New template: Immortal (as in Highlander). [Archive] - Wizards Community

New template: Immortal (as in Highlander). [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
goawayugh
09-06-07, 04:25 PM I normally do not like anything that is not printed in an official WotC book, but I just had to try this.

This is my first attempt at making any homebrew template/class/race....anything.

I am looking for HONEST feedback. I am not someone who is putting their overpowered homebrew thing up here for validation. If you think it has major flaws, suggest how to fix them. If it has too many, maybe I'll just scrap it.

If you're a Highlander fan, give me some suggestions on how to make it more authentic. If you don't know Highlander, just tell me what you think of it in terms of D&D rules.

Thanks for looking.

CREATING AN IMMORTAL

“Immortal” is an acquired template that can be added to any living Humanoid. This template must be added either at character creation, or immediately after the first time the character dies. If the character has ever died before, then they cannot become an Immortal. If added after death, the character is treated as having suffered Mortal Death (see below). An Immortal retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The base creature retains its original type but now also has Immortal as a subtype. Size is unchanged.

Special Attacks: An Immortal retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the one listed below.

Vorpal Blade: Every Immortal carries with them a vorpal blade of some sort, whether it is a longsword, rapier, axe, or even a long spear. The Immortal is proficient with any Vorpal Blade (even if it is from another Immortal). This vorpal ability can be applied to any weapon that has a blade, even if the weapon is not slashing (like a rapier). If an Immortal trains with a blade of their choice (which must be of masterwork quality with no other magical properties) for 8 hours per day for one week, the blade becomes a +1 vorpal blade. This blade functions only in the hands of an Immortal, and only against other Immortals. An Immortal has an extra dimensional sheath that he carries his vorpal blade in. This sheath can look like it holds any size weapon the Immortal chooses. He can draw his vorpal blade as a free action

Special Qualities: An Immortal retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described below.

Detect Immortal (Ex): An Immortal can automatically detect when another Immortal in within 60 ft. of him. He can spend a move action concentrating to determine the square that the aura is coming from, even if he can’t see the other Immortal.
Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal heals 1 point of damage each round. This does not allow him to reattach severed body parts, although broken bones and anything that is not completely severed will heal back to normal. Unlike other fast healing, this fast healing functions even if he has negative hit points.

Ability Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal can heal ability damage at a much faster rate also. He can heal 1 point per ability damaged every hour instead of every day. This does not allow him to heal permanent ability drain.

Mortal Death (Ex): When an Immortal would normally die, he instead stays dead for 1 minute at which point he is restored to life as though by a Raise Dead spell with the following exceptions. He does not lose a level (or Constitution points), and he can be raised even if he died from a death effect (so long as there is enough of the body to be raised). I am not too sure about this ability. I’m debating about just making it that an Immortal doesn’t die at -10 hp, instead their hp can keep going down. This way it is possible to keep an Immortal down (by constantly dealing it damage), but if they are left alone, they will eventually will pop back up.

Disease Immunity (Ex): An Immortal is immune to diseases such as lycanthropy and mummy rot, as well as being turned into an undead creature (such as from a vampire’s bite).

Timeless Body (Ex): An Immortal continues to age, but does not suffer any of the physical ability loss that aging normally causes. An Immortal can never die of old age, they just continue to age indefinitely. Their physical appearance stays the same as when they became an Immortal.

Quickening (Ex): When an Immortal beheads another Immortal, he gets her quickening. He learns everything she knew and has all of her memories. This does not give access to skills or abilities not normally possessed by the Immortal. It simply permits the winning Immortal access to all of the beheaded Immortal’s memories. After experiencing a quickening, an Immortal is fatigued for the rest of the encounter.

Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses: Although Immortals have great power, they also have a few drawbacks.

Holy Ground: An Immortal may not attack anyone while standing on holy ground. What is considered holy ground is up to the DM but usually consists of churches, temples, monasteries, and possibly even places that were once holy but currently show no trace of their past.

