Deathless

Temlate, Template override

While the undead are more well known, other dead things roam the land that take some semblance of the living. Some of them are transformed by deities, some are the victims of ancient magics, some were never born mortal in the world and were pulled from other realities into corpses, and some were elevated from the condition of undeath. Some cultures revere the deathless as “holy undead” but this doesn’t change the horrifying nature of the condition. A deathless creature is still something that has had its soul fused to a corpse. The most horrifying trait unifying this state of being is that the template is never applied to a creature that has had the freedom to choose not to accept this template.

This template may be applied to any living or undead corporeal creature with a base awareness stat circle of 10 or greater. Creatures with an awareness stat lower than 10 may not become deathless, even if awareness enhancing magics are applied. The condition demands an eternal sense of the self as separate from the natural order. Non-corporeal creatures cannot become deathless.

Change creature type to deathless. Undead creatures retain the traits of their undead type except where specified in this template. This template overries the Undead modifier.

If applying this template from a living base creature, Change Constitution circle to Durability. Creature must reallocate points freed by this change. See Durability vs. Constitution, PGAT pg. 326, DMTB pg. 56

Immunities: poison, disease, aging, effects affecting constitution, effects affecting awareness, effects affecting undead, turn undead, nonlethal damage, vital hits, critical hits

Vulnerable to null-magic: deathless creatures can’t exist long in a null-magic zone and will suffocate if put into one. While in a null-magic zone, apply the suffocating condition changing the wording for the condition to affect durability instead of Constitution. Deathless can take a deep “breath” if it knows it is going to enter a null-magic zone. Deathless in a null-magic zone can also consume the living to save themselves for a limited time. Deathless that reach -20 HP within a null-magic zone are destroyed without a save. Note that this is different from an undead which will reanimate if removed from a null-magic zone. Deathless creatures suffocate in null-magic no matter if the base creature had resistance or immunity to drowning or suffocation in life and will suffocate according to the base table for suffocation. If the base creature had resistance or immunity to drowning or suffocation, remove this trait and reallocate points if points were used to acquire this trait. See suffocation and drowning, PGAT pg. 39

Breath of the dead: deathless creatures breathe the ambient magic of the area they are in to power their forms. It looks, for all intents and purposes, identical to a living creature breathing air. Deathless do not require lungs to breathe, they just go through this motion of respiration as if they were breathing air. Even skeletal deathless do this and their ribs expand and contract as if there was flesh behind them. Magic being a pervasive trait of the world, this does not usually pose a problem unless the creature is in a limited magic area, such as a bubble of normal space within a zone of null-magic. Deathless are also affected by the saturation of magic in an area in the same way that living creatures are affected by the saturation of breathable air. Deathless perceive peaks and valleys in magic saturation the way that the living perceive physical terrain. A deathless creature moving from an area of high magic saturation to low mimics the way that high altitude affects the living. See optional rules: Effects of Terrain on Characters, sidebar DMTB pg 397, table DMTB appendix 2, pg III.

Saving throws vs. Death: Except where specified in this template, deathless have a saving throw vs. death identical to living creatures but using their awareness circle in place of constitution. To clarify, durability does not affect the final death of a deathless creature. Instead, the ultimate test of the creature’s continuation is their awareness in their union of mind, soul and body. Deathless in the HP range of -1 to -19 are impaired, not unconscious. A deathless creature in danger of final death (-20 hp) must save vs. destruction. A deathless creature cannot choose to give up a save. They cannot reroll successes. They are cursed to use up all saving throws, luck points (npc characters)and action chits(PC characters) in an attempt to roll the correct number of successes. Deathless cannot critically fail a death save. Treat a “1” as a normal failure. Deathless cannot give up on their existence or commit suicide. Attempts to do so automatically fail. See save vs. death, PGAT pg 45

Immune to disintegration: a peculiar effect that deathless share with true immortals. When an effect would disintegrate, immolate, splatter, dissolve or otherwise reduce a deathless creature’s body to motes of seemingly irredeemable size, deathless creatures save vs. death as normal. If a save is successful, a deathless creature’s body reforms itself in 1d4-1 days at the location its body was seemingly destroyed. This is an incredibly painful event. Deathless returning in this manner take 2 points of damage to all stats on durability and awareness circles for 1d4+1 days. Deathless that fail their save still reform, but as a normal corpse.

