities (stench, a temporary stealth boost and possibly a temporary strength boost). However, they must consume X amount of flesh (not necessarily humanoid) per [time period] or lose the ability to maintain their non-Ghoul appearance.
I have a couple other undead "templates" that could be applied if we get more than four people or if someone picks a class that doesn't really fit the above, but what I'm struggling with is finding a good "angle" for an Undead Cleric that isn't just "do X, get Spell Slots." My only rough concept was for a Cleric undead that has basically 3.5-style Improved Counterspelling vs. divine spellcasters, with each successful counterspell causing some kind of beneficial effect (like a Negative Energy Pulse centred on the cleric), but that's a very niche ability compared to the other ones, and doesn't have an easy way to tie into a dependency (maybe they need to "consume" x amount of Positive Energy per [time period] or start looking like a Dark Souls Hollow?)
This is where I'm stuck: does anyone have any ideas for what to give a Cleric undead? If worst comes to worst, they can just be a Wight.
Also, part of the campaign conceit is that they wake up in a world where there's a vast Illuminati-esque conspiracy devoted to wiping out all undead, everywhere, for nefarious reasons, and that they start in possession of a lens that allows them to view events up to two hours in the past, which will be upgraded over the course of the campaign for investigative purposes. My goal is to give the players powers with the potential for misuse, but it's up to them whether they stay on the straight and narrow or start cutting corners.
Thoughts?
So, I'm putting together a list of undead "powers" for a potential campaign where everyone wakes up as a newly-free-willed undead. The idea is that everyone has a thematic extra ability because the group as a whole is fairly new to 5e (except one player), and the goal is to give the party more staying power (instead pf power bursts) in order to help avoid the 5 minute adventuring day. In addition, most of the group was part of a GURPS game I GM'd last year, so I got in the habit of coming up with fun, personalized power-ups for the players when they "leveled up."
So far what I've got is:
-The fighter or fighter equivalent is a Battlewraith. Their soul inhabits a piece of armor (probably a bracer or something like that), and can possess a dead humanoid body that wears the armor (including their own). They have passive out-of-combat regeneration and cannot die permanently unless their armor is thrown into the Fires of Mount Doom or something similarly catastrophic. However, any body besides their own that they possess is irrevocably destroyed after X time. Their original body can be restored via ritual.
-The Arcane Spellcaster is a Soul Eater. They have the ability to trap the soul of a creature if it dies while "tagged" as a result of a (fairly weak) negative energy ray ability, and can "spend" (release) captured souls to regain X spell slots. However, the Soul Eater *must* use up souls of X level per [time period] or start losing spell slots until their next feeding. Also, having souls "in the tank" causes an increasing chance each turn to simply lose an action, to prevent hording (fluffed as "the various captive souls attempting to break free")
-The rogue or rogue equivalent is a Greater Ghoul. They have paralyzing touch (as normal), and can consume the flesh of humanoids in order to power their active abilities (stench, a temporary stealth boost and possibly a temporary strength boost). However, they must consume X amount of flesh (not necessarily humanoid) per [time period] or lose the ability to maintain their non-Ghoul appearance.
I have a couple other undead "templates" that could be applied if we get more than four people or if someone picks a class that doesn't really fit the above, but what I'm struggling with is finding a good "angle" for an Undead Cleric that isn't just "do X, get Spell Slots." My only rough concept was for a Cleric undead that has basically 3.5-style Improved Counterspelling vs. divine spellcasters, with each successful counterspell causing some kind of beneficial effect (like a Negative Energy Pulse centred on the cleric), but that's a very niche ability compared to the other ones, and doesn't have an easy way to tie into a dependency (maybe they need to "consume" x amount of Positive Energy per [time period] or start looking like a Dark Souls Hollow?)
This is where I'm stuck: does anyone have any ideas for what to give a Cleric undead? If worst comes to worst, they can just be a Wight.
Also, part of the campaign conceit is that they wake up in a world where there's a vast Illuminati-esque conspiracy devoted to wiping out all undead, everywhere, for nefarious reasons, and that they start in possession of a lens that allows them to view events up to two hours in the past, which will be upgraded over the course of the campaign for investigative purposes. My goal is to give the players powers with the potential for misuse, but it's up to them whether they stay on the straight and narrow or start cutting corners.
Thoughts?