1: A human/humanoid who sold their soul and now is immortal (i.e. alive/unalive but without a soul and incapable of dying unless destroyed)
2: A human/humanoid with the appearance of being multiple hundreds of years old (i.e. decrepit), but being supernaturally fast and spry
3: A human/humanoid devoid of color or of muted color (i.e. bleached white) save for when they consume alcohol. Lack any warmth until said alcohol is consumed, are lethargic and apathetic without it but appear normal if said alcohol has indeed been consumed.
4: A human/humanoid who retains their physical form but, upon death, reawakens shortly after.
5: A human/humanoid soldier with undead immortality who serves only as a weapon for slaughter, but retains their memories and ability to speak.
6: A human/humanoid who is cursed to be incapable of dying until a certain task is completed but retains their mortal form and appearance. (Potential a form of 4)
7: A human/humanoid consumed by cursed fire, they are burnt but can still feel capable of feeling the pain of the fire and retain their sentience
8: A human/humanoid cursed to eternal unlife after commiting executions via blade or guillotine.
Most of those look like homebrew undead. Number five could be a Revenant, but that would only be if the undead is motivated by revenge. 6. could apply to this as well.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
Some of these might not even be undead at all. Undeath is a state of being animated dead and that confers certain strengths and weaknesses. The first example, a soulless immortal, isn’t inherently undead but it could be. Even if they were dead, reanimation doesn’t instantly translate to undeath either, but it could be. If you want to apply a stat block to these concepts, a number of them require additional details about their death and revival. Those details will help better align them to an existing undead creature type. What I would suggest is taking a look at the different types of intelligent undead in the Monster Manual and seeing what narrative function you want them to serve, apply your story to that type, and work out the details of their reanimation.
3: Not sure could be any form of intelligent undead, more likely some form of cursed individual, maybe a hag cursed someone they fancied when they did not return the affection, the cursed individual becomes increasingly corpse like unless they drink alcohol, or as a little more outside the box...a Stone Cursed, ok its a construct but maybe have alcohol as the only way to hold off the petrification they suffered, if they fail to do so they act like a stone cursed.
4: Likely a Revenant, Vampire or maybe a Deathlock depending on how dead they appear.
5: Sword Wrath or Death Knight.
6: Sounds like a Revenant again.
7: I'd go for a fire elemtnal stats but give it the size and form of a human then tack on the undead type (think/look up Ignus form Planescape: Torment)
8: Ghost in the form of the Headless Horsemen
9: I'd go for a Sea Spawn with bonus undead fortitude style ability (Davy Jones from Pirate sof the Carribean) or a ghost and there is a creature called a Drowned Maiden in a 3rd party book called Tome of Beasts.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
1: A human/humanoid who sold their soul and now is immortal (i.e. alive/unalive but without a soul and incapable of dying unless destroyed)
Vampire? ish
2: A human/humanoid with the appearance of being multiple hundreds of years old (i.e. decrepit), but being supernaturally fast and spry
Mummy?
3: A human/humanoid devoid of color or of muted color (i.e. bleached white) save for when they consume alcohol. Lack any warmth until said alcohol is consumed, are lethargic and apathetic without it but appear normal if said alcohol has indeed been consumed.
Wight
4: A human/humanoid who retains their physical form but, upon death, reawakens shortly after.
Vampire
5: A human/humanoid soldier with undead immortality who serves only as a weapon for slaughter, but retains their memories and ability to speak.
Lich. Death Knight
6: A human/humanoid who is cursed to be incapable of dying until a certain task is completed but retains their mortal form and appearance. (Potential a form of 4)
Vampire
7: A human/humanoid consumed by cursed fire, they are burnt but can still feel capable of feeling the pain of the fire and retain their sentience
Flameskull, kinda
8: A human/humanoid cursed to eternal unlife after commiting executions via blade or guillotine.
Death Knight
9: The spirit of one who has drowned.
Drowned Master or any of the Drowned undead from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Or any ghost.
1: A human/humanoid who sold their soul and now is immortal (i.e. alive/unalive but without a soul and incapable of dying unless destroyed)
Deathlock or Vampire
2: A human/humanoid with the appearance of being multiple hundreds of years old (i.e. decrepit), but being supernaturally fast and spry
No idea.
