Comments

1. 1. 

      Neonivek on September 28, 2015

      Uhhh let me think... and I am sorry for posting again and again. I'd honestly edit it if I could. I'll go to the Larian studios forums once the kickstarter is done.

      -Eclipse or Dark Vapors (Source): Darkness surrounds the undead as he channels it through his soul lungs breathing it out over the area. This creates a special black smoke that blocks line of sight, but also has a chance of causing blindness (or an accurate penalty) to anyone who goes through it who doesn't make the save. Great for choke points against enemy magicians.
      -Thanatos Gate (Source): The Undead creates two soul pillars with a faint field between them. Those who pass through take mild damage, but more importantly this gate blocks all magic and projectile attacks through the gate as it gets transported to the hall of echos either eliminating them completely or leaving behind a pale imitation of the real thing significantly reducing damage and making it easy to save against those attacks. Those who die from this do not leave behind a soul to harvest as they too are taken immediately to the hall of echos.

   2. 

      Neonivek on September 9, 2015

      Here is one
      -Latch On (Story Element): Spirits can chose to latch themselves onto undead characters, this is a unique story element for them. Perhaps the spirit can show up in the inventory (perhaps in a bottle as with Phylactery) or they are just implied to be latched on. Yet the solutions show themselves as now ghosts are not limited to locations but the undead, allowing you to show them things. Perhaps a spirit of a mad father getting revenge for his son can be calmed by showing him his son being happily married.
      -Reveal Spirit (Story Element): Perhaps undead have the ability to make ghosts apparent and audible to others... or be able to pass on their words directly somehow.
      -Feed The Dead (Story Element): The Undead is much looser with their soul and can donate a source point to a dead spirit. Spirits and ghosts who are given soul energy find themselves calmer and more reasonable, even mad spirits can find themselves temporary lucid. This can offer many opportunities to solve a problem, though careful, a source empowered spirit is a deadly foe.
      -Ghost Whispers (Story Element): Perhaps Undead can occasionally hear the whispers of ghosts too soft and distant for others that give them hints about a situation others cannot turn up. A murderer might have the resonance of screams, but don't take this too far... What might be a murderer could be a stalwart soldier who was only doing his duty against a malicious foe.

      Basically I am saying that perhaps the undead offer solutions involving the dead and deceased that are not offered to other characters. Along with the ability to use Source points in ways that others cant.

   3. 

      Neonivek on September 9, 2015

      More stuff!
      -Phylactery (Talent): Some Sourcerers are limited in placing souls into themselves or soulstones. Yet only the undead possess the unique skills to set souls into objects themselves. The undead can chose to place a soul into a bottle, which may then be used for recipes (such as undead food) or to enhance equipment creating possessed items. Bottled souls are only a fragment and cannot be used to restore a source point.
      -Ghost Talk (Passive): Undead possess ghost talk automatically without the need to take it as a talent.
      -No saving the damned (Passive): Undead cannot receive food, drink, or rest bonuses of any sort unless magically imbued. Those are for the living, the undead prefers to partake of souls.
      -Borrow Source (Passive): You may give/lend source points to an undead character, though they can't give it back unless you are also undead.

      I think one of the major ideas of the undead is that they are based directly off of source manipulation. They are stronger with more source, and weaker with less, while having way more options to get them, themselves.

      -Source Reliance (Passive): Undead without a source point are listless and weakened. A undead who has used all their source might become enraged.
      -Source Overflow (Passive): Undead receive a health and damage bonus equal to each source point above 1 (or 2) they have.
      -Symbiotic Spiritual Possession (Passive or story element): Undead can convince a willing spirit to enter their body gaining a point of source. This doesn't destroy or harm the spirit in anyway, but they essentially move on. Only friendly spirits will ever do this.
      -Bonus Source (Passive): Undead start off with one additional Source point.
      -Soul Siphon (Active): An undead attempts to steal some of the opponents soul or source. If successful the undead gets one phantom point of source for a while, if unspent it goes away. The opponent doesn't have access to that point for that combat.
      -Soul Siphon version 2 (Passive): When an undead kills an opponent they receive one phantom source point from the fragment of souls spilling into the area. This point is temporary.

      Elven Undead
      -Nature's Macabre Gift (Passive or Story Element): A Undead Elf may convince an animal, plant, or spirit of nature to give up its spirit to it to gain a point of source. While spirits are not harmed by this exchange, animals and plants die. They must, however, be convinced to do this.
      -Animal Soul (Passive or Story Element): Undead Elves may force animals, with a large enough soul, to give them their soul in a similar way to undead.
      -Pet Pal (Passive): Regardless of their undead origins, as an elf they still possess the ability to speak with animals. Though animals are still put off by their appearance.

   4. 

