Campaign with Humans and Undead Humans

[Sacredless]

So, I'm trying to create a campaign where half the group is human and half the group is undead human. The living humans are survivors of a devastating, decimating war with a necromancer and as a result, there are 9 to 1 dead humans. First, the humans began to enslave demons to rebuild their civilization, but between them and the undead, there is just not enough manpower. Those who didn't agree with the use of demon magic, left. Then, a new nation of undead humans reveal themselves as having been freed from the necromancer's influence. The live humans have no choice but to accept the terms of allegiance with this new undead nation.

Over time, demon magic is phased out, but there is still prejudice towards the humans who left. The undead humans maintain luke-warm relations with the live ones on an interpersonal level, though in the political echelons, there clearly is tension. The live humans have become a protectorate of the undead daughter nation. The daughter nation wants to bring the fight to the necromancer, but the live humans have only one army that they do not wish to split and spread too thinly. The undead twist their hand, however, threatening to leave them undefended from rivaling nations. The live humans are forced to start conscription to pad out the ranks.

The players can be either living humans or undead humans. The problem is that I want to give the undead humans the same flexibility that the living humans have. That would add up to 24 RP points with the race creator, however.

Would that balance out in the end? I fear that I might be giving too much power to the undead part of the group.

[DM_Blake]

Yes, that would be unbalanced. Some players would look at that and say "Well, I want to be human, not a yucky undead, so I guess I'll make the weak choice for the flavor." But I think most would just say "Human is sub-optimal so undead is the way to go" and you might end up with everyone being undead.

The good news is that, if they do, it would be balanced...

So I'd suggest tone down some of the undead benefits. Or ramp up a few new things for humans (pick a couple nice, new, but hopefully thematic things from the Race Builder). Or do both.

[Sacredless]

Hm... How about... The following...

1. The undead get lower point-buy, since they don't use Con.
2. The undead are no longer immune to mind-affecting spells.
3. The undead get Resurrection Vulnerability, meaning that Raise Dead will destroy their undead corpse.

Would that balance it?

[Sacredless]

I can't think of anything to add to the humans. Perhaps I could give them the native (outsider) type for working with demons for so long, but that wouldn't work really well with the humans that left before hand.

[Bob Bob Bob]

Slap the Fiendish template on the humans? It's... close, I guess. Darkvision, low SR, minor DR and resist fire and cold.