I call it the Undead Avenger.
An Undead Avenger is created when somebody dies and the gods decide that their time has come a bit too soon. Perhaps the Undead Avenger was a powerful champion of good allowed to fight a little bit longer. Perhaps he or she was a murder victim allowed a second chance at life so as to be able to do the gods' work. Perhaps he or she was a repentant evil doer given a chance to prove their new found devotion to the cause of good. These are only a few of the reasons the gods' may choose to create an Undead Avenger.
When an Undead Avenger is created the wounds that killed the individual heal as soon as the individual is away from anybody who would kill him or her a second time and a voice that only the new Undead Avenger can hear explains what has just happened. Although an Undead Avenger is undead, all their organs regain their functions, and an Undead Avenger needs these organs functioning in order to continue living. Unlike most undead, Undead Avengers do need to sleep, eat, breath, and carry out all the other normal functions of a body. For this reason they do not gain the undead type, despite being undead.
An Undead Avenger has the following attributes at 1st level:
Immune to death effects.
If killed cannot be resurrected by any means whatsoever. An Undead Avenger is only given one additional chance at life. Once they die a second time, they are dead permanently.
Gains the same benefits from consecrate and hallow that other undead get from desecrate and unhallow. Is hindered by desecrate and unhallow in the same way other undead are by consecrate and hallow.
Hide from undeath, detect undead, deathwatch, undeath to death, disrupt undead, and similar spells effect them. Use undead line in detect evil spell description when in the area of a detect good spell.
Damaged by unholy water but not by holy water.
Spells with greater than normal effects against undead do not have these effects if the spell has the good descriptor or is cast by a caster of good alignment or who channels positive energy. They are healed by positive energy and harmed by negative energy.
Command undead, control undead, halt undead, create undead, and other spells that create or command undead have no effect. Cannot be turned, destroyed, rebuked, commanded, or bolstered by the cleric/paladin power.
Note that the Undead Avenger doesn't get any new powers or lose any Paladin abilities. All it gets is immunity to death effects and resurrection spells and is effected by some things that effect undead. This is because the Undead Avenger is an archetype I see as an alternate origin of the Paladin, not as a new set of abilities for the Paladin.
Opinions? Does it appear balanced? Is it cool? Do it's attributes make sense? Would you allow it if you were DMing?
I call it the Undead Avenger.
An Undead Avenger is created when somebody dies and the gods decide that their time has come a bit too soon. Perhaps the Undead Avenger was a powerful champion of good allowed to fight a little bit longer. Perhaps he or she was a murder victim allowed a second chance at life so as to be able to do the gods' work. Perhaps he or she was a repentant evil doer given a chance to prove their new found devotion to the cause of good. These are only a few of the reasons the gods' may choose to create an Undead Avenger.
When an Undead Avenger is created the wounds that killed the individual heal as soon as the individual is away from anybody who would kill him or her a second time and a voice that only the new Undead Avenger can hear explains what has just happened. Although an Undead Avenger is undead, all their organs regain their functions, and an Undead Avenger needs these organs functioning in order to continue living. Unlike most undead, Undead Avengers do need to sleep, eat, breath, and carry out all the other normal functions of a body. For this reason they do not gain the undead type, despite being undead.
An Undead Avenger has the following attributes at 1st level:
Immune to death effects.
If killed cannot be resurrected by any means whatsoever. An Undead Avenger is only given one additional chance at life. Once they die a second time, they are dead permanently.
Gains the same benefits from consecrate and hallow that other undead get from desecrate and unhallow. Is hindered by desecrate and unhallow in the same way other undead are by consecrate and hallow.
Hide from undeath, detect undead, deathwatch, undeath to death, disrupt undead, and similar spells effect them. Use undead line in detect evil spell description when in the area of a detect good spell.
Damaged by unholy water but not by holy water.
Spells with greater than normal effects against undead do not have these effects if the spell has the good descriptor or is cast by a caster of good alignment...
Seems like something that would make more sense as a prestige class to me. If you're a nobody (L0) it seems less compelling that you'd be brought back as an undead avenger. I could see it as a paladin-ability/undead-trait PrC that any class could go into...?
I like the flavor!
...I call it the Undead Avenger.
An Undead Avenger is created when somebody dies and the gods decide that their time has come a bit too soon. Perhaps the Undead Avenger was a powerful champion of good allowed to fight a little bit longer. Perhaps he or she was a murder victim allowed a second chance at life so as to be able to do the gods' work. Perhaps he or she was a repentant evil doer given a chance to prove their new found devotion to the cause of good. These are only a few of the reasons the gods' may choose to create an Undead Avenger.