      Godhak on September 9, 2015

      @Stabbey - I really like your idea of giving enemies skills that the player can also use, so an experienced person could benefit of playing even more by faster recognition of how to counter specific skill situations. However I would personally put that to the Strategist mode, because as a first timer it would just ruin my experiences upon further replays. After tons of playing it would make for a great challenge to see back variaties of your old skills used against you. ;)

   5. 

      Stabbey on September 8, 2015

      You could also give some mid-high-level (intelligence-retaining) undead ENEMIES some things like this too. Like perhaps you fight a tough Lich, who puts on Undying Will when he is near death, and if you finish him off when it's up, then he heals back up to half and you have to quickly kill it before the cooldown wears off in 4-7 turns or else he could just put it on again. (Although if you're smart, you'd just avoid killing him for the three turns it's on, and then put him down when it's on cooldown.)

   6. 

      Larian Studios LLC Creator on September 8, 2015

      These ideas just keep getting better and better - we're keeping track of them all, thanks so much for your thoughtful suggestions!

      [Char]

   7. 

      Cole on September 7, 2015

      Wow. THIS is what they call community participation! You Larians should all be proud that your players have dived in so deeply with such excellent ideas!

   8. 

      Stabbey on September 7, 2015

      Interesting ideas, Neonivek. Those do depend on if Larian wants to do triple the work of designing and balancing class skills, though.

      Here's a thought, Larian: The Undead are supposed to have a Source Addiction, right? And one of your proposed ideas is that they suffer a constant health drain which they can only cure by spending source points, yes? What if Undead by default started out with a maximum of two source points, instead of one?

      I don't know if that's a good idea or at all balanced, but it's just something I've been thinking about. I don't really know enough about how powerful Source Skills are, or how easy they are to replenish to make a judgement on this.

   9. 

      Neonivek on September 7, 2015

      Here is my suggestion which is mostly that since there are essentially four undead races in this game (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Lizardkin) that they should partially be based on those. Though I am not sure how feasible they are.

      Lizardkin:
      -Even in death the Lizardkin plead for the embrace of the sun, their senses muted in their undead agony. They become so desperate to feel even the slightest embrace of the sun that unlike other undead, who prefer the cold, the undead Lizardkin desperately seek the hot much more so then even their living counterpart.
      -Anathema (Passive): The Cold is horrid to the undead Lizardkin, they feel it right down to their souls. Their healing is only 50% effective and they have an effective -1 fortitude against being frozen.
      -Undead of Flames (Passive): Simple warmth doesn't provide much solace to these creatures. They are empowered and hastened while on fire or when they take a source of fire damage, even if that damage is 0.
      -Grave Blaze (Source): Unlike most undead their grave chill doesn't make the room warmer but instead makes it much hotter instead. Frozen becomes chilled, chilled becomes normal, normal becomes warm, and warm becomes on fire.

      Lizardkin Alternative
      -Instead you could simply provide alternate undead versions of their racial abilities. Instead of fire breath they have cold breath. Instead of feeling good during the heat they feel good during the cold. While still possessing most of the other undead traits

      Dwarf
      -Dwarves are used to the cold of the underground piercing their bodies down to its very core. They do not gain much from the cold but at the same time they do not share the same weakness to flame either.
      -Calcified (Passive): Years of mining has rendered the undead's bones into a hard stone-like density. They have an armor bonus equal to their level. Yet they are also heavier as a result and move more slowly in battle.
      -Temperature Resistant (Passive): Dwarves are only chilled or warmed for a single turn and have an effective resistance to them equal to +1 the appropriate skill.
      -Turn to Stone (Source): The Undead Dwarves touch is especially deadly, turning anyone touched into stone and sometimes even permanently as they receive additional earth damage every turn.

      Elf
      -Elves can never truly be happy as undead as their very nature causes animals to flee and plants to wither at their very touch. Few ancient undead elves exist as most take their lives before too long having lost all joy in this world. Yet there is something to be said about their ability to sap the life out of this world to feed them.
      -Deathly Dominate (Source): The undead elf dominates the target with their eternal suffering causing them to attack themselves on their turns.
      -Life Siphon (Passive): Undead Elves are only 50% effective in healing, but they receive 50% of all healing they give.
      -Grave Touch (Source): Undead Elves receive part of the damage they deal with this source skill in health, otherwise it functions the same.

      Humans
      -One would assume that humans would form undead typically but nothing could be further from the truth. While the other races are tortured or bored by the undead touch, humans have something far more sinister occur with them... They embrace it and thrive. Human undead adapt to their undead existence more then the other races and instead of finding their lives deprived of life they instead feel the intense joy of undeath.
      -Vicious Cackling (Source): The undead lets out a series of unearthly cackles and laughter causing those who hear it to go temporarily insane.
      -Cusp of True Death (Passive): Human undead who are at 50% health or lower gain a damage bonus.
      -Deathly Joy (Passive): When a undead human slays a target they gain an attribute bonus for the remainder of a fight.

