Risen (Merika Supplement)

Skilled necromancers can restore the dead to a semblance of life with a powerful ritual. Though not precisely alive, the creature is not entirely dead (or undead) either. Stuck somewhere between life in death they are given a new lease on the world.

"Risen" is a template that can be added to most aberration, animal, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, or monstrous humanoid creatures.

Size and Type: The creature's type remains unchanged and it gains the augmented subtype "Undead".
Hit Dice: Hit dice are unchanged.
Speed: The base creature's speed is unchanged.
Armour Class: The creature's natural armor is increased by 2.
Attacks: A Risen retains all the attacks of its base creature.
Damage: Normal.
Special Attacks: As base creature.
Special Qualities: See below.
Saves: A Risen gains a +4 to Fortitude saves due to it's very limited metabolism.
Abilities: As base creature.
Skills: Racial modifiers are unchanged.
Feats: A Risen's feats are unchanged.
Environment: As base creature.
Organization: As base creature.
Challenge Rating: As base creature.
Treasure: As base creature.
Alignment: Unaligned or Evil.
Advancement: As base creature.
Level adjustment: +1.

  • A Risen is immune to poison, disease, aging, ability damage, and level drain.
  • A Risen does not eat, is not at risk of starvation or dehydration, and does not become physically exhausted but must sleep about 4 hours a day to organize the living portions of its mind and stave off insanity.
  • A Risen must still rest quietly to regain spells.
  • Risen also gain DR 5/slashing and Resistance (cold) 10.
  • Risen are harmed by positive energy, and healed by negative energy. The risen or another character may spend an hour manually repairing damage with needle and thread or other materials. The Risen regains health as if they had rested 8 hours at the end of this time.
  • Risen are subject to turning, but gain a Will Save against a DC of 10 + 1/2 the cleric's level + the cleric's charisma modifier to resist.

In general a Risen is stuck at the brink of death, a living soul in an artificially animated corpse. His metabolism has stopped. He does not need to eat or breathe, but must sleep to maintain the health of a still living mind. His body doesn't age nor rot but neither does it heal on its own. To restore his health he must repair his form manually, stitching wounds closed and replacing missing flesh with fresh bits from other corpses, or mend his necrotic flesh with negative energy.

Being among the Risen weighs heavily upon the soul. A separate and empowered animus allows the base emotions to bubble to the surface and makes every act of mercy a struggle that rings hollowly upon an unbeating heart. Characters that are aligned with Good become unaligned and may not regain their alignment with Good while in this state. Risen characters always have at least 1 point of taint as a function of the terrible forces that animate their form. They may never willingly shed this last point, and thus may never cast spells that carry the Good descriptor.

Unfortunately the only way to live again is to die and seek the services of a cleric or conjurer to return from beyond the grave once more.

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