Risen
Cloaked in a tattered black rag, a halfling gains on the bandit with a spine-shivering scream. Her claws scrape the stone walls of the alley, signalling a gruesome end for the criminal. With a pause, she leaps.
A drow noble bows before an enchanting beauty. He spends the night chatting with her, enough even to draw her back to his quarters. She begins to strip from her garments, oblivious to the fangs inches from her neck.
The rats gnaw at a motionless, cold hand, only to be scared away as the owner slowly rises and brushes off his century-old leather armour. The pain at the tips of his feet reminds him to avoid the spikes next time.
Some see death as the end, some run from it their entire life, and others seek to seize it for their own good. Risen are ones who truly know it best, existing on the border of life and death.
Relentless Nature
Risen, although inheriting and using many of the fiendish features of the undead, do not fully lose their sense of self or their alignment. This allows Risen to be heroes, to be adventures and to use their powers how they see fit. They thrive in dangerous situations, where others may turn to run, or seek cover from waves of fire, Risen stand strong. They are truly relentless.
Risen are usually found at the front line, using their fortitude to survive whatever’s thrown at them. They are able to use their undying nature to shrug off mortal blows and keep surviving against all odds. Although they aren’t able to keep it up for long, it could be the difference between victory and defeat.
A Second Chance
Amongst forgotten crypts, abandoned cemeteries and in the wake of battlefields, unnatural creatures stalk and wander. Monsters that have conquered death and revel in their immortality. Whether it's feasting on a rotting corpse or walking through darkened alleyways, beings born of death very rarely have a peaceful existence. Their Hunger and appearance often mean they are hunting or being hunted, these creatures are undead. Among these wretched beings are those known as Risen, mortals who push the boundaries of undeath without becoming it entirely.
Most who die don’t get a second chance at life, but Risen are the opposite. Their life begins well after death. Increased reflexes, fortitude and immortality are just some of the powers Risen adopt, that is beyond comprehension. However, this gift often comes at a price, many are never able to return to their families in fear of their new form; others struggle to fight against the compulsion their creator inflicts. For Risen, life is the chance to play with the concept of death, but the cost is often more than one would ever expect.
Creating a Risen
When creating a Risen character, think firstly about the nature of your transformation. Talk with your DM about the concept of resurrection and what kind of situation could provoke a Risen to be created. Perhaps an experimenting necromancer finally uncovered some hidden knowledge or your character is one of many, in some powerful entities plot. Secondly, think about who your character was in their previous life, think about their personality and moral compass and then distort that due to the events that transformed them into a Risen. Perhaps a betrayed Soldier now finds his loyalty misplaced or even a devoted druid that now sees no beauty in life. These ideas create realistic and compelling characters that struggle to hold on to their humanity. Lastly, what is your character doing in the present are they wandering the world, hunting the person who killed them or perhaps they simply seek to revel in their newfound abilities.
Risen
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features | Undead Fortitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Undead Curse, Undead Nature | — |
| 2nd | +2 | Undead Fortitude, Foul Anatomy | 2 |
| 3rd | +2 | Eerie Transformation | 2 |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 2 |
| 5th | +3 | Extra Attack | 2 |
| 6th | +3 | Undead Curse feature | 2 |
| 7th | +3 | Horrific Rebuke | 2 |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 |
| 9th | +4 | Relentless | 3 |
| 10th | +4 | Undead Curse Feature | 3 |
| 11th | +4 | Soulmonger | 3 |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 |
| 13th | +5 | Defile | 3 |
| 14th | +5 | Undead Origin Feature | 4 |
| 15th | +5 | Foul Anatomy Improvement | 4 |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvements | 4 |
| 17th | +6 | Eerie Transformation | 4 |
| 18th | +6 | Regeneration | 4 |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 |
| 20th | +6 | Inevitable | 4 |
Quick Build:
You can make a Risen Quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score depending on whether you want to focus on melee weapons or on archery (or finesse weapons). Your next highest score should be Constitution. Second, choose the haunted one background.
Class Features
As a Risen, you gain the following class features
Hit Points
- Hit Dice: 1d10 per Risen level
- Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier
- Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per Risen level after 1st
Proficiencies
- Armor: Light armour, medium armour, shields
- Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
- Tools: None
- Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
- Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Arcana, Acrobatics, History, Intimidation, Survival, Religion
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) a longsword or (b) any martial melee weapon
- (a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon
- (a) studded leather armour or (b) scale mail
- An explorers pack
Undead Curse
At 1st level, you have been transformed and inhabit aspects from an undead creature of your choice: Curse of the Ghoul, Curse of the Revenant or Curse of the Vampire, each detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features when you choose it at 1st level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.