True Death: Although it may seem impossible to kill an Immortal, it is not. If an Immortal ever has his head completely severed from his body, he instantly dies. If it was another Immortal that took his head, she gets his quickening (see above). An Immortal who has died this way can be brought back to life normally (not Mortal Death), but losses the “Immortal” template and can never become one again. He still retains any knowledge that he gained as an Immortal, such as from a quickening.

Level Adjustment: ? (maybe +2) suggestions on this too pleaseEDIT:New/revised stuff is in bold

CREATING AN IMMORTAL

“Immortal” is an acquired template that can be added to any living Humanoid. This template must be added either at character creation, or immediately after the first time the character dies. If the character has ever died before, then they cannot become an Immortal. If added after death, the character is treated as having suffered Mortal Death (see below). An Immortal retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The base creature retains its original type but now also has Immortal as a subtype. Size is unchanged.

Special Attacks: An Immortal retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the one listed below.

This has replaced Vorpal Blade.
There Can Be Only One: Immortals constantly train with blades of all sorts. They never know when their next fight will be. While fighting with a weapon with which an Immortal has taken Weapon Focus, if an Immortal scores a critical hit on another Immortal that would reduce her to negative hit points, he instead cuts off her head and gets her quickening (see below).

Special Qualities: An Immortal retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described below.

Detect Immortal (Ex): An Immortal can automatically detect when another Immortal in within 60 ft. of him. He can spend a move action concentrating to determine the square that the aura is coming from, even if he can’t see the other Immortal.

Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal heals 1 point of damage each round. This does not allow him to reattach severed body parts, although broken bones and anything that is not completely severed will heal back to normal. Unlike other fast healing, this fast healing functions even if he has negative hit points.

Ability Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal can heal ability damage at a much faster rate also. He can heal 1 point per ability damaged every hour instead of every day. This does not allow him to heal permanent ability drain. An Immortal cannot die from his Constitution score reaching 0.

This has replaced Mortal Death.
Eschew Death (Ex): An Immortal does not die when he reaches –10 hp. Instead his hp can continue to go down indefinitely. He can never die from normal hp loss (see True Death below).

Disease Immunity (Ex): An Immortal is immune to magical diseases. He is also immune to being turned into an undead creature.

Timeless Body (Ex): An Immortal continues to age, but does not suffer any of the physical ability loss that aging normally causes. An Immortal can never die of old age, they just continue to age indefinitely. Their physical appearance stays the same as when they became an Immortal.

Quickening (Ex): When an Immortal beheads another Immortal, he gets her quickening. He learns everything she knew and has all of her memories. This does not give access to skills or abilities not normally possessed by the Immortal. It simply permits the winning Immortal access to all of the beheaded Immortal’s memories. After experiencing a quickening, an Immortal is fatigued for the rest of the encounter. When defeating another Immortal in such a way as to get her quickening, an Immortal gains double the normal experience points he would normally gain.

Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses:

Holy Ground: An Immortal may not attack anyone while standing on holy ground. What is considered holy ground is up to the DM but usually consists of churches, temples, monasteries, and possibly even places that were once holy but currently show no trace of their past.

True Death: Although it may seem impossible to kill an Immortal, it is not. If an Immortal ever has his head completely severed from his body, he instantly dies. If it was another Immortal that took his head, she gets his quickening (see above). An Immortal who has died this way can be brought back to life, but only by means of true resurrection, wish, or miracle. An Immortal brought back to life losses the “Immortal” template and can never become one again. He still retains any knowledge that he gained as an Immortal, such as from a quickening. Any successful coup-de-grace against an Immortal automatically severs his head.

Level Adjustment: ? (Maybe +2)
ToastedAmphibian
09-06-07, 06:18 PM Ditch teh vorpal blade stuff. Its A to powerfull and B not in flavor. The highlanders didnt have special weapons, they just practiced really hard with the ones they used. Your basically giving every imortal a +6 72,000 gp weapon. Replace it with an extordanary ability perhapes.

