Corpse Physiology
Corpse Physiology shapes a character's supernatural focus, training, and power set.
Power index
Corpse Physiology Powers
42 powers, grouped by tier. The rules needed for quick reference are shown directly in each row.
Tier 0
2
Your hand grows cold and corpse-still. Make a melee power attack. On a hit, the target takes necrotic or cold damage, and you may suppress your pulse, breath, and body heat until the start of your next turn.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 1d8
- Type
- Necrotic / Cold
- Roll
- Attack
Become unnaturally still. You can hold your breath without effort, slow your heartbeat, appear dead to casual inspection, and add 1d4 to Stealth or Deception checks to pass as a corpse, sleeper, or unmoving body.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 10 Minutes
- Effect
- 1d4
- Type
- Undead / Utility
Tier 1
4
Grab with the strength of a corpse that refuses burial. Make a melee power attack. On a hit, deal bludgeoning or necrotic damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it must make a STR save or be grappled by you.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 2d8
- Type
- Bludgeoning / Necrotic
- Roll
- Attack
- Save
- STR
When you take poison, necrotic, cold, or nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, deaden your nerves. Reduce the damage by 1d8 + your CON modifier.
- Action
- Reaction
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 1d8 + CON
- Type
- Reduction / Undead
Your senses attune to blood, rot, grave soil, embalming fluid, and dying flesh. Add 1d4 to Survival or Medicine checks to track corpses, wounded creatures, or undead.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 10 Minutes
- Effect
- 60 ft. / 1d4
- Type
- Sense / Death
Your body partially adopts undead function. You have advantage on saves against mundane disease, inhaled poison, suffocation, starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion from lack of sleep.
- Action
- Passive
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Permanent
- Type
- Undead / Endurance
- Save
- CON
Tier 2
4
Your flesh becomes waxy, hardened, leathery, stitched, or bloodless. Gain temporary hit points and advantage on saves against poison and disease. While these temporary hit points remain, you do not bleed.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Hour
- Effect
- 2d10 + CON
- Type
- Temp HP / Undead
- Save
- CON
When you would be frightened, poisoned, stunned by pain, or distracted by injury, deaden your body. Add 1d6 to the triggering save. If the effect comes from poison, disease, blood loss, pain, or fear of death, add your CON modifier as well.
- Action
- Reaction
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Round
- Effect
- 1d6 + CON
- Type
- Save / Undead
- Save
- CON / WIS
Move like a corpse under floorboards. Gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed, advantage on checks to squeeze through tight spaces, and the ability to crawl or climb while prone without spending extra movement.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 10 Minutes
- Effect
- Climb speed
- Type
- Movement / Undead
Make a bite, claw, or corpse-strike attack. On a hit, the target takes piercing, slashing, or necrotic damage and must make a CON save or be unable to regain hit points until the start of your next turn.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 3d8
- Type
- Piercing / Slashing / Necrotic
- Roll
- Attack
- Save
- CON
Tier 3
4
Your jaw, claws, or broken limbs become predatory weapons. Make a melee power attack. On a hit, deal necrotic or piercing damage, and if the target is grappled, prone, or below half hit points, roll one extra damage die.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 4d8
- Type
- Necrotic / Piercing
- Roll
- Attack
You do not suffer exhaustion from forced marching, hard labor, lack of sleep, or holding still unless the hardship is magical, divine, or extreme. You can remain motionless for 24 hours and appear dead without checks against casual inspection.
- Action
- Passive
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Permanent
- Type
- Endurance / Undead
Your joints snap into predatory motion. Your speed increases by 10 ft., you ignore difficult terrain made of rubble, graves, bones, corpses, mud, or ruins, and your first natural weapon hit each turn deals extra necrotic damage equal to your CON modifier.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Minute
- Effect
- #ERROR!
- Type
- Movement / Necrotic
- Roll
- Attack
When you take damage, reduce it by 3d10 + your CON modifier. If the triggering damage is poison, necrotic, cold, or nonmagical weapon damage, you also gain temporary hit points equal to your CON modifier.
- Action
- Reaction
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 3d10 + CON
- Type
- Reduction / Temp HP
Tier 4
4
Touch a corpse and make your dead body resonate with its last physical memories. Ask up to three questions about what the body saw, heard, felt, or suffered before death. This does not summon the soul.
