I have a few ideas on how to play as a undead without being evil. 1. You gained sentience from some lord or necromancer trying to make a undead stronger with attempting something new. 2. Perhaps you are an ancient hero from long ago from a kingdom which in under siege so you are resurrected well made undead to defend the innocent but end up losing the battle and waking up in the future after the battle or awaking from a spell. 3. Maybe the necromancer who summoned thee died and now you have no master or is not evil. 4. Maybe your evil master just had forgotten of your existence or doesnt care you all you can do is roam or sit still. 5. Maybe your lord or necromancer simply said to roam and do whatever you what after they were finished with you. There are many ways to think of making good undead but backstory must be given on why that is the case.
Good thoughts! This could also be an interesting means of making a Deadsouls or Deadcells type Campaign. It could be a lot of fun to keep getting your consciousness thrown into different corpse. Possessing the body of the dead, Wormwood style.
I did the opposite my undead shadow sorcerer is evil but he’s the lesser evil. This is a Norse campaign and we are trying to prevent ragnarok. The end is coming he knows it and he was resurrected to help stop it.
I prerty much did #2 lol. It's a Disney campaign and my character is a cauldron born. He died centuries ago but doesn't remember anything of his past life and his ultimate goal is to become human again and regain his memories.
"I want to play a vampire!" "This is a naval campaign, most of the action will take place on a ship." *spends roughly 80% of the adventure below deck in their coffin*
Finding this video reminded me of my first DnD character; a undead paladin named Malcolm. He was slightly unhinged due to the necromancer messing up his resurrection, but still retained some of his core values. Some of his best moments were: convincing a guard he was a new hire, getting his fist stuck in earth elemental, taming a Roc (think a falcon but it's as big as some dragons), failing to teach his bear mount to surf, and becoming the king of a necromancer city with his bear mount as the pope, all while he was only a talking helmet. Such good times
He lost his body in the fight with that campaign's villain, but could never get it back, though that barely put much of a dent in his mood, and the bear was also his bodyguard, making sure to stop any assassination attempts
@@cthulhuthereader I would have the bear wear the skull like a hat and then people would think he Just had a bear body... >.> Or you could find a skeletal bear and just have a bear body... Undead Bear lich.... I might have to make a new video.
I am playing a skeleton soldier who's wife sacrificed herself to reanimate him with the instruction to live, therefore giving a reason as to why he would stay with a party. However he died with a journal that told him who he was and all about his life, so now he adventures in hopes to find out what living really means/is
I’m currently running a campaign where the dm is a Lich king and the whole party are undead. They receive instructions via raven messengers on what tasks to complete to help the lich take over towns and eventually the world. We have a ghoul beast master, mummy monk, zombie fighter, skeleton archer, revenant rogue and a flesh golem as a barbarian stand in. Almost everyone in the party is brand new to dnd and they’re having a blast with the theme
The DM's Guild Awakened Undead options are really great for balance. None of them are super overpowered, except kinda the Mummy Rot ability, but that could just be my opinion.
I have a similar character. Repenting in his undeath for his wicked ways in life. Timothy was an Evil Knight in life known as Timothy the Unjust. In death he served the forces of darkness. Upon meeting our heroes, he befriended the Elvin Mage and switched to the side of good. Much like the persecutor Saul became apostle Paul - Timothy the Unjust becomes Timothy the Kind aka "Skeletim". He acts as our party's manservant. He brews a mean pot of tea.
I'm making my own Homebrew undead creature. She's based off of an actual character for a story I'm making. She's a ghost/zombie hybrid whose a rogue multiclassed into a barbarian. Her ghost can leave her body but doing so makes her body act like a typical zombie. If she's out of her body for too long she gets pulled back in. Its interesting trying to balance. But I think I'm getting it down. I just need to playtest it.
That sounds interesting. Kind of like the magic jar spell but the body has its own "consciousness " when its not possessed. That could be a really cool mechanic. Theres something kind of the opposite for pathfinder within the medium. If they exert to much of their magic the spirt they are channeling get to take over their body. Might have some pointers there. Let me know how the playtest goes!
There are two ways I've figured out to do this. Talk your dm into giving you the Deathless(su) So that you just respawn in an hour. (though if you also get the fast healing it's pretty op) Or two Do something like a fixed phylactery that lets you respawn every day at dawn. (once again op but can be really fun mechanic if you want to do a Dark Souls campaign, Somethink like as long as this "fire" is burning at dawn you respawn)
Fires Far Away the Dark Souls TTRPG, it uses a different system not D&D, GURPs or Pathfinder. Its free too. But its mind the pun barebones. So have some rule books from other RPG's to take stuff from.
I was allowed to play a Undead Goliath Barbarian named Clang within the Dragon Heist Setting. He was EXTREMELY stupid, insomuch that he was persuaded that his goblin party member was not in fact a goblin, but actually a "goblino," A very different creature from goblins. Flowers and small animals had a calming effect on him which lead him to have brought many of both to the bar that he owned with his party members. In battle, he was as savage as a barbarian could come, cleaving enemies to bits and then some, but then he met a nice half-orc woman and timidly offered her a flower. Luckily, he rolled well enough that she was happy to spend more time with him. Then in dungeon of the mad mage, he continued on his brutality, discovered his friend was indeed a goblin, and began to use goblins as weapons instead of the greatsword he wielded. Overall, it was pretty fun!
Grateful for this video. I'm actually in the midst of designing an adventure where all the characters are undead (long story short, it's inspired by the germanic myths of the Wild Hunt) and I was struggling on how to actually make them undead mechanically without the obvious things (like no longer to eat, sleep, or breathe; immune to mind control; 0 CON score; etc.) so i'm really happy this video exists and was able to give me an idea of what things to introduce to their new race type.
Pathfinder has a 'half-undead' type for when you're homebrewing your own race. It's basically the lite version of undead. So it still gives you some of those undead features
I have a undead character concept that I have been wanting to play for a while: Skeleton Phantom Rogue w/ the Gathered Whispers Dark Gift. The character used standard array and the 5e DMG Skeleton Template. Quietus was once an undead defender for a Necromancer and often took part in the killings of unwary explorers or overwhelmed adventurers. Over the years of service, wisps of the souls of those slain gathered and clung to the necromantic energies that animated Quietus. The animated skeleton gained a vague sense of individuality after the Necromancer was slain after a sudden raid by veteran adventurers, but still felt the call to follow the commands of a master. After some time had passed in the forgotten crypt, Quietus eventually bonded with a practitioner of Necromancy (party member) that chose to explore the old ruin, and now follows the instructions of his new master.
Undead players should have an intelligence. Think of Liches, Bone Claws, Vampires, Ghouls, etc. These all have intelligence and can being a player would make a great story arc as to how they became sentient in the first place.
I talked about this for a moment, I think it has to do with control, If you're playing an undead I absolutely agree, but if you raise a skeleton or ghoul you're imposing your will over it and my though is that it become single minded on your orders.
Sadly, playing a Lich is kind of a hard sell. If I'm not mistaken, you need to be a very high level caster before you can even attempt the ritual to transform yourself into a Lich. So it's not something you can do as a level 1 party. As for vampires, it seems there are no officially canonized mechanics on playing one, meaning that all playable vampires are using a homebrew system. :-(
It all depends on what you consider a lich to be because isn't the general idea a undead mage of some kind like a skeleton for example it could have magic and they're for be a lich
@@christianwhite8877 Not necessarily. Low levels types of undead are mindless and under the control of whoever reanimated them. They're barely more than autonomous puppets at that point. Higher forms of undead such as vampires, liches, wights and the like still have their self awareness, and so are capable of independent thoughts and actions.
not to be rude but I never said that they were low int characters or were under control by something I was just saying that it depends on what you consider a lich to be because I believe that the general idea is a undead mage of some kind a example could be a skeleton that has magic that by technically would be a lich but it doesn't necessarily have to be a skeleton and same thing with it's magic it doesn't necessarily have to be any particular type of magic
Had a rough character idea for an undead paladin. Was looking pretty good till my dm reminded me what a pain in my boney ass it would be to regain my hp. The background was basically someone who died a long time ago and then was brought back by an evil necromancer to be an undead slave only for a god of death to want freedom for it's stolen souls. And through some mishaps and shenanigans you become free from the control of both the undead God and necromancer under the agreement/contract/whatever that you will now be a warrior in said gods name who's own personal quest is to travel for the rest of your eternal undead life freeing your undead brethren from the enslavement of necromancers. Is set up to be played in a pretty true neutral manner but it wouldn't be to hard to play in any other alignment. I have more on character specifics if anyone wants to take a crack at actually playing the character. So feel free to ask if your interested and if I even realize I've been asked I'll happily message back asap.
@@Rookzer0 well my profile pic here is a rough sketch from my sibling in their art style but other than that no. He was a teifling (definitely misspelled that) in life and part of how he died was having his bottom jaw ripped from him so as a skelebob he can't talk and has to play charades every time he communicates. If you or anyone else out there wants to give a go at making some art of him then by all means have at it. Unfortunately i just don't have the cash to commission something and like i said feel free to use the character in whatever capacity you feel like. If any DMs out there want to use him as a NPC then i can probably dig out the old character sheet and give you most of the basics on the character (as i said before i didn't really finish the character). I do remember off the top of my head that he ended up with a charisma of like 26 after adding up all the modifiers. He was also proficient in all things charisma except performance because it's kinda hard to play a flute when you have no lungs.
I have played this a few times before its really fun to play but it takes alot of planning. I love all the though you put into this Rookzer0 and the picture looks fantastic! fantastic job!
That's awesome to see your channel branching out more! Saw that folks can finally follow you on Reddit. Great video as always and super excited to hear about the possibility of miniature painting! Can't wait to see what you come up with next! A character build I thought about was a Warforged who is a Sorcerer: Draconic Bloodline...the twist...they have a Dracolich phylactery hidden inside them. The more draconic they become, the greater the phylactery's influence is over them. Making the urge to hunt/find an adult dragon to make a better host. The idea of a Draconic Warforged with necrotic energy seeping out of it sounds hella metal (sorry about the pun). The Warforged itself could have been "deactivated" and the Dracolich could have entrusted a worshipping Kobold to hind it's phylactery in a hurry...and it just hid it in an "empty suit of armor". The other group of heros could defeat the Dracolich but are in a hurry to find it's phylactery. They can interrogate the Kobold who goes to show them the "suit of armor" for it to be gone. These heros could be added in to the campaign and pop up from time to time and be "antagonists" to the group. Would be an interesting concept if worked out very well with the DM. Hope you have a blessed day.
This was pretty funny - great job. I've played a character like this and it really did take a lot of effort coordinating with the GM to play correctly and to keep exactly what was happening to that character from other members in the party. Early on it was often pretty hilarious but after a while the character had to change and that created quite a bit of tension in the story. Good times.
Lol this video makes me think about play like a Lich Bard; It's weird, I hasn't be a Undead in my adventures. You're a great illustrator; I like your work!
I am currently playing an undead druid of the circle of spores. It gives a real twist since a druid is against undead but my druid did not have a choice since he was naturally brought back because of a Cordyceps like fungus. Really fun to play and your video gave me that idea. Keep doing what you do.
Haven't played an undead before (though I had plans for a character who would've become undead). The more interesting story however is one of the necromancers I've played. I don't think I've told his story here before. So it was in a Pathfinder campaign, playing a True Neutral, Human, Undead Master Wizard. Undead Master gives you what amounts to an undead animal companion, insofar as once per day you can basically cast animate dead on a single target as a spell-like ability. Story-wise his favourite son (he wasn't a very good parent, lots of kids, one was his favourite) was killed in a necromantic experiment, so he trapped the kids soul in a soul gem while he tried to research methods of returning him to life/putting together a relatively living body so he could experience some amount of life. In the meanwhile he would stick the soul gem into increasingly hardy and difficult-to-destroy bodies, culminating in probably my favourite single undead creation to date, the crab bunker. Essentially what it amounted to was (with the GM's permission) a Crabman Bloody Exoskeleton (which is basically a mix of the Exoskeleton and Bloody Skeleton templates), with custom-fitted large full plate and a pair of tower shields. While AC from the shields wouldn't stack, it did allow it to provide cover from two angles, and plus the things absurdly high AC and fast healing it was nigh-impossible to kill. So naturally my wizard would use his son's temporary crab body as a bunker/mobile cover once the fighting started. He also later bolted a ballista to its back and had a crew of small skeletons man it. Did I mention he was a bad parent? Really fun to play, nearly amoral , the sort who just sees necromancy as a tool and corpses as objects, not former people. Still care about other people, not willfully cruel, mostly neglectful.