"There can be only one" (Ex)
All imortals who have undergone an appropriate amount of training or practice are highly skilled at combating other imortals. When fighting another imortal, if an imortal scores a critical hit on a natural 20, he severes the head of his opponnent and experiences a quickening. This ability only applies when his opponnet is at less than 50% health and only when engaged in single combat aginst an immortal. Any coup de grac on an immortal automatically severes the head regardless of any other considerations

Definetly use the bolded part for the undeath thing. Just let them continue to gain -hp like a troll.

Remove the disease immunity part. I belive they can get sick like everyone else. Mabey add something to the Imortal subtype that says they cannot be subjected to any effect that would further change there creature type if your affraid of nasty template stacking. But you dotn have to worry about vampirism. A vampire cant possibly kill him with its con drain, he just falls down untill he regenerates his con back to 1 then stands back up, still imortal.

For balance reasons, you should probably make it impossible for them to be raised by anything short of a miricale. Probably should prevent even that, but perhapes not.

Also, add to the quickening that an immortal gets double xp from killing an immortal, and tripple if he bested him in single, unassisted combat. If an immortal dies from something other than an immortal, the nearest immortal at the time of death gets 50% of the xp he would have gained if he where part of teh group that slew it. (This is in addition to the xp he gets if he IS actually part of the group that slew it)
ToastedAmphibian
09-06-07, 06:37 PM Mabey for added flavor and utility, add something like

"Weapon Affinity" (Ex)
Any Immortal with weapon focus in a melee weapon may use his BAB in place of fighter levels for qualifying for the weapon specialization feat for that weapon. An immortal with weapon specialization in a melee weapon gains access to the "There can be only one" special ability while weilding the appropriate weapon

Almost always it seems that when a new immortal is born, if he wasnt already a warrior before death, one of two things happens; An evil and or chaotic immortal finds him and re-kills him, or, a good and or lawfull immortal finds him, and off they go to fighter school. Force them to pick a weapon and really learn it to gain there cool abilities.
goawayugh
09-07-07, 08:32 AM OP Revised.

I like a lot of your suggestions.

I was never really happy with the Vorpal Blade stuff, I just wasn't sure how to fix it. I took what you suggested and changed it a little, I'm pretty happy with that part now.

The more I think about it, the more I like the death thing (just keep losing hp).

I like the double xp for a quickening.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that they (Immortals) couldn't get REALLY sick (as in diseases), like cancer and such. I think they could get a common cold, but nothing very serious.

Making them hard to be brought back to life is very fitting, many creatures/templates are like that too.
InversnaidRollrock
09-07-07, 08:43 AM I think it looks good overall - very consistent with the story - but I think that +2 is too low for fast healing, and being practically unkillable. +4 seems more fair, although in a campaign where everyone knows exactly how you have to kill an immortal then +3 might be fair.
ToastedAmphibian
09-07-07, 05:15 PM Still not sure about the disease thing. The big fatal diseases they never seemed to get. But seeing as there is no notion of cancer in DnD (And its not a disease) it seems kinda odd for them to have disease immunity. Mabey make them immune to ONLY magical diseases? They wont ever die from a disease. Worst that would happen is they hti zero con and become diabled till they heal back the ability damage, which would be only one hour. Most diseases cause hit point damage or ability damage, and probably at a lower rate than what the immortal would heal it at, so the disease immunity probably isnt necessary at all.
goawayugh
09-08-07, 02:27 PM That is true...they wouldn't die of a disease anyway (because of the ability regen). Are you sure they could get diseases?
Shadowhowler
09-09-07, 02:41 AM No, they could not get diseases... or tooth decay, or really ANYTHING that would represent harm to their bodies.

I'd probably do the fast healing as normal... and raise it with level (not unlike the fearl template) except when they go to negatives. In negatives, have it change from rounds to minutes. From what I recal, immortals healed very fast, but if you DID stright up kill one, they healed and came back to life... but it was a bit slower then if they just cut cut up.

You wouldnt have to do anything funky with the vorpal weapon bit... just say that when they deliver a soup de grace to another immortal, they cut off his/her head. Bingo.

