Highlander (3.5e Template)

Highlander
Summary::There is a tale that there was a race of men blessed, or perhaps cursed, by strange eldritch forces beyond their ken to live forever unless a creature removes their head. Born all over the world, they were given a task to kill each other until there could be only one.  Long ago a man from the highlands won the title of the last one, and the immortals vanished. Yet in other realms this blessing or curse appeared, and they were given the title of the original successor on another world, that of "Highlander". Now the great and mysterious contest begins anew. Will you be the last man standing?

Creating a Highlander
Highlander is an inherited template which does not manifest itself until the creature is of young adult age or older. It manifests upon the trauma of death, a death which they are quickly revived from as a new immortal being. The highlander template can be applied to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid non-immortal creature with a head.

Size and Type
Size and type do not change.

Special Qualities
Fast Healing : Highlanders gain fast healing 1. Because of their immortality, their fast healing will cause them to revive, eventually.

Holy Ground Restriction : The nature of their powers is unknown even to the highlanders, but one thing is certain; they are forbidden from fighting on holy ground. In any location which is consecrated to the powers of good, they are unable to make hostile action. Treat all possible opponents as being under a sanctuary spell with a DC of 20 + 1/2 your own HD. If the compulsion is resisted, it is still a poor idea to fight. Those that break this rule take 5 points of damage per HD each round until they leave the holy ground. Re-entering the holy ground is safe, but the backlash will occur again if they provoke another fight.

Immortal : Highlanders are biologically immortal. They do not gain any of the benefits or penalties from aging and never progress past the age which they were transformed into a highlander. As a result of their immortality, they are also sterile and cannot produce offspring.

Highlanders cannot die easily. If killed, their fast healing will continue to function until they revive again. Death effects and similar abilities simply reduce the highlander to -10 hp. A highlander whose body has been burned or mauled still regenerates, though its fast healing reduces to 1 hp per minute instead of per round. Only the utter and complete obliteration of the body, or the decapitation of the highlander via a coup de grace attempt or otherwise cutting the spine from the head, will stop the revival. Doing so activates the quickening.

Quickening : The death of a highlander is a dramatic event. A surge of energy is released, blasting the surroundings in lightning and causing collateral damage. Non-attended objects in 60 ft of the highlander take 1d6 divine damage per HD of the slain highlander. Creatures are not harmed, and the killer of the highlander (if there is one) is blasted with a surge of power. They gain a +4 divine bonus on all attack rolls, damage rolls, AC, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks for 24 hours. This benefit overlaps, and does not stack, if multiple highlanders are killed. This, however, is not the true benefit. Only highlanders can benefit from this completely.

If a highlander kills another highlander, the quickening grants the killer all of the memories of the victim. Mechanically, they gain all of the skills of the victim, filling in skill ranks or keeping their own if higher. If they gain more skill ranks than they should have by their level (such as a level 5 highlander gaining 13 ranks in balance), then the remaining skills are not counted until they reach the appropriate level to host them (in this case, 10th level). Finally, stolen skills become class skills regardless what classes the highlander takes.

For highlanders starting above level 2, treat them as having not slain any other highlanders before for the purposes of gaining skill ranks. They always have the potential to fill out other skills later on, provided they can find and slay a highlander.

Sense Highlander : A highlander can detect the presence (but not the direction or location) or another highlander within 120 ft. Typically this results in a dual to the death because all highlanders, upon awakening their immortality, become aware of the challenge and the ultimate destiny for there to be only one.

Skills
Highlanders recieve a +2 bonus in all skills due to experience.

Feats
Highlanders recieve all weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies as with age comes experience.

Environment
As base creature.

Organization
As base creature.

Challenge Rating
+CR::1.

Treasure
As base creature.

Alignment
As base creature.

Advancement
As base creature.

Level Adjustment
+Level Adjustment::1