I’m currently playing as two wights, each in separate games. One of them is a NE Bard and the other is a NG Blood Hunter. It’s interesting to play on both sides of the spectrum, one of them fully embracing their status as undead, the other regretting their decision and feeling constant guilt for all the people they’ve hurt. They’re both similar and completely different at the same time.
Rookzer0 they’re separate characters, so could meet in a crossover - that would be really cool, especially because the Blood Hunter seeks to stop other undead who have no qualms about hurting the living, whereas the Bard believes she’s the greatest musician to grace the world and death cannot stop her from proving this so. It would lead to an interesting dynamic between the two. Thanks for your interest!
I’m seeing a lot of cool comments, so I felt like contributing. I’m making an Awakened Undead Skeleton who’s an Artificer Artillerist. He was a servant to a lich-to-be who was killed. Instead of infusing his own soul into his phylactery, the Lich basically said “Finish what I started, skelly man!” and put the *skeleton’s* soul in it. Naive to how evil his old master was, the Skeleton just wants to make his old master proud.
Just found your channel and i enjoyed this video very much! I started playing DnD back in the 80's. I love that it is one of those games that hasn't died over the years and am blown away that i've been around to see 2nd edition to 5th! Big thumbs up from me buddy. Very very cool!
Im gonna go make an undead necromancer who does "incredible" things but doesn't really think the consequences through... Also, its always nice to see a smaller channel with this level of quality. Channels like yours are that one mom and pop store in your hometown that makes the best burgers but no-one knows about them, you know what I mean?
Been playing an undead tabaxi skeleton Alchemist named Elizabeth (I know, not really a tabaxi sounding name but meh!) in my friends 5e campaign for the past few months, lowkey dropping bone puns now and then, patching up team mates with my concoctions and generally being a utility class, was fun when party found out! Only down side is with it being their first time GMing how far he took the whole undead thing is a bit limited, I'm still healed by healing magics, potions and even healers kits (I have no idea on that last one) though spells that harm undead do effect me, I'm also immune to poison, bleed, hunger and thirst, no need to breath, can't suffer fatigue and have no need to sleep but have a weakness to bludgeoning damage. I have an end goal of becoming a lich, but more to preserve and grow my knowledge but also the power to defend myself and others I deam useful. In life her fear was always running out of time and sought to find a method to achieve immortality but in a more achievable but less absolutely evil way, through alchemy! Time will tell if I can pull it off :D
My goal is to make a paladin who's been "revived" by her goddess for a second chance at completing her mission. The tricky thing is that my design for the character is that she's a ghost possessing a suit of armor, so I'm trying to do something balanced gameplay-wise while also giving her some interesting abilities. Your video had some pretty interesting ideas, as well as stuff I just didn't know about lol. Thanks!
Undead bard with an accordion, who was not based around seducing, but inducing fear, witch in combination with my friends warlock led to a lot of fun interactions and battles
To follow up on my previous comment. I think I have sorted out the 'statistics' and all the nuances of converting, human stats + cavalier/whatever archetype + Undead/Skeletal Champion = A Player Character with high STR, DEX, No CON lul, Normal INT, and WIS and Semi High CHA. At level 1 he gets a whooping 13 skill points, +4 from Cavalier +8 from Undead, +1 from Human. He also gets all of the undead traits, PLUS cavalier traits at level 1 plus a bonus combat feat from being a human in his previous life. In overall he is bloody amazing, not a gary sue whatsoever cause if the party turns on him for being undead. Welp reroll time. Also I forgot to mention that he gets an additional combat feat at 6th Character Level and at every other 6 levels. AND He also gets traits from the Orders too! Whew. My mind is mush trying to get this guy on paper!
@@Rookzer0 From my understanding is that an Undead or Skeletal Champion gets +4 per Hit Die from racial hit die but if he doesn't have any racial hit die prior to his unlife, he automatically gets 2 HD and you get +4 per Hit Die SOOO... You get 8 Skill Points.. o_o;
Gotcha, for my understanding you would only take those skill ppints if you were retaining a level of skeleton, I would normally just say youve applied your template and retained all your class levels. The racial hd is usually for npcs to keep them up to par with pcs. I might need to look into that though
My very first campaign was a 3.5 evil campaign and although nobody started undead our NE cleric commanded a couple skeletons that everyone had more attachment for than half the actual characters, eventually when characters started to die some of them were resurected, the kobold rogue became a ghoul, the gnome illusionist that we murdered haunted the party as a ghost and when the campaign was later revisited the half dragon became a sentient skeleton which made him infinitely tougher than anticipated. All in all though we had a lot of fun playing on the border of undeath and that cleric is now an npc slowly working his way to Lichdom.
Rookzer0 Thanks, still playing it though now it’s call the “evil campaign 2.0” since I took a break from DMing for a year and when we came back only one person wanted to stick with the same character. Since I had more time to think about it I’ve actually thought of the plot a lot more and have the end game prepared so to speak which will involve the original characters essentially killing the gods of the setting and making the world itself Evil aligned, hopefully we get to that part before we all go off to college
I have an idea of how you could play as a character who is the reincarnation of a lich you start off by deciding what race the character is (there are 2 ways to go about this one requires intelligence and the other requires charisma so you choose your character race with the way you chose in mind) for the first path you play a wizard for the second path you go sorcerer instead of wizard (you decide what sub class for wizard or sorcerer) you next choose your character background (for a sorcerer I'd recommend a criminal background for a wizard I'd recommend a sage background) at some point you should multiclass into something (this is to reflect that the lich has gotten more powerful in a meaningful way) for a wizard I'd choose a type of cleric (for cleric you only need one or two levels) for a sorcerer you have a choice between cleric (it would be best to just get 1 level) warlock (you could get a big power up by going with 3 levels) or 1 level of cleric and 2 levels in warlock (this is the best you could get if you wanted both) what I would have gone with for the sorcerer path is a tiefling with a criminal background (this is because a tiefling gets more fitting magic then most other races for this particular case and as a criminal they likely would work with the lich) I'd also go with divine soul sorcerer (you can just say the lich is providing you with your magic and when you use magic it (your magic) has small fragments of divine energy (it could be from any time your character prayed and the prayer wasn't heard) that you aren't using effectively for a while) I'd then multiclass into fiend warlock for the last 3 levels (at this point you and the lich are becoming 1 being so instead of needing a phylactery your soul works as a phylactery which means that you get healed by killing things) for a wizard I'd go with a sage background high elf necromancer (in this case the lich is teaching you magic) I'd multiclass into death cleric (just 2 levels but why cleric is because you are helping the lich by praying which is helping it became a god which in turn would make you a god)
sounds like you have a pretty good plan, I think this is a good idea for a max level game but if you start off lower level i'd suggest leaning into 1 or 2 classes and seeing how it goes. Cool idea!
For these builds you are required to multiclass and it's fine to do that at the midway point of where most campaigns end (meaning around level 10) also if you start multiclassing early and do it to much then you will have problems later
I do love 5e but yeah some changes leave a little something to be desired, nothing like some light house rules to fix that though. Heck most of the classic rules I was used to are now just optional rules in the DMG and other books like Xanathar's, so I just lump all those as part of the rules I use.
I have been in a handful of campaigns where there have been undead in the party with the most prominent being vampires in a handful of Curse of Strahd games. Many of my friends like playing vampires related to Strahd and more. In these party's I have usually played my cleric Zelda Alagondar and have weirdly gotten these undead PC's to love or respect me to the point of them protecting me at any cost.
I once played as a Homebrewed skeleton necromancer (True Neutral) trying to end racism, and one of it's abilities was to use limbs of other creatures to heal (by replacing broken ones) as long the skull stayed intact.
Though I am absolutely in love with undead and necromancy as a whole, I have a disdain for starting out as an undead, especially if I am going into necromancy. For me, the journey to become an undead is much more satisfying and interesting. From making your first skeleton to making your hand living bone all the way to becoming a Litch, Vampire or anything else is just amazing to me. I've always found the character traits for necromancer characters to be interesting as well. For example, the current character I am playing is in an Elder Scrolls DnD, they are an Argonian who is obsessed with necromancy. His ultimate goal is to become a Litch and turn everyone in the world into an undead, not for his own purposes though. He claims that mortals are so prideful an arrogant that they will continue to place the world and themselves in danger if they are left unchecked and united under a common goal or person. Though he is harsh to other people, he holds no real distaste for any particular race except the High Elves who are the personification of his troubles with mortals. Of course he also holds his own race very close to heart, he hates the fact that Argonians are so prone to slavery. He decides that rather than waiting for the gods to bring a savior like the Nord's Dragonborn, that he himself will become their savior.
@@Rookzer0 He is very dominant in his personality, one could call him a hypocrite. However he would argue that the souls he traps to make undead are fair pickings and often believes he is saving them. This is because most people he has turned have been bandits or Daedra (demon) worshipers, if he claims their soul then the Daedra are unable to possibly use them for evil deeds or torture. Right now he has a bit of a problem as he did at one point die however, he only lives because he had to sell his soul to Molag Bal, one of the worst Daedric Princes known for being the Daedra of Domination. Because of this, Molag Bal is using Saliish (my character) as a way to claim more souls, gain more power and eventually step into the mortal realm. Saliish would happily become a Litch to prevent Molag Bal from holding sway over him as the Daedra can't claim his soul if he never dies, the only thing preventing this is that Saliish is trying to save a previous party character from Molag Bal and must do the Daedra's bidding in order to save her.
I played a one-shot as a skeletal tiefling bard named Tiberius. Not much happened for him, but I did enjoy walking through a lake rather than around it(Curse of the Black Pearl style)
One of the fun background bits a player can do is, an older adventurer who has expired but doesn't realize it at first and kept on adventuring like they always have. Having others point out their condition or the strange reactions to healing spells/items. They don't have to be evil to be undead... it's just a stereotype. Also, Intelligence would still factor for those playing Lich types since they are still technically wizards/sorcerers who've surpassed the mortal coil.
Thats a really cool idea, it might also work well for a darksouls type game where the party isnt aware theyve all died and slowly figure it out. Very cool
@@Rookzer0 Don't let any of the party know about being undead and don't tell them what a potion does... let them find out the effects on their own and make assumptions when it harms them.
I played as a undead minotaur where he was a barbain/warlock and I did where he still had his horns and everything but when he would rage bits of fur would pop up as he just loses control and would attack with out thinking I tried to go for a lich that also uses brute force but mostly uses magic
I have a duo of Skeleton NPCs in the campaign I'm running, and what I did to avoid them being evil or serving an evil master was have them be cursed in some way or form by their respective Patrons (as both are warlocks) and also be cursed by events in their former lives. One is a host for a town of spirits and his brother is the servant the creature that destroyed and killed the town to begin with, so, personally, it's a neat little yin yang thing. Personally, if i get to be a dnd player and not DM, I'd like to make a Skeletor themed character. That'd be amazing.
I have an undead character. Repenting in his undeath for his wicked ways in life. Timothy was an Evil Knight in life known as Timothy the Unjust. In death he served the forces of darkness. Upon meeting our heroes, he befriended the Elvin Mage and switched to the side of good. Much like the persecutor Saul became apostle Paul - Timothy the Unjust becomes Timothy the Kind aka "Skeletim". He acts as our party's manservant. He brews a mean pot of tea.
