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el_goro
2008-11-11, 02:17 AM
Voidborne

The Negative Energy Plane is the ultimate antithesis of life. The ravenous energies of the plane drain the vitality of the living, reducing them to ash or in severe instances causing them to rise again as undead Shadows. However, in rare cases the will of the affected is strong enough to resist total annihilation by this dark dimension. Though their bodies are obliterated by negative energy, a spark of their essence and memory remains. In time, these rare individuals are able to draw filaments of necromantic energy to them, reconstituting their flesh into a semblance of its mortal appearance, thus becoming Voidborne. Occasionally these Voidborne are able to find their way to the material plane. Now removed from the dark power of the plane that had sustained their new flesh, they must seek out sources of negative energy to maintain their form.

Voidborne appear much as they did in life, though with some notable differences. Their skin becomes incredibly pale, almost chalk-white, and their hair darkens to a deep lusterless black. Most notable are their eyes: inky pools of darkness with no pupils or corneas.

Creating a Voidborne
“Voidborne” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal humanoid (referred to hereafter as the base creature) provided it has been slain by the negative-dominant trait of the Negative Energy Plane.
A Voidborne has all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. Do not recalculate base attacks, saves, or skill points. Size is unchanged.
Hit Dice: Increase all current and future Hit Dice to d12s.
Special Attacks: A Voidborne retains all of the base creature’s special attacks and gains those described below.
Touch of the Void (Su): With a successful touch attack against an undead target, the Voidborne draws negative energy from the target, damaging them and healing itself. This attack deals 1d8 + 10 points of damage; a successful Will save (DC 10 + ½ the Voidborne’s HD + Voidborne’s Cha modifier) halves this. For every point of damage dealt in this matter, the Voidborne gains one temporary hit point.
Spells: A Voidborne can cast any spells it could cast while alive.
Special Qualities: A Voidborne retains all the base creature’s special qualities and gains those described below.
Grip of Darkness (Ex): As a creature composed of necromantic energy made flesh, the Voidborne requires a constant supply of Negative Energy to sustain itself; if the Voidborne is ever in a plane without the negative-dominant energy trait (such as the Material Plane), it will take 1d12 points of damage every day.
Necromantic Affinity: Prolonged exposure to the Negative Energy plane has given the Voidborne invaluable insights into Necromancy. Its caster level is considered 1 higher when casting spells from the Necromancy School. In addition, the Voidborne can command up to 10 times its HD in undead through spells such as animate dead. A Voidborne may also Rebuke Undead as a cleric with ½ as many HD, rounding down. (For example, a 17 HD Voidborne can rebuke undead as a 8th level cleric.)
Greater Turn Resistance (Ex): A Voidborne has +8 turn resistance.
Damage Reduction (Su): The Voidborne’s body is remarkably resistant to injury, giving it damage reduction 10/positive energy.
Immunities (Ex): Voidborne are immune to cold, electricity, and polymorph effects (though they can still use polymorph effects on themselves).
Abilities: As an undead creature, a Voidborne has no Constitution score.
Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +4
Alignment: Any non-good. While the Voidborne has all the memories of its past life, the corrupting influence of the Negative Energy Plane has marred its soul irrevocably. The best they can hope for is a neutral alignment.


Design notes:
Despite having played D&D for quite some time now, I’ve never turned my hand towards monster creation till now. I’ve never had the need frankly: the various Monster Manuals, Fiend Folios, and all matter of supplements have kept me in great supply of interesting creatures to toss at my players. However when designing a necromancer villain for an upcoming campaign, I felt the need for something beyond what I was finding in the books. I knew I wanted him to be some kind of undead, but the typical candidates (lich, vampire) just weren’t doing it for me. So I resolved to come up with something of my own design.

As originally conceived, the Voidborne was a MUCH more powerful creature. Early on I had come up with the concept of it being dependent on Negative Energy for its continual existence, but for longest time I had a concept for it to channel its stored Negative Energy into pure blasts of damaging necromatic energy. Also it would burn off its energy at a much slower rate, and had to replenish its reserves through the use of a magical device that resembled one of those fair rides where you are spun around with your hands and legs held immobile (what the hell are those things called…). Anyway, it seemed a bit much, so I scaled it back a bit. Gone were the energy blasts and magical devices, to be replaced by the system above. I think it adds an interesting twist: there are plenty of undead that prey upon the living, now there’s an undead that preys upon other undead!

The Necromatic Affinity ability was born out of the kind of character I wanted to eventually apply this template to: a necromancer capable of commanding armies of the undead. It may seem a little overpowered though. Any thoughts on this?

Since this was my first time taking a crack at monster creation, I borrowed heavily from the lich (the prototypical undead spellcaster in my opinion). I’m reasonably satisfied with the final product, but I would welcome any comments or advice to make it better. Particularly I wasn’t sure what kind of Challenge Rating or Level Adjustment to assign to this creature. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

arguskos
2008-11-11, 07:39 AM
I'd like to point out that a Voidborne Dread Necromancer basically ignores the drawback to being one of these, as would a Voidborne Cleric. I thought I might mention that, and see if that's what you meant to do, or not.

Anyways, interesting and solid work. Hope to see more of your work around here. :smallwink:

el_goro
2008-11-11, 01:14 PM
I'd like to point out that a Voidborne Dread Necromancer basically ignores the drawback to being one of these, as would a Voidborne Cleric. I thought I might mention that, and see if that's what you meant to do, or not.

Anyways, interesting and solid work. Hope to see more of your work around here. :smallwink:

Hey thanks for the comments (and compliments). As for the Dread Necromancer (that class was in Heroes of Horror, right?) I was intending on using it in my game, so not too much worries there. Still you do bring up an interesting point about the cleric. I can think of few things to address this:
1) Increase the frequency of hit point loss from every other day to every day.
2) Increase the amount of damage done by Grip of Darkness
3) Remove the ability to be healed by negative energy through Inflict spells. This would be a break from typical undead physiology, but it would reinforce the need to draw continual vitality from undead creatures. That still can be addressed through casting animate dead (or summon undead if you're using Libris Mortis) but it still represents an investment of spells to keep going.
4) A combination of the suggestions above.

Any thoughts?

DracoDei
2008-11-11, 07:06 PM
Technically the temporary hitpoints don't do much about the ongoing damage...

arguskos
2008-11-11, 07:47 PM
Well, the reason I mentioned the Dread Necromancer, is because they have a negative energy touch at will, and can if they are undead, they can just heal themselves completely.

Personally, I would make the Voidborne skip the negative energy damage (too easy to circumvent) and go straight to taking ability damage. For example, this is what I might make Grip of Darkness look like:

Grip of Darkness (Ex): As a creature composed of necromantic energy made flesh, the Voidborne requires a constant supply of Negative Energy to sustain itself; if the Voidborne is ever in a plane without the negative-dominant energy trait (such as the Material Plane), it will take 1d2 points of ability damage per day. The ability is determined randomly. This damage can only be healed through use of the Touch of the Void ability.


This clearly means that the Touch of the Void would have to be rewritten to also heal ability damage from the Grip of Darkness, but that's hardly difficult.

If you want to stick to the damage, just include the bit about only being able to be cured by the Touch of the Void ability or somesuch. That should work out pretty well, and gives you the flavor and feel you're looking for.