Homebrew Awakened Undead Species Details

Death comes for all things in a near-infinite variety of ways. So, too, are there many reasons that the dead might return from the grave. Directly-applied necromancy, cursed lands, and unfinished business are but a few, and all leave the newly-undead soul with a mere semblance of the life it had before. All undead carry the physical or emotional scars of what ended their mortal lives, though some may be far more subtle than others.

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 spellcaster.

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, Wisp, Clatter, Shiver

Awakened Undead Traits

You died, but you weren't really good at staying dead, were you?

Past Life

Choose another race besides this one, which must be humanoid and lack the Living Construct trait (or similar). Before your death, you were a member of this race and appear as an undead version of it. Your size, height, and movement speed are the same as a typical member of that race. You do not retain special movement speeds from this race (such as swimming or flying). If your Past Life race has subraces, you can select one, but it confers no benefits.

Darkvision

Through the necromantic energy animating you, you are able to perceive with greater clarity that which lurks in the darkness. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Living Dead

You have been raised from death, but regaining your autonomy has returned to you some of the spark of life. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Additionally, you have two creature types: humanoid and undead. You can be affected by a spell or ability if it works on either of your creature types.

Restless

As an undead, you very rarely tire. You treat exhaustion as if it was one level less. In addition, 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.

Unholy

Unlike other undead, you can be restored through healing magic, but it has a significantly dampened effect on you. When you regain hit points from a source that specifies it does not function on undead, you only receive half as many hit points as the source would normally provide, rounded down.

Bloodless

You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language, typically one available to the race you chose for your Past Life. If your Past Life race has a trait that precludes speech (such as a kenku’s Mimicry), you are still not able to speak and instead gain access to the relevant trait of your Past Life race that substitutes speech.

Ability Score Increase (Skeleton)

Your Dexterity or Intelligence score increases by 2.

Bone Pile

When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point 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 an action to end this effect. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Them Bones

Whenever both of your hands are unoccupied, you can use a bonus action to rearrange the bones in your body, or to return your body to its original configuration. Some rearrangement options for example:

• Bone Club. You remove an arm and use it as a bone club. While used as a weapon, you have proficiency with your removed arm, which is a melee weapon with the finesse property that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage on a hit.
• Bone To Pick. You remove a hand, and hold it in your other hand as if it were a set of thieves’ tools. This hand is capable of picking locks, cutting glass, and any other function thieves’ tools could achieve.
• Bone Xylophone. You remove two of your ribs and use the rest of your remaining ribs as a musical instrument.

At your DM’s option, you can use this trait to perform other tasks, such as juggling your own bones, removing your skull to look around a corner or over a wall, or similar. Your bones lose their animation if they are further than 5 feet from the majority of your body, and must be reattached before they are once again a part of you. If your skull loses animation, you are blinded and deafened until a skull is affixed to your body.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 1.