Great work, I thought I'd allready responded to this message but it says I haven't. So really good job keep up the good work, keep those tea kettles a boiln skeletim!
Another great piece. I havent done undead. The closest concept i had was a character that died but his soul was refused to pass into the afterlife from a curse. He had the ability to see the dead but walk with the living. He could even once per day step into what we called the "Grey Lands" or the in between and interact with souls trapped there. Very WOD Wraith like. That was a fun character to play.
Vampires have a built in safety net, they get the whole return to coffin when you hit 0 hd. Assuming your coffin is near by, which can be hand waved by using your affluence to have a cart of some kind with the coffin hidden inside. I was suppposed to play a vampire monk in a friends campaign, who would end up assisting another turning into lich. Turns out they weren't my friends.
@@Rookzer0 i don't remember typing this and never saw the reply but yeah. I still yearn for it. Ive modified the idea of the character so much at this point, but also, I now want to play a hexblade dhampir that both the blade and his nature as a dhampir is the reincarnation of an existing evil plot hook under the dhampir origin. Also been trying to workshop a homebrew class thats a more direct reflection of the character the vampire was meant to be, but later in the story. Taking a few notes for the daemoneater homebrew with the bodily corruption, but taking in a different angle.
Been playing a friendly Necropolitan physician in a post-apocalyptical fantasy setting for 5 years now and it's been awesome. Irony, is kind of the key word for the character: She's undead, but she heals and cares for the living. She never loved when she was alive but does so in her un-life. Many people around her tilt much more towards Evil, but she's adamant in her values that are rooted in kindness, acceptance, and understanding. Just an overall friendly person who was raised in a society were becoming undead at some point in your existence is a totally normal choice, because the people from said society believe in a lesser/demi deity that supports the concept of free choice of un-life. To become more, to do more than you ever could in your normal human lifespan, and to elevate society because all your wise elders don't just die off, but continue to accumulate and pass on their wisdom. Just recently, she became a cleric of Morning Glory (lesser neutral deity - Libris Mortis), perfectly befitting her gentle and kind demeanor - something I'm really looking forward to exploring in a world where being undead is slowly becoming more and more acceptable in certain places (while still being extremely polarizing in others), and she's one of the people at the forefront of that movement.
@@Rookzer0 she's a doctor and uses the Heal skill. So, she's only been able to heal living people so far. And she's only a level 1 cleric, so I'm not using much of anything yet, in terms of magic. In terms of her getting healed, she has a sorcerer and a wizard buddy who has negative energy ray. She also has Fast Healing and recovers her HD/day in hitpoints. She's not great in a fight herself, but has a heavy repeating crossbow that's possessed by a childhood friend, who's a wraith. The possessed crossbow can see 30 ft, shoot itself if placed on a stand, and the wraith can manifest for 30 mins/day to actively work with her - like using the drain ability to suck the life out of their enemies.
One of my players was an oathbreaker paladin who was also a skeleton. Sounds not too unusual, except for the additional details. One, the character had amnesia. They were once your typical do gooder paladin, but died while fighting their big bad and were cursed to rise again as an undead. After centuries trapped in the big bad's lair, they went into a dormant state and lost their memory, and as such could not keep to their oath (thus becoming an oathbreaker). Upon being awakened by an archaeologist (just got to say, having a player with the archaeologist background is a great way to get your more monstrous party members introduced), the paladin took one look at themselves and the murals on the walls of the big bad's achievements and went "oh, I must be the big bad." The thing was, though the character thought they were Lawful Evil, they were very much Good aligned, so the result was this terrifying skeleton in black armor with a flaming sword and a perpetually billowing tattered cloak giving megalomaniacal speeches about giving to the poor, feeding the hungry and founding orphanages.
I dig it, that's a fun way to play an "Evil" character. Did your party play into the illusion or was your character just unwilling to be told otherwise?
@@Rookzer0 The rest of the party played into the character's eccentricities for one reason or another. The party had early on decided that telling him that what he was doing wasn't evil might do more harm than good, and one character in particular became pretty skilled at framing requests in such a way that he was most likely to accept (such as saving a village being a good way to get minions in the future).
This kind of game is not really my forte but I found your information to be very good, very indepth and I am sure that those that do play the game, they will find it very helpful Great job
My character died but my dm felt bad about it (it was his first time DMing and he promised an intense session so when I nearly wiped out a monster that was meant for 3, he went god mode lol. Like taking the hide action without rolling, attacking me, and then going back into hiding as a "bonus action" lol. Long story short, I was resurrected as an undead but I want to choose the best undead.
"Best undead" is really kinda iffy. Basically, there are a lot of types of undead that add levels. just being a skeleton vs a bloody skeleton is like 5 levels difference. so unless you're taking monster levels I'd find a type you like and look at some 3.5 templates. Best of luck!
I'm currently playing a lvl 18 undead wizzard. Before we started even planning session 0 I made my intentions clear that I was wanting to play a necromancer in this campaign clear and open from the start so to make sure all the players and dm were okay with it. Around lvl 6 I started getting contacted by a very powerful lich away from the party. At that time I started connecting with them and eventually becoming a lich myself. In character I was always the cook so It wasn't weird for me to have alot of spices and fragrances that ended up hiding the death smell. In character I also never openly practiced necromancy so the other characters weren't aware of that. I would even go into the tombs to help maintain the catacombs on paper every time we entered a town or something. The DM eventually gave me an amulet that prevented anyone divining life or death on me. We are awaiting the time the party discovers. Its been an amazing game so far.
@@Rookzer0 a few knew I wanted to play one at session 0 but I never mentioned it ooc. This next session I believe we are revealing it and my pc being the true bbeg.
I've always wanted to play a warlock skeleton, who is actually being piloted by a lich somewhere who got so bored of immortality that it decided to 'restart' its journey as a heroic lvl1 skeleton.
About to play a Skeleton Fighter in 5e. Richard Radius Mortuus, former captain of the guard who uttered 4 words in his final moments that changed his destiny forever: I Am Not Done Using Reborn from Van Richter's as the Race, but doing a lot of RP and whatnot to fill that role, even if there's not much meat on my bones
I've thought about this in the past. I was thinking about building some of them on Dnd Beyond or posting the PDF from Hero forge but Haven't made any final decision yet. Would you have a preference or suggestions?
3:44 made my day I have never played DnD, but Warlock with The Undead pact seems to be only legit way becoming undead but you only get few cool features at later levels 6, 10 and 14. Best way probably would be by adding undead features to your character. Not needing to eat, breath or sleep might be over powered so balance it by not giving too many resistances and give negative effects that some undeads have such as disadvantage in sunlight, vulnerabilities to silver, radiant, turn undead or fire damage. DnD beyond Wight stat block looks like a good starting point but remove condition and damage resistances other than necrotic. edit: the undead and undying pacts are in VRtR
Would absolutely love to play a Skeleton Devotion Paladin or Life Cleric who can heal everyone around him but himself. Relentlessly kind, scholarly, and a well meaning soul. Just need to get a good backstory going as to why a good-natured person would return from the dead.
I am a DM and one of players' chars (fighter) died right in the middle of a necromancer temple due to a brave but stupid action... I like both the char and the player. How can I turn the char into an intelligent undead which is still balanced compared to the living chars? Some penalties and roleplay-flavouring, negative aspects (smell?) are welcome.
@@Rookzer0 he's a fighter, thus, the interaction had been already limited in game, but visiting a town and tavern is surely an upcoming challenge (for him). And don't forget all the "friendly" comments from his party members. I aim for some minor penalties like a strange smell, a weakness to sunlight and holy symbols, but mainly for atmosphere-flavouring stuff. Any ideas?
I have seen a homebrew undead on beyond a long time ago where you play as a skeleton, and you can detach your arm as a weapon then bludgeon someone. While you are skeleton instead you do a long rest you do some kind of dark mentation, and you are high alert that makes you hard to sneak up while being venerable at same time. Creatures have to do roll on you, and you do roll to make sure you caught them in the act, I think that's an interesting way to play as a skeleton. They are other undead, and I don't remember it all because what if you play an undead troll remove the regenerate since you have dead flesh or have no flesh at all. Undead is fun to play because usually you don't care for the living and makes it hard for the party to trust you; perhaps your undead can regain his humanity or lost his humanity when something triggers him with raw emotion and shock your party that an undead have feelings somehow!
@@Rookzer0 He is undead he doesn't feel sorrow, anything actually when kill people and is not easy to show feelings for him it's how undead are in overlord.
As a huge fan of undead for thematic/RP and mechanical purposes, I really enjoy how 3.5e handles them. No Constitution (they're dead, so they really shouldn't have one) which basically means that they're immune to a lot of things. Often times they have damage reduction, resistances and have some pretty brutal effects that they can apply with their natural weapons. Now good luck getting your DM to let you play an undead being, cause that's where it gets tricky. Now the main reason I don't like 5e is because of how they handle undead. Why do they have a Constitution Score? They're dead! Undead are corpses animated by unholy magic, stuck in a state of perpetual decay.
My undead skeleton idea is that a necromancer tried to infuse a human soul into an already dead skeleton but he couldn't transfer the persons soul he killed but the magic took his own soul and put it into the skeleton, making him braindead for longer time and than awakens as the soul manages to fit the skeleton's physicality. Now he has to figure out what happened after hundrets of years being braindead. The dungeon he has been in surely was raided in that time and no undead presence was found because technically the skeleton was not undead to the braindead time. So it was looted and cleaned up, leaving our character in a grave when waking up. Now he has to find out who he is or who he wants to be. A true neutral character, as he has no idea about the world because of the memory loss.
Rookzer0 I’m playing a chaotic good death domain cleric/fighter combo skeleton he hides his undeath under heavy plate armor and a full helmet he used spells a broad sword and a light crossbow he also has a tattered black cloak he wears over his armor he is currently the weirdest character in the party lmao and our half drow rouge tried to flirt with him and failed miserably lol
I am actually making an undead character for a campain. What I am doing is just taking an old character and adding the undead stats plus some. He also has a blessing from a dragon, which is keeping him alive and allows him to turn into an undead golden dragon.
@@Rookzer0 I did some research and it depends on the type and varient of sceleton. The normal sceleton player race still has constitution, but usually not much, but it is a very loose race and easily modified.
@@Rookzer0 Oh it is totally better. Weird, sure, but definately better, tho it also depends on if you were raised from the dead by yourself or someone else, or if your master is dead. Then it would probably be better.
I have an idea for a party of heroes to work with an undead. Liches, they do decay but they can still appear to be living depending on how far along they are or if they were reset with non permanent death. So the cleric and paladin won't possibly lose their powers due to ignorance. If you play your cards right that is.
Ok so I was interested in maybe making my first charakter an undead but if I cant heal naturally I would for sure need someone in my party that is a necromancer. It would make an interesting dynamic but I think I should start a little slower. ^^'
So fun combo me and my DM made up Kenku revenant It gets rid of the forgery skill and replaces it with the Revenant traits. We decided to go off of Unearthed Arcana Gothic Heroes because of the fact that it keeps the Constitution so my cleric with high HP stays with high HP. Yet it suddenly doesn't just have a voice it's still has to speak like a kenku but the Charisma is "*slightly*" lowered because of the fact that a kenku with lost feathers and a bunch of stitches is going to be less charismatic
How many Undead have I played? been in a lot of campaigns but one of the games I'm in, my diet-evil Wight Elf Sorcerer just died. With leadership his bodyguard Warforge is a pretty strong protector, but he also died. My characters weren't Optimized because I wanted to play these already challenging options without also being better than the rest of the party. I was killed by a paladin, that we were fighting, and no, the rest of the party isn't evil, but our nations are at war. I should be destroyed, but a little accidental hack/great backstory, has accidentally triggered me to being a proto-Lich and looks like ill be back next session...maybe, maybe later than that. In another game many years ago, i once also played a Noble Drow Vampire Arisocrat (npc class), lots of fun RP (he was good actually, Helm of opposite alignment). Then there was that one time I played a good Elf Lich/Baelnorn Warlock (fey focused), but both of those games we were high level when i switched to these characters.
