Sunday, December 20, 2015

Race: Awakened Undead [Third Draft]



Constantly, it seems this project is being left to die, before it suddenly rises from its grave with newer revisions!

Very little changed in this version, which means that this is (likely) the final draft. Always good, especially because I have a couple very big things planned and it's nice to have a clean project queue before starting up a mega-project.

What's different? Changelog!

WHAT I CHANGED:

  • Rebalanced Bone to Pick and gave your skeleton arm a d6 instead of a d8. Seems reasonable.
  • Withering Touch is now more important, not giving you proficiency in something you'd already have by default, and adding CON to unarmed damage. 
  • Fixed Incorporeal Stride so that it no longer references 4e mechanics and gives you a very clear idea of what keeps out your ghost. 
CONCERNS:
  • Nothing, really. Seems about done and balanced to me.
WHAT I LEARNED:
  • Not much this time around. Just that you guys are always particularly good at picking out the nits I've missed. 

17 comments:

  1. Still my favorite of your homebrew. Still enjoying playing the skeleton. Almost hoping one of my characters is killed in another game so that I can take the ghost sub-race out for a spin!

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  2. Do you have a project in the works, or is this the last one you're putting out?

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  3. o blog morreu?
    faz mais de um mes que nao vejo nada novo por aqui =/

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  4. My guess is that the day job invaded. I won't call it dead until it goes 3 months without a post.

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  5. I hope not. Would the Con mod damage on unarmed strikes be too strong on a monk?

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  6. I don't know that it would be any more game-breaking than Con boosts to AC and rages in a barbarian/moon circle druid build. If the character background is cool and the DM allows it, go for it. Rule 0.

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  7. I recently finished a campaign (levels 1-10) with a Ghost subtype, Shadow-weaver Rogue. A couple of unintended side affects of being a ghost came up that may or may not need to be addressed in a revision, mostly to do with etherealness and flying.

    - Broadly speaking I could not be grappled, grabbed, swallowed or restrained by most creatures without magic.
    - The DM ruled that being a Ghost my flyspeed was of a 'Hover' type, in most respects making me immune to falling.
    - I took the Ghostly Magic feat, and there was some question as to whether or not you could say; cast Invisibility three times or cast any three spells just once.

    A lot of this comes down to DM calls, so it may be that we ruled it incorrectly. Nothing seemed inherently overpowered - both my DM and I loved it - but I'm not one who looks press every advantage; at a different optimization breakpoint however it might either cause arguments or at the very least confusion.

    That said - I had a blast playing two of your fine homebrews in one character; it came to an end when she'd finally made up for the things she'd done in her backstory, and was resurrected to her former self (Oath of the Midnight Hour Paladin in service to the Raven Queen). I'd love to see this brew make the DM's guild so I can throw you a few bucks for the great game I had with it.

    I've plugged it and the shadow weaver a bunch of times on one of the major 5e facebook groups over the past few months, so I hope it gets you a few more clicks.

    Cheers!

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    1. >Broadly speaking I could not be grappled, grabbed, swallowed or restrained by most creatures without magic.

      Good point. I never gave much thought to how grappling a ghost would work, and that's definitely something that should be addressed.

      >The DM ruled that being a Ghost my flyspeed was of a 'Hover' type, in most respects making me immune to falling.

      Yeah, any creature with a fly speed will have that come up in some form. Falling is a very occasional type of damage, though, and I think I'd be alright with ghosts being more or less immune to it. Still, it demands clarification.

      >I took the Ghostly Magic feat, and there was some question as to whether or not you could say; cast Invisibility three times or cast any three spells just once.

      That's a fair point, especially since looking back I can't remember what my intention was there. I'd say you could cast any number of spells from the list, up to three times, per long rest. That means invisibility three times should be a-ok.

      >A lot of this comes down to DM calls, so it may be that we ruled it incorrectly

      This is exactly why I appreciate this level of playtesting. A DM and a player can find holes that don't appear even after several comb-throughs on my part. This is really invaluable data, that I'll be putting to good use when I get to revising this draft once more.

      > I'd love to see this brew make the DM's guild so I can throw you a few bucks for the great game I had with it.
      >I've plugged it and the shadow weaver a bunch of times on one of the major 5e facebook groups over the past few months, so I hope it gets you a few more clicks.

      Thanks so much!

      Content on the internet lives and dies on exposure, so every little bit helps. =)

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  8. hi, i wanted to ask for permission to remake this so it fits the world of Warhammer. i understand if you don't agree, mainly because a lot of people think Warhammer is uncool haha but no in all seriousness, can i do it? i promise if i ever post it anywhere, i will give you proper credit.

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  9. Ok, I reeeeealy like this race. i'm running a campaign soon where Necroploitans (from the 3e book Libris Mortis) are fairly prominent, and I thought I'd throw together a subrace for them, do you mind taking a look and giving your opinion?

    NECROPOLITAN subrace

    Ability score increase
    one of your ability scores are increased by 1. generally speaking, the ability chosen should be the dominant ability of the race from your Past Life (Dex for halflings, Str for half-orcs, etc)

    Skilled Undeath
    you learn one additional language, one additional skill, and gain proficiency in one instrument, tool kit, or game set of your choice.

    Living Visage
    Because your transition into undeath was less violent than most, you haven’t ended up looking much different then you did when you were alive. You have advantage on deception checks, and checks with a disguise kit, to pass yourself off as a living member of the race from your Past Life.

    Poison Resilience
    you have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance to poison damage.

    Dead Meat
    When you fall unconscious after being reduced to 0 hit points, you retain awareness of your surroundings, as if you were still conscious. On your turn, when you would normally roll a death saving throw, a Necropolitan can simply opt not to, resulting in neither a success nor a failure. You can also accept the help action on your death saving throws.

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  10. I would Like to make a module for Fantasy Grounds. Dose any one know of a way to copy and paste from a PDF?

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  11. A question that came up in my game. If skeleton is reduced to 0hp, Bone Pile activates, then he takes damage (AoE, falling), is he still under the effects of feign death? Or does it end when he actually drops unconscious? Basically a player hasn't told the party (in character) about this thing, so would they be able to tell that he is still alive and can be saved, or would the ability still make it impossible after he falls uncoscious?

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  12. Can I rez this thread? Would it be too weird to make a skeleton warlock with Raven Queen patron? She is notoriously against intelligent undead, but this combo is calling out to me!

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  13. As an undead you count as undead for spells. By RAW this means you can't be healed through spells like cure wounds. That is extremely difficult to work around and is a huge detriment. Was this intentional?

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  14. hey is there any workaround/low level spells to be able to be healed mid battle!!!!!!!!!

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  15. I know this is an old post, but I noticed something that seems like a very big flaw with this design, and it has to do with the "undead" trait. It says that "you count as an undead creature for all spells and abilities that effect the undead", and there are cleric spells that instantly destroy the undead. This means one wrong roll and the player is out. I think the awakened undead should be able to treat a spell like that as going to 0 hit points or less, and thus needing to be stabilized or healed in order to prevent death/destruction.

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