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In my bi-weekly "Skull & Shackles" game, I have a PC that came to me asking if there was a way to play as a free-willed zombie-like creature similar to that found in the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
Now, although I do not claim to have a encyclopedic knowledge of the Pathfinder rules, I can say that I own 99.9% of the sourcebooks for this game and am not currently aware of an existing creature or template that would allow this.
So, as a purely scholastic endeavor (I'm not saying I would do this sort of thing or not), I would like to propose to the community how they might go about pulling something like this off.
Is anyone already aware of a third-party sourcebook that pulls this sort of thing off already?
If you were to use the Advanced Race Guide's Race Creation Rules, how would you handle it?
The guys in the movie are the unkillable and never getting any fun out of anything guys?
Ghouls are probably the nearest thing. Sentient, capable of gaining class levels and not too powerful.
Then they are just People. I dont undestand what you need, humans that Can never have fun are still humans. Pehaps give them a bonus on intimidate in moon ligth.
If it is freewilled undead then pehaps somthing like a Juju zombie that only have there zombie look when the Moon shines on them.
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Then they are just People. I dont undestand what you need, humans that Can never have fun are still humans. Pehaps give them a bonus on intimidate in moon ligth.
If it is freewilled undead then pehaps somthing like a Juju zombie that only have there zombie look when the Moon shines on them.
I think the problem comes from the new advantages of being immune to Poison, Drowning, Death Effects, taking damage from Positive-Charged Healing, healing only with Negative-Charged Healing, etc.
Thoughts?
What problem? If you want them to be undead they should get that stuff but and the downside of the curse is mainly in the RP part of the game. But the movie dosent have negative energy healing and all that.
I think the juni zombie is a good match the DR give a ok invulnerability sort of thing. I would it cost a level or two. If it cost two i would throw in defacto immortallity with a free raise every dusk. But remember the curse is not supposed to be a great thing.
Juju Zombie for your template that does exactly what the player wants (a free-willed zombie), though, honestly, a skeletal champion with a constant variant disguise self alter self-like effect^ that only shows their previous form, and doesn't function in the moonlight. Both do exactly what you're asking for.
^
Although, if you want it a bit more balanced for PCs, you could offer the following changes to the skeletal champion:
* Drop the STR and DEX increases (the movie doesn't provide this anyway) and natural attacks.
* Drop the bonus feat
* Drop channel resistance and nAC (though if you've a spammy channel-healer alongside, the channel resistance might be a good thing to keep for party cohesion)
* Drop the character's charisma by 2 (to reflect the "deadness" they feel inside) - not enough to actively harm a given character build, but enough to make it a mechanical consideration (hit points, fortitude, and similar checks run off of this now, mind). If the character has a rubbish CON or is a caster, consider lowering it by 4 instead, though if he's a CHA-based caster, I'd lower it by four, but I'd give him a lesser version of elemental affinity - treating his CHA as two points higher for spells, spellcasting, and class-abilities (but no other game effects).
That should keep it in line. Yes, the immunities are nice, but their usefulness is vastly over-sold, in my experience, once you hit level five or so.
As an alternative, perhaps look at the Race Builder half-undead race, and just "curse" him with that racial trait instead. It's useful, but it comes with some drawbacks, and isn't quite as potent as having a true undead would be.
I'm more in favor of just letting him be a skeletal champion, personally, but I offer the limited versions as alternatives, if you like them.
Of course, in 3.5, in the book Libris Mortis, there was the Necropolitan, but it sucked. It worked by: you go through a ritual, forever lose a level* (or two, I don't recall) [and you turn to ash, unable to be raised ever by anything if you can't afford it], and you gain the undead type. That's it. No level adjustment or anything, as I recall (and that was in 3.5, when undead got more benefits). I could be slightly off, I'll try and look it up.
* You could get those levels back, though.
NEAR-INSTA-EDIT: I looked it up, and it was a bit better than I thought, though still kind of boring:
Necropolitans are humanoids who renounce life and embrace undeath in a special ritual called the Ritual of Crucimigration (see below).
A necropolitan’s skin is dry, withered, and powdery. Its eyes are as pale as driven snow, and as lifeless. It continues to dress in the fashion it preferred while living. Necropolitans are considered citizens of the little-known city of Nocturnus, but if their nature is revealed elsewhere, they are feared and hunted like common monsters.
... and,
“Necropolitan” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A necropolitan speaks any languages it knew in life, and it has all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead, and it gains the augmented subtype. Do not recalculate base attack bonus, saves, or skill points. Size is unchanged.
Hit Dice: Increase to d12.
Special Qualities: A necropolitan retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described below.
Resist Control (Ex): Necropolitans have a +2 profane bonus on their Will saving throws to resist the effect of a control undead spell.
Turn Resistance (Ex): A necropolitan has +2 turn resistance.
Unnatural Resilience (Ex): Necropolitans automatically heal hit point damage and ability damage at the same rate as a living creature. The Heal skill has no effect on necropolitans; however, negative energy (such as an infl ict spell) heals them.
Abilities: Same as the base creature, except that as undead creatures, necropolitans have no Constitution score.
Advancement: By character class.
Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature. (Becoming a necropolitan involves losing a level—see Ritual of Crucimigration,
below—so the advantages of the undead type cancel out what would other wise be a larger adjustment.)
... and,
Any living humanoid or monstrous humanoid can petition for consideration to undergo the Ritual of Crucimigration, which (if successful) enables the creature to become a necropolitan. The petition for consideration requires a fee of 3,000 gp and a written plea.
The Ritual: The first part of the ritual requires the placement of the petitioner on a standing pole. Cursed nails are used to affix the petitioner, and then the pole is lifted into place. The resultant excruciating pain that shoots like molten metal through the petitioner’s fingers and up the arms is not what finally ends the petitioner’s mortal life, however, since death usually comes from asphyxiation and heart failure. As petitioners feel death’s chill enter their bodies, many have second thoughts, but it is far too late to go back—the cursed nails and chanting of the ritual ensures that the Crucimigration is completed.
The ceremony that lasts for 24 hours—the usual time it takes for the petitioner to perish. During this period, two or three zombie servitors keep up a chant initiated by the ritual leader when the petitioner is first placed into position. Upon hearing the petitioner’s last breath, the ritual leader calls forth the names of evil powers and gods to forge a link with the Negative Energy Plane, and then impales the petitioner. Dying, the petitioner is reborn as a necropolitan, dead but animate.
Game Effect: Immediately upon opening its undead eyes, a new necropolitan loses a level as if the spell raise dead had been used on it and it was alive instead of animate. (If the subject has no levels to lose, it is simply destroyed.) It then also loses an additional 1,000 XP. If the loss of this much XP forces the necropolitan to lose another level, then it loses another level. No spell, not even restoration, can restore this lost XP. Petitioners may not spend experience points they don’t have—if the level loss and the 1,000 XP cost drains a creature to 0 XP or less, it is destroyed, turned to dust, and can never be raised or revived again using any means. If the ritual is interrupted before it is completed, the petitioner is merely dead.
Note that, despite the "calling on evil powers" and such, the sample (i.e. "stereotypical") necropolitan was non-evil - specifically, the one provided was a neutral fifth level wizard.