Race: Mostly Dead (Skeleton, Zombie, Mummy)

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<div class='cover-header' style="top:60px;font-size:350%;">Mostly Dead</div>

<div class='cover-footer' style="font-size:325%h ">A cursed race for 5e by Hyperdrift</div>

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## Race: Mostly Dead

Your soul has been bound to to endure in a body no longer fit for the living. Many such skeletons, zombies, and mummies are mindless, brutal creatures. But, others retain enough of their soul to act beyond violent instinct: the *mostly dead*.

Mostly dead are creatures inseparable from gloom and fear. This cursed life may have been your choice, or it could have been thrust upon you. Roll or choose your undead origin from the table below, or contrive another suitable origin in collaboration with your DM.

| d8 | Undead Origin |
|:-|:-|
| 1 | While raiding a tomb, you were hit with a curse that made you undead and bound you to guard the tomb forever. But the last part of the curse didn’t take—probably due to a misspelling or something—and you walked out just fine…only undead. |
| 2 | Delving too deeply you activated a cursed artifact and the curse transferred to you. At least as an undead, you have eternity to find a way to break the curse. |
| 3 | Buried with your king to protect his tomb for eternity was never going to be a good way to spend your later years. But you failed to stop the grave robbers who stole the king’s body and wealth. So, you're free to go. |
| 4 | Who puts a curse of undeath in their will? Seriously. And you thought you were going to inherit riches, lands, or at least some decent furnature. But no. Had to be something creepy. |
| 5 | In hindsight, asking a lich how to escape a slow, agonizing death from a terminal disease might not have been the right thing to do. True, you can’t feel the pain anymore. You just can’t feel anything. |
| 6 | That loophole in the law about not being able to incarcerate undead people or prosecute them for crimes committed before they became undead—that turned out to be a life saver. You escaped execution with the forbidden ritual, but at what cost? | 
| 7 | Choosing undeath to be together forever with your love, only to find out they hate the way you look as an undead and then dump you isn’t a great start to eternity. |
| 8 | Split the party…in the creepy tomb? Who actually suggests this? Well, if the rest of your party was really trying to ditch you and cut you out of the spoils, they are in for a rude surprise when you find them. |
| 9 | They said don’t worry about going to the cleric. They said it was just chicken pox. It wasn’t. |
| 10 | “Read the entire instructions before you start the ritual of undying beauty.” I mean, come on! Who actually reads all the instructions before they start? |
| 11 | They said it was the ultimate weight loss program. Yeah, well, they were right. |
| 12 | The pain of a broken heart was too much. The witch doctor said they could take the pain. They didn’t say they were going to take your actual heart! |

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## Traits

### Creature Type
You are undead.

### Old Bones
(Optional, but highly recommended): Becoming mostly dead didn’t help your agility any, but it sure made you harder to kill. Subtract 1 from your Dexterity and add 1 to your Constitution (up to a maximum of 20). Your speed is 25 feet. (If you do not use this trait, your speed is 30 feet.)

### Ability Score Increase
Add +2 to one ability score and +1 to a different ability score, or +1 to three different ability scores. You can’t raise any of your scores above 20.
 
### Ageless
You do not age and your apparent age cannot be altered by magic short of a wish spell.

### Languages
You can write and speak common and one other language. Any other languages you might have once known are lost to the ravages of time and undeath.

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### Faded Remnant
As a mostly dead, you retain enough of your <br> original appearance that your race (human, elf, etc.) <br> is recognizable, but none of that race's traits apply except your size. Also, having lost so much of yourself in passing beyond death, you have disadvantage on History checks to recall facts from your former life.

### Creature of Gloom
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.  (Optional, but highly recommended) Additionally, as your curse binds you to darkness, you cannot spend hit dice to recover HP in bright light. When you spend hit dice in darkness or dim light, you can reroll if the die roll is 1 or a 2 and keep the original or the new result.

### Undead Nature
You have resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the Poisoned condition.

### The Face of Death
You add 1d4 to Charisma (Intimidation) checks and subtract 1d4 from Charisma (Persuasion) checks.

___
**Choose an undead lineage.**

### Skeleton Lineage
Without flesh to protect your bones, you have vulnerability to bludgeoning damage, but resistance to slashing and piercing damage. You can hide and move through spaces one size smaller. Your spirit voices sounds as a ghost would. (Moving your jaw is optional.) You do not breathe. You have need of food or drink.

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**Select your skeleton unique trait:**

#### Skeleton Unique Trait: Illusory Flesh
As a bonus action, you can appear to others to have human flesh. The appearance must be pale or gaunt, suggestive of your nature, while giving the impression of your original appearance. If a creature touches you or has reason to suspect you are not what you seem, it may attempt a contested Investigation check against your Charisma (Deception or Performance). When meeting or exceeding your roll, the creature thereafter views you as a skeleton, as if with truesight, though they can perceive the faint outline of the image you are projecting. Additionally, while projecting your illusory flesh you can choose to allow any creature to view you as you really are. Your illusory magic drops when you are unconscious, incapacitated, use wild shape or similar transformation magic, or use a feature that requires concentration, such as a spell.

#### Skeleton Unique Trait: Give Me a Hand:
As a bonus action, you can remove one of your skeletal hands, which becomes a crawling claw (see Monster Manual) under your control. The crawling claw takes its turn immediately following yours. You can control the claw telepathically up to a range of 90 feet. You cannot see from the claw’s perspective. You can pickup the claw to reattach it as bonus action. If the claw is destroyed, you can regrow the hand when you finish a short or long rest or receive the benefits of the lesser restoration spell. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and recover spent uses when you finish a long rest.