      Ok that is all the idea I have for now. Is this worth me continuing to think about? or is it against the direction you think you will take it?

   10. 

       Stabbey on September 7, 2015

       Hmmm... maybe they should also get a "Consume Living" skill, which works on NPC's. It's more effective, but has a big karma hit. It can only work if the Undead's listed damage is enough to one-shot kill the targeted NPC (there could be dice rolls, Bodybuilding saving throws), and it can be done in and out of combat (but again it has to be able to finish off the NPC to work).

   11. 

       Stabbey on September 7, 2015

       @Larian - Thanks. I'm trying to think of ways to differentiate the way Health and CON works for undead instead of the living. I definitely don't like the "+20% HP which slowly drains" idea, as it does not fit at all with a game with so much exploration and talking. The drain completely cancels out the benefit of the increased HP.

       More detail on the Unvitality Passive:

       You gain twice as much HP per point of CON, but your maximum HP only increases by half-as much when you level up. Your HP is also not restored to full upon leveling.

       This means that Undead gain -some- Max HP when leveling up automatically, but it's a lot less effective than that of living people. Also a further penalty - living creatures HP is automatically restored to full when they level up, but the Undead do not. They have to work harder to maintain their decaying bodies.

       If they want to be tough, they'll have to invest points into Constitution (but if they do that, they will go farther than that of ordinary people). Their extra gains from CON represent being tougher to injure and kill because of a lack of vital organs.

       Giving the Undead (and not the Lizards) the "Consume Dead" ability, which lets them eat corpses to regain HP would make for a great synergy.

       I've also started thinking about abilities for the other races, too:
       http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php…

   12. 

       Larian Studios LLC Creator on September 7, 2015

       @Stabbey - Those are some top-notch skill ideas :-)

       [Char]

   13. 

       Flamerion on September 7, 2015

       Source/soul lust maybe?

       I like to think of your undead like vampires they can be in complete control unless they don't feed well

   14. 

       Stabbey on September 7, 2015

       Undying Will (Active): This skill has a duration of three turns, and if you die while it is active, you automatically resurrect to 50% HP. 8 Turn cooldown or once-per-combat.

       Terrify Living (Active): Reveal your unnatural visage of death to terrify a living target. Touch-range spell which affects a single-target, giving them a 75% Chance to be feared. Does NOT affect Undead (as all undead are Immune to Fear)

       Grasp of the Grave (Active): Touch range skill which has a 100% chance to chill the target, and does some water damage.

       Unvitality (Passive): Gain twice as much HP per point of CON, but your maximum HP only increases by half-as much when you level up. Your HP is also not restored to full upon leveling.

   15. 

       Larian Studios LLC Creator on September 7, 2015

       @Pierre - Not sure if it is feasible given the structure of our story, but I really love your idea of starting a new undead character based on a previous dead one :-)

       @BIGBadBull - We do have spirits within the game (they are quite integral) but no plans to make them playable characters.

       [Char]

   16. 

       BIG bad Bull on September 7, 2015

       Now there should be a 4the race / explanation to allow ghost and spirits , as these are conscious corpse-less entities who are not residing in the hall of echo's. they much resemble the faint, but are quite the opposite, as they stay conscious but have no body and no or limited interaction possibilities.

   17. 

       Pierre, Endless Paths guide of the ∞ on September 7, 2015

       Oh and another idea.
       Start a new undead character based on a previously played character who died.

   18. 

       Pierre, Endless Paths guide of the ∞ on September 7, 2015

       Some ideas for the undead:
       Carry disease: allow the undead to carry germs on him that act as a sort of AOE attack, or may be only by contact.

       And of course some special power or quest if people plays their character on the 31st of October :)

       Greeting from Brussels

   19. 

       BlackGauntlet

       Superbacker

       on September 7, 2015

       Bonecraft 1 (Passive)
       Increases damage reduction by augmenting the player's own skeletal structure.

       Bonecraft 2 (Active)
       May craft weapons/ammo from corpses.

       Bonecraft 3 (Active)
       May craft enchanted items from corpses.

       Bonecraft: Aegis of Bones (Source)
       May create a Bone Golem.

       Bonecraft: Hail of Bones (Source)
       Fire numerous bone daggers in an AOE attack.

       Otherworldly Sense 1 (Active)
       You have no ears but the echoes of Life rings in your skull. You are able to detect all living creatures in your vicinity.

       Otherworldly Sense 2 (Active)
       Your eyeballs have long been pecked out by crows or eaten by worms but the electromagnetic resonance emitting from gold and artifacts are undeniably beckoning to you. You are able to detect gold and items in your vicinity.