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Lifelike: Deathless have the appearance of being alive. They have a body temperature if their base creature was endothermic. Undead that become deathless retain their exothermic nature. If they became deathless without being previously undead they can bleed if they have flesh, though the “blood” is not vital and does not confer the “bleeding” status effect. They can eat, though, like the undead, they do not excrete waste. They can cry, sweat, spit, and create other fluids as they did in life. Their hair, feathers, scales, teeth and nails continue to grow. This trait can result in some disturbing appearances, such as in the case of the nasnās, which are bisected vertically, resulting in a creature with apparently fully functioning organs exposed.

Flesh addiction: cooked food is not palatable to the deathless. Neither is flesh of other deathless creatures. Plant matter is also indigestible. Undead with a requirement to consume something of the living retain their requirement when they become deathless and their requirement does not count as an addiction according to the tables for addiction. For example, vampires that become deathless must still consume blood in accordance with the vampire template and it will not affect them the way it would a normal deathless. Unless otherwise specified all deathless can consume the living even though they have no real need to do so, their “breathing” supplies all they need to exist. Therefore eating and drinking is almost purely a recreational activity. Consuming living flesh—that is eating from creatures while they are still alive, produces a stimulant effect similar to cocaine; consuming any flesh touched by undeath produces a barbiturate effect similar to opium; consuming normal dead flesh—prepared as in bought from a butcher or scavenged is similar to caffeine, preserved flesh similar to alcohol, normal rotting flesh similar to marijuana, Drinking blood extracted from a living source produces various effects depending on the source but is always euphoric similar to MDMA. Undead blood produces an effect similar to PCP. Deathless can easily become addicted to consuming and addiction as well as coming clean follows the rules for those specific types of drugs. See addiction and addictive substances, DMTB pg. 123

Healing the deathless: all deathless regenerate at a rate of 10 HP per round of combat as long as the character has positive hit points. HP is regained at the start of the charater's turn. If reduced to 0 or less, the regeneration process halts. If a deathless requires healing magic to speed the process, or a deathless has become impaired (-1hp to -20hp) the deathless can use normal healing spells--the only exception to the restriction of immunity to effects targeting living creatures. They do not benefit from any healing effect affecting the undead. Deathless always return to the physical state they were in at the moment they received the deathless template.

Augmenting or debilitating the deathless: Deathless, undead, immortals, extraplanar entities, deities and constructs are all entities powered in some capacity by pure magic. In this case, the undead are the ones with the exception to rules governing creatures powered by pure magic. Deathless are immune to augments that specifically target living and undead creatures. They can receive status effects that affect objects and constructs and any effect which specifically affects immortals. There are also rare effects which specifically target the deathless. Note to DM—most magic users are extremely unlikely to have access to deathless targeting spells unless they are necromancers or priests of death gods. Even then, the condition is rare enough that those that know a trick or two would consider them curiosities rather than spells or prayers of necessity. This rarity would also apply to players seeking access to such spells or prayers.

Sterile: Deathless can have sex—and even enjoy doing so, but they cannot procreate. Undead that become deathless cannot pass on their condition. For example, the bite of a deathless ghoul cannot make the victim turn into a ghoul. The victim may simply die from venom in ghoul saliva. Deathless cannot spread disease even if their base creature was once capable of it. This includes both magical and normal diseases. Deathless cannot make other deathless and cannot use magic to produce undead of any kind.

Stalwart mind: Deathless are immune to psionic magics and any effect affecting the mind. Conversely, they are also incapable of using effects which affect the minds of others. Examples of spells which deathless cannot use and cannot be affected by: discern truth, Eddy’s inescapable fact serum, dominate, aura sight, telepathy, seduction, illusion. Base creatures and Undead which could use mind altering abilities lose these abilities.

Stable form: Deathless cannot shapeshift nor can they be affected by shapeshifting magic. Creatures which had a shapeshifting template in life, such as therianthropy, lose this template with all the status changes it conferred. Creatures with a natural ability to shift also lose this ability. For example, creatures such as dragons lose the ability to shift into any creature. Vampires lose their ability to shift into animals or mist. Fay lose the ability to change size. Druids cannot shift into animals. Deathless are immune to spells with these effects.

Environmental considerations: if the base creature is vulnerable, immune or resistant to specific environmental conditions, they retain the trait. If a character class confers resistance or immunity, it is retained. If the character has the trait as a result of experience point allocation, it is retained. If the character gained the trait as a result of having a previous undead template, the trait is removed—the undead vulnerability to sunlight, for example. Deathless cannot go below -1HP as a result of damage due to extreme environmental conditions (extreme heat, cold, vacuum, radiation).

HP dice: as base creature or as undead template. If the creature has levels in character classes, these also apply.