Deathless

When a deathless is created, they maintain a passing resemblance to their original race, but the process of returning means that their flesh continues to deteriorate much like traditional undead. While the deathless can keep up appearances with only a little effort, they cannot easily reverse any decay that does take place.

Deathless exist outside of the cycle of life. They made some great sacrifice for a greater good and honored their gods in such as way that they were returned to the realm of the living. Their story continues, their physical bodies transformed seemingly into undead, but their souls are still healed by the magic that cured them in life. They remain on the whim of the fates, but they must proceed with greater caution now, for to die again could mean the destruction of their soul.

Deathless do not live in societies of their own making, preferring instead to blend into existing cultures if at all possible. There are some in the world who hunt the deathless, seeking to mark them as undead so that they cannot spread their lies to the living people of the world.

Finding New Purpose

Every deathless is created with a purpose of some kind. That purpose often takes the form of a task set by the entity that brought the deathless back, but it can also be a form of punishment, or a reward.

Not all deathless are aware of why they were brought back. Some do not understand their purpose immediately, only finding it out as they live out their new existence.

Unlike revenants, when a deathless has fulfilled its purpose, it may choose to continue living as it is, or if it has access, the deathless can seek out a means of resurrection back to its former self. Surprisingly, very few deathless ever choose this path after seeing how the world has changed in the time since they last lived.

Deathless Names

Upon creation, each deathless must decide to either keep the name it had in life, or to adopt another name better suited to its new purpose.

Heritage Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 2. Age. Deathless are matured upon creation, even if they were children before dying. The process of death and reawakening ages them emotionally and mentally. It prepares them for what is to come. Over time, the body of a deathless decays, lasting between 50 and 200 years, depending on how well the deathless takes care of it.

Alignment. Deathless alignment depends solely on the entity or god that brought it back to the world of the living. Deathless usually have a dark, evil, destructive alignment and are usually are made to protect or save an important person or place. Other gods may create deathless for their own reasons but deathless almost always worship the god that created them and mirror their worldview.

Size. The return does change your physical form slightly, even if in your original life you were Small or on the verge of Large. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Self Care. You don’t need to sleep, but if you don’t spend at least 6 consecutive hours recuperating each day, your body decays at twice the normal rate. After a week, this increases to four times. While recuperating, you are inert, but it doesn’t render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Undead Resilience. You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits:

• You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
• You are immune to disease.
• Magic can’t put you to sleep.

Revenence. You have retained some aspects of your former life, or picked up a few new tricks when you came back. Choose one of these aspects. Your GM may allow for more, similar options, if they appropriately represent your former life.

• Armor Training You have proficiency with light and medium armor.
• Brave You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened, and you can willingly move closer to the source of your fear. You still have disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of your fear is within line of sight.
• Combat Training You have proficiency with one martial weapon of your choice.
• Darkvision You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
• Energy Resistance Choose acid, cold, fire, or lightning. You have resistance to that damage type.
• Fleet of Foot Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
• Ghastly Claws You have claws that are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
• Nimbleness You can move through the space of any creature that is of your size or larger.
• Skeletal Form You have resistance to piercing and slashing damage, but your appearance becomes gaunt and less humanoid, giving you disadvantage on Charisma (persuasion) checks made to influence creatures not comfortable with your status as a deathless.
• Specialized Training You gain one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.
• Steady Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor, and you have advantage on checks and saving throws to resist being shoved or forced prone.
• Spirit Guide You have a small or smaller animal that follows you from a safe distance. It can point you to a clue you may have missed, lead you in the direction of a goal you have set for yourself, or offer some other minor assistance a creature of its species could provide. Once your spirit guide has aided you, it will not do so again until you finish a long rest.
• Undead Mind You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.
• Undead Toughness Your Constitution score increases by 2, instead of 1.