       Otherworldly Senses 3 (Active)
       You may not have a nose now but that gaping hole in your face sure takes in a lot more air and olfactorial information than before. You can smell traps and hidden passages. Don't ask.

       Otherworldly Sensual Deprivation (Source)
       With your mastery of the senses, you can reach them out to cause a sensory overload on all creatures in your surroundings, forcing them to shut their own senses out to avoid losing their sanity; causing deafness, blindness and massive confusion.

       Soulforge 1 (Active)
       You are able to consume souls from freshly dead bodies to replenish your vitality.

       Soulforge 2 (Active)
       You are able to absorb souls from freshly dead bodies to increase your Strength for a period of time. The stronger the soul and lesser it was used to replenish your vitality, the longer the duration.

       Soulforge 3 (Active)
       You are able to absorb souls from freshly dead bodies to increase your both Strength and Speed for a period of time. The stronger the soul and lesser it was used to replenish your vitality, the longer the duration.

       Soulforge: Tabard of Aeons (Source)
       May create a Spirit Amalgam (an incorporeal creature formed by combining many souls).

       Soulforge: Unhallowed Screams (Source)
       May release the torment and anguish from consumed souls, like a sea of Banshees, from the player in an AOE attack.

       Fleshweave 1 (Passive)
       Just because you're losing them, doesn't mean you don't know them. You have intricate knowledge on how to cut out flesh; where it is the weakest and how to let out the most blood. You do greater damage to living creatures.

       Fleshweave 2 (Active)
       Explosions are fun! You can cause a corpse to quickly fill up with decomposing gas (or methane, if you want to get all science-y about it) and set it as a landmine for unsuspecting enemies to tread upon.

       Fleshweave 3 (Active)
       So, yeah, the area of the explosion is pretty small. You have devised a way to release the gas into the area; choking and poisoning all enemies in the vicinity with the putrid emanations.

       Fleshweave: Meat Shield (Source)
       A mobile wall of flesh encircles you wherever you go, protecting you from all physical harm.

       Fleshweave: The Will Is Weak (Source)
       What is more terrible than being possessed? Being controlled by a Fleshweaver to hack down those you care about while being fully aware of what you are doing but have absolutely no way to stop it.

   20. 

       Stabbey on September 7, 2015

       "cannibalism sounds like a fun racial skill for the undead, instead of giving it to lizards..."

       I agree with this suggestion from Ken Mencher, that seems like it would be a far, far, better fit than with Lizards.

       I also don't really think that a constant HP drain - even if it is only to 80% of your max HP is a very good idea. Isn't this a game which has a lot of places to explore and a lot of people to talk to? Adding a drain effect like that would discourage Undead players from exploring or talking to people.

       This is not an action hack + slash where you should be constantly moving forward and attacking, which means that a drain completely counters any possible benefits from starting with +20% HP in the first place! How worthless!

       I'll post more feedback later when I think of more things.

       Also Kenny, you've posted about Overlord like 7 times already, I'm reasonably confident that Larian will see at least one of those posts.

   21. 

       Kenny Kwan on September 6, 2015

       If anyone is okay reading translated novels, there is a very good japanese web novel where the main character is also an undead game character; very good inspiration for undead skills/looks!! The novel is called "OVERLORD", and you can essentially google and it'll come up!! (it was the deciding factor when i saw undead starting option became available)

       If anyone on the dev. team is reading this; PLEASE look it up for inspirations for potential skills/looks!! (Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!!)

       Keep up the good work!! =]

   22. 

       Kenny Kwan on September 6, 2015

       If anyone likes to read translated novels, there is a good web novel where the main character is also playing a game as an undead character; highly recommended, and was the deciding factor to invest in this game after hitting the $1.2 million mark!! The novel is called "OVERLORD" (you can google, and it'll come up!)

       Plenty of ideas to base undead skills/looks off of! (Ainz Ooal Gown!!)

       Keep up the good work!! =]

   23. 

       Grinsevent Wheresluggage of Sin on September 6, 2015

       I love this "We can beat this one" ^^ Go on Larian

   24. 

       sco on September 6, 2015

       I'd like to throw in another "like the idea of becoming an undead during the course of a non-undead play through."

       How cool would it be to run afoul of a necromancer, be slain by him, and then have to overcome his domination of your mortal remains? Being able to undermine him without being caught out as fighting back; going outright aggressive with the force of your will; ...succumbing to the addiction he feeds you, bringing you to a lose state.

       Though I don't know what your guys thoughts are on being able to lose completely.

       Also cool could be a "hardcore" mode. If you die you don't resurrect but linger as a Faint. Now you're still trying to accomplish your goals - which is, after all, what causes you to cling to Rivellon as a Faint - but you also have to combat the fading of your memories.