Undead Nature
You don’t require air, food, drink or sleep. Instead of sleeping, you can go into a catatonic state where you are unconscious, after 4 hours of being catatonic, you gain the same benefits a human would from 8 hours of sleep.
Undead Fortitude
Your once fragile body has adjusted to your new unnatural abilities and has become significantly more durable. At 2nd level, when you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hitpoint instead.
You can use this feature a number of times as shown in the Undead Fortitude column of the Risen table, you regain all uses of it when you finish a short or long rest.
Foul Anatomy
Beginning at 2nd level you have resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws to avoid being poisoned.
Additionally, at 15th level, you become immune to poison and disease and the poisoned condition.
Foul Anatomy
Beginning at 2nd level you have resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws to avoid being poisoned.
Additionally, at 15th level, you become immune to poison damage, disease and the poisoned condition.
Eerie Transformation
At 3rd and again at 17th Level, your transformation begins to display another unnatural ability, perhaps even stranger than the last. You gain one of the following features of your choice.
Hide in Plain Sight
- As an action, you can appear indistinguishable from a corpse to all outward inspection apart from spells and magical effects which determine a creature’s status. During this you are considered to be incapacitated and restrained. You can end this effect with a bonus action.
- You gain the ability to, while hidden, enter the line of sight of a creature and still remain hidden, as long as at the end of your movement, you are at least heavily obscured. At the end of your movement the creature can perform a Perception check against your Stealth Check to have noticed you.
Eternal Hunger
- You can sense creatures within 120ft of you that are below their hitpoint maximum. You know their distance from you and the direction they are in.
- When making an ability check to track a creature below their hitpoint maximum, you add your Constitution modifier to the check.
Reckless Strength
- You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag or lift.
- You gain proficiency in the Athletics Skill. If you are already proficient in the skill, you add double your proficiency bonus to checks you make with it.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Horrific Rebuke
At 7th Level, you’ve learned to channel pain into another unnatural power. As a reaction to taking damage from a melee attack, you can use your reaction to force the creature that damaged you to make a Wisdom Saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your constitution modifier). On a failure, the creature is frightened of you. While frightened in this way, the creature is deafened and attack rolls against the creature have advantage. This effect lasts until the end of your next turn.
You’re able to use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1) You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Relentless
At 9th Level, your body has well surpassed the restraints of a mortal form. Allowing you to become seemingly unbreakable. You can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your Risen level.
Additionally, you are now immune to the effects of exhaustion and non-magical difficult terrain does not slow your movement.
Soulmonger
At 11th level, the curse that once drained your life force now drains that of slain creatures around you. When a creature other than you dies within 10ft of you, they can not be revived by any means short of a wish spell and you gain temporary hit points equal to half your level rounded up. Constructs and undead are immune to this feature.
Defile
When you reach 13th level, your voice can manipulate the dead. You can cast speak with dead at will without expending a spell slot and without the material components, however, the target only answers one question instead of five and must answer that one question truthfully regardless of if you are hostile to it or recognizes you as an enemy. A corpse affected by this feature is turned to ash.
Regeneration
Beginning at 18th level, you gain the ability to call on your undead power and regenerate a portion of lost vitality. You can use a bonus action to expend one hit die as if used in a short rest.
Additionally, if you put a severed body part of yours back in place when you use this feature, the part attaches.
Inevitable:
At 20th level, you have mastered the art of death, especially how to not experience it. When you roll a death saving throw, you can choose to not roll, and automatically succeed instead. If you stabilize using this feature, you regain 1 hitpoint.
Undead Curse
Although named as an Undead Curse, many consider it neither a burden or an actual curse. Various Risen gain their abilities through mysterious deities, Unknown magic and even their own willpower. The abilities that come with an undead curse are what defines it; often horrific and terrifying, many choose to reject their power. The Magic that comes from the curse transforms the body into a husk of its former self regardless of the inhabitants desires. Some Risen attempt to cling to their humanity and in the process lose it quicker. Alongside these gifts, Risen also are blighted by distorted emotions and a complex moral compass giving an uneducated outsider the impression that the Risen, is in fact, cursed.