AS for Level Adjustment... I dunno. Maybe +3, but I'm not sure.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
goawayugh 09-06-07, 04:25 PM	I normally do not like anything that is not printed in an official WotC book, but I just had to try this. This is my first attempt at making any homebrew template/class/race....anything. I am looking for HONEST feedback. I am not someone who is putting their overpowered homebrew thing up here for validation. If you think it has major flaws, suggest how to fix them. If it has too many, maybe I'll just scrap it. If you're a Highlander fan, give me some suggestions on how to make it more authentic. If you don't know Highlander, just tell me what you think of it in terms of D&D rules. Thanks for looking. CREATING AN IMMORTAL “Immortal” is an acquired template that can be added to any living Humanoid. This template must be added either at character creation, or immediately after the first time the character dies. If the character has ever died before, then they cannot become an Immortal. If added after death, the character is treated as having suffered Mortal Death (see below). An Immortal retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here. Size and Type: The base creature retains its original type but now also has Immortal as a subtype. Size is unchanged. Special Attacks: An Immortal retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the one listed below. Vorpal Blade: Every Immortal carries with them a vorpal blade of some sort, whether it is a longsword, rapier, axe, or even a long spear. The Immortal is proficient with any Vorpal Blade (even if it is from another Immortal). This vorpal ability can be applied to any weapon that has a blade, even if the weapon is not slashing (like a rapier). If an Immortal trains with a blade of their choice (which must be of masterwork quality with no other magical properties) for 8 hours per day for one week, the blade becomes a +1 vorpal blade. This blade functions only in the hands of an Immortal, and only against other Immortals. An Immortal has an extra dimensional sheath that he carries his vorpal blade in. This sheath can look like it holds any size weapon the Immortal chooses. He can draw his vorpal blade as a free action Special Qualities: An Immortal retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described below. Detect Immortal (Ex): An Immortal can automatically detect when another Immortal in within 60 ft. of him. He can spend a move action concentrating to determine the square that the aura is coming from, even if he can’t see the other Immortal. Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal heals 1 point of damage each round. This does not allow him to reattach severed body parts, although broken bones and anything that is not completely severed will heal back to normal. Unlike other fast healing, this fast healing functions even if he has negative hit points. Ability Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal can heal ability damage at a much faster rate also. He can heal 1 point per ability damaged every hour instead of every day. This does not allow him to heal permanent ability drain. Mortal Death (Ex): When an Immortal would normally die, he instead stays dead for 1 minute at which point he is restored to life as though by a Raise Dead spell with the following exceptions. He does not lose a level (or Constitution points), and he can be raised even if he died from a death effect (so long as there is enough of the body to be raised). I am not too sure about this ability. I’m debating about just making it that an Immortal doesn’t die at -10 hp, instead their hp can keep going down. This way it is possible to keep an Immortal down (by constantly dealing it damage), but if they are left alone, they will eventually will pop back up. Disease Immunity (Ex): An Immortal is immune to diseases such as lycanthropy and mummy rot, as well as being turned into an undead creature (such as from a vampire’s bite). Timeless Body (Ex): An Immortal continues to age, but does not suffer any of the physical ability loss that aging normally causes. An Immortal can never die of old age, they just continue to age indefinitely. Their physical appearance stays the same as when they became an Immortal. Quickening (Ex): When an Immortal beheads another Immortal, he gets her quickening. He learns everything she knew and has all of her memories. This does not give access to skills or abilities not normally possessed by the Immortal. It simply permits the winning Immortal access to all of the beheaded Immortal’s memories. After experiencing a quickening, an Immortal is fatigued for the rest of the encounter. Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses: Although Immortals have great power, they also have a few drawbacks. Holy Ground: An Immortal may not attack anyone while standing on holy ground. What is considered holy ground is up to the DM but usually consists of churches, temples, monasteries, and possibly even places that were once holy but currently show no trace of their past. True Death: Although it may seem impossible to kill an Immortal, it is not. If an Immortal ever has his head completely severed from his body, he instantly dies. If it was another Immortal that took his head, she gets his quickening (see above). An Immortal who has died this way can be brought back to life normally (not Mortal Death), but losses the “Immortal” template and can never become one again. He still retains any knowledge that he gained as an Immortal, such as from a quickening. Level Adjustment: ? (maybe +2) suggestions on this too pleaseEDIT:New/revised stuff is in bold CREATING AN IMMORTAL “Immortal” is an acquired template that can be added to any living Humanoid. This template must be added either at character creation, or immediately after the first time the character dies. If the character has ever died before, then they cannot become an Immortal. If added after death, the character is treated as having suffered Mortal Death (see below). An Immortal retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here. Size and Type: The base creature retains its original type but now also has Immortal as a subtype. Size is unchanged. Special Attacks: An Immortal retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the one listed below. This has replaced Vorpal Blade. There Can Be Only One: Immortals constantly train with blades of all sorts. They never know when their next fight will be. While fighting with a weapon with which an Immortal has taken Weapon Focus, if an Immortal scores a critical hit on another Immortal that would reduce her to negative hit points, he instead cuts off her head and gets her quickening (see below). Special Qualities: An Immortal retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described below. Detect Immortal (Ex): An Immortal can automatically detect when another Immortal in within 60 ft. of him. He can spend a move action concentrating to determine the square that the aura is coming from, even if he can’t see the other Immortal. Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal heals 1 point of damage each round. This does not allow him to reattach severed body parts, although broken bones and anything that is not completely severed will heal back to normal. Unlike other fast healing, this fast healing functions even if he has negative hit points. Ability Fast Healing (Ex): An Immortal can heal ability damage at a much faster rate also. He can heal 1 point per ability damaged every hour instead of every day. This does not allow him to heal permanent ability drain. An Immortal cannot die from his Constitution score reaching 0. This has replaced Mortal Death. Eschew Death (Ex): An Immortal does not die when he reaches –10 hp. Instead his hp can continue to go down indefinitely. He can never die from normal hp loss (see True Death below). Disease Immunity (Ex): An Immortal is immune to magical diseases. He is also immune to being turned into an undead creature. Timeless Body (Ex): An Immortal continues to age, but does not suffer any of the physical ability loss that aging normally causes. An Immortal can never die of old age, they just continue to age indefinitely. Their physical appearance stays the same as when they became an Immortal. Quickening (Ex): When an Immortal beheads another Immortal, he gets her quickening. He learns everything she knew and has all of her memories. This does not give access to skills or abilities not normally possessed by the Immortal. It simply permits the winning Immortal access to all of the beheaded Immortal’s memories. After experiencing a quickening, an Immortal is fatigued for the rest of the encounter. When defeating another Immortal in such a way as to get her quickening, an Immortal gains double the normal experience points he would normally gain. Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses: Holy Ground: An Immortal may not attack anyone while standing on holy ground. What is considered holy ground is up to the DM but usually consists of churches, temples, monasteries, and possibly even places that were once holy but currently show no trace of their past. True Death: Although it may seem impossible to kill an Immortal, it is not. If an Immortal ever has his head completely severed from his body, he instantly dies. If it was another Immortal that took his head, she gets his quickening (see above). An Immortal who has died this way can be brought back to life, but only by means of true resurrection, wish, or miracle. An Immortal brought back to life losses the “Immortal” template and can never become one again. He still retains any knowledge that he gained as an Immortal, such as from a quickening. Any successful coup-de-grace against an Immortal automatically severs his head. Level Adjustment: ? (Maybe +2)
