Good Undead

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>>53841627

Apart from the ones that already exist? They're called Deathless, they were introduced in the Book of Exalted Deeds and expanded upon in Eberron.

>>53841655
There were lawful good undead in AD&D.

Church Grims

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_grim

Dogs sacrificed in order to escort souls to the afterlife, would make a pretty rad good aligned undead.

>>53841645
Fpbp

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>>53841627
Take any culture that venerates their ancestors and make their ancestors actually help them. Imagine Great-Grandpa comes back from teh dead to help out around the farm and teach the younglings about the great war.

>>53841627
Well, many undead are so because they actively willed it.

Warriors will go undead to be able to fulfill a mission or serve their master eternally. Wether they should be considered evil or good often depends on the nature of said mission.

Mages and certain clerics will also go undead to research and / or instruct a host of apprentices, so that they may be useful to their communities as mighty vessels for several generation's worth of knowledge.

Spirits also count as undead, and you don't get much more benign than familial or guardian spirits, specially if these manifests as avatars born from the collective will of hundreds, thousands of souls.

>>53841627
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_ghost

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>>53841822
Alternatively, you can do the same things with zombies as robots in a sci-fi setting. They started out as cheap labor but slowly gain sentience and free will.

Had an idea once, might as well share:

Stole a page from TES and its Underking and came up for an idea with a dying god/demigod attempting to possess the body of a mortal king in a bid to survive, and neither quite won out the ensuing struggle of conciousness so they became one being - a technically undead one, but one that channels so much magic through it, it's able to create an appearance of being an immortal ruler. The king's desire to rule got mixed with the deity's desire to be worshipped, and thousands of years of careful rule over an adoring populace has made him pretty just, and the desire to remain ruling is so strong in his mind he tries to avoid cruelties that would incite revolt. Wore bronze armor - he'd worn it when the diety possessed him, so it acted as a stabilizing influence on their shared soul, and magic kept it useful in the face of technological advancement.

>>53841627
I did a Bretonnian knight-errant in a Warhammer Fantasy RP game once who was risen as a wight after he killed a necromancer after a long pursuit. He was horrified but ultimately adapted, taking on the role of a Faceless Man and keeping his body preserved through mummification and putrefication-stalling spices.

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>>53841627

Disco Liches

>>53841836
The skeledad is fucking massive.

>>53841724

Yes, though those weren't positive energy based.

>>53841627
In my setting a revenant is basically a pure of heart soldier who died and is then recruited to be an angel to the good version of death, as I have a good and evil version of every god and an angel for each. its a long fuckin list.

Baelnorns in FR

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this. >>53841826
Missions. I can think of a few stories about people who died and got back up again because they weren't finished. Dark Souls springs to mind, as does Sualtam from the Táin in some versions.

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just sayin'

>>53841896
The mummies were and interestingly the Duskmen from Planescape liked them because they were undead without all the bad and still "life-like" pulsions most undead have.

Clerics in D&D learn Create Undead and Animate Dead. Does this mean spirits of their god are inhabiting the corpses?

If a cleric of Garl Glittergold animated some zombies, you could portray them continuously laughing, or zombies raised by a war god could rise and salute as if they were soldiers going into battle.

>>53841627
>It sucks that Pelor grounded you and you can't see your girlfriend. Maybe I can be your girlfriend tonight?

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>>53841627
Necromancy was turned on its head upon the realization that mirroring certain runes and inversing a handful of verbal components resulted in the creation of Deathless entities rather than Undead; entities for which there was a much lower presence of supernatural entropy and by their nature resisted change from their state of being. So long as they were created with enough complexity, they were able to continue to learn and grow as individuals, but simplified versions resulted in stagnant, unchanging automatons that were much more a facsimile of their original selves rather than a continuation.

The result of applying positive energy in place of negative also had an odd side-effect in the surrounding areas. In the short term it resulted in more bountiful crop yields in areas with high deathless populations. In the long-term however, non-deathless individuals showed much higher rates of mutation and cancerous growths, resulting in a need for higher deathless conversion rates, spiking the problem exponentially until the source was realized and all non-deathless citizens were removed from the testing region and the valley in place quarantined by order of the Circle of Sequestered Magic.

>>53841983
>all clerics have access to all spheres of influence

Is 5E really this awful

>>53841627
Chinese style ancestors

>>53842102
https://5thsrd.org/spellcasting/spell_lists/cleric_spells/

They have a standard spell list and two spells every other level from their god's domain.

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>>53841627
Baelnorns; Liches created as eternal guardians for sacred places and vile, unkillable entities.

Over-populated high-magic/hextech societies create undead consumer populations to consume the excess organic materials to prevent overgrowth, but have such surplus supply that they never need or want to harm the living before their time.

