[Game Closed] Calling all Undead

[Eldonauran]

Darkness is all that you know. Awareness is a shifting thing just out of your grasp, and has been for what seems like millenia. Time has no meaning to you when you barely seem to exist. You feel nothing, no pain, no hunger, no pulse... The knowledge of your death is like a vile taste at the back of your throat, and you are unable to spit it out. It has nearly driven you mad and you are close to the breaking point.

But something happens. A tingle runs along your dead nerves, a thump beats once and is still and searing pain fills your chest as a breathe of fresh air is forced into your long decayed lungs. Exquisite agony plays along your body. Old wounds ache and the ones that caused your death flare with unimaginable pain. And as suddenly as it starts, it is over... Something is different. You can feel the slow grinding of earth upon your flesh, and you can hear the slow bobbing motion as your coffin seems to raise itself from the dirt. You manage to crack open your eyes, only to be blinded as an intensely bright red glow suffuses your retinas. Eventually your eyes adapt and what you see causes you to scream out in terror...

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This is just a taste of the horrors waiting for you within my game. That is right... The most unlikely heros of all time... Or should I say villians... You get to play as the undead!

I am looking for a total of 6 players to enter into the deepest recesses of my mind to play a game that borders on the terrifying. Each of you will play as an undead humanoid, trapped in the infinite layers of the Abyss and struggle to free yourselves. But, I get ahead of myself. Here are the basic requirements...

Level: 15 (there is no ECL in this game, you will have 15 HD, more explained later)
Alignment: Evil (no exceptions, and no Chaotic Stupid alignments... I mean it)
Books: PHB, DMG, MM I & II, Manual of the Planes, Epic Level Handbook, Complete Arcane (Possible might allow Psionics, but only with a VERY good BG)
Templates and ECL:
You may have a base creature (humanoid or monstrous Humanoid) with a LA of no greater than +4. This does not count to your ECL, but the HD (if any) DO.
You may also apply (very recommended) any number of templates to your character so that the LA adjustment goes no higher than +7. This LA has no effect on your ECL. (With this LA limit, this eliminates the Vampire template, as it is +8) You may use the templates at this site, Crystal Keep Templates. It is in pdf format, so you need Acrobatic reader or the like to view. Those choosing to become undead before the game starts will get a special bonus, which will be disclosed later.
Starting Gold: As per Lvl 15. Remember, you have been buried, so all of your loose magic items would have been stripped from you. Spend your gold wisely. (Everything you could wear is still with you, even pouches on your belt, but you have no backpack and your money pouch has been stripped from you, possibley to pay for your funeral. You have been buried with two weapons, one melee and one ranged, or two melee if you weilded two weapons in life)

Abilities: 18, 17, 16, 14, 14 (distribute any which way, there is no CON score) This does not include level bonuses. Use them afterwards.

Classes: I will be allowing all the classes from the said books, as well as with a few variants that I will post. Keep in mind what kind of character you want to play, but don't get dead set on your class until you see my variants. Some are very ... nice.

Backgrounds: Backgrounds will be a major determining factor in this game. I am looking for decent writers and roleplayers (though a bit of the game will be roll-playing as well).

Setting: The setting of the real world has really no significance in this game, as most of the fighting will be done in the Abyss (unless someone gets smart and starts planeshifting... Hint, hint) But as far as backgrounds go... You can make up a few things as long as you realize it will be subject to changes if it conflicts with my picture of the real world. Just try to imagine 1000 AD... That should keep you for a while...

Game has been aproved - Class Variants are Here

EDIT: When you apply, I would like to see this at the top of your application

Character Name:
Preposed Class:
Race: (Include LA adjustment)
Applied Templates: (Include total LA adjustment)
Background
Description of Character

EDIT2: I will be imposing a schedule for the application process. On the 25th of this month (March), I will stop taking applications and decide on the players the day after.

I would like to have 2 arcane casters, 1 divine caster, 2 front liners, and a jack of all trades (rogue and/or bard combinations work well, but there are many others). But this is not nessecarily the requirement. Whatever applicants I get will decide how difficult the game will be by their choice of classes.

EDIT3: All players will be starting with an extra 12,500 exp. They may use this exp for item creation (or spellstitching) or choose not to use them and keep the total. This is to ensure a relative balance to the levels of the party.

[DannyLewis]

I am interested, i hav never played, evil, nor undead before, and this will be my first (Thats if i am accepted).

You don't use Libris Mortis? well i think that Libris Mortis is a good book to use in undead campaigns.

[Eldonauran]

Yeah, unfortunately I don't have the Libris Mortis book at my disposal, otherwise there would be a lot less rules. As for playing evil... You're in the Abyss... Only evil people get sent there... And undead are notoriously evil (in my experience at least)

[braintitan]

Sounds like a lot of fun are we alowed to muiticlass ? Little confused about about the ECL thing so we get a total of + 7 with class and templates no race over +4 and our undead class doesn't count? also the 15 hd does that include our class hd ?

