Touch of the Inhuman: Undead

## Introduction

Undead are foul creatures of negative energy, the antithesis of all life. While some are formed purely of this energy, the vast majority of undead are corpses or souls of the dead that have been inhabited and warped by this dark energy. Negative energy twists the dead into a wide array of terrifying shapes, and sometimes it even takes on a warped reflection of the dead one’s mind, giving them a semblance of the identity they had in life, but reflected as a horrible monster dedicated to the destruction of life. Undead are regarded as unholy and evil by almost every religion in the world. Most undead are entirely incapable of reproduction, the bodies to decayed to bear or sire children. Most undead touched are created when an unborn child is exposed to powerful negative energy, such as an unhallowed area, or their parent is attacked by a powerful undead. Some very rare undead have a strong enough semblance of life to spawn children, such as a vampire nourished by a fresh feast of blood.

## Description

**Physical Description:** Undead touched are extremely unsettling, no matter how they physically appear. Their very presence makes the living uncomfortable. Undead touched are often pale or sickly in appearance, though in reality they are often quite fit and healthy. They may appear bony and scrawny, or they may have lingering bruises, or sunken eyes. Some have diseased looking skin or may bear a foul odor. Others have more obvious undead traits, such as long, pointed fangs or bony claws. some may have black blood, glowing eyes, or may even seen vague and indistinct at the edges.

**Personality:** The unsettling presence and the unsavory nature of their inhuman influence leads a great many of the undead touched to have very low self-esteem. They despair at their lack of friends and allies, and their best efforts often come to nothing. This only serves to further their self-loathing, and leaving them vulnerable to negative emotions. Those that manage to avoid despair often become bitter and spiteful individuals, lashing out at those who come too close. Some turn to embrace their undead power, accepting it and using it to combat the forces of evil and prove they’re not inherently evil, or falling to darkness and joining with powerful undead or necromancers.

**In the World:** Undead touched are usually rare beings, both because of the strong magic require to create them, and because they are one of the most-disliked types of touched. Their foul heritage is despised almost every civilization and religion in the world, making it difficult for them to find a place to settle in for a long term. Most undead touched are at first believed to simply be sickly individuals, but as they grow and their powers develop, they may be cast out or chased out of their homes and communities. Most undead touched are loners, acting and working in solitude. Some find company in cults or among the undead, and some find relatively accepting groups to spend time with. Undead touched often become warriors, their natural toughness and supernatural defenses making them fearsome foes. Wizards aren’t uncommon either, the undead blood having a strong affinity for magic. Many become Priests of dark cults and unholy gods.

## Ability Modifiers

* **+2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity** Undead touched are durable and resilient, but they are usually slow to react.

## Universal Abilities

* **Undead Resilience** Undead touched are a little bit dead, granting them a bit more resistance to the frailties of mortals. They gain a +2 racial bonus to saves against poison, disease, death effects, ability drain, and mind-affecting effects. They take no penalties from negative levels, though they can still be killed if they accrue more negative levels than hit dice. After 24 hours, any negative levels they’ve gained are removed without additional saving throws.
* **Unsettling Presence** Undead touched have an exceptionally unsettling presence. All living creatures that can see the touched have their initial attitude toward them lowered by one step.

