Intelligent Zombies 3.5

[Comet]

I'm going to be running a game set in a city where the undead are not mindless brain-eaters, but a sentient minority that tries to outlive the trauma of their wartime deaths.

And then an idea occured to us: if the NPCs can be sentient zombies, why can't the PC's, too?

I was originally intending to just skip most of the zombie rules as for their intelligence (them being NPCs the rules dont need to be that exact).
But for a PC, we need some rules. The normal template doesn't work for us and I'm no good at homebrewing.

So:
Does anyone know of an intelligent zombie (or similar) template/race that can be added to a character, preferably without a level adjustment?

[Yora]

Corpse Creature

It's exactly like a zombie, but it has an Intelligence score. I'd guess with a -2 or -4 penalty, but that's it.

But I'm pretty sure it's almost impossible to make an undead template without LA. Immunity against anything that requires a Fort save is just too powerful an ability. And usually there's also an immunity against all enchantments, which makes it even worse.

[JellyPooga]

Necropolitan (Libris Mortis) is basically the "Undead Template". It changes nothing really except your type becomes undead. Not all that good to represent the typical shambling zombie, but I'm guessing you're not looking for that...

[Everyman]

I second the necropolitan. It sounds like exactly what you are looking for. The only thing you'd have to do is change the fluff a bit...and it looks like you were going to do that anyway.

If you want, you can even ignore the whole "Lose a level shtick", since you'll be starting all the characters as necropolitans anyway.

[Olo Demonsbane]

Ju-Ju Zombie from Unapproachable East.

Basically a template that makes a creature into an intellegent zombie with all of their abilitys. Pretty cool template.

[overduegalaxy]

Eberron Campaign Setting has Karnnathi Zombies and Skeletons, both intelligent undead.

[raptor1056]

I'd say exempt the fort-immunity thing, and all off that. Those effects are just too powerful. Or, to make up for that, -2 Dex, -4 cha, -2 int. I think a wisdom bonus might work, and give for an interesting flavor. You know, the whole having seen the other side thing. although giving them one automatically stronger save in addition to their ridiculous fort ability is probably too much.

[IM@work]

The necropolitan is a good choice, but I believe there are some wierd rituals that you have to do and some other strange stuff, including level loss. You might want to just drop all that if you're not into the strange occult stuff in your games.

[Worira]

Agreed, go with Zombie Jesus Necropolitan.

[Tyrmatt]

Warcraft's Forsaken are pretty good as a race but can come across as rather overpowered. They're immune to a startling amount but you can chop and change as you need be. They're even pre-flavoured!

[Curmudgeon]

Why not do it procedurally instead of through race selection?
Kill the PC.
Use Animate Dead to immediately make them a zombie.
Use Awaken Undead (Spell Compendium) to give the zombie Intelligence. It's normally 1d6+4, and you could use Maximize Spell on it for 10 INT, or both Maximize Spell and Empower Spell for INT of 12+1d3 (13-15). A Cleric with the Deathbound domain, Sudden Empower feat, and Incense of Meditation (4,900 gp) could do all of this at 11th level.
You'll need to work out exactly what "an undead cannot be more intelligent than is typical of a living creature of the same kind" means for PC races like humans. I think that means the elite array is appropriate.
The elite array is: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. ... The elite array is most appropriate for monsters who add levels in a player character class. So an INT of 15 (absent racial modifiers) should be allowable.

[Benejeseret]

Use Warforged

Really, warforged has nearly all the special immunities etc that one would expect in undead.

They are also available to a ECL 1 NPC or PC.

Other than the obvious refluff/reskin they would need minor tweaks to fit such as replacing their heal half damage from magic to positive hurts negative heals like undead - but even that can be ignored and refluffed assuming the still-having-a-soul means they can still be healed by positive magic AND explains the lack of necro-spell immunity

[Devils_Advocate]

If you want to remove the level and XP loss from Necropolitan, you might want to remove its bonus special qualities, too, to balance it out. The nice thing about that is that the changes from the template then simplify to:

- Change type to Undead (Augmented [Original Type]).
- Add all Undead traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#undeadType).
- Remove Constitution score.
- All hit current and future hit dice become d12s.

That's it. You don't even need to look it up now.

The main balance problem is that Barbarians now get exactly the same HP as Wizards. Call me crazy, but I say just get rid of the whole "remove Con, change hit dice to d12s" thing. Obviously undead and constructs have varying degrees of toughness, so why wouldn't they have Con scores? The whole "Constitution is only for living creatures" thing is pretty arbitrary. I mean, come on, elementals get Con, and it's not like they have metabolisms.

[Curmudgeon]

I've been working through the details of my procedural approach. You can build a 1st level character and immediately kill it, then use Animate Dead and Awaken Undead on it. Assume a medium size non-human starting character, the 1st level pros and cons are:

Pros: BAB +1
2d12+3 starting hit points
Toughness feat (good for some PrCs like Dwarven Defender)
+2 natural armor
1d6 slam attack
DR 5/slashing
STR +2
CON --
+2 profane bonus on Will saves vs. Control Undead
+2 turn resistance
keep all weapon and armor proficiencies, and all Extraordinary racial traits
all those undead traits, including darkvision 60' and lots of immunities
Cons: Single Actions Only (Ex) -- moving and attacking requires a charge
no user-selectable feats
no skill ranks
DEX -2
CHA 1
no cushion between 0 HP and death
Neutral: saves: Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +3
WIS 10Whether using point buy or rolling, you can have four dump stats: WIS, CHA, INT, and CON. You put everything into DEX and STR. A wood elf (+2 STR, +2 DEX) makes for a good starting race. With 32 point buy you could have:

STR 22, DEX 18, WIS 10, INT 13-15, CON --, CHA 1
after the process. All wood elf traits are Extraordinary, so you'd keep everything from your original race.

The Single Actions Only trait is the big disadvantage of being a zombie PC. I've thought of a few possible ways to cope.

Ride a mount or magic object so it does the moving for you.
Be a spellcaster, and use lots of swift action spells.
Go (Cloistered) Cleric and trade Travel domain for Travel Devotion to get swift action moves.
Use options like Snap Kick that give extra attacks with a standard action.
Take Fleet of Foot, Improved Bull Rush, or other feats that increase your effectiveness while charging.
Pick up movement skill tricks like Back on your Feet, Dismount Attack, Escape Attack and Extreme Leap, plus maybe the Freerunner feat for more.
Boost your speed so you can cover more ground with a single move action.
Get a Belt of Battle for more actions.
Focus on attacks of opportunity. AoOs are just attacks, and don't care about any limitations you have during your regular turn.