I'm in an awkward position because I want to make a character undead when they weren't originally intended to be undead. I play D&D campaigns with some family friends every other week, and the character I made for the first campaign I joined was made in a rush. I didn't think about their backstory at all, and I just made a character with a nomadic background so I could just jump in with no drama. It was rather boring until I started thinking about their origins. I started getting invested when Iooked at the neutral deities and learned about Evening Glory. I got really hooked on the idea of a true neutral undead that preserves their original appearance. The problem is, my character was at one point incapacitated , and they were healed multiple times in the past. I enjoy this idea, I feel like it would really shake up the party dynamic, but I don't know how I'm going to get away with this unless I ask the DM to handwave a ton of previous actions.
You could just use the dnd 5e rules and go with their warforged construct ideas. Healing is fine. But you have some special resistance. Id defintly go with the no heals so saves though haha
@@Rookzer0 We play 3.5, but I guess it couldn't hurt to ask if he would make an exception. The rules layed by the D&D: Libris Mortis are still going to be a pain though. If I say my character was a vampire spawn from the very beginning, then that means my first 8 levels will be forced into the vampire spawn monster-class. Since my character is a low level fighter, that would mean I've been living a lie this whole time. It means I was never a fighter to begin with, and I just never told the party ;^^
I just wanna play a ghost druid who claims to be a decended spirit of nature created to prevent the demons and devils to spread hell all over the overworld
@@Rookzer0 Maybe i get the possesion- and phasing through walls ability just on a higher lvl than 1 and the DM wont say its to op in earlygame Edit: Mostly wanted to give the ghost psych based attacks like illusion and fear But also exploit the find familiar spell a bit since its a SPIRIT that takes on an animal apearence
But Warforge in DnD 3.5 have a Constitution score, they just can't be healed by Clerics and have their own tree of healing magic called Repair Damage or something like that, I haven't read 3.5 Eberron's Setting book.
My favourite character I've played is my skeleton Bard Montgomery Bonejangles, an awakened with amnesia who woke up with a trumpet and seeks to restore his life so he can actually play it. No lips = no trumpet so he just beats people with it
This isn't a dnd story but I played a dhampir barbarian called dragos in hells vengence a pathfinder ap and he is currently one of my fav characters I've made as when fighting clerics and paladins I was at a serious disadvantage due to only being healed by negative energy and getting damaged by positive energy put me at a constant risk of being killed enfact I was killed by an angel which left a scar which grew each time they got hit by positive energy
See I'd want to play an amnesiac skeleton sorcerer or warlock who at one point probably wanted to take over the world, but as a result of his amnesia he's got a personality somewhere between Skeletor and Claptrap, being the annoying yet lovable party member who just wants to make friends. At least until he potentially regains his memories that is. But we'd cross that bridge when we come to it.
I was thinking about a Skeleton rogue whose grave was plunder/looted, but some of the items in It where cursed and brough the man back to recover them. The items (I haven define them yet, will with my dm) are connected to the skeleton and give him the urge to steal to get them back, tho he doesn't know what they are so he just steals everything
I made an undead character that is only resurrected by hate so powerful for his killer a patron notices him and grants him life again to study his raw anger
Awaken Lich Knight fighter! Duel wield bitches! Is kind, slightly cold and doesn't care who you are, he'll mess your shit up if you piss him off. Is known for valor despite being an undead.
My paladin has been brought back by a lich, i had the option to resist the voices or go with it and i chose to listen and go evil. I juat need to find out what changes i need to make to my character.
I was wanting to make a steampunk skeleton who is an artificer and a wizard. I was hoping to make him a neutral good character. kind of like a hell boy type of personality. he was an inventor and scientist in his lifetime I was thinking maybe he played with some science that was forbidden or unnatural and it turned him into an undead (like playing with raising the dead but it had an opposite effect?). I watched this video mostly to help me create him. it seems like this will take some research lol
Rookzer0 yeah? I’m glad! Now I just gotta figure out like you said ramifications and how to do the points...which undead stats should I use? What would you recommend?
I am ran a campaign where the players are trying to make sure that an evil (world ending) necromancer never returns. Shockingly without knowing it the party had the necromancer’s generals souls inserted into their bodies. This had an interesting effect where they killed off the clergy trying to repair the seal as all they saw were cultists trying to free him. Long story short as the story continued they unknowingly were doing horrible acts without even knowing it and slowly dying and being reborn as an undead. Then for the final 2 gatherings I revealed that the player characters were actually the big bad evil guy and had them take on their undead characteristics and create an undead city as sanctuary for necromancers. Way over simplified, but I didn’t want to go into the tiny details.
@@Rookzer0 It was a mess. The first session had one player attack a group of hunters they were supposed to ask questions of. The best part it it almost became a pc killer encounter where one pc was left on exactly 1hp and then decided to try and create a weapon based on what the hunters were using (later blew up in his face). That was the start and it only was more chaotic as it went on especially because they didn’t realize the odd magical effects being applied to them were not of their own doing.
Hmmm... I'd wonder if a Hooded Knight could be turned into a Skeleton Undead Hooded Knight, cursed by their Patron, one of The Eldest of the First World? Is that a plausible thing? Cause I want to play a Skeleton Knight/Cavalier PC so badly. Just need to find a campaign and DM that will allow something of the like ^^
I dont see why not, start a level 1 character apply the skeleton template and run with it. You get a lot of bonus for the charisma as a skeleton. Could be a lot of fun. Alternativly you could apply something like an oracle curse or the undead lord as a basis for converting it to an undead hooded knight. Nice idea!
@@Rookzer0 I really want to see you do a timelapse art of all of your goofy one liners you add in your videos. "Priest of Saranrae runs up to an undead PC undercover, "By the gods! You're hurt!" casts Cure wounds, Undead PC bursts into holy flames and screams. As the Priest stares and looks on in horror and disbelief then looks at his hand as he or she slowly shakes his or her head and backs away.
I have a pathfinder character that is a Aasimar (Angelkin) but also a undead bloodline sorcerer if your wandering how they exist there mom is a Angel and there dad is a misunderstood lich they got married because they were in love and they were told to by the angels God anyway the character is covered in illusions but they don't know only there mom and dad know because they were the ones that created the illusions but the illusions are realistic but as they level up the illusions are becoming less realistic and eventually disappear and reveal that they are a skeleton that has glowing purple eyes and a halo above their head and depending on if I take the feat Angel wings
That's a really cool combo, are you playing pathfinder or Dnd? Sounds like a really cool set up for some epic level encounters from your backstory. Is the lich still "around"?
I made this character for pathfinder but i haven't played dnd or pathfinder and yes the lich is still around but it's also in hiding because most people assume that they are evil
I have a few ideas on how to play as a undead without being evil.
1. You gained sentience from some lord or necromancer trying to make a undead stronger with attempting something new.
2. Perhaps you are an ancient hero from long ago from a kingdom which in under siege so you are resurrected well made undead to defend the innocent but end up losing the battle and waking up in the future after the battle or awaking from a spell.
3. Maybe the necromancer who summoned thee died and now you have no master or is not evil.
4. Maybe your evil master just had forgotten of your existence or doesnt care you all you can do is roam or sit still.
5. Maybe your lord or necromancer simply said to roam and do whatever you what after they were finished with you.
There are many ways to think of making good undead but backstory must be given on why that is the case.
Good thoughts! This could also be an interesting means of making a Deadsouls or Deadcells type Campaign. It could be a lot of fun to keep getting your consciousness thrown into different corpse. Possessing the body of the dead, Wormwood style.
@@Rookzer0 "Deadsouls"? You mean Dark Souls?
@@platinumsun4632 Yeah Dark souls or DeadCells. good catch.
I did the opposite my undead shadow sorcerer is evil but he’s the lesser evil. This is a Norse campaign and we are trying to prevent ragnarok. The end is coming he knows it and he was resurrected to help stop it.
I prerty much did #2 lol. It's a Disney campaign and my character is a cauldron born. He died centuries ago but doesn't remember anything of his past life and his ultimate goal is to become human again and regain his memories.
thought: a warlock who pays of it's patron with flesh, making them slowly turn into a skellabone
I dig it! You could definitly use the undead lord as an archetype or the bones oracle would work too
I’m so glad I found this comment, since I somehow convinced my DM to let me do this.
"I want to play a vampire!"
"This is a naval campaign, most of the action will take place on a ship."
*spends roughly 80% of the adventure below deck in their coffin*
Fathomless pact of the blade, you're now immune to water. Alternatively any sea race vampire.
I still love this idea....
**Insert Jojo reference here**
I know it's almost a year since this comment was made but I'd like to bring up the Vampire Coast as an example for vampire pirates
@@KitKatHexeomg it is a jojo reference to season one
Finding this video reminded me of my first DnD character; a undead paladin named Malcolm. He was slightly unhinged due to the necromancer messing up his resurrection, but still retained some of his core values. Some of his best moments were: convincing a guard he was a new hire, getting his fist stuck in earth elemental, taming a Roc (think a falcon but it's as big as some dragons), failing to teach his bear mount to surf, and becoming the king of a necromancer city with his bear mount as the pope, all while he was only a talking helmet. Such good times
I think bear pope wins for today. Did malcom ever get his body back?
"Where is the kings body?"
"Call the bear pope"
He lost his body in the fight with that campaign's villain, but could never get it back, though that barely put much of a dent in his mood, and the bear was also his bodyguard, making sure to stop any assassination attempts
@@cthulhuthereader I would have the bear wear the skull like a hat and then people would think he Just had a bear body... >.> Or you could find a skeletal bear and just have a bear body... Undead Bear lich.... I might have to make a new video.
Idea: skeleton rogue, when caught you gain an advantage on persuasion as you play dead
One of the homebrew skeleton races I've seen has the ability to collapse into a pile of bones on will
So you want the dark souls hiding skeletons, interesting
Bro thats my character
I am playing a skeleton soldier who's wife sacrificed herself to reanimate him with the instruction to live, therefore giving a reason as to why he would stay with a party. However he died with a journal that told him who he was and all about his life, so now he adventures in hopes to find out what living really means/is
Thats a great backstory, i hope he finds something meaningful!
@@Rookzer0 thank you
Other people: I wanna be a sinister creature of darkness!
Me: I wanna be a goofy, friendly skeleton!
Its absolutly possible. My friend made a human named skeleton archer who was human that thought he was a skeleton.
Spokie scary skeletons
I just wanna be Doot, the skeleton bard that has a special trumpet that draws its own breath. *DootDoooot*
I once made a character based off Sir Daniel Fortesque, the main character of MediEvil. He comes very close to being a friendly goof. :3
If anybody asks why your mouth doesn't move when you speak, just tell them you're wearing a spooky mask!
What a relief. Maggots using my head as low-rent housing explains the brain fog. I thought I was slowly slipping from phantom to zombie. Phew.
I’m currently running a campaign where the dm is a Lich king and the whole party are undead. They receive instructions via raven messengers on what tasks to complete to help the lich take over towns and eventually the world. We have a ghoul beast master, mummy monk, zombie fighter, skeleton archer, revenant rogue and a flesh golem as a barbarian stand in. Almost everyone in the party is brand new to dnd and they’re having a blast with the theme
That sounds like an awesome TV show let alone a dnd campaign. Great work to you and your dm!
I have an Awakened Skeleton Cleric who’s trying to repent for his former life. I personally use the Awakened Undead from the DM’s Guild
That's a solid way to do it! does your Cleric have any goals or ambitions as a walking corpse?
The DM's Guild Awakened Undead options are really great for balance. None of them are super overpowered, except kinda the Mummy Rot ability, but that could just be my opinion.
I have a similar character. Repenting in his undeath for his wicked ways in life.
