Author Topic: [Template] Undying  (Read 2241 times)

Offline Jeckel

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[Template] Undying
« on: July 08, 2010, 08:50:38 AM »
This template is for a type of character that I've used in almost every campaign since I was in high-school. The concept is based on a short story I read somewhere, I think it was on some BBS, but I haven't been able to find it with google, so it may be lost forever to me. The closest comparison I can point to is Jack Harkness from Torchwood in the Doctor Who universe, but without all the Doctor Who-specific stuff.

I'll quote the Template's first paragraph to give you the basic idea.
Quote
It is said there are two things no one can avoid, death and taxes. Well, Undying are the exception to the former. To say it again. They. Can. NOT. Die. If you cut off the head of an Undying and set that head on fire, all that you would accomplish is to create a burning head screaming in pain. They may not die, but they bleed and feel pain like anyone else.

Anyway, with much help from everyone in the Jack Harkness thread, I was able to cobble together what I think is a very cool Template. So here is a link to the web-pages for the Template and its one custom Power. Have fun, not being able to die (or being forced to live depending on your view point) makes a very interesting character and I've always enjoyed them. :D

Undying Template
Deathless Power
For evil to conquer, good men need only do nothing.
War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.
When Scientists ask questions, Engineers build answers.

Offline Belial666

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Re: [Template] Undying
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2010, 09:58:38 AM »
Do note that there is no way to become truly deathless even with this ability. Someone could still eat your soul or destroy your mind so your undying body would be just an empty husk. Someone could use Transformation to alter your body and remove the deathless ability then kill you. Someone could use Disruption to reduce you to a pile of smoking ashes (an extreme consequence you won't recover from) or apply a generational curse of ridiculous bad luck that gives you a random "lethal" effect every exchange so it keeps you dead, or someone could use Transportation/Worldwalking to reverse-age you to before you were born, balefire you out of the currents of time or kick you out of the Outer Gates.

Of course, all of the above would probably give the local warden an aneurysm but hey! That's how the world works.

Offline Jeckel

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Re: [Template] Undying
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2010, 09:26:28 PM »
Do note that there is no way to become truly deathless even with this ability.

In the broadest sense, you are very correct and I had no intention of making a template that couldn't be destroyed or defeated.

Someone could still eat your soul or destroy your mind so your undying body would be just an empty husk.

If the damage is mental and not physical then yep, you could be a brain dead Undying.

Someone could use Transformation to alter your body and remove the deathless ability then kill you.

I think that would depend on a GM ruling. I wouldn't allow a Emissary of Power to be transformed into a chipmunk so that their Marked by Power ability was removed. Your just now a chipmunk that is Marked by Power. I'd make the same ruling in the Deathless abilities case.

Someone could use Disruption to reduce you to a pile of smoking ashes (an extreme consequence you won't recover from)

Ahh, thank-you for this one. Reminded me I had accidentally deleted the line that covered this. It is now in the Note on the Deathless power. It says, "The result of extreme measures that could cause total destruction of the character (for example, immersion in a star) should be decided during character creation if they are applicable to the story." That should cover most things like this. Player and GM decide when the character is created what happens in such situations.

apply a generational curse of ridiculous bad luck that gives you a random "lethal" effect every exchange so it keeps you dead

The bad luck doesn't relate to the power, but if you consider "lethal effect" and "death result" to mean the same thing then, just like Living Dead power, it couldn't make you dead, though it could to the damage.

or someone could use Transportation/Worldwalking to reverse-age you to before you were born, balefire you out of the currents of time or kick you out of the Outer Gates.

None of which are appling a "death" effect to the character, so sure they work, but they don't activate the Deathless power by themselves.
For evil to conquer, good men need only do nothing.
War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.
When Scientists ask questions, Engineers build answers.