## Optional Abilities

* **Bloody Claws** The undead touched has bony, thin-skinned fingertips that can tear away to reveal sharp claws of bloody bone. They gain two primary claw attacks that deal 1d4 points of damage each and inflict one point of bleed damage on a successful hit. This bleed damage lasts for one minute, and if they successfully hit a bleeding target with another claw attack, the bleed damage increases by one and the duration of the bleed is reset to one minute. The maximum bleed damage from these claws cannot exceed the undead touched’s hit die. These claws are normally concealed under the skin of their thin fingertips, which almost painlessly tear away when they use their claws. Their fingertips heal completely after one hour of not using the claws.
* **Bone Armor** The undead touched has tough, sturdy bones that do a good job of protecting their vital organs from damage. When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored against them, there is a 50% chance the extra damage is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.
* **Crimson Fangs** The undead touched has long, fanglike eye-teeth, and a hunger for blood. They gain a primary natural bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage. If they successfully pin creature, they can automatically bite them and drain their blood, dealing their normal bite damage plus one point of constitution damage each round. For each point of constitution damage dealt, they gain temporary hit points equal to one-half the target’s hit die. These temporary hit points last for one hour. They can only use this ability on creatures that are susceptible to critical hits.
* **Darksight** The undead touched is drawn to darkness, the light uncomfortable. They gain the ability to seen romally in darkness, even magical darkness. However, when exposed to bright light, they are blinded for one round, and they are dazzled for as long as they remain in the affected area.
* **Deathly Servant** The undead touched is accompanied by a faint spectral servant, a mindless phantom that obeys their commands. They gain the service of a deathly servant that can be summoned to an adjacent square or dismissed as a free action. The deathly servant is treated as an unseen servant with a strength score equal to 2 + their charisma modifier, and takes on the appearance of a barely-visible ghost.
* **Fearful Howl** The undead touched can let loose a horrifying sound, a scream, moan, or screech of blood-curdling tone. They gain the ability to scream as a standard action, rolling an intimidate check to demoralize an opponent. The result of this check is applied to all creatures within 30 feet. This is a sonic, mind-affecting effect.
* **Ghoul Touch** The undead touched smells faintly of death, and their touch can paralyze. They gain the ability to slowly paralyze foes, dealing one point of dexterity damage to the target with any successful unarmed strike, natural weapon attack, or melee touch attack. Any creature immune or resistant to a ghoul’s paralysis ability is immune to this damage.
* **Master of Death** The undead touched is quite effective at manipulating the powers of life and death. They gain a +1 racial bonus to caster level when casting spells of the necromancy school. They can also use their hit die in place of their caster level to determine the maximum hit die of undead they can raise with a spell or ability, or control at a time.
* **Master of Fear** The undead touched is inherently familiar with fear and commands it to their benefit. They gain a +2 racial bonus to saves against fear effects. They also gain a +2 racial bonus to intimidate checks to demoralize an opponent, and the save DC of any fear effect they create is increased by 1.
* **Necrotic Heart** The undead touched has a dead heart that beats with pulses of negative energy. They are healed by negative energy and damaged by positive energy. They gain a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities of the necromancy school. If they successfully save against a necromancy spell or spell-like ability, they gain fast healing 2 for a number of rounds equal to the spell level.
* **Slay The undead** touched spreads death with a thought. They gain the ability to deal one point of negative energy damage to any creature within 30 feet with 0 or fewer hit points. This damage is enough to cause a stable creature to begin dying again. If a creature within 30 feet of them dies, they gain temporary hit points equal to it’s hit die. These temporary hit points last for one hour.
* **Spectre’s Touch** The undead touched is partially spectral, granting them special benefits. Their body is treated as though it had the ghost touch property. This extends to any natural weapons or unarmed strikes they may use, and any natural armor they possess applies against incorporeal touch attacks. In addition, they can partially phase their body and their weaponry to deliver touch attacks. As a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, they can make a single melee attack, which is resolved as an incorporeal touch attack.
* **Tough Flesh** The undead touched possesses tough, weathered flesh like a zombie. They gain damage reduction 5, which is overcome by slashing damage.
* **Undying Persistence** The undead touched is hard to put down for good, and can return from the brink of death. When they are reduced to or below 0 hit points, they gain fast healing 1. This automatically stabilizes them if they are dying. This fast healing remains active until they reach a number of hit points equal to their hit die, at which point it stops working until they are reduced to or below 0 hit points again.
* **Unholy Aura** The undead touched is a particularly unholy individual, who radiates foul magic. All undead allies within 30 feet gain a +1 profane bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, armor class, and savng throws.
* **Untiring** The undead touched is an unrelenting machine, very difficult to tire out. They gain a +4 racial bonus to constitution checks and fortitude saves to resist fatigue and exhaustion, as well as any other ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, thirst, and hot or cold environments.