Timothy was an Evil Knight in life known as Timothy the Unjust.
In death he served the forces of darkness.
Upon meeting our heroes, he befriended the Elvin Mage and switched to the side of good.
Much like the persecutor Saul became apostle Paul - Timothy the Unjust becomes Timothy the Kind aka "Skeletim".
He acts as our party's manservant.
He brews a mean pot of tea.
@@orinanime That's pretty awesome. Is he a fully skeletal? How did you do his stats?
@@Rookzer0
Fully skeletal.
I utilized the template and suggestions laid out on dndbeyond :
dndbeyond.com/races/11643-undead
I am quite new but this didn't stop me from creating a skeleton bard that is attempting to convince the country that skeletons are misunderstood
great idea, Keep up playing those bones
I'm making my own Homebrew undead creature. She's based off of an actual character for a story I'm making.
She's a ghost/zombie hybrid whose a rogue multiclassed into a barbarian. Her ghost can leave her body but doing so makes her body act like a typical zombie. If she's out of her body for too long she gets pulled back in.
Its interesting trying to balance. But I think I'm getting it down. I just need to playtest it.
That sounds interesting. Kind of like the magic jar spell but the body has its own "consciousness " when its not possessed. That could be a really cool mechanic.
Theres something kind of the opposite for pathfinder within the medium. If they exert to much of their magic the spirt they are channeling get to take over their body. Might have some pointers there. Let me know how the playtest goes!
@theunnamedgamer 187 actually for a game I'm planning to make. I'm still writing out what all happens though so release date is unclear.
Kanye flavour ancestral guardian maybe
I’m actually wanting to play Undead to mimic Dark Souls. I guess having a second character would be smart in case.
There are two ways I've figured out to do this. Talk your dm into giving you the Deathless(su) So that you just respawn in an hour. (though if you also get the fast healing it's pretty op) Or two Do something like a fixed phylactery that lets you respawn every day at dawn. (once again op but can be really fun mechanic if you want to do a Dark Souls campaign, Somethink like as long as this "fire" is burning at dawn you respawn)
Fires Far Away the Dark Souls TTRPG, it uses a different system not D&D, GURPs or Pathfinder. Its free too. But its mind the pun barebones. So have some rule books from other RPG's to take stuff from.
I was allowed to play a Undead Goliath Barbarian named Clang within the Dragon Heist Setting. He was EXTREMELY stupid, insomuch that he was persuaded that his goblin party member was not in fact a goblin, but actually a "goblino," A very different creature from goblins. Flowers and small animals had a calming effect on him which lead him to have brought many of both to the bar that he owned with his party members. In battle, he was as savage as a barbarian could come, cleaving enemies to bits and then some, but then he met a nice half-orc woman and timidly offered her a flower. Luckily, he rolled well enough that she was happy to spend more time with him.
Then in dungeon of the mad mage, he continued on his brutality, discovered his friend was indeed a goblin, and began to use goblins as weapons instead of the greatsword he wielded. Overall, it was pretty fun!
Goblins do make great weapons! great character!
Just imagining him offering a flower to her is really adorable.
Grateful for this video. I'm actually in the midst of designing an adventure where all the characters are undead (long story short, it's inspired by the germanic myths of the Wild Hunt) and I was struggling on how to actually make them undead mechanically without the obvious things (like no longer to eat, sleep, or breathe; immune to mind control; 0 CON score; etc.) so i'm really happy this video exists and was able to give me an idea of what things to introduce to their new race type.
I hope you came up with something fun! Let me know what you end up with
Party: You're literally bones
Undead PC: It's a.....skin condition
DM: roll insight....or persuasion.....both, roll both
Ha ha I've had this conversation with my players.
@@Rookzer0 ok that is honestly hilarious, mostly because the Undead PC's line is literally just reference to Invader Zim
Me: No townspeople, I am not an undead, just a man whom never leaves his house. My complexion is much to be desired. 🤣
Pathfinder has a 'half-undead' type for when you're homebrewing your own race. It's basically the lite version of undead. So it still gives you some of those undead features
I have a undead character concept that I have been wanting to play for a while:
Skeleton Phantom Rogue w/ the Gathered Whispers Dark Gift.
The character used standard array and the 5e DMG Skeleton Template.
Quietus was once an undead defender for a Necromancer and often took part in the killings of unwary explorers or overwhelmed adventurers. Over the years of service, wisps of the souls of those slain gathered and clung to the necromantic energies that animated Quietus.
The animated skeleton gained a vague sense of individuality after the Necromancer was slain after a sudden raid by veteran adventurers, but still felt the call to follow the commands of a master. After some time had passed in the forgotten crypt, Quietus eventually bonded with a practitioner of Necromancy (party member) that chose to explore the old ruin, and now follows the instructions of his new master.
Undead players should have an intelligence. Think of Liches, Bone Claws, Vampires, Ghouls, etc. These all have intelligence and can being a player would make a great story arc as to how they became sentient in the first place.
I talked about this for a moment, I think it has to do with control, If you're playing an undead I absolutely agree, but if you raise a skeleton or ghoul you're imposing your will over it and my though is that it become single minded on your orders.
Sadly, playing a Lich is kind of a hard sell. If I'm not mistaken, you need to be a very high level caster before you can even attempt the ritual to transform yourself into a Lich. So it's not something you can do as a level 1 party. As for vampires, it seems there are no officially canonized mechanics on playing one, meaning that all playable vampires are using a homebrew system. :-(
It all depends on what you consider a lich to be because isn't the general idea a undead mage of some kind like a skeleton for example it could have magic and they're for be a lich
@@christianwhite8877 Not necessarily. Low levels types of undead are mindless and under the control of whoever reanimated them. They're barely more than autonomous puppets at that point. Higher forms of undead such as vampires, liches, wights and the like still have their self awareness, and so are capable of independent thoughts and actions.
not to be rude but I never said that they were low int characters or were under control by something I was just saying that it depends on what you consider a lich to be because I believe that the general idea is a undead mage of some kind a example could be a skeleton that has magic that by technically would be a lich but it doesn't necessarily have to be a skeleton and same thing with it's magic it doesn't necessarily have to be any particular type of magic
Had a rough character idea for an undead paladin.
Was looking pretty good till my dm reminded me what a pain in my boney ass it would be to regain my hp.
The background was basically someone who died a long time ago and then was brought back by an evil necromancer to be an undead slave only for a god of death to want freedom for it's stolen souls.
And through some mishaps and shenanigans you become free from the control of both the undead God and necromancer under the agreement/contract/whatever that you will now be a warrior in said gods name who's own personal quest is to travel for the rest of your eternal undead life freeing your undead brethren from the enslavement of necromancers.
Is set up to be played in a pretty true neutral manner but it wouldn't be to hard to play in any other alignment.
I have more on character specifics if anyone wants to take a crack at actually playing the character.
So feel free to ask if your interested and if I even realize I've been asked I'll happily message back asap.
Cool idea, have you dont any art for him?
@@Rookzer0 well my profile pic here is a rough sketch from my sibling in their art style but other than that no.
He was a teifling (definitely misspelled that) in life and part of how he died was having his bottom jaw ripped from him so as a skelebob he can't talk and has to play charades every time he communicates.
If you or anyone else out there wants to give a go at making some art of him then by all means have at it.
Unfortunately i just don't have the cash to commission something and like i said feel free to use the character in whatever capacity you feel like.
If any DMs out there want to use him as a NPC then i can probably dig out the old character sheet and give you most of the basics on the character (as i said before i didn't really finish the character).
I do remember off the top of my head that he ended up with a charisma of like 26 after adding up all the modifiers.
He was also proficient in all things charisma except performance because it's kinda hard to play a flute when you have no lungs.
@@rattle_me_bones1955 Say skeleton John Brown sounds interesting. Care to dig up the sheet so I can take a crack at ratteling his bones as an NPC?
I have played this a few times before its really fun to play but it takes alot of planning. I love all the though you put into this Rookzer0 and the picture looks fantastic! fantastic job!
Thank you :)
How do you heal your undead PC while in combat?
That's awesome to see your channel branching out more! Saw that folks can finally follow you on Reddit. Great video as always and super excited to hear about the possibility of miniature painting!
Can't wait to see what you come up with next!
A character build I thought about was a Warforged who is a Sorcerer: Draconic Bloodline...the twist...they have a Dracolich phylactery hidden inside them. The more draconic they become, the greater the phylactery's influence is over them. Making the urge to hunt/find an adult dragon to make a better host.
The idea of a Draconic Warforged with necrotic energy seeping out of it sounds hella metal (sorry about the pun). The Warforged itself could have been "deactivated" and the Dracolich could have entrusted a worshipping Kobold to hind it's phylactery in a hurry...and it just hid it in an "empty suit of armor".
The other group of heros could defeat the Dracolich but are in a hurry to find it's phylactery. They can interrogate the Kobold who goes to show them the "suit of armor" for it to be gone. These heros could be added in to the campaign and pop up from time to time and be "antagonists" to the group.
Would be an interesting concept if worked out very well with the DM.
Hope you have a blessed day.
"And walls of flesh."
Me a terraria veteran: *No...Not that ANYTHING BUT THE CURSED ONE!"
This was pretty funny - great job. I've played a character like this and it really did take a lot of effort coordinating with the GM to play correctly and to keep exactly what was happening to that character from other members in the party. Early on it was often pretty hilarious but after a while the character had to change and that created quite a bit of tension in the story. Good times.
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Lol this video makes me think about play like a Lich Bard; It's weird, I hasn't be a Undead in my adventures.
You're a great illustrator; I like your work!
Thank you, give me a rundown if you ever get to plah one
A lich bard who has no jaw and must communicate through lute
cript of necrodancer xD
I am currently playing an undead druid of the circle of spores. It gives a real twist since a druid is against undead but my druid did not have a choice since he was naturally brought back because of a Cordyceps like fungus. Really fun to play and your video gave me that idea. Keep doing what you do.
Haven't played an undead before (though I had plans for a character who would've become undead). The more interesting story however is one of the necromancers I've played. I don't think I've told his story here before.
So it was in a Pathfinder campaign, playing a True Neutral, Human, Undead Master Wizard. Undead Master gives you what amounts to an undead animal companion, insofar as once per day you can basically cast animate dead on a single target as a spell-like ability. Story-wise his favourite son (he wasn't a very good parent, lots of kids, one was his favourite) was killed in a necromantic experiment, so he trapped the kids soul in a soul gem while he tried to research methods of returning him to life/putting together a relatively living body so he could experience some amount of life. In the meanwhile he would stick the soul gem into increasingly hardy and difficult-to-destroy bodies, culminating in probably my favourite single undead creation to date, the crab bunker.
Essentially what it amounted to was (with the GM's permission) a Crabman Bloody Exoskeleton (which is basically a mix of the Exoskeleton and Bloody Skeleton templates), with custom-fitted large full plate and a pair of tower shields. While AC from the shields wouldn't stack, it did allow it to provide cover from two angles, and plus the things absurdly high AC and fast healing it was nigh-impossible to kill. So naturally my wizard would use his son's temporary crab body as a bunker/mobile cover once the fighting started. He also later bolted a ballista to its back and had a crew of small skeletons man it. Did I mention he was a bad parent? Really fun to play, nearly amoral , the sort who just sees necromancy as a tool and corpses as objects, not former people. Still care about other people, not willfully cruel, mostly neglectful.
I’m currently playing as two wights, each in separate games. One of them is a NE Bard and the other is a NG Blood Hunter. It’s interesting to play on both sides of the spectrum, one of them fully embracing their status as undead, the other regretting their decision and feeling constant guilt for all the people they’ve hurt. They’re both similar and completely different at the same time.
Thats really cool, are they the same character diffrent ways or could they actually meet in crossover
Rookzer0 they’re separate characters, so could meet in a crossover - that would be really cool, especially because the Blood Hunter seeks to stop other undead who have no qualms about hurting the living, whereas the Bard believes she’s the greatest musician to grace the world and death cannot stop her from proving this so. It would lead to an interesting dynamic between the two. Thanks for your interest!
