Once you are possessed, the possessing creature may as a reflexive action transfer control back to you if it chooses. Hit 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage. Sunlight Vulnerability. Later it also appeared in the same 3e book Monsters of Faern as the baelnorn did and both were described on the same page. Prerequisites. Although you do not require food or drink the way a mortal creature does, you do require the blood of a living creature. A target that succeeds its saving throw becomes immune to this effect for the next 24 hours. Gift of the Phoenix. However I can imagine a scenario where a Lich can become good - after a few hundred years of lichdom, for some reason the Lich sees the light and realizes the error of her ways. Water Walk. Sneak Attack (1/Turn). Upon reaching zero hit points, the deity you made your sacred oath has the option to give your life back to you in another place in their domain. Basilisk. You must carry the gemstone with you during the duration of the spell, in which it remains passive until activated. His appetite for flesh has been tempered to feast on animaland occasionally ogre carrion. Wiki Le Monde des Royaumes Oublis (French), Creatures with a 21 challenge rating (3e), Year of the Rune Lords Triumphant, 1487 DR, "The Searing (Dalelands, Dragon Coast)" in, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, "Watchnorns" were observers and guardians of public places or family lands, such as, "Lorenorns" acted as tutors, librarians, or students of magic or art; and. Forgotten Realms lore does mention the names of a few specific archliches and baelnorn: A church grim is the spirit of a faithful dog who has not left the land of the living, and remains to safeguard the graveyard its remains were buried in. Provide an 'everliving spellcaster' that wasn't evil.). For example, an adventurer is tasked to banish a ghost for no other reason than the ghost "needs" to be banished, and the advenuturer refuses or instead becomes friends with the ghost and only banishes it if it wishes to, then the Order may hear of it and consider recruiting the advenuterer. and our Within the list of spells there are a number of resurrection spells, the most powerful being one that can bring back the dead even if not a scrap of their corpse remains. If she instead chooses a space within range that is occupied by a willing Small or Medium creature, they both teleport, swapping places. Some often mistake this spirit to be a vicious hellhound, but the church grim is actually a benevolent guardian of the graveyard. At 4th level, your creature type becomes undead. You renounced life for undeath willingly through a special ritual. Undeath stunts the growth of children in mind and soul, and can damage the soul after a long period of time even if said child is fully sentient with free will. These stat blocks can be used to represent both human and nonhuman NPCs. Yet, even in our world humanity has feared the living dead rising from the grave since prehistoric times, there are stories about people returning from death not quite right, and a fear that such undead are not the person, but an evil spirit possessing a corpse. He was told by a supposed divine emissary to sow the dragon's teeth in the ground to reclaim his lost soldiers. A scenario in which evil and non-evil undead must ally with one another is if under threat from forces who enforce the natural order of death, such as from gods of death who adamantly loathe all undead no matter the alignment. Their skin turned into petrified wood, their hair to moss and their eyes to amber. For example, a halfling druid might have a speed of 25 feet and the Lucky trait. This perspective of undeath may even biased or flawed if undead have a tendency to spontaneously rise, or rise when a creature feels their death is unjust or that their time in the Material Plane ought to be extended in the case of revenants and ghosts. An undead craftsman is the one of only a handful of people who is exceptionally skilled at a very rare trade or skill, and knows that with his own passing it means the extinction of this skill. Someone who voluntarily becomes undead does so to preserve themselves for certain intentions or goals. This does not count as a charm effect. His childrens corpses were of no use to the necromancer, and his wife was likely just another skeleton that was smited in the most recent battle. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Some of the oldest baelnorn seemed to have little more than the hint of body, hair, and skin around their skeletons. Some settings have a model of a dual spirit, wherein the soul is the true essence of a person that leaves to the afterlife, but another part of that person's spirit may still linger on and resemble that person in personality and memories, but is still copy or something once part of that being's soul. Some living members do seek to become undead themselves, but many find that the prejudice is a barrier and many feel that their cause is best served while alive. You may be taking up adventuring for a number of reasons, to sate your slaughter or revenge against the necromancer who did this to you, or maybe you have had a change of heart and decide to make it up with heroic deeds. If you fall to 0 hit points again, you have advantage on death saving throws, if you die, you are no longer possessed. Renwick Caradoon, brother of Samular Caradoon and Amphail Caradoon the Just. Spellcasting. There are three ways a humanoid can become a ghoul: a humanoid who developed an appetite for humanoid flesh dies and comes back as a ghoul, a humanoid has died of ghoul fever from a ghoul bite, or a corpse is raised as a ghoul using magic such as create undead. The creature may choose to fail its roll. This link transcends physical and all known magical barriers, and it can even cross the boundaries between the Prime Material and Ethereal Planes. A twist to add is that one's Lay on Hands can heal undead, or perhaps only undead and have no effect on living creatures. We could imagine that there were a process to upload one's memories to a machine (or a network), and thereby achieve a form of immortality. When using the spell animate dead or create undead this way, such undead creature may return back to death after the time it is controlled is over. General Information[1][4] 5th level (3 slots): geas, insect plague, legend lore