       I'm still a bigger fan of the weakness-strength passive method. Grave Chill & the regen-when-frozen-can't-heal-when-burning are my favorite of the update ideas. I've none of my own, but oh well..!

   25. 

       Byron Grant on September 6, 2015

       Hi all. First update I've read as I (somehow) only recently backed the game. So my apologies if this comment repeats others' ideas.

       1. "Source Addiction" is a good idea, but "regenerate while frozen" should merely arrest this process -- not actively heal the undead: being frozen preserves the dead, yes, but it doesn't knit broken bones or mend torn ligaments. Indeed, being frozen and burning should both cause a sort of "brittle" effect, as in real life -- making the undead more vulnerable to physical damage. These could be countered by another passive, magic, etc.

       2. Reading the "Grave Chill" ability -- which I like -- gave me another idea. What if environments each had their own passives associated with them? I'm thinking cold environments -- caves, mountains, tombs -- increase cold debuffs but reduce hot ones and limit explosions. Hot environments would do the opposite. The undead would, perhaps, have a slight benefit to their natural decay.

       Final idea for the moment is one I'm surprised isn't here: undead projectile resistance, compensated for by increased melee damage (mitigated by armor, of course).

   26. 

       Crosmando on September 6, 2015

       I'd love to see being an undead character as a constant struggle to get more "meat" to eat to prevent them from decomposing. Even better if you can cannibalize the corpses of dead enemies!

   27. 

       FelixSylvaris on September 6, 2015

       Was thining about continuing play as undead after ingame death. Which is great idea.
       But then, some may really like to be dwarf and use racial dwarven beerbromancy and stuff.
       So even option to continue would be a reload.
       But there could be option of resurect.
       You die, you turn into undead, you can stay that way, or find the key to hall of echoes, collect some Source and resurect. Could be balanced, source= resurect and inmortality vs source powers. Still better not to die.
       Also it could be very tempting to slay the village, to collect source for our resurection since we no longer want to be flesh craving savage. Yeah.

   28. 

       Seth PB on September 5, 2015

       I say have sub-species of undead. Ghoul, Zombie, and Skeleton.
       Zombie sticks with the poison healing mechanic, bleeds poison
       Ghoul can only heal from eating raw meat, major gains, don't bleed and resist pierce. Does extra damage to living enemies who are knocked down and heals self that way too.
       Skeleton is weak to crushing but resists the others, but can only be healed out of combat by applying bonemeal and water.

       Basically it would change your mechanics somewhat. You either rely on source-magic healing or you have to keep different things. The ghoul has to either knock down and consume animals / NPCs or has to have a lot of meat on hand. Could do it to players on team as well, give them a 'ghoul's bite' debuff that has a constitution loss for a long period of time.

       I mean, you could probably do a vampire based one that uses a combination of zombie and leech traits, where only blood heals you and healing magic does harm...

       Finally, an undead skill idea: "Give 'Em Hedd!". Killing blow on humanoids allows you to replace their head with your own; stealing the body. A dying body is a still extra material for an undead, after all.

   29. 

       MadMaxblue on September 5, 2015

       Well, time to throw my 2 cents in.
       Normal health potions are poison to undead, poison potions are beneficial to undead.
       Cannot hide who you are from animals. They will either flee, of attack you on sight.
       Would make sense to be able to talk to cats, event without the skill, because cats are between worlds.
       The chosen ones should have more wisdom or intelligence or knowledge, since they live longer, but they should have a penalty to crafting, since a rotting hand is more shaky the a live one.
       Formaldehyde effect: your appearance is preserved forever but you cannot show any emotion. you are stiff after all.
       You can detach an eye and leave it somewhere to spy. or maybe throw it in advance to spot traps or ambushes.
       A cemetery is like your holy ground and you gain a buff from visiting one.
       when under the Warm effect, you are recognized as undead because you start to stink.
       Death touch: you are the bringer of death, you can mark someone for a death like in final destination :)

       I'll sleep on these and maybe tomorrow they will sound better.

   30. 

       Kindulas on September 5, 2015

       Detachable parts ideas:
       1) Summon a crawling hand minion. But until the effect ends, you lose the use of your off-hand. Maybe it would be AP free due to the tradeoff.
       2) Throw your head somewhere. Until it comes back, your line-of-sight originates from it instead of your body (so you toss is over a smoke cloud to shoot through it, or instance). The head might be attackable though... ;)

   31. 

       Andreas Ringlstetter on September 5, 2015

       Let's try to figure out how a Lich race and the necromancer class could possibly play like. I will say it right away: I'm not satisfied with mixing class and racial skills. Even though there should be synergies.

       OK, assumption number 1: All necromantic skills only work on humanoids per default.

       Let's have a look at the necromancer first. What does a necromancer actually do, respectively where does he drain his power from?

       Two possible approaches in common rulesets: Either he constantly drains lifeforce from the living (including allies!) or he gains a power surge every time something dies. These are entirely different mechanics with different dynamics in battle. The former one stresses the party as the battle draws out, while the second one leads to an avalanche effect. However, the second one is also close to useless in boss battles when there is only the sole boss left.

       What does a necromancer do? Once again, multiple possibilities:
       - Force the dead to rise again, possibly even forcing them back from the Hall of Echos (obviously doesn't work on strong spirits so well ;) ). Means the necromancer is basically going to run around with an army of the dead most of the time.
       - Frankenstein. Craft abominations from body parts (no need assembly if still intact) and animate them. Slight tendencies towards Golemancer. Also probably best synergies with the Lich race, as you could possibly use necromancer skills to create a host and then posses it. (Rather than hoping for a suitable host lying aside the street.)
       - Voodoo. Basically an all rounder class. Some simple reanimation spells, but mostly support skills and simple mind control.

       Well, either way, what's important about a necromancer class? Foremost, two necromancers should be able to play along. They shouldn't deprive each other of resources, so whatever happens, a necromancer should only require few corpses, not all of them. It's better to carry reanimated ones over from one battle to the next. Possibly even allow to raise them again multiple times, even though they should be "downgraded" upon each death.

       Either way the undead onces should actually have access to THEIR racial skills prior to dying - at least to some extent. There surely is no use in calling for racial skills on a skeleton, but on a fresh Lizard corpse? Only racial skills though, no class skills! So racial skills and the character attributes carry over to a fresh corpse, but class skills are determined by the possession.

       (Maybe allow necromancers to raise undeads with different class layouts? These layout may or may not fit the undeads character stats....)

       Well, let's head for the Lich now...
       What is a Lich actually? For once, it's not bound to a body, the soul is sealed instead. Which means a Lich doesn't follow the same character development as other races. He still learns new class skills as eh levels up, but the character stats depend on the body inhabited.

       What also defines a Lich is the corruption he causes. Decay is actually a must-have for such a class. Thinking in balancing terms, decay rate should scale with the host level divided by character level. So if a Lich tries to possess an overly strong character, it's only going to last for a few turns, while an evenly leveled body is possibly even going to last permanently.

       So what about racial skills?
       The most obvious one is "Possession". Permanently take over an corpse or necromantic construct. Discards the old body, and does not work on the living. Can only be triggered by using the "focus" (I need a term for the item the soul is sealed into) on a corpse. This transfers to focus into the inventory of the new host. If the focus is removed from the host, it becomes inanimate. Teammembers can pick up the focus and use it on a corpse to "revive" the Lich.
       This skill COULD be abused by smart parties, to snipe an enemy in the back row and have the Lich thereby "teleport" himself into otherwise impossible locations ;)
       For the sake of simplified controls, the inventory of the Lich is stored inside the focus. It's not attached to the host...

       The suggested "sould devour" doesn't sound like a fit actually. For an necromancer, yes, but not for an undead himself. Neither does possessing an still animate object.

       Staying in the theme of the Lich, there is an suitable ultimate (source) skill though: Conjuring and possessing a demonic, source infused body. With all he traits which come with that. Only a few turns, of course.

       Oh, and definitely no regeneration of any type of undeads. They are dead, and they don't follow the rule of organics. A necromancer may even animate a pile of shattered bones, and don't tell me that any physician can do ANYTHING for that "creature". No immunity to free or heat either. That's not the timescale at which a corpse rots.

       Poison, bleed, fear, and possibly even resistance against other "psychic" or "organic" status effects like blindness and alike sound reasonable though. It's not like a skeleton would have any eyes to use anyway, so that obviously is already "magic". On the other hand, status effects like "cripple" or any other effects which damage body parts the undead is actually USING should probably be permanent in return.

       Uh, the last one could make fights against hordes of undeads quite nasty for rouges...

   32. 

       Gerlu on September 5, 2015

       How about a skill called "Use your head": Allows you to pop your head off, shove your bony fingers into your eye sockets and mouth and use your head as a weapon. You lose some points in defense, but you gain a great damage bonus.

   33. 

       Larian Studios LLC Creator on September 5, 2015

       Thanks for all the great suggestions for Undead racial skills, folks! We are reading through all of your ideas as we consider the next steps.

       @WintermuteX - I'm the only one online at the moment, but I will pass on your thoughts to the team on Monday. I agree that it would be great to have options to make the game more manageable for the visually-impaired.

   34. 

       Jason on September 5, 2015

       First off I'd like to say thank you to everyone responsible for the Undead being a playable race. That includes all the Kickstarter backers! Been a long dream of mine to be able to play an Undead Necromancer Lich type. Hopefully the Necromantic magic in the game will allow me to have multiple other undead minions summoned helping me fight. If not then maybe a racial skill that allows that? Like Necromantic Command (Source). I also like the Immune to Fear. Immune to Bleed. It just feels like it fits after seeing some of the awesome art for the Chosen Undead.

   35. 

       huginkoprim on September 5, 2015

       Being undead, how about a skill "thow them a bone" which actually takes like 5% of lives of undead character and gives him a bone to throw (a bone which can be tampered with-with poison/fire etc).
       How about a funny remark to the boned companion when they see a dead living person (or their buddy) - "yea, he went so suck the marrow of life and now look at him."
       And please, don´t go into zombies much, there are many other games for that that capture the modern zombie brainz stuff.
       How about an undead potion made only by undead "touch of afterlife", that would render another player alive for short time after he or whatever is dead. It just rizes after next turn (after death blow).
       It may be difficult to make, ocnsider. How about a perk or ability to change body, like transferring a spirit from your body into a dead body. You can guess the practicality and difficulty this would bring to the game mechanics and balance.

   36. 

       Logan on September 5, 2015

       I love these video updates and I enjoy seeing the human side of everything. Thanks for the GREAT update and I am really looking forward to the update about the Hall of Echos

   37. 

       WintermuteX on September 4, 2015

       Not related to the undead update, but: please, make the text scalable. The game will have quite some text and most devs ignore visual impaired people, people playing on a TV setup where you sit a bit farther from the TV and so on. At least an "Big UI" option, but a "UI Size" slider would be even better.

   38. 

       Kindulas on September 4, 2015

       The "Chosen Undead" huh?
       I see what you did there

   39. 

       AingealWroth on September 4, 2015

       +1! ++1! +++1! Kacper
       +1 undecaf
       +1 to Sven's idea of Feign Death

       Also agree that addiction works well for RP purposes, not so much fun when it comes to maintaining... But if you went very gradual on the drawback it could tie into Kacper's idea.

   40. 

       Draek. on September 4, 2015

       I don't see how Half Life got into #1 RPG - but it probably does have one of the largest cult followings in any game. Any game site you go there will always be a Half Life 3 joke mentioned some where.

   41. 

       Tjvelcro on September 4, 2015

       Sounds really neat with the possible skills and 3 variants!

       I wonder what the variants will affect in-game? I would guess some reactions of various NPCs particularly other undead might be more interested in you than the other races. I would also like to see a subset of the undead skills be unique per variant.

       For example:
       Source Addiction: In the video the writer explains that the Raised Ones are given small amounts of source to keep the undead creature under control of the necromancer. This is probably where the skills guy suggested the "Source Addiction" skill. So perhaps the 2 other undead variants do not make sense to have this skill. Some of the commentator state that they would be worried about the constant decomposition of their character, it would be a bother since the character would get weaker and weaker (HP or otherwise) and they would need to find cures/source items to keep it under control. If you chose to implement this decomposition idea I would envision it to be kind of like Fallout 3 radiation except more of a constant drain. I like the idea of preventing this from killing your character but weakening him/her via max HP or stats so your companions must protect you. Perhaps even a high willpower or constitution attribute can extend the time it takes for the decomposition to take affect.

       Perhaps another skill for the Faint that supports the backstory of resisting the pull from Hall of Echos would be a bonus to willpower and/or immunity to charm, weak, willpower loss etc...

       For the Chosen Ones I would support a passive ability that reflects that they have a small civilization, so perhaps a bonus to intelligence, crafting or bartering.

       Grave Chill and Bleed Poison sound like a cool (pun intended) skills but perhaps for a more "mature" undead so maybe you can choose it as a perk later on. Kind of simulating that the undead character is learning how to control its supernatural abilities or its "body" is aging. Also if you bleed poison then would you not be immune to poison too?

   42. 

       Arthur Ogilvie on September 4, 2015

       What an amazing game and journey Divinity: Original Sin is! My fiance and I are playing the first one together and after 100 hours of game play together we can't wait to frame each other for mischief. My only gripe is I would like a hoodie and the two copied of the game for us both but I don't see a tier for it. Hope it becomes available :)

   43. 

       Neonivek on September 4, 2015

       Well I'll think of other things later for now...
       @Necromatic Command
       Honestly the big issue with this ability is that for the most part it is just the witchcraft summons (except likely not as good). I mean I guess it is useful in that it is always accessible even on a warrior, but on a wizard and hybrid it just kind of hangs there.

   44. 