@@hanaisphani9994 Very cool
I’m seeing a lot of cool comments, so I felt like contributing. I’m making an Awakened Undead Skeleton who’s an Artificer Artillerist. He was a servant to a lich-to-be who was killed. Instead of infusing his own soul into his phylactery, the Lich basically said “Finish what I started, skelly man!” and put the *skeleton’s* soul in it. Naive to how evil his old master was, the Skeleton just wants to make his old master proud.
Just found your channel and i enjoyed this video very much! I started playing DnD back in the 80's. I love that it is one of those games that hasn't died over the years and am blown away that i've been around to see 2nd edition to 5th! Big thumbs up from me buddy. Very very cool!
That's pretty awesome to see. What a wild ride its been
Im gonna go make an undead necromancer who does "incredible" things but doesn't really think the consequences through... Also, its always nice to see a smaller channel with this level of quality. Channels like yours are that one mom and pop store in your hometown that makes the best burgers but no-one knows about them, you know what I mean?
Ha ha Ive never thought of myself as a mom and pop store, but I will now. Thank you.
Been playing an undead tabaxi skeleton Alchemist named Elizabeth (I know, not really a tabaxi sounding name but meh!) in my friends 5e campaign for the past few months, lowkey dropping bone puns now and then, patching up team mates with my concoctions and generally being a utility class, was fun when party found out!
Only down side is with it being their first time GMing how far he took the whole undead thing is a bit limited, I'm still healed by healing magics, potions and even healers kits (I have no idea on that last one) though spells that harm undead do effect me, I'm also immune to poison, bleed, hunger and thirst, no need to breath, can't suffer fatigue and have no need to sleep but have a weakness to bludgeoning damage.
I have an end goal of becoming a lich, but more to preserve and grow my knowledge but also the power to defend myself and others I deam useful.
In life her fear was always running out of time and sought to find a method to achieve immortality but in a more achievable but less absolutely evil way, through alchemy!
Time will tell if I can pull it off :D
Undead tabaxi alchemist sounds pretty awesome
My goal is to make a paladin who's been "revived" by her goddess for a second chance at completing her mission. The tricky thing is that my design for the character is that she's a ghost possessing a suit of armor, so I'm trying to do something balanced gameplay-wise while also giving her some interesting abilities. Your video had some pretty interesting ideas, as well as stuff I just didn't know about lol. Thanks!
NP, let me know how the build goes! sounds like a good idea
Undead bard with an accordion, who was not based around seducing, but inducing fear, witch in combination with my friends warlock led to a lot of fun interactions and battles
Intimidation rolls for charisma makes sence in this case. I like it
To follow up on my previous comment.
I think I have sorted out the 'statistics' and all the nuances of converting, human stats + cavalier/whatever archetype + Undead/Skeletal Champion = A Player Character with high STR, DEX, No CON lul, Normal INT, and WIS and Semi High CHA. At level 1 he gets a whooping 13 skill points, +4 from Cavalier +8 from Undead, +1 from Human. He also gets all of the undead traits, PLUS cavalier traits at level 1 plus a bonus combat feat from being a human in his previous life. In overall he is bloody amazing, not a gary sue whatsoever cause if the party turns on him for being undead. Welp reroll time. Also I forgot to mention that he gets an additional combat feat at 6th Character Level and at every other 6 levels. AND He also gets traits from the Orders too! Whew. My mind is mush trying to get this guy on paper!
Nice, I like where your head's at. What do you mean by +8 stats from Undead?
@@Rookzer0 From my understanding is that an Undead or Skeletal Champion gets +4 per Hit Die from racial hit die but if he doesn't have any racial hit die prior to his unlife, he automatically gets 2 HD and you get +4 per Hit Die SOOO... You get 8 Skill Points.. o_o;
This is Pathfinder so yeah x'D
Gotcha, for my understanding you would only take those skill ppints if you were retaining a level of skeleton, I would normally just say youve applied your template and retained all your class levels. The racial hd is usually for npcs to keep them up to par with pcs. I might need to look into that though
My very first campaign was a 3.5 evil campaign and although nobody started undead our NE cleric commanded a couple skeletons that everyone had more attachment for than half the actual characters, eventually when characters started to die some of them were resurected, the kobold rogue became a ghoul, the gnome illusionist that we murdered haunted the party as a ghost and when the campaign was later revisited the half dragon became a sentient skeleton which made him infinitely tougher than anticipated. All in all though we had a lot of fun playing on the border of undeath and that cleric is now an npc slowly working his way to Lichdom.
That sounds legit for a great evil campaign. Well done
Rookzer0 Thanks, still playing it though now it’s call the “evil campaign 2.0” since I took a break from DMing for a year and when we came back only one person wanted to stick with the same character. Since I had more time to think about it I’ve actually thought of the plot a lot more and have the end game prepared so to speak which will involve the original characters essentially killing the gods of the setting and making the world itself Evil aligned, hopefully we get to that part before we all go off to college
I have an idea of how you could play as a character who is the reincarnation of a lich you start off by deciding what race the character is (there are 2 ways to go about this one requires intelligence and the other requires charisma so you choose your character race with the way you chose in mind) for the first path you play a wizard for the second path you go sorcerer instead of wizard (you decide what sub class for wizard or sorcerer) you next choose your character background (for a sorcerer I'd recommend a criminal background for a wizard I'd recommend a sage background) at some point you should multiclass into something (this is to reflect that the lich has gotten more powerful in a meaningful way) for a wizard I'd choose a type of cleric (for cleric you only need one or two levels) for a sorcerer you have a choice between cleric (it would be best to just get 1 level) warlock (you could get a big power up by going with 3 levels) or 1 level of cleric and 2 levels in warlock (this is the best you could get if you wanted both) what I would have gone with for the sorcerer path is a tiefling with a criminal background (this is because a tiefling gets more fitting magic then most other races for this particular case and as a criminal they likely would work with the lich) I'd also go with divine soul sorcerer (you can just say the lich is providing you with your magic and when you use magic it (your magic) has small fragments of divine energy (it could be from any time your character prayed and the prayer wasn't heard) that you aren't using effectively for a while) I'd then multiclass into fiend warlock for the last 3 levels (at this point you and the lich are becoming 1 being so instead of needing a phylactery your soul works as a phylactery which means that you get healed by killing things) for a wizard I'd go with a sage background high elf necromancer (in this case the lich is teaching you magic) I'd multiclass into death cleric (just 2 levels but why cleric is because you are helping the lich by praying which is helping it became a god which in turn would make you a god)
sounds like you have a pretty good plan, I think this is a good idea for a max level game but if you start off lower level i'd suggest leaning into 1 or 2 classes and seeing how it goes. Cool idea!
For these builds you are required to multiclass and it's fine to do that at the midway point of where most campaigns end (meaning around level 10) also if you start multiclassing early and do it to much then you will have problems later
I do love 5e but yeah some changes leave a little something to be desired, nothing like some light house rules to fix that though. Heck most of the classic rules I was used to are now just optional rules in the DMG and other books like Xanathar's, so I just lump all those as part of the rules I use.
Good call, I love how flexible dnd is.
I have been in a handful of campaigns where there have been undead in the party with the most prominent being vampires in a handful of Curse of Strahd games. Many of my friends like playing vampires related to Strahd and more. In these party's I have usually played my cleric Zelda Alagondar and have weirdly gotten these undead PC's to love or respect me to the point of them protecting me at any cost.
I once played as a Homebrewed skeleton necromancer (True Neutral) trying to end racism, and one of it's abilities was to use limbs of other creatures to heal (by replacing broken ones) as long the skull stayed intact.
That's a great idea. I like limb replacement mechanic for skeletons.
Though I am absolutely in love with undead and necromancy as a whole, I have a disdain for starting out as an undead, especially if I am going into necromancy. For me, the journey to become an undead is much more satisfying and interesting. From making your first skeleton to making your hand living bone all the way to becoming a Litch, Vampire or anything else is just amazing to me.
I've always found the character traits for necromancer characters to be interesting as well. For example, the current character I am playing is in an Elder Scrolls DnD, they are an Argonian who is obsessed with necromancy. His ultimate goal is to become a Litch and turn everyone in the world into an undead, not for his own purposes though. He claims that mortals are so prideful an arrogant that they will continue to place the world and themselves in danger if they are left unchecked and united under a common goal or person. Though he is harsh to other people, he holds no real distaste for any particular race except the High Elves who are the personification of his troubles with mortals. Of course he also holds his own race very close to heart, he hates the fact that Argonians are so prone to slavery. He decides that rather than waiting for the gods to bring a savior like the Nord's Dragonborn, that he himself will become their savior.
Do you think he'll struggle with the idea that necromancy is a form of slavery? It's an interesting concept and full of Grey areas.
@@Rookzer0 He is very dominant in his personality, one could call him a hypocrite. However he would argue that the souls he traps to make undead are fair pickings and often believes he is saving them. This is because most people he has turned have been bandits or Daedra (demon) worshipers, if he claims their soul then the Daedra are unable to possibly use them for evil deeds or torture. Right now he has a bit of a problem as he did at one point die however, he only lives because he had to sell his soul to Molag Bal, one of the worst Daedric Princes known for being the Daedra of Domination. Because of this, Molag Bal is using Saliish (my character) as a way to claim more souls, gain more power and eventually step into the mortal realm. Saliish would happily become a Litch to prevent Molag Bal from holding sway over him as the Daedra can't claim his soul if he never dies, the only thing preventing this is that Saliish is trying to save a previous party character from Molag Bal and must do the Daedra's bidding in order to save her.
That sound like a wicked campaign.
I played a one-shot as a skeletal tiefling bard named Tiberius. Not much happened for him, but I did enjoy walking through a lake rather than around it(Curse of the Black Pearl style)
I should run a black pearl campaign
One of the fun background bits a player can do is, an older adventurer who has expired but doesn't realize it at first and kept on adventuring like they always have. Having others point out their condition or the strange reactions to healing spells/items. They don't have to be evil to be undead... it's just a stereotype. Also, Intelligence would still factor for those playing Lich types since they are still technically wizards/sorcerers who've surpassed the mortal coil.
Thats a really cool idea, it might also work well for a darksouls type game where the party isnt aware theyve all died and slowly figure it out. Very cool
@@Rookzer0 Don't let any of the party know about being undead and don't tell them what a potion does... let them find out the effects on their own and make assumptions when it harms them.
me: having the Goal in all games to always become a Lich
Also me : makes the players fight a lich in every campaign
@@Rookzer0 i literally want to play the villain in every champain
Every other undead race: Am I a joke to you?
@@michelveilleux1275 yes you are. Liches are officially the strongest undead "race" owing thair immortality to no one but them self
@@theprinceofawesomeness true
Woah I'd love to play an undead sometime! Undead always peaked my interest. Just imagine an undead minotaur... 🤣🤣
I've used a minotaur as a Skeleton champion a few times but never as a PC... I dig it, if you get the chance let me know how it goes!
@@Rookzer0 alright will do man. Just like you I enjoy playing monster races
I played as a undead minotaur where he was a barbain/warlock and I did where he still had his horns and everything but when he would rage bits of fur would pop up as he just loses control and would attack with out thinking I tried to go for a lich that also uses brute force but mostly uses magic
2 words Skeleton Minotaur, Made a PC of it I just have to balance it more.
I have a duo of Skeleton NPCs in the campaign I'm running, and what I did to avoid them being evil or serving an evil master was have them be cursed in some way or form by their respective Patrons (as both are warlocks) and also be cursed by events in their former lives. One is a host for a town of spirits and his brother is the servant the creature that destroyed and killed the town to begin with, so, personally, it's a neat little yin yang thing.
Personally, if i get to be a dnd player and not DM, I'd like to make a Skeletor themed character. That'd be amazing.