- Action
- 10 Minutes
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Touch
- Duration
- 10 Minutes
- Effect
- 3 questions
- Type
- Corpse / Sense
Your body hardens into grave-leather, bone plate, wax flesh, stitches, or embalmed hide. While not wearing heavy armor, your AC becomes 13 + your CON modifier, and you have advantage on checks to endure heat, cold, rot, insects, or hostile terrain.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 8 Hours
- Effect
- 13 + CON
- Type
- Defense / Body
Make a melee power attack with a claw, hand, bite, or weapon. On a hit, deal necrotic or slashing damage, and the target must make a CON save or become paralyzed until the end of its next turn.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- 1 Round
- Effect
- 5d8
- Type
- Necrotic / Slashing
- Roll
- Attack
- Save
- CON
Choose cold, necrotic, poison, or psychic. Gain resistance to that damage type and advantage on saves against one related condition: frightened, poisoned, exhaustion, paralysis from bodily failure, or pain-based incapacitation.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Hour
- Type
- Resistance / Undead
- Save
- CON / WIS
Tier 5
4
Strike with the weight of a dead body that does not feel pain. Make a melee power attack. On a hit, deal bludgeoning and necrotic damage, and the target must make a STR save or be knocked prone or pushed 10 ft.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 6d8
- Type
- Bludgeoning / Necrotic
- Roll
- Attack
- Save
- STR
Move through graves, crypts, burial soil, bones, tomb walls, coffins, corpse piles, and funeral ruins as if they were difficult terrain rather than barriers, provided the material is nonmagical and no thicker than 5 ft.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 10 Minutes
- Effect
- 5 ft.
- Type
- Movement / Grave
Your dead body radiates recognition to lesser corpses. Mindless undead of Tier 5 or lower in the emanation must make a WIS save before attacking you. On a failure, they ignore you unless you harm them. This does not let you command them.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self (60 ft.)
- Duration
- 1 Minute
- Effect
- 60 ft.
- Type
- Presence / Undead
- Save
- WIS
Your body repairs through grave-force. Regain hit points equal to your CON modifier at the start of each turn if you have at least 1 hit point and have not taken radiant damage since the end of your last turn.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Minute
- Effect
- CON / round
- Type
- Regeneration / Undead
Tier 6
4
Your body no longer needs air, food, drink, or sleep, though you may still consume and rest if desired. You have resistance to poison and necrotic damage, and advantage on saves against disease, exhaustion, paralysis, and death effects below Tier 6.
- Action
- Passive
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Permanent
- Type
- Undead / Dominion
- Save
- CON
Your body loosens into crawling dead fragments, grave insects, clotted limbs, or stitched pieces. You can move through spaces as narrow as 1 inch, resist nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, and cannot manipulate objects heavier than 10 pounds.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Minute
- Type
- Body / Undead
When you would drop to 0 hit points, make a CON save with a DC equal to 10 or half the triggering damage, whichever is higher. On a success, drop to 1 hit point instead and gain temporary hit points. This cannot trigger if radiant damage caused the drop.
- Action
- Reaction
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 6d8 + CON
- Type
- Survival / Temp HP
- Save
- CON
Make two melee power attacks. Each hit deals necrotic, cold, or weapon damage. If both attacks hit the same living creature, it must make a CON save or gain one level of exhaustion until the end of its next long rest.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 4d8 / 4d8
- Type
- Necrotic / Cold / Weapon
- Roll
- Attack
- Save
- CON
Tier 7
4
Make a bite, claw, or weapon attack against one creature. On a hit, deal necrotic or slashing damage. If the target is bleeding, poisoned, frightened, prone, grappled, or below half hit points, regain hit points equal to half the damage dealt.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Melee
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 8d8
- Type
- Necrotic / Healing
- Roll
- Attack
You and up to six willing creatures in the emanation march with corpse endurance. Targets ignore exhaustion from travel, lack of sleep, hunger, thirst, and extreme mundane weather for the duration, but ignored exhaustion returns when the effect ends if not remedied.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self (30 ft.)
- Duration
- 8 Hours
- Effect
- 6 creatures
- Type
- Endurance / March
Your dead body becomes undeniable. Hostile creatures of your choice in the emanation must make a WIS save or become frightened for the duration. While frightened this way, a creature cannot regain hit points and has disadvantage on death saves. It repeats the save at the end of each turn.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self (60 ft.)
- Duration
- 1 Minute
- Effect
- 60 ft.
- Type
- Fear / Undead
- Save
- WIS
You are immune to mundane disease and poison. You have advantage on saves against fear, paralysis, exhaustion, and pain. Effects that read heartbeat, breath, body heat, or living metabolism cannot detect you unless they are Tier 7 or higher.
- Action
- Passive
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Permanent
- Type
- Immunity / Undead
- Save
- CON / WIS
Tier 8
4
Your body becomes almost fully undead. You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition, resistant to necrotic and cold damage, do not breathe, eat, drink, or sleep, and have advantage on death saves and CON saves.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Hour
- Type
- Undead / Body
- Save
- CON
When you would be reduced to 0 hit points or killed outright, your body refuses. You drop to 1 hit point instead, end one poison, paralysis, frightened, or exhaustion effect on yourself, and regain hit points unless the triggering damage was radiant.
- Action
- Reaction
- Use
- 1/Long Rest
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 8d10 + CON
- Type
- Survival / Healing
Reattach severed limbs, reset broken bones, close mortal wounds, restore damaged organs, or reassemble your body from pieces if your head, heart, or animating core remains intact. This can restore function after maiming but cannot revive you from true destruction.
- Action
- 10 Minutes
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Instant
- Type
- Repair / Undead
A rot-cold aura surrounds you. Hostile living creatures that start in the emanation must make a CON save, taking cold or necrotic damage and having their speed halved on a failed save, or half damage only on a success.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self (30 ft.)
- Duration
- Concentration, 1 Minute
- Effect
- 8d8
- Type
- Cold / Necrotic
- Save
- CON
Tier 9
4
Release the grave-force animating your body. Living creatures of your choice in the emanation make a CON save, taking necrotic damage and being unable to regain hit points until the start of your next turn on a failed save. Undead allies gain temporary hit points.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- 1/Long Rest
- Range
- Self (120 ft.)
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- 16d10 / 8d10
- Type
- Necrotic / Temp HP
- Save
- CON
Your body asserts dominance over lesser undead bodies. Mindless undead of Tier 8 or lower in the emanation treat you as one of their own and do not attack unless commanded, starving, or harmed. Intelligent undead recognize your corpse authority.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self (300 ft.)
- Duration
- 1 Hour
- Effect
- 300 ft.
- Type
- Presence / Undead
- Save
- WIS
When you would die, bind your animating force to a prepared grave, coffin, weapon, bone, or keepsake on the same plane. If your body is not restored within 24 hours, you reform adjacent to the token with 1 hit point unless the token is destroyed by radiant, divine, or Tier 9+ power.
- Action
- Reaction
- Use
- 1/Long Rest
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 24 Hours
- Effect
- 1 HP
- Type
- Survival / Token
You are immune to poison damage, disease, suffocation, starvation, dehydration, and mundane exhaustion. You have resistance to necrotic, cold, and nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. Effects below Tier 9 cannot kill you outright unless they destroy your body or use radiant/divine force.
- Action
- Passive
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Permanent
- Type
- Undead / Sovereign
- Save
- CON
Tier 10
4
Become an apex undead body. You are immune to poison and necrotic damage, resistant to cold and nonmagical weapon damage, regenerate hit points equal to your CON modifier at the start of each turn unless you took radiant damage, and your Corpse Physiology powers deal or prevent extra damage once per turn.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Use
- At-Will
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- 1 Minute
- Effect
- 4d10 / CON
- Type
- Undead / Apex
- Roll
- Attack
Split your undead body into grave echoes, severed limbs, corpse doubles, or stitched fragments. You occupy up to four spaces within 60 ft. of each other, can attack or react from any occupied space, and damage to any fragment affects your shared hit points. Area effects can damage you only once per instance.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- 1/Long Rest
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Concentration, 1 Minute
- Effect
- 4 spaces
- Type
- Body / Multipresence
- Roll
- Attack
When you would die, be disintegrated, petrified, destroyed, or reduced to an unusable body, refuse finality. You instead reform in an adjacent space with half your maximum hit points, end one hostile condition on yourself, and become immune to the triggering effect until the end of your next turn.
- Action
- Reaction
- Use
- 1/Long Rest
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Instant
- Effect
- Half HP
- Type
- Survival / Undead
Declare a mythic corpse-physiology event tied to a battlefield, plague pit, mass grave, executed army, revenant oath, or body that refuses history. It can be opposed only by Tier 10 corpse mastery, divine intervention, radiant miracle, or a story condition set when declared.
- Action
- Action
- Use
- 1/Ever
- Range
- 1 Mile
- Duration
- Until Resolved
- Effect
- Unique
- Type
- Corpse / Story
- Roll
- Varies
- Save
- Varies