Curse of the Revenant
Created through its own rage and willpower, a revenant focuses its emotions to prolong death until its task is complete. The Curse of the Revenant taps into this mysterious power, seemingly unlocking a fraction of the potential with the cost of an unstable emotional state. Risen who adopt this curse often live a tragic existence seeking only to achieve their long-term goal.
Relentless Nature
When you take this curse at 1st Level, your willpower brings you back from death itself. If you die, you return to life 24 hours after death. If your body is destroyed, you reform within 1 mile of the place of your death at a spot determined by the DM. If your equipment was destroyed, you do not regain it.
Variant Relentless Nature Features:
You may discuss with your DM if you want to go for a character that closely matches a real revenant, if you choose to do so you can choose to gain either or both of the following features:
- You have one year left to live. If you complete some sort of predetermined objective before the year is up, you also die.
- You know the direction and distance between you and the creature involved with your goal, such as a person you’ve sworn vengeance against or vowed to protect. This awareness fails if the creature is on another plane of existence.
Rejuvenate
At 6th Level, when you appear beaten and bloodied, you are often just preparing for a counterattack. When you use your undead fortitude feature, you can use your reaction to regain a number of hit points up to half your hitpoint maximum.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.
Vengeful Glare
At 10th Level, you can instill fear into a creature with just your stare. You can target a number of creatures you can see equal to your constitution modifier within 30ft of you. A targeted Creature must make a Wisdom Saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your constitution modifier). On a failure, the target is paralyzed for up to 1 minute. At the end of each of its turns, the target can make another Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the effect ends.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.
Truly Relentless
Beginning at 14th level, you cannot be contained or stopped outside of creative means. At the start of your turn, you can choose to end one of the following conditions on yourself:
- Restrained
- Paralyzed
- Frightened
- Charmed
- Grappled
- Stunned
Curse of the Ghoul
Often a product of spells cast by powerful necromancers, ghouls tend to lose something in their resurrection process, most often, their sanity. This curse brings out the animalistic side of a person, slowly turning them into undead predators of the night. They’re terrifyingly fast, and act on fight or flight instincts when the end nears for them, often finding themselves wildly scrambling for survival in dangerous fights. Risen who adopt this curse, find themselves fighting the urge to devour corpses or claw at their own skin when starved of action.
Tooth and Claw
When you take this curse at 1st level, your nails and teeth sharpen, growing to unnatural lengths. You can roll a d6 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strikes. This die changes to a d8 at 5th level, and a d10 at 11th level.
Additionally you are able to make an unarmed strike or grapple as a bonus action, provided you have used your action to attack with an unarmed strike.
Insatiable Itch
At 1st level, your need for violence and viscera begins to manifest as you find it hard to sit still. Your speed increases by 10ft.
Additionally you’re able to take the dash action as a bonus action.
Frenzy
At 6th level, you show your true menace when pushed to your limits. When you use your Undead Fortitude feature, you can use your reaction to enter a Frenzy for 1 minute. While in a Frenzy, you are unable to drop below 1 hp, unless you are killed outright. Each time you take damage, you must make a Constitution ability check, with a DC of 10 or half of the damage taken, whichever is higher. On a fail the Frenzy ends and you take the triggering damage as normal.
Blood Curdling Pounce
At 10th level, your long jump and high jump distances are tripled.
Additionally, if you jump at least 10ft toward a creature and then successfully grapple it in the same turn, that target is knocked prone as well. Additionally, when you are grappling a target that is both prone and grappled, you are able to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action, as long as both attacks target the creature you’re grappling.
Howling Frenzy
At 14th level, you can let go of any semblance of sanity and truly revel in the dance between life and death. When you enter a Frenzy, you can choose to make it a Howling Frenzy. While in a Howling Frenzy you must use your action each round to Attack the creature nearest to you. If you can make extra attacks as part of the Attack action, you use those extra attacks, moving to Attack the next nearest creature after you fell your current target. If you have multiple possible Targets, you Attack one at random. Your Howling Frenzy now only ends if you fail a Constitution ability check to keep up the Frenzy or until you start Your Turn with no creatures within 60 feet of you that you can see or hear. While in a Howling Frenzy you gain the following benefits:
- The DC to maintain your Frenzy each time you take damage is always 10.
- You add your Strength modifier to your AC.
- Your speed increases by 20ft.
- You are immune to being frightened and charmed.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.