Sounds like a lot of fun, well done
Thats was amazing big love from the guys at midnightrice👍👍👍
Thanks midnight!
I have an undead character. Repenting in his undeath for his wicked ways in life.
Timothy was an Evil Knight in life known as Timothy the Unjust.
In death he served the forces of darkness.
Upon meeting our heroes, he befriended the Elvin Mage and switched to the side of good.
Much like the persecutor Saul became apostle Paul - Timothy the Unjust becomes Timothy the Kind aka "Skeletim".
He acts as our party's manservant.
He brews a mean pot of tea.
Great work, I thought I'd allready responded to this message but it says I haven't. So really good job keep up the good work, keep those tea kettles a boiln skeletim!
@@Rookzer0 you did respond. I posted this in response to someone else's comment as well
@@orinanime Ah, Gotcha! Thanks for clarifying TH-cam does some weird things some times :)
Im new to dnd and this is actually helpful
Great! if you make a cool undead character let me know!
Another great piece. I havent done undead. The closest concept i had was a character that died but his soul was refused to pass into the afterlife from a curse. He had the ability to see the dead but walk with the living. He could even once per day step into what we called the "Grey Lands" or the in between and interact with souls trapped there. Very WOD Wraith like. That was a fun character to play.
Nice, did you look at any of the stuff from the Occult adventures for inspiration?
Vampires have a built in safety net, they get the whole return to coffin when you hit 0 hd.
Assuming your coffin is near by, which can be hand waved by using your affluence to have a cart of some kind with the coffin hidden inside.
I was suppposed to play a vampire monk in a friends campaign, who would end up assisting another turning into lich. Turns out they weren't my friends.
The vampire is pretty awesome. Bummer to hear you didnt get to turn them but that could be a fun minigame, trying to secretly tuen your whole party
@@Rookzer0 i don't remember typing this and never saw the reply but yeah. I still yearn for it. Ive modified the idea of the character so much at this point, but also, I now want to play a hexblade dhampir that both the blade and his nature as a dhampir is the reincarnation of an existing evil plot hook under the dhampir origin.
Also been trying to workshop a homebrew class thats a more direct reflection of the character the vampire was meant to be, but later in the story. Taking a few notes for the daemoneater homebrew with the bodily corruption, but taking in a different angle.
Been playing a friendly Necropolitan physician in a post-apocalyptical fantasy setting for 5 years now and it's been awesome. Irony, is kind of the key word for the character: She's undead, but she heals and cares for the living. She never loved when she was alive but does so in her un-life. Many people around her tilt much more towards Evil, but she's adamant in her values that are rooted in kindness, acceptance, and understanding.
Just an overall friendly person who was raised in a society were becoming undead at some point in your existence is a totally normal choice, because the people from said society believe in a lesser/demi deity that supports the concept of free choice of un-life. To become more, to do more than you ever could in your normal human lifespan, and to elevate society because all your wise elders don't just die off, but continue to accumulate and pass on their wisdom.
Just recently, she became a cleric of Morning Glory (lesser neutral deity - Libris Mortis), perfectly befitting her gentle and kind demeanor - something I'm really looking forward to exploring in a world where being undead is slowly becoming more and more acceptable in certain places (while still being extremely polarizing in others), and she's one of the people at the forefront of that movement.
Are you using negative energy to heal or basic healing?
@@Rookzer0 she's a doctor and uses the Heal skill. So, she's only been able to heal living people so far. And she's only a level 1 cleric, so I'm not using much of anything yet, in terms of magic.
In terms of her getting healed, she has a sorcerer and a wizard buddy who has negative energy ray. She also has Fast Healing and recovers her HD/day in hitpoints. She's not great in a fight herself, but has a heavy repeating crossbow that's possessed by a childhood friend, who's a wraith. The possessed crossbow can see 30 ft, shoot itself if placed on a stand, and the wraith can manifest for 30 mins/day to actively work with her - like using the drain ability to suck the life out of their enemies.
One of my players was an oathbreaker paladin who was also a skeleton. Sounds not too unusual, except for the additional details. One, the character had amnesia. They were once your typical do gooder paladin, but died while fighting their big bad and were cursed to rise again as an undead. After centuries trapped in the big bad's lair, they went into a dormant state and lost their memory, and as such could not keep to their oath (thus becoming an oathbreaker).
Upon being awakened by an archaeologist (just got to say, having a player with the archaeologist background is a great way to get your more monstrous party members introduced), the paladin took one look at themselves and the murals on the walls of the big bad's achievements and went "oh, I must be the big bad."
The thing was, though the character thought they were Lawful Evil, they were very much Good aligned, so the result was this terrifying skeleton in black armor with a flaming sword and a perpetually billowing tattered cloak giving megalomaniacal speeches about giving to the poor, feeding the hungry and founding orphanages.
I dig it, that's a fun way to play an "Evil" character. Did your party play into the illusion or was your character just unwilling to be told otherwise?
@@Rookzer0 The rest of the party played into the character's eccentricities for one reason or another. The party had early on decided that telling him that what he was doing wasn't evil might do more harm than good, and one character in particular became pretty skilled at framing requests in such a way that he was most likely to accept (such as saving a village being a good way to get minions in the future).
This kind of game is not really my forte but I found your information to be very good, very indepth and I am sure that those that do play the game, they will find it very helpful
Great job
My character died but my dm felt bad about it (it was his first time DMing and he promised an intense session so when I nearly wiped out a monster that was meant for 3, he went god mode lol. Like taking the hide action without rolling, attacking me, and then going back into hiding as a "bonus action" lol. Long story short, I was resurrected as an undead but I want to choose the best undead.
"Best undead" is really kinda iffy. Basically, there are a lot of types of undead that add levels. just being a skeleton vs a bloody skeleton is like 5 levels difference. so unless you're taking monster levels I'd find a type you like and look at some 3.5 templates. Best of luck!
@@Rookzer0 This is helpful. I appreciate the advice.
I'm currently playing a lvl 18 undead wizzard.
Before we started even planning session 0 I made my intentions clear that I was wanting to play a necromancer in this campaign clear and open from the start so to make sure all the players and dm were okay with it.
Around lvl 6 I started getting contacted by a very powerful lich away from the party.
At that time I started connecting with them and eventually becoming a lich myself.
In character I was always the cook so It wasn't weird for me to have alot of spices and fragrances that ended up hiding the death smell.
In character I also never openly practiced necromancy so the other characters weren't aware of that.
I would even go into the tombs to help maintain the catacombs on paper every time we entered a town or something.
The DM eventually gave me an amulet that prevented anyone divining life or death on me.
We are awaiting the time the party discovers.
Its been an amazing game so far.
Thats super fun. Do the players know about it outside of game or have you and the dm been able to keep it secret?
@@Rookzer0 a few knew I wanted to play one at session 0 but I never mentioned it ooc. This next session I believe we are revealing it and my pc being the true bbeg.
I've always wanted to play a warlock skeleton, who is actually being piloted by a lich somewhere who got so bored of immortality that it decided to 'restart' its journey as a heroic lvl1 skeleton.
About to play a Skeleton Fighter in 5e. Richard Radius Mortuus, former captain of the guard who uttered 4 words in his final moments that changed his destiny forever: I Am Not Done
Using Reborn from Van Richter's as the Race, but doing a lot of RP and whatnot to fill that role, even if there's not much meat on my bones
Very cool back story. Just willing yourself into an undead sounds awesome
I love the art and videos man, any chance you can show some examples of how you would build the characters too? character sheet wise
I've thought about this in the past. I was thinking about building some of them on Dnd Beyond or posting the PDF from Hero forge but Haven't made any final decision yet. Would you have a preference or suggestions?
Rookzer0 I typically use dnd beyond...so I recommend that
3:44 made my day
I have never played DnD, but Warlock with The Undead pact seems to be only legit way becoming undead but you only get few cool features at later levels 6, 10 and 14.
Best way probably would be by adding undead features to your character.
Not needing to eat, breath or sleep might be over powered so balance it by not giving too many resistances and give negative effects that some undeads have such as disadvantage in sunlight, vulnerabilities to silver, radiant, turn undead or fire damage.
DnD beyond Wight stat block looks like a good starting point but remove condition and damage resistances other than necrotic.
edit: the undead and undying pacts are in VRtR
Would absolutely love to play a Skeleton Devotion Paladin or Life Cleric who can heal everyone around him but himself. Relentlessly kind, scholarly, and a well meaning soul. Just need to get a good backstory going as to why a good-natured person would return from the dead.
I am a DM and one of players' chars (fighter) died right in the middle of a necromancer temple due to a brave but stupid action...
I like both the char and the player.
How can I turn the char into an intelligent undead which is still balanced compared to the living chars? Some penalties and roleplay-flavouring, negative aspects (smell?) are welcome.
Very nice, I really like little favorful penaltys like that. Has he had to interact with npcs yet as an undead?
@@Rookzer0 he's a fighter, thus, the interaction had been already limited in game, but visiting a town and tavern is surely an upcoming challenge (for him). And don't forget all the "friendly" comments from his party members. I aim for some minor penalties like a strange smell, a weakness to sunlight and holy symbols, but mainly for atmosphere-flavouring stuff. Any ideas?
I have seen a homebrew undead on beyond a long time ago where you play as a skeleton, and you can detach your arm as a weapon then bludgeon someone.
While you are skeleton instead you do a long rest you do some kind of dark mentation, and you are high alert that makes you hard to sneak up while being venerable at same time. Creatures have to do roll on you, and you do roll to make sure you caught them in the act, I think that's an interesting way to play as a skeleton.
They are other undead, and I don't remember it all because what if you play an undead troll remove the regenerate since you have dead flesh or have no flesh at all.
Undead is fun to play because usually you don't care for the living and makes it hard for the party to trust you; perhaps your undead can regain his humanity or lost his humanity when something triggers him with raw emotion and shock your party that an undead have feelings somehow!
Undead constructs and monsters are really fun to play
@@Rookzer0 Lord Ainz in overlord is confusing I don't really know he cares about some of the humans and other races he come across to not kill them.
@@Rookzer0 He is undead he doesn't feel sorrow, anything actually when kill people and is not easy to show feelings for him it's how undead are in overlord.
Warforged are made of wooden fiber and leather beneath that metal & stone
Organic matter that i could easily see healing from potion
As a huge fan of undead for thematic/RP and mechanical purposes, I really enjoy how 3.5e handles them. No Constitution (they're dead, so they really shouldn't have one) which basically means that they're immune to a lot of things. Often times they have damage reduction, resistances and have some pretty brutal effects that they can apply with their natural weapons. Now good luck getting your DM to let you play an undead being, cause that's where it gets tricky.
Now the main reason I don't like 5e is because of how they handle undead. Why do they have a Constitution Score? They're dead! Undead are corpses animated by unholy magic, stuck in a state of perpetual decay.
👍
My undead skeleton idea is that a necromancer tried to infuse a human soul into an already dead skeleton but he couldn't transfer the persons soul he killed but the magic took his own soul and put it into the skeleton, making him braindead for longer time and than awakens as the soul manages to fit the skeleton's physicality. Now he has to figure out what happened after hundrets of years being braindead. The dungeon he has been in surely was raided in that time and no undead presence was found because technically the skeleton was not undead to the braindead time. So it was looted and cleaned up, leaving our character in a grave when waking up. Now he has to find out who he is or who he wants to be. A true neutral character, as he has no idea about the world because of the memory loss.
interesting concept. I like the origin too some kind of soul binder necromancer. very cool.
I really want to play a lawful good goofy skeleton paladin that is very faithful
Thats a fun idea. Look at cursed characters or just run with the idea that you cant be healed normally for the character flavore
@@Rookzer0 If I was DMing I'd allow for undead PCs to be healed, but not beyond the state the curse has put you on
Rookzer0 I’m playing a chaotic good death domain cleric/fighter combo skeleton he hides his undeath under heavy plate armor and a full helmet he used spells a broad sword and a light crossbow he also has a tattered black cloak he wears over his armor he is currently the weirdest character in the party lmao and our half drow rouge tried to flirt with him and failed miserably lol
I am actually making an undead character for a campain. What I am doing is just taking an old character and adding the undead stats plus some. He also has a blessing from a dragon, which is keeping him alive and allows him to turn into an undead golden dragon.