utterly.. (MM 203). Most adventures who encounter archliches are surprised and often rightly suspicious of a friendly lich; the knowledge of archliches does not exist in most parts of the world. This is done to keep it even more secretive as such things can alert others of the existence of a larger organization. The ruins of places such as abandoned elven cities are where baelnorn are likely to be found. Your Intelligence and Constitution scores recover after you have eaten your fill. Lawful good Cut ability scores. Favored Terrain. The spartoi has advantage on saving throws against being frightened. If the spartoi is not killed in this state, it rises up with 10 hit points after 1 minute or if animate dead is cast on it. It turns out he is the founder of the town and feared that his hard work in establishing the settlement would be wasted by the various dangers that inhabit the land. On a hit, your bite deals 2d6 piercing damage + your Dexterity or Strength modifier. Negative energy may not even required to animate the dead. Hit 8 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage. Hit 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage. Multiattack. The stat block of a Lich for D&D 5e has the following in black and white: Lich Medium undead, any evil alignment Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit Points 135 (18d8 + 54) . There may be some overlap between lingering spirits of the dead and the spirits from other planes, it may involve the destiny of that soul and what the soul did in life. Due to no alignment restriction and little adjustments, they are and still remain the most recommended way to play an undead character. The party, and the family of the party are too poor to afford proper ressurection, so they start to consider reanimation, as horrible as it may be. A planetouched spirit may be one that is summoned by a cleric whose ancestors were very close to their deity who allows souls to move to and from their domain. A church grim appears as9 it did in life but often black or a translucent gray as well as glowing eyes. 2nd level (3 slots): cloud of daggers*, detect thoughts, misty step*, web* Many archliches were once advenurters or renown heroes who decided to slip into obscurity and watch the world continue rather than move onto the afterlife. In many settings, undeath is tied to a philosophy of nihilism, destruction, and death. They could theoretically be souls that good people might even line up and thank the Lich for removing. Positive and negative energy might be a part of every living being, positive and negative energy might even be two facets of the same kind of energy that suffuses the cosmos. The archlich has the following wizard spells prepared: Cantrips (at will): chill touch, mage hand, prestidigitation, spare the dying* Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, Reach 5 ft., one target. [4], While as mighty and terrifying as a lichsuch that lesser undead and animals would not dare to attack thembaelnorn lacked a lich's chilling aura of horror that could send weak-willed foes fleeing. 21 If your undead type is immune to being charmed or made to fall asleep, it will be redundant with racial traits like Fey Ancestry. 3rd level (3 slots): animate dead, counterspell, dispel magic, fireball d20 Modern Conversion: Vehicles | GM Binder Add your undead type's disadvantages and additional traits. consciousness. Humanoid If deathless are more available to a certain race, such as elves, this can also serve as tension between an undead and that race which has better access to deathlessness. Like non-evil undead, there can be ways to work around aspects of such necromancy that may be considered evil, consider the following adjustments to reanimating depending on how reanimation works in your setting: Mindless undead minions do not have the souls of the deceased nor entropic energies, they are little different from constructs except they are animated from the echoes of life in the way the speak with dead spell does. Your body can now rejuvenate after death. Vampire Weaknesses. Further investigation reveals something troubling: a letter written by the keeper of the treasure post-mortem! Template - Lich - Realms Helps On a successful save, the creature's speed is halved for 1 minute or until the creature takes any damage. Most undead that heroes encounter are hostile enemies to take down, so how would non-evil undead work in a campaign? Ideal: Freedom. Focused Conjuration. [5], As of the mid-to-late 14th century DR, the church of Kelemvor did not see baelnorn as requiring destruction, and generally preferred to leave them be. You are compelled by a great need to dine on rotting flesh. If you are a very rules-as-written loose DM, you might consider having an undead cleric turn the living instead! If the corpse is reduced to bones, it gains vulnerability to bludgeoning damage but resistance to piercing damage. Over eons, you may have regained better self-awareness and questioned your role; or maybe you are seeking out what you were meant to protect after it was taken away. If a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into Nyx's heart while she is incapacitated in her resting place, she is paralysed until the stake is removed. There are undead who do take down evil undead and seek vengeance against evil necromancers who exploit the dead, especially seeking the one who may have raised them from the dead into servitude. They may start to wonder how they survived so long alive with the burdens of the living body such as defecation and disease. You count as an undead creature and take the resistances and weaknesses the possessing creature has. Then we move onto an overview of how to put non-evil undead in a setting, such as motivatations, the state of undeath and necromatic energies, how it can effect the setting to have neutral or good undead, and philosophical viewpoints of the undead. A deeper investigation would reveal their presence in such places as keepers of ancient libraries, guardians of old monasteries that house the remains of legendary heroes, or even as the head of a noble house of elves. There were once many adjustments that had to be made, but now it is much easier. If your hand is also thrown, alone or with your arm, it can move back to you at a speed of 10 ft. It depends on how creative your DM wants your canon to be. What were the most popular text