Homebrew Awaken Undead Species Details

Dead and Reborn

Typically having no lands to call their own, undead with an awakened sense of self are usually perpetual foreigners, wanders in a land and often a time not their own. Compounding matters, most mortal cultures carry within them an instinctual fear of death and the dead, and many associate necromancy specifically with dark tidings. This forms a wall of ( often well-­earned) prejudice and hatred that sentient undead find themselves up against, and many undead choose to hide their necrotic natures behind clothes, masks, and pungent perfumes when journeying into civilization.
Depending on composition, humanoid undead typically range a wide gamut from 20 to 300 pounds, and may possess empty eyes, a colored flame-like magical animus in their sockets, or harrowed, surprisingly mortal eyes burning with an inner fire. Hair (if they have it at all) is usually lank, dark, and wrought with grime and grave­-dirt that no amount of cleaning will fully remove.

Service and Freedom

Undeath is effectively immortality, a strong reason why many mortal spellcasters of a certain moral bent consider it a viable alternative to ac­tually dying. Still, it is not immortality without a price - senses and emotions dull, food and drink no longer have taste, and often an undead state comes alongside a subservience of will and un­thinking toil beneath a master who likely does not have the world's best intentions at heart.
Some undead are born into freedom, while others earn it or have it thrust upon them. Re­gardless, all undead that have freedom greatly cherish it, as the reminders of what could easily happen were they not fortunate enough to pos­sess free will abound throughout history. Many consider it their sacred duty to free other mind­less undead, or simply to dispatch them wher­ever they may be found. The reasoning is straightforward enough: a final rest awarded to all mortals is greatly preferential to eternal slav­ery to the likes of a short-sighted, megalomania­cal wizard. 

Fallen Home, Forgotten Past

For many awakened undead, the past is a distant homeland to which they may never return, hold­ing names and faces now partially-forgotten, and loves and lives as dead as they are. The anguish of this loss is enough to drive many mad, but others use this rage and pain as a source of power and drive, carrying them further on the road to whatever dark destiny awaits.
Frequently, entire countries, customs, and cultures an undead may be familiar with no longer exist, and the sentient dead behaves or speaks in an antiquated fashion because of this. It may be even more difficult than usual for such undead to relate to more modern
mortals, and typically these undead leverage what companions they may have to bridge this epoch-long communication gap. 

Undead Names

Many undead that awaken into sentience prefer to keep the names they held in their mortal lives. For others, however, their mortal names are for­gotten or have lost meaning. These undead often adopt nicknames given to them by their former masters or present companions, and hold them to be as true as any other creature's birth name.
Examples of names given in this fashion may be seen, below:

Names: Rattlebones, Spore, Rotface, Raven, Bane, Carver, Drudge, Rook, Mort, Pale, Minion, Crumble, Shade

 

Awaken Undead Traits

Your awakened undead character has the following traits. You count as an undead creature for all spells and abilities that affect the undead.

Ability Score Increase.

Your Constitution score increases by 1.

Dead immortality

You do not age. Given time, the necromantic energies that sustain you will heal most wounds you take at approximately the same rate as a mortal, and your hit dice function as normal.
As undead, you can't be healed by conventional spells such as cure wounds, nor do you have the bodily means to ingest and gain the benefits from Nonmagical potions of healing, or Similar.

You can gain or regain hit points, magically through the following spells: Aid, Aura of Vitality, False Life, Life Transference, Negative Energy Flood, Regenerate, Vampiric Touch, or Wish.

 

Undead

Raised from the dead as a being of undeath, you count as an undead creature for all spells and abilities that affect the undead. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surround­ings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal. 

Language

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language in correlation to your background 

Skeleton

An animated figure made of dry bones devoid and or of flesh and muscle, you were likely raised by a necromantic caster or dark, supernatural curse as a simple minion, completely without will and self knowledge. Something changed, however; perhaps your master was slain, the land cleansed, or you merely awoke one day to fragmented memories of your previous life. Whatever the case, possessed of a fragmented sense of self.

Ability score increases

Your Desxterity or Intelligence score increases by 2.

 

Bloodless

You are resistant to poison damage and poisoned condition.

Bone pile

When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, or choose to use your bonus action. you can drop to 1 hit point(or stay at your current health) instead. If you do, you reduce yourself to a pile of bones, render yourself prone, and are considered to be under a similar effect to the feign death spell. While subject to this condition, you are unable to move or take actions other than using your action to end this effect. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Bone to pick

Whenever both of your hands are free (not including equipped shields). you may choose to use a free hand and a bonus action to remove one of your hands or arms. If you remove an arm, it counts as a weapon with the finesse property that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage, and you have a proficiency with your arm while you wield it. if you remove a hand, it counts as thieve's tools or a similar set of simple tools while you hold it. In either case, removed hands and arms may be re-attached by using another bonus action

Skillful

You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice.

Versatile

You gain a feat of your choice.