Ghostly army haunting a single weapon, each a former wielder of the weapon training the current user in its styles, ways, powers and duties.

Metalic Draco-lich that was among the last of its kind in a high-chromatic dragon populated area, stays as skeletal sorcerer batman entity to thwart and disrupt its evil kin to avoid a reformation of the Dragon Flights' Empire of old, favoring the era of mortals more. (works great if the party has some dragon-blooded character options to work as a reveal of "No, you're not an abomination from the monsters your people hate, you're my 7th generation grandkid and I am so proud of you and your five paladin levels.")

The Ferryman: A spirit whose gambling debts were outlandish but its gambling partners understanding. He's currently on a debt relief program that includes necromancy as an option to extend it out to manageable increments of payment so he's also putting one of his great-grandkids through scribe's school along with a scholarship grant to help him along. Always has little pictures of his family in his wallet and is literally the best ferryman on a huge lake with many tributaries; if you need to get anywhere in the greater lakes region, he's the best you can call on, and the occasional adventuring party tips so well that he might be able to retire in about a century.

>>53841832
Lincoln wasn't even good-aligned when he was alive.

>>53841826
>Because they actively willed it
>Warriors

>Two armies are locked in eternal combat because neither side will yield
>Each one has absolute conviction and will fight for eternity if need be to prevent their opposition from gaining an inch of ground

>>53841627
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w34fSnJNP-4

>>53842395
Undead war. That could be a nice set up for an hypothetical Dark Souls 4.

>>53841627
>>53841826
Buddhist monks also have a thing for going undead as a means of becoming 'saints'.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu

Article is worth reading, its pretty fucking baddass what these people would do.

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>>53842338
>this triggers the southerner

>>53842555
Its interesting to consider that these particular undead would not be just 'good aligned', but actually sacred. Akin to holy liches.

>>53841855
>stole a page from TES

You mean literally copied Diablo 1 and TFT?

>>53842395
Willpower is often used as an explanation for hauntings. Rage is often used to give strength in such excesses as to cleave mountains or towers in fantasy settings. Why couldn't a warrior of sufficient intent and drive haunt their armor and weapons in a fashion akin to a phylactery?

>>53841836
Is that thing 4metres tall?

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Did someone say 'good aligned undead'?

>>53842702

Because fighters are suppose to be ultra super realistic while wizards can do whatever they want cuz magic

>>53842732
Go back to sleep so we can poke your shadow some more.

>>53841627
Arch lichs are a thing. Stupidly powerful wizards so skilled that they GENTLY take out their soul and put into thing. Not good or evil but you could work with the concept.

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The elven Baelnorns.

The Slavic Rusalka if you consider them the spirits of drowned unmarried maidens instead of nymphs.

The Japanese Ubume, which is not a single entity but the culmination of the souls of all mothers who died while giving birth. All these ghosts merge in the form of a spectral, yet lovable old lady. She will often offer sweets to children and information, protection and cure to adults who lost their mothers too soon.

The Guédé, a family of benevolent and playful (although a bit mischievous) psychopomp-like entities from Vodou mythology.

>>53841874
>winking skeleton
THAT'S NOT HOW SKULLS WORK

>>53842102
Yes, but not exactly. A cleric still chooses a domain which grants extra spells. For instance, any cleric can Inflict Wounds or Create Undead, but only a cleric of a death god can create an Antilife Shell. It is also stated that a good cleric does not create undead (at least not often).

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>>53842555

>>53842702
I'm not saying that it couldn't/shouldn't happen, just suggesting what it could lead to.

>>53842989
But if willpower and magic are linked, perhaps that's why in anime you end up with pseudo-magical fighters.

The idea is basically the same, except while Wizlux the Super Wizard channels his will into explosive fireballs Grognak the Barbarian channels his will into axe strikes so hard and fast the axe catchs fire/ignites anything it hits and causes explosions as it impacts.

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>>53841627
Calacas. The joyful dead, spawned of the belief that the last thing a dead person wants is to inspire sadness when remembered by those they love. They dress festively and play music and games to show that they are enjoying a happy afterlife.

>>53841627
> Positive energy based Undeads
no. dnd doesn't work that way.
>good-aligned
sure why not.

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>>53841826
>Spirits also count as undead
I don't think that's really accurate. Spirits are just as often something that's alive with a being, or even something not normally alive at all.

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Relevant skeleton

>>53841836
. . . why is that child SMALLER than when it was an infant? The art's cool, but now that I've noticed I can't unsee the fact that its arms are barely even as long as the skeleton's hand!

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>>53842278
>"No, you're not an abomination from the monsters your people hate, you're my 7th generation grandkid and I am so proud of you and your five paladin levels."