editors for MS-DOS in the 1980s? When the living and undead openly interact, it may change laws and customs to adjust. *The baelnorn can effect undead creatures with this spell. Each undead creature must make a Constitution saving throw, upon failure the creature no longer counts as undead for the effect of spells and abilities such as turn undead and protection from good and evil. The existence of good liches is harder to justify with the new requirement that liches feed souls to their phylacteries, yet there is still hope for them. The ritual isn't used often because of these limitations, and has only been used in desperation such as when a kingdom is too depleted (most likely due to the dragon) to afford adequate resurrection and more troops. She wears make-up, feeds on animal blood, and excuses are made about how she cannot attend anything during the day. Tarian has the following ranger spells prepared: 1st level (4 slots): detect magic, fog cloud, goodberry, hunter's mark. However, despite all his undead "gifts", a baelnorn (like a lich) counts his vast intellect, his supreme mastery of wizardry and limitless time to research and plan, as his greatest resources. Quarterstaff. A very good undead can even start siphoning energy from another source such as positive or arcane energy, such a creature's properties would change to reflect that. As such, some of their abilities are different, and their existence may be . These spectral dogs may form formidable packs to better gaurd their territory. More here: https://backstab.substack.com/p/pinkerton . A planetouched spirit may also have been one banished due to not assimilating to that plane. You must drink a total of 7 pints (3.3 liters) of blood per week from a living creature that is the same size and the same creature type you were before becoming a vampire. If this sounds ghoulish, well maybe it isnt so different from a ghoul after all? Unearthed Arcana also offers up the Revenant Sub-Race: @guildsbounty That one perma-kills you when you finish your quest, and doesn't feel very party-friendly to me. A question that is worth exploring is why a character may choose to become or remain undead even if there may be ways to return to full life. There might be people who voluntarily will allow their remains to be animated, even if it means disturbing their own rest, they are happy to be taken back to the land of the living once in a while. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th Level or higher, you can target 1 additional humanoid for each slot above 4th. In another published adventure, there is a lich who is in very bad shape due to not feeding his phylactery but can be restored with a certain spell without the need to sacrifice any souls, though he is evil, the incident shows there may be another way. However, it was possible that some records may have persisted in Evermeet or Evereska. [7] Most baelnorn stayed within the crypts, towers, ruins, or other structures which they guarded or worked in, and were rarely seen outside of them. A transhumanist existence would become something inhuman, as much of the human condition and even human psychology and thinking involved being embodied and one with ones biological processes. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th Level or higher, you can target 1 additional undead for each slot above 4th. Heavy Crossbow. Anything it is wearing transforms with it, but nothing it is carrying does. I was wondering if there could be a good lich (that is not an archlich). For evil characters, this answer is usually easier due to the presence of evil gods of undeath, and the general association of undeath and evil. Such necromancy is often shunned or taboo, and in many settings is considered an act that if done enough times can render a necromancer evil. The first is to establish undead as free citizens in at least one country that is not heavily allied with evil. What is important for the community is that you share your sources of inspiration. Divine Smite. You raise a corpse into an undead creature, minding any damage you may cause to its soul and wellbeing. Mr. Bodoni can disattach a limb he is not using at the moment such as a leg, arm, or even just a hand, and wield it as a melee weapon that causes bludgeoning damage. The lair of an archlich depends greatly on what it pursues in unlife, whether an existence of solitude on arcane research or and existence watching over the living. At 1st level, your spellcasting continues to progress as if you were still taking levels in the prerequisite class using the same spell list available to the prerequisite class. Bodoni makes two melee attacks. One of our players at the table wants to turn himself into a Baelnorn, he's a lvl 10 High Elf Wizard, and we have seen there is no official stats for Baelnorn in 5e, some homebrew in dandwiki but nothing else.-What would you grant your players if they go down that path, in order to keep it interesting and balanced?-Do you think this Baelnorn class example it's a good starting point? Nobody is answering and if there is a cleric or paladin in your party, anyone will be even more reluctant to come out. Cantrips (at will): chill touch, mage hand, thaumaturgy, spare the dying* (They pass into a spirit trap, created by a powerful and secret 7th-level spell, and then are whisked into their next body.). Turned creatures can only use their Dash action or try to flee an effect that prevents it from escaping. Baelnorn have a special power: Thrice per day, up to five turns at a time, and without employing a spell to do it, they can use a project image power to send a wraithlike likeness of themselves, called a sending, up to a mile distant. Her spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). The church grim will do its best to scare and fight off intruders such as grave robbers and unscrupoulus necromancers. Combat: Baelnorn do not project a terrifying aura as do liches, but the chill of their unlife inflicts the same touch damage (plus paralysis if the victim fails a save). Well, you can use this column to do exactly that! Vampire - Monster Stat Block Dungeons & Dragons - DnD 5e - AideDD The redeemed death knight is a 19th level spellcaster. Baelnorn can be hit only by +1 or better magical weapons, by magical beings, or by creatures with 6 or more Hit Dice. Undead miners can work in conditions that would kill living miners.