[Lanthar Mandragoran]

You do realize that Vampire and and Lich are the only intelligent undead templates that have an LA listed? Templates that don't have an LA listed (aka Spellstitched) DON'T have an LA of 0. They simply don't have an LA (aka were never meant to be used at PCs).

If I may make a suggestion, why don't you trim the limitation a bit and make it a CR limitation? Otherwise you're going have to house-rule a lot of stuff.... For example, 15 Class / Race HD and up to +4 CR of templates (which should be close as a Lich has an LA of +4 but a CR of +2 so it still takes up about half of your template limitation... and you could rule that LA counts as half or something similar...)? Also, you would simply want to dissallow Vampires completely.

FYI - I RARELY advocate the use of CR for PCs, however considering what you are trying to do, I think it would be best.

You might want to simply direct people to the intelligent undead templates indexed at Crystalkeep.com

PS - I think you're campaign concept is great, and am planning on applying. The comments are simply me giving some suggestions on how to simplify your character creation rules a little (I kind of have some street-cred when it comes to Monster PCs... see my sig...).

[braintitan]

If I have understood your methods I could play a Doppleganger half dragon half fiend ? and then have 11 class levels ?

[Christian]

I would like to play a lich.

[Christian]

Eldon Grimcloak was a very studious child from an extremely wealthy family. He spent most of his childhood studying everything he could get his hands on. From a very early age, magic had cast its spell over him. Anything from fiction to hard analytical thesis papers were his bread and butter. He spent so much of his childhood reading and writing; he never really made any friends, and was left with a less than muscular build. In fact he was so thin an attractive, he would often times be mistaken for a woman.

As Eldon grew, so did his power. He was at the head of his class at the thurgia where he studied. Eldon quickly out matched his fellow classmates, which caused much conflict amongst his peers. Eventually Eldon surpassed even his teachers’ knowledge of the arcane, so he packed up his things and left to travel the world.

Eldon spent much time hunting down lost magic items and searching for lost spells to increase his own repertoire. One day after a fierce battle with a troll in a cave off in the far mountains, Eldon discovered a great wizard’s tome of necromancy. This new book contained many spells he had never heard of, as spells of necromancy were banned in his home town unless they were protection from undead spells.” No friend of the Necropolis is a friend of ours” his Teacher was often heard saying.

Eldon learned many new spells from this tome, and set up his own tower in order to utilize his newfound abilities. He wanted to study this new magic in private so he would not be persecuted by the towns’ people. Unfortunately, instead of creating the privacy he wanted, the Tower was Eldon’s downfall. Wizards of all sorts were so intent on seeing what Eldon was up too that they would go to great lengths to spy on him. Some employed their spells on rogues to sneak into the tower invisible. Others summoned monsters to try and gain entrance, While others still bargained with druids and convinced them to wild shape into small animals and walk/crawl/slither/ or climb right into Eldon’s tower.

Eventually, It was discovered what Eldon was doing in his tower. His parents were both outraged and heart broken that their son would put their money to such an underhanded use. Eldon’s father himself was the first person to demand the town take action and tear down the tower. The towns’ folk roused all the fire power they could muster and marched on Eldon’s tower. Eldon had been very busy in the mean time, raiding graves, Raising Undead to guard his tower. Eldon had become one of the most powerful wizards in the land through years of study and his new spell book.

A horrible battle ensued as Wizards, Druids, Clerics, and Warriors of all types came to destroy the tower. Many people were killed in the skirmish, and Eldon would horrify them by raising their companions to fight against them. In the end, Eldon fell. His fathers arrow had been the final blow to steal his life. He took Eldon back to the family grave and buried him in the family plot while the towns’ folk razed the tower to the ground. So that was the end of Eldon Grimcloak. Or at least that’s what the townsfolk thought.

[r3d]

I'm sure interested, i'll get a description posted when i get back later.

[Eldonauran]

I am amending the rules on the first post, check back to make sure you understand it all...

If I have understood your methods I could play a Doppleganger half dragon half fiend ? and then have 11 class levels ?

Yes. You have the basic concept down. You would have 4 Moustrous HD for being Doppleganger and 11 class levels left over.

Templates that don't have an LA listed (aka Spellstitched) DON'T have an LA of 0. They simply don't have an LA (aka were never meant to be used at PCs).

Actually, spellstitched gives a gp cost and exp cost to create one. Which basically makes the creature into a kind of wand-like construct. I simply cout spellstitching a creature as making a magic item that the character cannot lose. And since the spells imbued are regenerated every day, it makes it simpley no different than an item that recharges every day. That's how I see spellstitching.

[Kalessin]

Just commenting: there's an "awaken undead" spell in libris mortis that gives intelligence to mindless undead (permanent).

[ricktur63]

[Jessterr]

i am very interested in this. The past race DOES affect this correct? I am thinking about an undead drow. I'll have to look more into this before writing a background and sheet. I do however have experiance in an evil campaign.

Blah. Stupid wrong buttons. By the way, is there a link to the thread?

[DannyLewis]

I'll back out from this one

[fernworthy]

how do you want Con worked in if we are starting with a living being, then progressing to undead? (for HP)

Scratch that, just read the post