3: A human/humanoid devoid of color or of muted color (i.e. bleached white) save for when they consume alcohol. Lack any warmth until said alcohol is consumed, are lethargic and apathetic without it but appear normal if said alcohol has indeed been consumed.
Wight?
4: A human/humanoid who retains their physical form but, upon death, reawakens shortly after.
Revenant, hands down
5: A human/humanoid soldier with undead immortality who serves only as a weapon for slaughter, but retains their memories and ability to speak.
Death Knight
6: A human/humanoid who is cursed to be incapable of dying until a certain task is completed but retains their mortal form and appearance. (Potential a form of 4)
Revenant, also
7: A human/humanoid consumed by cursed fire, they are burnt but can still feel capable of feeling the pain of the fire and retain their sentience
Flameskull?
8: A human/humanoid cursed to eternal unlife after commiting executions via blade or guillotine.
Maybe Death Knight?
9: The spirit of one who has drowned.
Drowned or Ghost
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
1: A human/humanoid who sold their soul and now is immortal (i.e. alive/unalive but without a soul and incapable of dying unless destroyed)
2: A human/humanoid with the appearance of being multiple hundreds of years old (i.e. decrepit), but being supernaturally fast and spry
3: A human/humanoid devoid of color or of muted color (i.e. bleached white) save for when they consume alcohol. Lack any warmth until said alcohol is consumed, are lethargic and apathetic without it but appear normal if said alcohol has indeed been consumed.
4: A human/humanoid who retains their physical form but, upon death, reawakens shortly after.
5: A human/humanoid soldier with undead immortality who serves only as a weapon for slaughter, but retains their memories and ability to speak.
6: A human/humanoid who is cursed to be incapable of dying until a certain task is completed but retains their mortal form and appearance. (Potential a form of 4)
7: A human/humanoid consumed by cursed fire, they are burnt but can still feel capable of feeling the pain of the fire and retain their sentience
8: A human/humanoid cursed to eternal unlife after commiting executions via blade or guillotine.
9: The spirit of one who has drowned.
Most of those look like homebrew undead. Number five could be a Revenant, but that would only be if the undead is motivated by revenge. 6. could apply to this as well.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
all of them could be ghosts, zombies, skeletons, or revenants, just with backstories
Over half of them aren't even undead, necessarily. Nr. 9 is probably a ghost.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Some of these might not even be undead at all. Undeath is a state of being animated dead and that confers certain strengths and weaknesses. The first example, a soulless immortal, isn’t inherently undead but it could be. Even if they were dead, reanimation doesn’t instantly translate to undeath either, but it could be. If you want to apply a stat block to these concepts, a number of them require additional details about their death and revival. Those details will help better align them to an existing undead creature type. What I would suggest is taking a look at the different types of intelligent undead in the Monster Manual and seeing what narrative function you want them to serve, apply your story to that type, and work out the details of their reanimation.
My answers would be:
1: Sounds like a Vampire.
2: Probably a Ghoul or Boneclaw
3: Not sure could be any form of intelligent undead, more likely some form of cursed individual, maybe a hag cursed someone they fancied when they did not return the affection, the cursed individual becomes increasingly corpse like unless they drink alcohol, or as a little more outside the box...a Stone Cursed, ok its a construct but maybe have alcohol as the only way to hold off the petrification they suffered, if they fail to do so they act like a stone cursed.
4: Likely a Revenant, Vampire or maybe a Deathlock depending on how dead they appear.
5: Sword Wrath or Death Knight.
6: Sounds like a Revenant again.
7: I'd go for a fire elemtnal stats but give it the size and form of a human then tack on the undead type (think/look up Ignus form Planescape: Torment)
8: Ghost in the form of the Headless Horsemen
9: I'd go for a Sea Spawn with bonus undead fortitude style ability (Davy Jones from Pirate sof the Carribean) or a ghost and there is a creature called a Drowned Maiden in a 3rd party book called Tome of Beasts.
EDit to my previous post for no.7....use the allip, have the psychic effects as its victims experiencing its death by fire.
Vampire? ish
Mummy?
Wight
Vampire
Lich. Death Knight
Vampire
Flameskull, kinda
Death Knight
Drowned Master or any of the Drowned undead from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Or any ghost.
Those are my thoughts anyway.
Deathlock or Vampire
No idea.
Wight?
Revenant, hands down
Death Knight
Revenant, also
Flameskull?
Maybe Death Knight?
Drowned or Ghost
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms