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AtwasAwamps
2010-01-19, 11:07 AM
After long last, I may finally be able to get my players into the dungeon they were supposed to be getting into for a long time. A dungeon filled with Kythons, Corpse Creatures, and Bone Creatures, as well as a final dangerous SCARY NECROMANCEEER WHOOOOOO!

I’ve got plans for all of the bone and corpse creatures I’m going to be throwing at them, as well as for the majority of the Kythons. However, I want to mix it up a little and throw some slightly stranger undead at them. I’m going to avoid incorporeal undead on them for now, but I want to throw some fairly bizarre stuff at them. I’ve been looking through MMs, but haven’t found a ton of things I’m too excited about. Any suggestions?

General Guidelines:

The party consists of five players who will be mostly at EL 4 by the time they enter this dungeon, with an occasional six. Low optimization in general (yeah, they’re not going to be fighting Slaughterkings or anything). The party consists of:

Psion (blaster)
Fighter (Chain Tripper who need to rechoose her feats…)
Cleric (Healbot focused, but will mix it up when forced to)
Rogue (Stabs things. Very foolhardy. Probably going to die.)
Dread Necromancer (He loves himself so very much)
Ranger (on/off again player, doesn’t necessarily need to count)

So, any interesting undead or suggestions of where I should look for ‘em?

Cyclocone
2010-01-19, 11:15 AM
Kyuss' undead are as freaky as they come; they might be a bit much at that level though.

Spawn of Kyuss are in MM2, and the others are in various issues of Dragon, and I think Crystal Keep has 'em too.

The Mentalist
2010-01-19, 11:15 AM
It would be a tough fight but for freaky...

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138056

Yeah, that's pretty much awesome.

Also if you have Libris Mortis, the Unkillable Zombie template can be nice if you play it right.

AtwasAwamps
2010-01-19, 11:20 AM
It would be a tough fight but for freaky...

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138056

Yeah, that's pretty much awesome.

Also if you have Libris Mortis, the Unkillable Zombie template can be nice if you play it right.

I heard about that template. Because one of the other DMs in our group used it.

The players are still filled with hate. I wasn't there for that session...

Zeta Kai
2010-01-19, 11:22 AM
I heard about that template. Because one of the other DMs in our group used it.

The players are still filled with hate. I wasn't there for that session...

That sounds like a winner to me. :smallbiggrin:

lsfreak
2010-01-19, 11:29 AM
Freakiness can be upped a LOT by your descriptions.

Libris Mortis. Skin kites, skulking cysts, and forsaken shells, for classic body horror. And be sure to describe them in detail - I had forsaken shells peel themselves off dead torture victims that were still chained to the wall. The fight was easy, but at that point my players told me they wanted to go back to the Far Realm because it was freaky/interesting, rather than freaky/disgusting.

hamishspence
2010-01-19, 11:31 AM
one of the undead monsters in Fiend Folio appears as a flayed humanoid.

Maybe combine the two- an undead that just looks like a very well-preserved body- then it splits, revealing it's two allied undead disguising themselves as a single being- and both attack.

Reptar
2010-01-19, 12:21 PM
I'll let you in on a little secret of mine, but it only works if you use it infrequently.
If you really want to make your group realy disgusted and frightened make them laugh before you lay on the descriptions of horror.

As such I give you the Unkillable Zombie MOOSE!

A massive stone slab falls with a solid thump over the door your party just entered through and they walk into a once white room, it's walls now stained brown with fur and blood. The floor is a tangled mess of discarded, revealing the almost skeletal head of a Moose!
Let them laugh, and ease the piled up tension, then bring it back with a horiblely graphic discription of the rotting, pusy, undead moose. If you paint it right the moose becomes a tortured victim and the party feels even worse for laughing about it and they're even more on edge as it throws them around the room with it's horns, Give it knock back if awesome blow's too much for your low characters.

Then leave them to their moosy fate.


When they search the room they find four shackles bound the ground each still containing a rotted moose hoof, and their relief exuberance from winning the battle should fade.

It's all about letting them have the happy moments, but only for a very short time.

Optimystik
2010-01-19, 12:27 PM
Undead aberrations are the epitome of freaky. Try an Alhoon (Illithid lich, LoM) or Death Tyrant (undead Beholder, FRCS).

