I originally started this in July 2012. I decided that while experiencing a form of writer's block caused by personal events, I would do something about the 38 drafts I started on my site. This race was originally created for ACKS, but has been ported over to Swords & Wizardry.
The Soulless
The Soulless are the result of research into transferring the soul from one body to another in the pursuit of immortality. The new body is not created from corpses, but generated by the use of alchemy. It is believed that the idea originated from early contact with the Manus and Pria.
Defenses: The soulless gain a +4 saving throws against poison due to their alien biology.
Augmented Physical Form: The body of a Soulless is augmented during its construction with a special ability. Such augmentations include regenerating 1 hp/ round (due to troll blood), the ability to pertrify a creature once a day (medusa eyes in the palms of the hands), A plus 2 bonus to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution (physical augmentation), . Chameleon-like abilities (+10 to Hide checks). Invisibility. Throughout their lives, an individual soulless will change appearance and special abilities several times. The referee will need to approve any special ability gained by the augmentation.
Drawbacks: The act of separating the body from the soul has great consequences. While the ability to transfer the mind and its memories from one body to the next has been perfected, the separation of the soul from its initial body has consequences. Although not readily apparent, even to a soulless itself, the soul dies when removed. As such, when a soulless dies, they cease to exist on any level. Not even a wish can bring back a dead Soulless. Without a soul, they cannot perform Astral Projection and are immune to Resurrection and Reincarnation spells.
Silver Sensitivity: Soulless take double damage from silver weapons as silver is a poison to their alchemically constructed bodies.
Classes: The Soulless have no limits on level advancement as Thieves. In theory, the Soulless can be fighters, but few choose this path due to the time and expense in generating their body. A Soulless cannot be a Cleric as they have no soul for a deity to bless, but if your campaign allows Psionic classes characters, they have no level limits in that class. The Soulless can also dual-class as Magic-User/Thieves with a limit of 6gh level for being a Magic-User.
Being alchemists, the Soulless have no level limit on such a class.