How are you dealing with the constitution?
@@Rookzer0 I did some research and it depends on the type and varient of sceleton. The normal sceleton player race still has constitution, but usually not much, but it is a very loose race and easily modified.
@@Wolfy00000 I like the idea that you use their charisma instead of constitution but it's a bit weird of a system.
@@Rookzer0 Oh it is totally better. Weird, sure, but definately better, tho it also depends on if you were raised from the dead by yourself or someone else, or if your master is dead. Then it would probably be better.
I have an idea for a party of heroes to work with an undead. Liches, they do decay but they can still appear to be living depending on how far along they are or if they were reset with non permanent death. So the cleric and paladin won't possibly lose their powers due to ignorance. If you play your cards right that is.
Great vid. I love playing monsters as PC's. What kind of software are you using to make the art. Cuz it's awesome
I use mostly Photoshop, and premier.
I just said “sup can be a skele bro” and I got overwhelmed with YES
Undead welcome
@@Rookzer0 hello brother may we find worth in the waking world
Bard Skeleton focused in trumpet.
🎺💀
*DOOT*
But but... they aint got no lips....
Magic lips
I just made a skeleton bard that plays the trumpet in a tavern for gold
I would tip just to see how they play the trumpet without any lips.
Rookzer0 magic
Ok so I was interested in maybe making my first charakter an undead but if I cant heal naturally I would for sure need someone in my party that is a necromancer. It would make an interesting dynamic but I think I should start a little slower. ^^'
So fun combo me and my DM made up Kenku revenant
It gets rid of the forgery skill and replaces it with the Revenant traits. We decided to go off of Unearthed Arcana Gothic Heroes because of the fact that it keeps the Constitution so my cleric with high HP stays with high HP. Yet it suddenly doesn't just have a voice it's still has to speak like a kenku but the Charisma is "*slightly*" lowered because of the fact that a kenku with lost feathers and a bunch of stitches is going to be less charismatic
Cool idea. Might have gone the undead construct rout myself but I like where your heads at
How many Undead have I played? been in a lot of campaigns but one of the games I'm in, my diet-evil Wight Elf Sorcerer just died. With leadership his bodyguard Warforge is a pretty strong protector, but he also died. My characters weren't Optimized because I wanted to play these already challenging options without also being better than the rest of the party. I was killed by a paladin, that we were fighting, and no, the rest of the party isn't evil, but our nations are at war. I should be destroyed, but a little accidental hack/great backstory, has accidentally triggered me to being a proto-Lich and looks like ill be back next session...maybe, maybe later than that. In another game many years ago, i once also played a Noble Drow Vampire Arisocrat (npc class), lots of fun RP (he was good actually, Helm of opposite alignment). Then there was that one time I played a good Elf Lich/Baelnorn Warlock (fey focused), but both of those games we were high level when i switched to these characters.
Cross session play with reacquiring characters is pretty great. Let me know how the proto-lich goes :D
Intelligence may be knowing that tomatoes are a fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in a fruit salad.
I'm in an awkward position because I want to make a character undead when they weren't originally intended to be undead.
I play D&D campaigns with some family friends every other week, and the character I made for the first campaign I joined was made in a rush. I didn't think about their backstory at all, and I just made a character with a nomadic background so I could just jump in with no drama.
It was rather boring until I started thinking about their origins. I started getting invested when Iooked at the neutral deities and learned about Evening Glory. I got really hooked on the idea of a true neutral undead that preserves their original appearance.
The problem is, my character was at one point incapacitated
, and they were healed multiple times in the past. I enjoy this idea, I feel like it would really shake up the party dynamic, but I don't know how I'm going to get away with this unless I ask the DM to handwave a ton of previous actions.
You could just use the dnd 5e rules and go with their warforged construct ideas. Healing is fine. But you have some special resistance. Id defintly go with the no heals so saves though haha
@@Rookzer0 We play 3.5, but I guess it couldn't hurt to ask if he would make an exception.
The rules layed by the D&D: Libris Mortis are still going to be a pain though. If I say my character was a vampire spawn from the very beginning, then that means my first 8 levels will be forced into the vampire spawn monster-class. Since my character is a low level fighter, that would mean I've been living a lie this whole time. It means I was never a fighter to begin with, and I just never told the party ;^^
I love this staf and i show it to my friend from Poland And I havea idea for next episode - self-conscious plant like groot or swamp thing
I actually have to plan videos in thw works :) swamp thing could be a lot of fun as a character!
I just wanna play a ghost druid who claims to be a decended spirit of nature created to prevent the demons and devils to spread hell all over the overworld
sounds pretty fun, i say go for it ghosts are tough to play because you cant really upgrade your gear but are strong from the get-go.
@@Rookzer0
Maybe i get the possesion- and phasing through walls ability just on a higher lvl than 1 and the DM wont say its to op in earlygame
Edit:
Mostly wanted to give the ghost psych based attacks like illusion and fear
But also exploit the find familiar spell a bit since its a SPIRIT that takes on an animal apearence
But Warforge in DnD 3.5 have a Constitution score, they just can't be healed by Clerics and have their own tree of healing magic called Repair Damage or something like that, I haven't read 3.5 Eberron's Setting book.
My favourite character I've played is my skeleton Bard Montgomery Bonejangles, an awakened with amnesia who woke up with a trumpet and seeks to restore his life so he can actually play it. No lips = no trumpet so he just beats people with it
Omg thats awesome. I've heard a lot of doot doot skeleton bards but using it like a club is the first. Very cool! Keep up the good work.
I'm thinking of playing an undead grave cleric. He was brought back by his God because well he's still got a job to do
I dig it
This isn't a dnd story but I played a dhampir barbarian called dragos in hells vengence a pathfinder ap and he is currently one of my fav characters I've made as when fighting clerics and paladins I was at a serious disadvantage due to only being healed by negative energy and getting damaged by positive energy put me at a constant risk of being killed enfact I was killed by an angel which left a scar which grew each time they got hit by positive energy
Very cool, I think the dhampir race is close enough . Pathfinder is still my go to RPG.
@@Rookzer0
He was my fave charrecter as I made an accidental build with him XD plus he got a happy ending got married to a hot vampire chick xD
i like the idea of a mummy putting on another layer of bandages to heal
That's a fun idea
See I'd want to play an amnesiac skeleton sorcerer or warlock who at one point probably wanted to take over the world, but as a result of his amnesia he's got a personality somewhere between Skeletor and Claptrap, being the annoying yet lovable party member who just wants to make friends.
At least until he potentially regains his memories that is. But we'd cross that bridge when we come to it.
I almost started this by saying sounds like your got some great bones for a character... nothing to see here.. move along....
I was thinking about a Skeleton rogue whose grave was plunder/looted, but some of the items in It where cursed and brough the man back to recover them.
The items (I haven define them yet, will with my dm) are connected to the skeleton and give him the urge to steal to get them back, tho he doesn't know what they are so he just steals everything
Who wants to be a dark and bruiting skeleton? I wanna be a god damn bard!
You could play the xylophone on pretty much any part of your body
Trom-bone or a doot doot horn, He makes skeleton and bone puns relevant to d&d.
I made an undead character that is only resurrected by hate so powerful for his killer a patron notices him and grants him life again to study his raw anger
Sounds like Darth maul. Was he cut in half and thrown down a pit?
@@Rookzer0 his weapon of choice is a shovel
Awaken Lich Knight fighter! Duel wield bitches! Is kind, slightly cold and doesn't care who you are, he'll mess your shit up if you piss him off. Is known for valor despite being an undead.
Sounds good! What are you wielding
Blades of Flamme(wavy) design, no hilt. Has a chance for paralysis effect if get a nat 20 😎
My paladin has been brought back by a lich, i had the option to resist the voices or go with it and i chose to listen and go evil. I juat need to find out what changes i need to make to my character.
Best of luck those can be really fun campaign. Best of luck on your path of conquest
Lessons in undeadeology lol. Theres no better lesson than this. We made need this info one day.
I was wanting to make a steampunk skeleton who is an artificer and a wizard. I was hoping to make him a neutral good character. kind of like a hell boy type of personality. he was an inventor and scientist in his lifetime I was thinking maybe he played with some science that was forbidden or unnatural and it turned him into an undead (like playing with raising the dead but it had an opposite effect?). I watched this video mostly to help me create him. it seems like this will take some research lol
I think your story for being undead is spot on. Just going to have to decide what the ramifications are.
Rookzer0 yeah? I’m glad! Now I just gotta figure out like you said ramifications and how to do the points...which undead stats should I use? What would you recommend?
I am ran a campaign where the players are trying to make sure that an evil (world ending) necromancer never returns. Shockingly without knowing it the party had the necromancer’s generals souls inserted into their bodies. This had an interesting effect where they killed off the clergy trying to repair the seal as all they saw were cultists trying to free him. Long story short as the story continued they unknowingly were doing horrible acts without even knowing it and slowly dying and being reborn as an undead. Then for the final 2 gatherings I revealed that the player characters were actually the big bad evil guy and had them take on their undead characteristics and create an undead city as sanctuary for necromancers.
Way over simplified, but I didn’t want to go into the tiny details.
Sounds like a lot of fun! I hope they enjoyed it
@@Rookzer0 It was a mess. The first session had one player attack a group of hunters they were supposed to ask questions of. The best part it it almost became a pc killer encounter where one pc was left on exactly 1hp and then decided to try and create a weapon based on what the hunters were using (later blew up in his face). That was the start and it only was more chaotic as it went on especially because they didn’t realize the odd magical effects being applied to them were not of their own doing.
Now I got to make an undead character.
Let me know what you come up with
skeleton Artificer/paladin just a silly adventurer tho im always wearing armor cause uk skele (wisdom is low sad)
It cool to play as a lich Deathknight
Hmmm... I'd wonder if a Hooded Knight could be turned into a Skeleton Undead Hooded Knight, cursed by their Patron, one of The Eldest of the First World? Is that a plausible thing? Cause I want to play a Skeleton Knight/Cavalier PC so badly. Just need to find a campaign and DM that will allow something of the like ^^
I dont see why not, start a level 1 character apply the skeleton template and run with it. You get a lot of bonus for the charisma as a skeleton. Could be a lot of fun. Alternativly you could apply something like an oracle curse or the undead lord as a basis for converting it to an undead hooded knight. Nice idea!
@@Rookzer0 I really want to see you do a timelapse art of all of your goofy one liners you add in your videos. "Priest of Saranrae runs up to an undead PC undercover, "By the gods! You're hurt!" casts Cure wounds, Undead PC bursts into holy flames and screams. As the Priest stares and looks on in horror and disbelief then looks at his hand as he or she slowly shakes his or her head and backs away.
I made a skulduggery Pleasant character
It was a fun campaign
nice choice. did they "survive" the campaign?
I have a pathfinder character that is a Aasimar (Angelkin) but also a undead bloodline sorcerer if your wandering how they exist there mom is a Angel and there dad is a misunderstood lich they got married because they were in love and they were told to by the angels God anyway the character is covered in illusions but they don't know only there mom and dad know because they were the ones that created the illusions but the illusions are realistic but as they level up the illusions are becoming less realistic and eventually disappear and reveal that they are a skeleton that has glowing purple eyes and a halo above their head and depending on if I take the feat Angel wings
That's a really cool combo, are you playing pathfinder or Dnd? Sounds like a really cool set up for some epic level encounters from your backstory. Is the lich still "around"?
I made this character for pathfinder but i haven't played dnd or pathfinder and yes the lich is still around but it's also in hiding because most people assume that they are evil