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### Zombie Lineage

Typified by rotting flesh and a craven craving for eating brains, the curse of the zombie has many origins. Roll or select from the table below, or work with your DM to come up with a suitable origin.

| d6 |  |
|:-|:-|
| 1 | You and your village survived a zombie attack...well the initial attack. But then you began to change. For some reason, you can't remember that village anymore. |
| 2 | They always say "wash your hands before eating." They never say why. |
| 3 | You contracted an alien parasite that both rots your flesh and causes it to regenerate. Healers have diagnosed your condition as stable. |

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| | |
|:-|:-|
| 4 | Eating the brains was a dare—I mean it was a lot of money. Several silver pieces at least. |
| 5 | The lich that conquered your village turned everyone into a zombie, then sent them to battle the king's army. You had been locked in the outhouse at the time as a prank. Good thing, too. The king's army had clerics.|
| 6 | It was the end of the world. Then the alchemists came up with a cure. It stopped the plague, but didn't recover the damage to those who were touched by it, like you.|

#### Torpor
You do not sleep, and magic cannot put you to sleep. Instead you enter a torpor which can last years, until you are roused in an instant by the smell of prey and the insatiable need to feed. A long rest must include at least 6 hours of inactivity in a torpor state.

#### Undead Recovery 
When you take damage, you can use your reaction to spend one of your hit dice to regain HP. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus so long as you have a hit die available. You regain all uses when you finish a long rest. Stylize this as reattaching a severed arm or a similarly grotesque feat of self-restoration.

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#### Smell of Death 
You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to smell other creatures, even when in your torpor state. Add your proficiency bonus to your passive perception to the detect the presence of creatures within 30 feet.

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**Choose a Zombie Unique Trait.**

#### Zombie Unique Trait: Feeding Frenzy
Your movement speed is a lethargic 20 feet. When you dash, add 10 ft. to your movement speed. If you can sense creatures that are not your allies, you can dash as a bonus action. For example, move 20 feet, action dash 30 feet, and bonus action dash an additional 30 feet, for a total of 80 ft. of movement.

#### Zombie Unique Trait: Echoes of the Past
You have fragmented memories, whether from your own past, of the past of those whose minds you have consumed, you cannot tell. Beginning at 3rd level you can cast the spell *borrowed knowledge* with this trait without material components. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this trait (choose when selecting this race). You can also cast this spell using available spell slots.

Once you cast this spell using this trait, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest

### Mummy Lineage

Mummies are created in rituals of embalming, typically involving sacrifices of living creatures. They are often bound to specific places such as temples or tombs, or bound to tasks, such as avenging the robbing of a grave.

#### Soul Anchor
The procedure to mummify and preserve your body included the creation of an object to bind your soul to your remains. Choose the nature of your soul anchor.

| d6 | Soul Anchor |
|:-|:-|
| 1 | runes and scripts written on your mummy wrappings |
| 2 | ceremonial headdress, jewel, or scepter you were interred with |
| 3 | Your sarcophagus, or a piece of it |
| 4 | the painted canopic jars that hold your preserved organs |
| 5 | a scroll sealed with your blood |
| 6 | a manacle or collar on your body scribed with arcane sigils |

You cannot complete a long rest unless you are within 60 feet of the object.
If the object is destroyed, you have three days to recreate the object (which may require knowledge and skill beyond your own) before your soul is fully unbound and you die.

While the soul anchor is in your possession, you have no need of food or drink.

#### Desiccated 
Your preserved flesh and ceremonial wrappings burn easily. You have vulnerability to fire damage. However, you are immune to necrotic damage.

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**Select your mummy unique trait:**

#### Mummy Unique Trait: Animated Wrappings
When you hit a creature with a melee attack, as a bonus action you can activate the magic within your mummy wrappings to grapple the creature. This does not require a free hand. You can do this for one creature at a time. The grappled creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw of DC 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Con modifier or be Frightened of you until the grapple ends. When contesting to maintain the grapple you can make an Athletics, Arcana, or Medicine check—choose when selecting this race. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain spent uses when you finish a long rest.

#### Mummy Unique Trait: Summon Scarabs

Starting at 3rd level, as a bonus action you release a swarm of beetles (see Monster Manual) from within your wrappings. You control the swarm telepathically up to a range of 90 feet, and the swarm takes its turn immediately after yours. The swarm lasts for 1 minute, after which the beetles scatter, wither to dust, or return to your wrappings. If you are ever more than 90 feet away, you lose control of the swarm until you are again in range. You can use this trait again when you finish a long rest.

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<div class='cover-footer' style="bottom:120px;font-size:150%;">A dwarf cleric skeleton wields some truly righteous indignation. <br>...Nobody has the heart to tell him he's mostly dead.</div>

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<div class='cover-footer' style="bottom:120px;font-size:150%;">A raging zombie barbarian is a sight to behold. <br>Nobody ever talks about the smell, though.</div>

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<div class='cover-footer' style="bottom:40px;font-size:150%;">The skeleton rogue Glishna gets into the music and loses her concentration on her illusory flesh. Good thing everyone in this tavern is too drunk to notice. </div>

### Version History
| Date | Version | Change |
|:-|:--:|:-|
| 2025.02.07 | 1.2 | Nerfed old bones. |
| 2024.07.11 | 1.1 | updated creature of gloom to clarify the reroll function. clarified picking up the crawling claw |
| 2024.07.07 | 1.0 | Initial release for the Roll20 Guild Life Dunhalen campaign setting. Art credits: Midjourney tool (v6).