Homebrew Corpse Orchid Species Details

Small black vines ran across his skin and purple flowers seemed to be delicately attached to his clothes and hair. At first glance I thought he must have just been one of those weird flowery folk that stumble out of the forest sometimes. One of them real "save the trees" types. But when he smiled at me it was wrong. His lips curved up just a little too sharply, his movements were a little too sudden, and his voice was a hollow echo. In this business you see weird folk sometimes though, so I never thought nothing of it. It was only a few days later when people started turning up dead that I truly made a connection. Each of the bodies had budding flowers growing right out of their skin, just like his. 

—Corvin Argall, Life as a Magic Item Salesman

Corpse Orchids often spend their entire lives in one place, unable to move their host bodies in a proper capacity. When an orchid manages to inhabit a body without too much damage, they have an irresistible urge to move, to live amongst other races and to propagate their seed in new areas of the world. This dark nature leads to a deep distrust from living races, though many corpse orchids tend to cemeteries on behalf of small remote communities. 

Undead Blossom

Purple flowers and thin, black vines decorate the body of an orchid's host. The small flowers draw in sunlight and the vines weave throughout the body, together working to maintain the condition of the corpse. While the body may be dead, the plant within is a living, sentient organism that is driven by nature to reproduce and spread. Corpse Orchids rarely live in groups, feeling an urge to instead spread out and cover as much land as possible. The flowers kill and implant seeds into their victims as they do so, this does not mean they are mindless though. Some claim that traces of the hosts morality remain, forcing the orchid to avoid innocent deaths. They instead kill to serve a purpose, to stop roadside bandits or to protect innocent people. Even this many orchids hesitate to do, feeling the pull of their host's mind, driving them towards good. It is this that drives many of them to serve as caretakers in cemeteries and graveyards, planting new flowers in the deceased and being careful not to allow any of them to rise again.

Eternal Maintenance

A corpse orchid is not limited by age in the typical sense, being able to live for as long as the plant is able to maintain the body. As time goes on though this task becomes harder and harder. The vines of the flower spend decades slowly encroaching further into the hosts body, finding small damages that need maintenance. This process tends to further bond the flower to the host as they further explore the host brain. Replicating pathways and connections imbues the flower with more understanding of the hosts brain and life. Thus many corpse orchids actually grow more humanised as time goes on, those that have settled into communities begin to form connections and bonds with the locals as time goes on. When maintaining the body becomes impossible, the corpse orchid simply becomes like any other corpse orchid, unable to move and control the body, eventually withering away when they body is gone. 

Corpse Orchid Names

Corpse Orchids do not tend to take names for themselves, though sometimes those that live near communities will be given names that match the culture of their settled areas and their host body.

 

Corpse Orchid Traits

The corpse orchid uses the following traits to survive and propagate.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Charisma score is reduced by 2.

Age

A corpse orchid is not affected by age in the same way as other races. As long as they are able to maintain their host body they can continue to live. It is not unheard of for corpse orchids to live past 200 years.

Alignment

The irresistible drive to spread often leads towards a chaotic nature for corpse orchids, doing anything they can to follow the innate urge. Though as they age and become more intertwined with their host they often mellow out and gain some control over this innate drive to wander.

Size

Corpse orchids height and weight are dependant on their host body. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common. Any other language you once knew seems to have been lost to you in death. 

Host Body

Depending on the race of your host body, your attributes are different. You can choose to increase your Strength, Dexterity or Wisdom Score by 1 as you think is appropriate. An elf host might choose the increased dexterity, while a dwarf host might have increased strength.

Undead Maintenance

You maintain your body through photosynthesis and innate necromancy. As a result you are immune to diseases and do not need to sleep or eat, though you do still need to drink.

You also need to spend at least 4 hours a day maintaining your host body. During this time, you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.

Poison Resistance

Your host body is largely unaffected by toxins and poisons. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.

Delayed Decay

As an action you release a build up of decay and rot that has been sealed inside your body. A cloud of foul gas spreads around a 10ft radius from you. 
You cause each non-undead creature within this area to make a Constitution Saving Throw; the DC of which is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier, taking 2d6 poison damage on a failed save, and half damage on a success.

The damage for this action increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level and 6d6 at 16th level. 

Blossoming Death

As a bonus action, when you kill a creature with a melee attack or with your Delayed Decay feature, you can channel your energy into blossoming a smaller corpse orchid with your kill.

You can cast Animate Dead at 3rd level on the creature. The spell duration only lasts for 1 minute and cannot be recast. You regain the use of this feature on a long rest.

Necromantic Fortitude

Your body feels very little pain and the small vines weaved through the flesh help to hold it together.

If damage reduces a Corpse Orchid to 0 HP, unless the damage type is fire or radiant, you can choose to make a Constitution Saving throw where the DC is equal to 5 plus the damage taken.

On a success, drop to 1 HP instead. You can only use this feature once and it recovers on a long rest.