When an Undead Avenger is created the wounds that killed the individual heal as soon as the individual is away from anybody who would kill him or her a second time and a voice that only the new Undead Avenger can hear explains what has just happened. Although an Undead Avenger is undead, all their organs regain their functions, and an Undead Avenger needs these organs functioning in order to continue living. Unlike most undead, Undead Avengers do need to sleep, eat, breath, and carry out all the other normal functions of a body. For this reason they do not gain the undead type, despite being undead.
An Undead Avenger has the following attributes at 1st level:
Immune to death effects.
If killed cannot be resurrected by any means whatsoever. An Undead Avenger is only given one additional chance at life. Once they die a second time, they are dead permanently.
Gains the same benefits from consecrate and hallow that other undead get from desecrate and unhallow. Is hindered by desecrate and unhallow in the same way other undead are by consecrate and hallow.
Hide from undeath, detect undead, deathwatch, undeath to death, disrupt undead, and similar spells effect them. Use undead line in detect evil spell description when in the area of a detect good spell.
Damaged by unholy water but not by holy water.
Spells with greater than normal effects against undead do not have these effects if the spell has the good descriptor or is cast by a caster
Perhaps Undead Avengers are created from dead people who hadn't done anything with their lives yet (and so are level 0), but showed immense promise as champions of good, and so were brought back to life to fulfill that promise. Does that make more sense?
I'm honestly not sure why you would want to play this character... For all intents and purposes, it's just a paladin who...
* is immune to death effects
* cannot be resurrected...ever.
* still needs to eat/sleep/breath as if living
* is treated as living for consecrate/hallow
* treated as living for holy water, treated as if a Good Outsider for Unholy Water
* not subject to added effects from undead-targetted spells with the [good] descriptor or just being cast by someone of Good alignment
How does Positive/Negative energy effect him?
Are any class abilities effected? (If Positive energy now harms the Undead Avenger, how does his Channel Positive Energy function?)
What about the rest of the standard undead template abilities?
# Darkvision 60 feet.
# Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
# Immunity to bleed, death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
# Not subject to nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength), as well as to exhaustion and fatigue effects.
# Cannot heal damage on its own if it has no Intelligence score, although it can be healed. Negative energy (such as an inflict spell) can heal undead creatures. The fast healing special quality works regardless of the creature's Intelligence score.
# Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
# Not at risk of death from massive damage, but is immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points.
Source
This is really more of a template that you would apply, it's not really an archetype. Archetypes trade class abilities for other abilities, or adjust how class abilities work.
I'm honestly not sure why you would want to play this character... For all intents and purposes, it's just a paladin who...
* is immune to death effects
* cannot be resurrected...ever.
* still needs to eat/sleep/breath as if living
* is treated as living for consecrate/hallow
* treated as living for holy water, treated as if a Good Outsider for Unholy Water
* not subject to added effects from undead-targetted spells with the [good] descriptor or just being cast by someone of Good alignmentHow does Positive/Negative energy effect him?
Are any class abilities effected? (If Positive energy now harms the Undead Avenger, how does his Channel Positive Energy function?)
What about the rest of the standard undead template abilities?
** spoiler omitted **This is really more of a template that...
Undead Avengers are healed by positive energy and harmed by negative energy, just like living Paladins. Class abilities are not effected.
I see the Undead Avenger as an alternate origin of the Paladin and not as a new fighting style, which is why I kept all the Paladin abilities. This is more of a backstory modification than a playing style modification. As for why it cannot be resurrected, I put that in to balance out it's immunity to death effects (both it's immunity to death effects [it is already dead] and immunity to resurrection [it only gets one extra chance at life] make sense to me).
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Not that it's a reply to your new Paladin, but Monte Cook's brilliant Arcana Evolved has a really good design for the "Paladin" called a Champion. Like choosing a Bloodline or Domain, but more like an Order for a Cavalier, a Champion chooses a character-build based on what he champions: Champion of Light, Champion of Freedom, Champion of Evil, Champion of Death, Champion of this-or-that God, etc.
Anyway, taking a look at how the various "Champions" are designed can give you a really good idea of how to further develop (or redesign) your alternate Paladin. (And you can campare your result, balance-wise, with the various Orders for a Cavalier. Cuz Arcana Evolved is 3E.)