Curse of the Vampire
Myths and legends often speak of a creature that prowls darkened alleyways and sucks the blood of unlucky wanderers. Although vampirism seems absent within the written history and nature of this curse, its similarity gives it the name the Curse of the Vampire. Its similarity is so comparative, its traits must surely have originated by other means from the unholy creature. Risen who adopt this curse often find themselves deep within the intricacies of society, meddling in matters not their own.
Vampiric Embrace
When you take this curse at first 1st Level, your canines elongate and sharpen allowing yourself to indulge your new apetite. You can use your action to attempt to bite a humanoid grappled by you. To do so, make another grapple check. If you succeed, the grappled target takes 1d6 necrotic damage. The targets hit point maximum is reduced by the amount of necrotic damage taken and you gain a number of hit points equal to the reduced amount. This reduction lasts until the target takes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. The Vampiric Embraces damage increases by 1d6 at 5th level (2d6),10th level (3d6) and 15th level (4d6).
Additionally at 18th level the creature must make a Constitution saving throw against your Risen Save DC or be paralysed until the grapple ends.
Misty Escape
At 6th Level, on the brink of defeat your curse allows for a quick exit. When you use your undead origin feature, you can use your reaction to briefly turn into mist and teleport up to 30 feet away to an unoccupied space you can see.
Additionally until the start of your next turn you are immune to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage dealt by weapon attacks.
Spiderclimb
At 6th Level, your limbs can contort allowing you unnatural nimbleness. You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings without needing to make an ability check.
Vampiric Charm
Beginning at 10th Level, your charisma can beguile and influence. You can attempt to charm a humanoid you can see within 30ft. It must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your constitution modifier) and does so with advantage if you or your companions are fighting it. If it fails the saving throw, the creature is charmed by you for 8 hours. While charmed in this way the creature regards you as a friendly acquaintance. Furthermore when you use this feature you can suggest a course of activity (limited to a sentence or two) provided the creature can hear and understand you.
The suggestion must be worded in a manner as to make the course of action sound reasonable. Asking a creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself or do some other harmful act ends the charm. The creature purses the suggested course of action you described to the best of its ability. The suggested course of action can continue for the entire duration of the feature. If the suggested activity can be completed in a shorter time, the creature continues to be charmed for the features duration. You can also specify the conditions that will trigger a special activity during the duration. For example you might suggest that a knight give her warhorse to the first beggar she meets. If the condition isn’t met before the feature expires, the activity isn’t performed. If you or any of your companions damage the target the charm ends.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.
Children of the Night
At 14th Level, you can call upon the children of the night to assist you. You gain the ability to magically call 2d4 swarms of bats or rats, provided the sun isn’t up. While outdoors you can call 3d6 wolves instead. The called creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds, acting as your ally and obeying your spoken commands. The beasts remain for 1 hour, until you die or you dismiss them as a bonus action.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.
Risen Multiclassing
Should you wish to multiclass into a Risen, the prerequisites and proficiencies gained are listed below:
Risen Multiclassing Prerequisites
| Ability Score Minimum |
|---|
| Constitution 13 |
Risen Multiclassing Proficiencies Gained
| Proficiencies Gained |
|---|
| Light armour, medium armour, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons |
Multiclassing into a Risen
Multiclassing with the Risen allows you to create some interesting undead characters without being restricted by official classes or the undead theme (Unless you want to just be a Ghoul, then by all means… go ahead). It makes sense that a resurrected soldier could have some levels in fighter. Spellcasting is one of the main features of fantasy, so if a couple levels in warlock or wizard makes the character more realistic or fun, go for it. On top of this, the Risen creates an opportunity to prevent a beloved character leaving the story due to death. Death in Dungeons and Dragons is one of the hardest concepts to manage as both a player and dungeon master. Putting a level in the Risen class creates an opportunity for a character to continue within a campaign, potentially appearing at the next level up. However their always has to be consequences for death in dungeons and dragons. One way to do that is a change in the emotional/moral positions connected with a character. Perhaps consider even a change in alignment; making the lawful paladin chaotic is a fun change in pace for a story.
Credits
Art by LoranDeSore https://www.deviantart.com/lorandesore/art/Mergard-684993048
The Chained Kobolds
Hi, we are the Chained Kobolds. Two dumb dungeon masters, who for several years now, felt like we could try and make homebrew content for D&D 5E. Although we feel we have a firm grasp on the game, we would appreciate any feedback in relation to balancing, wording clarification or if you just liked the content as we are still new to the world of homebrew. On that note, we hope you have fun using this in your game and you can follow us on reddit to await more content in the future.