ToastedAmphibian 09-06-07, 06:18 PM	Ditch teh vorpal blade stuff. Its A to powerfull and B not in flavor. The highlanders didnt have special weapons, they just practiced really hard with the ones they used. Your basically giving every imortal a +6 72,000 gp weapon. Replace it with an extordanary ability perhapes. "There can be only one" (Ex) All imortals who have undergone an appropriate amount of training or practice are highly skilled at combating other imortals. When fighting another imortal, if an imortal scores a critical hit on a natural 20, he severes the head of his opponnent and experiences a quickening. This ability only applies when his opponnet is at less than 50% health and only when engaged in single combat aginst an immortal. Any coup de grac on an immortal automatically severes the head regardless of any other considerations Definetly use the bolded part for the undeath thing. Just let them continue to gain -hp like a troll. Remove the disease immunity part. I belive they can get sick like everyone else. Mabey add something to the Imortal subtype that says they cannot be subjected to any effect that would further change there creature type if your affraid of nasty template stacking. But you dotn have to worry about vampirism. A vampire cant possibly kill him with its con drain, he just falls down untill he regenerates his con back to 1 then stands back up, still imortal. For balance reasons, you should probably make it impossible for them to be raised by anything short of a miricale. Probably should prevent even that, but perhapes not. Also, add to the quickening that an immortal gets double xp from killing an immortal, and tripple if he bested him in single, unassisted combat. If an immortal dies from something other than an immortal, the nearest immortal at the time of death gets 50% of the xp he would have gained if he where part of teh group that slew it. (This is in addition to the xp he gets if he IS actually part of the group that slew it)
ToastedAmphibian 09-06-07, 06:37 PM	Mabey for added flavor and utility, add something like "Weapon Affinity" (Ex) Any Immortal with weapon focus in a melee weapon may use his BAB in place of fighter levels for qualifying for the weapon specialization feat for that weapon. An immortal with weapon specialization in a melee weapon gains access to the "There can be only one" special ability while weilding the appropriate weapon Almost always it seems that when a new immortal is born, if he wasnt already a warrior before death, one of two things happens; An evil and or chaotic immortal finds him and re-kills him, or, a good and or lawfull immortal finds him, and off they go to fighter school. Force them to pick a weapon and really learn it to gain there cool abilities.
goawayugh 09-07-07, 08:32 AM	OP Revised. I like a lot of your suggestions. I was never really happy with the Vorpal Blade stuff, I just wasn't sure how to fix it. I took what you suggested and changed it a little, I'm pretty happy with that part now. The more I think about it, the more I like the death thing (just keep losing hp). I like the double xp for a quickening. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that they (Immortals) couldn't get REALLY sick (as in diseases), like cancer and such. I think they could get a common cold, but nothing very serious. Making them hard to be brought back to life is very fitting, many creatures/templates are like that too.
InversnaidRollrock 09-07-07, 08:43 AM	I think it looks good overall - very consistent with the story - but I think that +2 is too low for fast healing, and being practically unkillable. +4 seems more fair, although in a campaign where everyone knows exactly how you have to kill an immortal then +3 might be fair.
ToastedAmphibian 09-07-07, 05:15 PM	Still not sure about the disease thing. The big fatal diseases they never seemed to get. But seeing as there is no notion of cancer in DnD (And its not a disease) it seems kinda odd for them to have disease immunity. Mabey make them immune to ONLY magical diseases? They wont ever die from a disease. Worst that would happen is they hti zero con and become diabled till they heal back the ability damage, which would be only one hour. Most diseases cause hit point damage or ability damage, and probably at a lower rate than what the immortal would heal it at, so the disease immunity probably isnt necessary at all.
goawayugh 09-08-07, 02:27 PM	That is true...they wouldn't die of a disease anyway (because of the ability regen). Are you sure they could get diseases?
Shadowhowler 09-09-07, 02:41 AM	No, they could not get diseases... or tooth decay, or really ANYTHING that would represent harm to their bodies. I'd probably do the fast healing as normal... and raise it with level (not unlike the fearl template) except when they go to negatives. In negatives, have it change from rounds to minutes. From what I recal, immortals healed very fast, but if you DID stright up kill one, they healed and came back to life... but it was a bit slower then if they just cut cut up. You wouldnt have to do anything funky with the vorpal weapon bit... just say that when they deliver a soup de grace to another immortal, they cut off his/her head. Bingo. AS for Level Adjustment... I dunno. Maybe +3, but I'm not sure.