Attracted to death -question

[Vlad]

Hi, my PC has been playing a fighter PC with the cold-one feat (well, cold one Kit from CotM originally), but apart from the description, she didn't do much with it and she asked me how to deepen her character. She wanted to let her PC be more attracted to death, due to her coldness. Apart from just roleplaying differently, are there prestige classes that fit this description. I found the dirgist, but that does only aply to bards and she's a fighter. Are there feats that cover this subject?

thanks for helping

[Isabella]

I'm not exactly sure what "attracted to death" is supposed to mean - at the moment, that sounds more like a roleplaying thing than a mechanics things. There are a couple of feats that might be what you're looking for; the one that comes to mind is ghostsight, which would let her see ghosts. There's a list of feats on the Fraternity site in the Mausoleum.

Otherwise, you could just work it into your game by making up your own feats; maybe intellegent undead (who mechanically don't have to leave her alone) start off friendlier to her, or even mistake her for one of them.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

There's Death Delver from Heroes of Horror, for one.

[JinnTolser]

Although there isn't a direct connection to death, the Ghostwalker PrC from Sword & Fist has always seemed to me like it would be a good fit for Ravenloft. And since they're solitary characters, maybe it will fit in with the new RP direction you're thinking of going with the Cold One thing.

[The Giamarga]

There's Death Delver from Heroes of Horror, for one.

That's a very good fit. Pretty tough for a fighter to meet the prerequisites though. 8 ranks Concentration !?!

[Vlad]

I don't have heroes of horror. Is it good, by the way?
I have been thinking about the ghostsight, but I'm afraid that will disrupt my campaign too much.

[WolfKook]

I don't have heroes of horror. Is it good, by the way?

Well... IMHO, I find it to be a good "WoTC-D&D" approach to the same subjects addressed in the RL DMG.

As such, it does not emphasize as much in the mood and the theme, but on the rules and the system. Thus, you'll find new classes (Both core and PrCs... I have to say I love the archivist and like the dread witch), feats, spells and so, all focused around horror.

Taint rules are an interesting addition, which parallel the paths of corruption, and though the HoH are certainly more integrated into the d20 system (No percentages), their approach is a little too complex, dividing that corruption into physical and mental. I personally prefer the same rules as presented in Unearthed Arcana, and use them in my RL campaign in place of those in the RL PHB (And alignment, for that matter).

Something similar happens with the rules on fear, horror, madness and revulsion: Those in the RL PHB are more straightforward and easy to adjudicate, though the new ones in HoH seem to me as more complete and tied to the system. I hope someone could make an integration between these two systems as they are presented in HoH and the RL PHB. I know that taking the best of both systems would greatly enhance our RL-d20 experience!

Edit: Well... Perhaps I can do that myself, though I don't want to fall in any copyright infringement.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I won't go into a full review of HoH here, but in brief: has some good stuff (classes, feats, spells, maps, monsters, creepy ideas) and some bad stuff (taint system, unnecessary rules) and some middle of the road stuff (advice that's OK, but not as good as the RLDMG)

But the Dark Delver is one of the good ones, I think. In short, it's a person so interested in death that he gains an understanding of death and vice versa. He gets rebuke undead (or maybe a choice of turn or rebuke, I forget) and some good spells and death related abilities. The most troublesome for a RL DM might be deathwatch at will, which he gets fairly early. (1st or 2nd level I think). But if your campaign can deal with that, it's pretty solid otherwise, IMHO. The pre-reqs would indeed be tough, as mentioned, but you might allow the Cold One feat to reduce the requirements.

[order99]

Well i'm more a 2E fan than a 3E one(and more a MotRD than RL to boot, heh) but i've noticed something from the 3E Unearthed Arcana-Spelltouched Feats. The idea is that some PC's, when exposed to enough or the right kind of magic, will "mutate" a litte in response-the prerequisite for each Feat is exposure to(and survival of) certain spells. You could always waive the Pre-reqs in favor of story...

Some Spelltouched Feats I think might be appropriate are:

Omniscient Whispers-once/week, the PC may ask a question as if casting Commune, which then leaves him/her exhausted. Perhaps the PC has become attuned to voices from the Underworld?

Stench of the Dead- sickening effect on those directly next to you, can't be turned off. A lonely PC indeed!

Life Leech-anyone at -1 to -9 , within 30' of the PC, loses 1HP each round and the PC gains them as temp HP. The ability can't be turned off-stay out of the Hospices!

There's also one called Photosynthetic Skin(+2 Natural AC in full daylight)...I could easily see a reversed version of this( Night's Cloak perhaps).

[Archedius]

I've been thinking and I don't see a problem with using feats and prestige classes but I really think from the way it sounds that the player is unsure how to articulate their chars fascination. To me this seems mostly an RP issue rather than mechanics. Ask them what specifically about death fascinates them i.e. the process of dying, death as a concept, mortality, decay, undead, burial or disposal by culture etc. I think your player could go into greater depth with this. Perhaps allow them to take knowledge (anatomy/thanatology/whatever) or allow them knowledge-religion to help against undead. It might be fun to open up classes and options to the player- but make sure they're RPing their interest in an in-depth and logical way. I want to see dissections, observation, contemplation- it can even go into a very evil direction if 'experiments' are done.

[Vlad]

Yeah I think you're right. If every feeling of a PC should be expressed into a Prestige class or feat, where's the roleplaying then?
Thanks for the advice..