Grave-Touched

The grave-touched walk a narrow line between life and death. They’re living creatures forever marked by a shadow of borderline undeath. Haunted by this half-state, they embody an eerie blend of unsettling beauty and chilling presence. These beings navigate the world with the unique powers and burdens bestowed by their macabre heritage, forever caught in a dance between worlds.

Flesh of the forsaken

Grave-touched bear the ghastly marks of undeath in their blood. Their skin, pallid or ashen, stretches tightly over their bones, lending them a gaunt and spectral visage.

Sunken and hollow eyes may glow faintly in the darkness, a haunting reminder of their deathly rebirth. Sparse, thin hair sometimes floats as if touched by an unseen breeze, adding to their ethereal demeanor. Their bodies often display signs of decay or otherworldly allure, making them stand out as chilling and captivating figures among the living.

Their forms range from emaciated and skeletal to eerily graceful and fluid, depending on their undead lineage.

Some move with the brittle frailty of the dead, while others glide with a ghostly elegance, like spirits adrift on the wind.

Despite their unsettling features, there is an undeniable allure to their appearance, a haunting charm that mesmerizes and disturbs those who dare look upon them.

Souls Of The Shadow

The grave-touched are souls eternally torn between the lure of life’s vibrancy and the dark embrace of death: a conflict that shapes their very essence. Many adopt a somber, introspective demeanor, their minds forever contemplating the mysteries of life, death, and the realms beyond both.

This eternal struggle often imbues them with a profound sense of melancholy or detachment, though some embrace their condition with a chilling sense of humor or a fierce determination to seize the fleeting moments of their extended existence.

Culturally, grave-touched form tight-knit, insular communities where they find solace and understanding among those who share their haunted fate. They dwell on the fringes of society, where their eerie presence and unsettling abilities provoke less fear and hostility. Within these shadowed enclaves, they honor rituals and traditions that acknowledge both their living and undead conditions, blending the customs of the living with macabre celebrations of their unique state. Their society values resilience, wisdom, and a deep reverence for the delicate balance between life and death, forever straddling the line between the two.

Grave-Touched Names

Grave-touched names echo the eerie beauty and chilling dread of their existence, drawing inspiration from the macabre and the mystical. These names are a testament to their spectral nature, evoking images of otherworldly allure and haunted elegance.

Example Names: Alaric, Bansara, Caelum, Drevan, Elara, Faelan, Ghrist, Harlowe, Icara, Jorath, Kaelen, Lysandra, Morwen, Nyx, Orith, Phaedra, Quorin, Riven, Sylas, Thalia, Uriel, Vaelen, Wraith, Xander, Yara, Zareth

Subspecies

There are four grave-touched subspecies: arcath, bansith, grimvore, and strigol. Choose one of the four subspecies presented below and add its listed traits to the base grave?touched traits below.

Grave-Touched Traits

As a grave-touched, you have the following traits:

• Age. Grave-touched are mortal creatures, though the unnatural influence of undeath extends their lifespan up to six hundred years before true death takes them. While some mortals are corrupted by partial undeath and transformed into grave-touched as adults, some are born to unexpecting parents. Such horrifying surprises lead most to wonder how and when the taint of undeath infected their bloodline.
• Size. Your size is Medium.
• Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
• Senses. Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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.
• Undead Essence. Your physical and spiritual natures are acclimated to the rigors of death. You have resistance to necrotic damage.
• Half Life. You have a mortal physiology that is partially slowed and warped by undeath. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage. Additionally, when a spell restores hit points to you, you regain only half as many hit points as normal.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one language of your choice.

Arcath

Grave-touched shaped by a lich’s sinister influence are known as arcath. They generally exhibit frail features on withered frames, resembling living humanoids with dry, withered flesh or ashen-skinned victims of illness or famine. Though wasted in body, their relationship with lichdom grants arcath potent arcane powers and an air of dangerous capability.

• Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
• Lich’s Legacy. You know the chill touch cantrip, as well as one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. You can also choose a 1st-level spell from the wizard spell list. You can cast this spell once, regaining the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. At 3rd level, choose either another spell of 1st level from the wizard spell list or a 2nd level spell from the wizard spell list. You can cast this spell once, regaining the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for each of these spells. Grave-touched resulting from a banshee’s tragic influence are known as bansith. They tend to have slight builds with eerie features like hair that floats gently in nonexistent breezes, pale skin that borders on translucence, and voices that resonate with a hint of otherworldly echo. The touch of the banshee in their heritage also grants bansith the ability to wield fear and their voices as weapons.

Bansith

• Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
• Instill Terror. You know the bleak omen* cantrip, using Charisma as your spellcasting ability for it.
• Dreadful Wail. As an action, you can unleash a scream with terrifying magical force similar to a banshee’s wail. Each creature that can hear you within 60 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier. On a failure, the creature suffers psychic damage equal to your level and becomes frightened of you until the end of your next turn. On a success, it takes only half damage and isn’t frightened. Creatures within 5 feet of you have disadvantage on the saving throw. You can choose any number of creatures to automatically succeed on the saving throw. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Grimvore

Ghasts are among the most wretched of the undead, and their pervasive malignance can seep into mortal creatures, creating grimvore grave-touched. Grimvore have pale skin covered in mottled bruises with thin hair, hunched postures, and a faint odor of rot emanating from their putrid skin. They are known to be voracious eaters, seldom picky about their meals. The ghoulish gifts of their heritage make them dangerous foes, capable of paralyzing those they wound with their grasping claws or sharp teeth.

• Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.
• Ghoulish Weapons. You can make unarmed strikes with your teeth and claws. If you hit with your bite, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. If you choose to hit with your claws, the damage is slashing.
• Ghastly Caress. When you deal damage to a creature with your teeth or claws, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. On a failure, the target becomes paralyzed until the end of your next turn. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest. When a powerful vampire’s essence creates a grave-touched, the resulting creature is a strigol. Strigol are the most likely grave-touched to pass for fully living humanoids, typically displaying only pale skin and severe facial features as signs of their vampiric heritage. Their supernatural nature becomes undeniable, however, once they are witnessed defying gravity, recoiling from sunlight, or baring their retractable fangs to drink the blood of the living.
• Ability Score Increase. Your ability scores each increase by 1.
• Fangs. Your upper canines are elongated and exceptionally sharp like those of a vampire, and you can retract or extend them at will. While they are extended, you can use them to make an unarmed attack. On a successful hit, this attack inflicts piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier rather than the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed attack.
• Sunlight Sensitivity. Due to your pseudo-vampiric nature, while you or something you are trying to perceive is in sunlight, you have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. Likewise, you have disadvantage on attack rolls if you or your target is in sunlight.
• Blood Drinking. When you damage a living creature with your fangs attack, you can use a bonus action to ingest its blood and gain a number of temporary hit points equal to one roll of the target’s largest Hit Die. The result can’t be less than the target’s Constitution modifier. The amount of temporary hit points you gain is doubled if you are grappling the target when you use your bonus action in this way.
• Vampiric Legacy. At 3rd level, you can cast the charm person spell without somatic components. You can cast this spell once, regaining the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. At 5th level, you can cast the levitate spell without spellcasting components. You can only target yourself. You can cast this spell once, regaining the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.