>>53845412
The is assuming the skeleton didn't get bigger.

>>53842689
Never played the former, no idea what the latter abreviation is. Probably good to know that my idea wasn't at all original though.

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>>53841627
Hyper religious skelebros who believe they were resurrected for eternal life as their religion had offered them. A life threatened by bone cancer, but only "sinners" who turn from the Light of the Seven would ever get that R-Right?

>>53841627
So what positive energy zombies would be like? They mob you to give you hugs instead of nomming on your brains?

you know i thought of something
in a world where banditry is common and there are many, many people on the wrong side of the law that people would congratulate you for killing, why would "good" vampires have to starve themselves

>>53841627
When evil intentions and good deeds become a fucked ball of confusing nobility and selfishness and the DM has trouble assigning his alignment.
I had a skelly going down that path.

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>>53842989
Posterity

>>53847309
they're radiant, enlightened corpse-people that heal with a touch

>>53847402
>A level 5 assault rifle wielding modern soldier is as powerful as a level 5 caveman armed with a club

ok

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A devout crusader died without completing his mission
So now his soul inhabits his sword, and his sword intends to continue his crusade of justice.

>>53847499
They both had to kill the same shit to get to that level. I'd say the Caveman is probably played by a smarter person, because he managed to make to level 5 without needing to use a powerful weapon.

>>53847499
Why would you present both modern soldier and caveman in your game as viable character archetypes?

>>53847673
>this is what martialfags actually believe

>>53841913
>people who died and got back up again
Jesus?

>>53847499
>completely misses the point of the screencap

A more accurate example would be a level 1 caveman with a club vs a level 10 modern soldier with an assault rifle. If one is better than the other objectively, then the level should be higher.

I played an undead paladin once.

He died during the war against a lich and REALLY wanted to make sure that the lich stays dead

>>53841627
does any one have that post about a good necromancer bringing prosperity to a kingdom by delegating dangerous and monotonous labor jobs to the dead, just to be killed by a band of adventurers who assumed he was evil?

>>53847322
Who says they do? No one cares or goes looking when a few bandits disappear.

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>"all undead are evil"
>picrelated
>I-I'm so sorry sir, I should never have doubted you

>>53841627
I don't use good undead myself but the book of exalted deeds has stuff if you are interested.
But bear in mind almost everything about that book is terrible. right down to the morality stuff displaying a complete lack of understanding of how it works in d&d.

I remember something Metallic Dragons had. Chromatics rely on Dracolichdom, Metallics rely on Hollowfication.

Take a Gold dragon for example. Except beneath his scales there is only a skeleton and fire. The Hollow dragon becomes filled with their respective energy type and becomes immortal unless destroyed.

>>53844990
brb, Skeleton Bard in this model

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Wasnt this guy good undead?

>>53841627
It's a meme that needs to die. Undead are evil. It requires evil to create undead. It's very simple - even if undead do good acts, the fact that they exist is unnatural and evil.

>>53849147
I bet your mum would agree that creating you was an evil act

>>53845321
>not revenant

You make me sick

>>53849147
Found the paladin

>>53841627
In an a all evil vampire campaign. after my halfling vampire mage finally found who sicked the paladin order that hunted him and his family down, by infiltrating the order by faking a holy visitation, helping them win a war against the drow, all this while secretly running a pr campaign to get them kick out of the country. The dm intended it to be a fugitive game, forgot irl i take family seriously i took the "taken" rout. my character was trying to cure him self of being evil with wizardry because "these event's prove that nothing is immortal, not even gods and demons. i still have family to protect but when eventually i do perish i want to see evelyn (his wife dead for around 100 years and died good) again and nothing not even the gods will sway me from my purpose"

>>53850359
he was coincidentally the weakest party member but the mastermind "how are you going to pay these demon you want to summon" "simple with our resupplying stock of what they love the most" "wtf" "sigh...live paladins, after all the order of pelor keeps sending these fellows free of charge" henceforth the ban on me playing evil, wizard or rouges was put back into place. dammit

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>>53841822
This should be more common

>>53841822
Isn't there a screencap like that? Where the gravedigger of a city reuses their dead to defend them from invasions?
I remember it was pretty cute, with the one of the skeletons waving to his granddaughter before joining the rest of the army.

>>53847402
>loser that never played editions before 3.pf talks shit
>doesn't realise wizards were stronger at the same levels before but they were balanced around slower levels and actually working for components

Every single time, that screencap is so wrong. The issue we have with wizards is not that they're stronger, but that they could get stronger with the same amount of effort instead of needing to work harder to earn it. Please don't try to point out the flaws in the game without knowing its history.

