Need Suggestions on Race Design


Homebrew and House Rules


I'm building a race that's made by the Wizards of Nex, called the Servants of Nex.

I want to use the Eternal Template in the construction because these creatures were forged to do things that mortal men would otherwise die from. Like walking into a room full of poisonous gas to retrieve vital experimental data, or trap finding fighter-style. Maybe even subject to the harsher experiments of transmogrification or 'dummies' for safety protocols during development stages. The race itself is always eager to please and serve without question. Though they will not harm themselves in the process if they can help it.

A Servant is as likely to do something harmful to themselves, as any good-aligned character is. Unless they worship that kind of deity.

My only issue is finding a specific death that would negate the template allowing permanent death.

First idea; Knowledgeable self-sacrifice, dying instantly in an effort to provide a service.

Though all Servants are allowed the option to accept or decline thus giving them free will, of sorts. They are still naturally inclined to provide service and be helpful in any way, disregarding any moral stance. They're happy to serve.

Second idea; Active defiance of their Master's task assigned with a command word, resulting in Geas Quest effects, and if the creature were to die while under these effects, death would be permanent.

Now I've tried to come up with a catch in the second idea. If the master were to die, the Servant would be free to do as they please, even find and choose a new master.


A monster race or a playable race?


One simple idea would have them risk permanent death any time they are in an area without magic (mana wastes, anti-magic field, etc). They are created by magic after all.


Skaorn wrote:
One simple idea would have them risk permanent death any time they are in an area without magic (mana wastes, anti-magic field, etc). They are created by magic after all.

That sounds like a plausible idea, but they're supposed to be able to go into dangerous areas for their creators, so permanent death vs anti-magic areas isn't well thought through on the part of wizards.

How about a code word, like how Fontaine got Jack to "kill" himself using that "Would you kindly" phrase. They can only die when commanded to perform a task that would instantly kill them, and they won't come back to life after that, except by normal means, which removes the template.

Ohh! It's basically a form of discipline for disobedience! If any of the Servants commanded with their code word/phrase take any damage, while they fulfill that command, it must be healed naturally and will not be reversed after 2d6 minutes.

I feel as though I'll never be able to truly experiment with this template. The race itself seems to fit that 5th party member slot, like a bard. Only powerful in skill checks and face situations. Pretty much the one guy that checks on something and suddenly gets splattered by bad luck and a giant rock. Actually this race would fit as a bard, perfectly.


The command word works but how about this option. If I'm an evil overlord who creates a slave race, I would want to setup safe zones incase they get rebellious. Have a specific type of ward that these people can detect so they know when they're in an area they shouldn't be in and if they enter they can be killed by guardians or traps permanently if the overlord wasn't around. Have the secret of the ward's creation be something that got leaked so you can set it up so that these people have something more to worry about than someone knowing their secret code word on occasion.

It's just a thought so that it's a little bit more of a threat you can throw to make a player nervous or to give to PCs to let them stop one that's a villian.


Okay, think of it this way, Prometheus was the man, in Greek Mythology, who brought fire to mortals. As punishment he was granted immortality chained to a rock, to forever be eaten alive by a giant vulture. The man was shattered because he had to suffer death over and over. Watching the vulture dig it's beak into his body and pull out his innards for as long as he remained there.

The inability to die comes with a cost. You remember every way you've ever died, and always come back from it. Despite this race's ability to never die, they're not going to go into places that are dangerous just because they know they can't die. I'd say, for every death, they receive trauma. It can be removed through therapy or magical means. With each consecutive trauma their sanity crumbles and, without healing, eventually they'll descend into madness.

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