       Jatavius Harris on September 4, 2015

       Awesome concept art but I did have an idea though. I was hoping the undead had a more baobhan sith feel to them. Or a more chimera like origin of being a mix of random dead people, monsters, or animals. I think that would give them some really cool racial skills depending on what parts they were built with. The bone concept you guys seem to be going with is cool, but I like undead with flesh on their bones like baobhan sith and undead chimera. That also leaves a ton of cool possible origins (though I trust you guys already have loads of those) like being an noble resurrected using the body parts of the monster that killed you. Your lover couldn't stand to live without you and turned to dark magic to bring you back as such. And again I just think baobhan sith are friggin awesome and would love to play one. Hope you guys consider these and maybe take a studio/fan vote if you like the ideas.

   45. 

       Simon Boddy on September 4, 2015

       That concept art is incredibly good. I don't usually give two figs about concept art, caring only for the actual game. But it can't be denied that Tania has bucket-loads of talent.

   46. 

       Azriel on September 4, 2015

       Ah, finally, the undead, the race I have been waiting for. As @andreas said, I would want the option to be a lich, a necromancer who cheats death by binding their souls into their own bones or an object.

       Traits:

       Raise Thrall - create an intelligent undead from a nearby corpse and the undead can do everything it could in life (all abilities and skills) similiar to skyrims undead. I love the idea of killing enemies and then bringing them back to fight for me.

       Life Leech - steal life from a target and recharge self.

       See and contact dead - ghosts/spirits can be seen by the undead and can be communicated with.

       Possession - an undead can leave its body to explore and possess a a creature/person temporarily, the undead body is completely vulnerable.

       Infect - the undead can infect the living with a bite or cover their weapons with their own gore, the infected react like a temporary poison, if the person dies while infected, they come back as a mindless weak undead that the character controls. Who attack by trying to eat its victims and spread the infection.

       Summon undead - teleports or manifests skeletons, undead knights, ..etc

   47. 

       Gnostic on September 4, 2015

       The health degenerate thing will constantly annoy players to keep their health up. It sounds cool on paper, but the need to constantly "repair" your character is like the "food" mechanics employed by RPG in the past. You have to eat from time to time and it becomes a chore.

       A better way should be the undead take 20% less damage due to less things can hurt it.

       Will I have lizard undead, elves undead and whatnot?

   48. 

       Oldrich Mazal on September 4, 2015

       I personally don´t like this "source addiction" concept. The idea that my health will be continuously degenerating feels discouraging. I would prefer for example that undead won´t benefit from standard healing spells (dead body basically can´t naturally heal), instead they would use different life leaching or devouring abilities.

       They could also have bonuses for endurance (no need for sleep or rest) and intimidating NPCs, but penalties for charisma, bartering etc.

       Also they could be resistant against certain damage types like piercing, but vulnerable to others (crushing).

       They can also see better in the dark, but worse during the day.

   49. 

       Andreas Ringlstetter on September 4, 2015

       Would also prefer more differentiation between different types of undead:
       - Risen / bound ones:
       Not actually any new skills of their own, nor immunities. Live only by the will of their master, and with their master gone, so are the risen ones. Basically just mindless puppets without any will or soul of their own.

       - Cursed ones:
       Unable to enter the hall of heroes, bound and in control of their body. Slowly rotting and turning to dust. Gains immunities and skills of an undead, but only minor control. If the body gets destroyed, you have to live (or not live...) with the damage. Also slow loss of any human attributes.

       - Liches:
       Soul separated from the body by choice and sealed into an object. Can be bound to any dead body to use it as a tool. Can be any class, but the most stylish choice for playing a Lich would probably playing a necromancer. Comes with all the benefits of not being bound to a body, possession and skills. Possibly even the option to throw your bound item over an obstacle to posses a new host. Also all the drawbacks of not having a body, like not being respawned, but staying on the battlefield without a body.

       For the player, only 2. and 3. are real options. One by choice, the other one as a last effort to cheat around permanent death. 1 and 3 with interesting side effects regarding NPC interactions - just imagine attending a funeral and taking over the corpse. Or in general any situation where you have risen a body which is known to an NPC.

       Either way, decay related skills should be based on how far the body is decayed. There is no point in giving a freshly died body poison skills or even immunity to piercing damage. Same as a skeleton won't have any poison left to spare either. While a fresh corpse isn't exactly vulnerable to fire yet either.

   50. 

       Akos Farkas on September 4, 2015

       Hmm undead:
       Boney 1.0
       -Strong againts arrows weak againts hammers.
       Boney 1.1
       -Dogs and wolves aggro on them fast.
       Nice hand I'll take that.
       -Can reassemble self from corpses - but not the head as we all know the soul is in there.- (self heal from target corpse 20% from each corpse up to a max of 70% of max hp. (The corpse must be intact does not work on piles of ash and pieces of ice)