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>>53841627

At one point I had a setting underdevelopment in which the heros were resurrected via a magical ritual (reminiscent of Egyptian mummification rituals) which poured vast amounts of positive energy into their corpses. They seemed completely alive except for the fact that they didn't need to eat and if you cut them they didn't bleed. They regenerated damage quickly, and the wounds which broke their skin would radiat light until they healed. They stored a lot of energy, but they could run out. Restoring their energy required resting in particular temples or having specific rituals performed on them by moral priests.

>>53841627
Magic armor that is bound to the souls of martyrs of the light. It acts as a mentor to new champions of light sorta like in Avatar because it knows some day their consciousness will join it.

>>53841645
>Not worshiping the one of the 2 good Jedi.
I can take him as new Jesus.

In some Eastern Orthodox traditions a body failing to decay is considered evidence of sainthood, while in other european folk traditions a body refusing to decay is proof it's a vampire. This once inspired me to make a !Medieval Europe setting in which the !Holy Roman Empire reviled the undead while !Byzantium used a class of Holy Revenants as it's primary defenders it it's wars with a demon worshiping !Caliphate.

Baelnorm
Good Aligned Lich
Archlich
The angelic equivalent of a Lichfiend, if possible.
Anything with the deathless template
Any vampire after popping on a helm of opposite alignment (Johnathan MorningMist) or a luck elf vampire because fucking knife-ears and their relation to vamprism

>>53841627
>good-aligned, Positive energy
Just play anything other than DND honestly.

>>53841627
I think to remember there's a character race of undead risen through a mix of necromancy and positive energy. Can't remember the name, right now. I think they were in a Pathfinder supplement.

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>>53841822
>>53851459
the tarkir setting of mtg does this really well too.

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>>53851459

>>53844256
I'd create a skeletal disorder that sealed up the eye of a dude just so I can make a winking joke.

>>53841836
> There are actually 4 or five skeletons under that coat stacked up like small children attempting to enter an R rated flick.

>>53852361
Thanks, it's pretty cute.

How about undead that are 'living' on borrowed time due to the positive energy slowly growing and eating away at their bodies? When a good-aligned deity sees fit, they give an undead a mission to carry out. This mission can be something like 'wash the ill-maintained graves of past soldiers', 'spread the good word', 'kill the evil duke', etc. The time limit varies depending on how hard the mission is, though it is possible to finish early and ascend.

It's popular among the positive undead at the end of their unlife to seek out their evil counterparts in order for the positive-energy death explosion to take them out.

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Any Undead can be classed as good if it does one of the following, same goes for demons.

>Tries actively to maintain a semblance of being human, if they were a good human before the event.
>Tries actively to assist, covertly or not, a local community that is good-aligned
>Does not prey on sentient beings for sustenance
>Is in control of its mental facilities and does the above of it's own free will

>>53847714
GURPS ain't gotta explain shit bitch nigga.

>>53841627
Do it this way:
-There is no turn undead.
-Undead are not created, they are evolved creatures from normal pcs.
-Undead are the ultimate evolution. They live behind the limits of the body to search new avenues of thought and knowledge.

>>53849071
Danny-boy was more chaotic stupid.

>>53841763
That is metal as fuck, anon

>>53845321
>That face, it seems to say "plebs"
Kek

>>53841627
>Positive energy based Undeads

With the exception of wraiths and shit. Most corporeal undead (Zombies, Ghouls, Vampires, Lichs) is Negative energy channeling/possessing a positive energy creature's corpse (us)

So what's the reverse of that?

>>53841627
White Necromancy.

>>53854547
Well they would stop being undead, they would be living.
Positive energy repairs while negative energy picks dissolves.

>>53841822
I see that picture posted for good undead but isn't the story by the guy that the lich is being a dick and by pride of fucking over a heros family steals his kid?

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>>53841627

Amonkhet mummies

>>53849239
Unlike a skeleton, a revenant has skin, muscles, and bear fur.

>>53844743
Plus the DM always has the option of growing a pair to put a stop to any shenanigans they don't like.

Just plain old vengeful spirits killed by evildoers. Scary, hard to communicate with, but ultimately benevolent and seeking justice so they can rest. The kind that in a movie haunts the protagonists with a beautiful mutilated ghost lady to wordlessly give them a clue and in the climax drag the villain into a doorway to the afterlife with dozens of spooky ghost hands before the pretty lady looks at the protagonists with gratitude and fades away.

>>53852076
>a demon worshiping !Caliphate
so a regular caliphate?

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>>53841822
This.

Depending on the circumstances, a revenant could possibly be a good aligned undead, if a bit more tarnished than the normal goody two shoes.

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>>53859056