OldTrees
2010-01-19, 01:56 PM
IIRC the Castle Raveloft module has these nasty zombies

Effectivly they have the following template
-1hp/HD
remove: the single actions only ability
add: Any damage dealt to the zombie that would destroy it has a 50% chance of not happening. (All other effects of the attack still apply)
CR +0 (I think the CR should be +1)

Starscream
2010-01-19, 04:45 PM
Last time I did one of these I gave the boss a sidekick in the form of his dead girlfriend, a Spectral Lyricist from LM. Kind of played her as an undead Harley Quinn. That was fun.

Also had a standard issue group of hooded-robe wearing cultists. When the party found a closet full of the robes they thought "Hey, free disguise!". Then the robes turned out to be Raiments (also LM).

My players beat them into submission and then used them as disguises anyway. I even gave them an intelligence score just so they could be threatened. "We're either going to wear you or wash you with the barbarian's loin cloth. Your choice."

Yeah, I'm probably not the guy you want to go to for "Freaky" undead. It's not my fault. I grew up watching Ghostbusters.

Flickerdart
2010-01-19, 05:04 PM
What's the CR on Atropal Scions again?

Lysander
2010-01-19, 05:39 PM
Have them hunted by gang of five wights using hit and run tactics. Wights have average intelligence (11) so they don't have to just lurch forward and attack like zombies. What makes them scary is that they can taunt the players, lead them into traps and ambushes, and use their expert knowledge of the dungeon's layout to their advantage.

Wights are really good at Move Silently checks, and can stalk the players throughout the dungeon. Your players will be terrified if they feel a cold hand hit them and they gain a negative level, then the wight instead of continuing to attack runs away laughing. If you chase the wight you'll follow it into traps and pitfalls and ambushes. If the cleric turns them they run away cackling "We'll be back"

AslanCross
2010-01-19, 05:59 PM
Bonedrinkers are CR 6, Lesser Bonedrinkers are CR 4. Grapple checks and Con damage, oh my!

Boneclaws (CR 5) are another favorite. Large size, incredible 20ft reach, etc.
Both are in Monster Manual 3.

Jarrick
2010-01-19, 09:04 PM
Bloodhulks, Necrosis Carnexes, and Plague Walkers are within their CR and are about the creepiest looking things your average necromancer wants to make.

As a side note, last week I created a very creepy atmosphere at my last session by having one of our lv.16 players attacked feebly and mindlessly by allips. He was so taken aback by their mindless flailing and moaning, it actually took him a few moments to muster a response. So yeah, as someone put it, it isn't so much the monsters that make a dungeon scary as the way it's described. Properly timed scary music no one expects helps too.

Drakevarg
2010-01-19, 09:09 PM
Plague Blights always make me want to hurl. CR 6, Libris Mortis.

mabriss lethe
2010-01-19, 10:15 PM
Have them hunted by gang of five wights using hit and run tactics. Wights have average intelligence (11) so they don't have to just lurch forward and attack like zombies. What makes them scary is that they can taunt the players, lead them into traps and ambushes, and use their expert knowledge of the dungeon's layout to their advantage.

Wights are really good at Move Silently checks, and can stalk the players throughout the dungeon. Your players will be terrified if they feel a cold hand hit them and they gain a negative level, then the wight instead of continuing to attack runs away laughing. If you chase the wight you'll follow it into traps and pitfalls and ambushes. If the cleric turns them they run away cackling "We'll be back"

For the level of play the OP (CR 4-6) is discussing, 5 wights fighting in tandem is downright lethal. A wight is a CR 4 creature in its own right. Maybe break them in with a group consisting of one or two actual wights, and then fill in with some "wights" make them 2-3 hd intelligent undead and then tack on Death Devotion. they can still deal negative levels, just one per PC, and they call for a save instead of being automatic. "fodder wights" are still dangerous to a low level party but are far less likely to end in a TPK.

Drakevarg
2010-01-19, 10:19 PM
What's the CR on Atropal Scions again?

Alot. They're undead god fetuses.

*actually grabs Libris Mortis*

Nevermind. CR 11.

Also, I'd say look less on undead that look scary and instead make them ACT scary. Watch a boatload of horror movies. Allow your players to get cocky, treating them like a pack of roving John McClaines... then suddenly turn it into a horror movie. Every dark corner has something twitching in it. Something's ALWAYS in the corner of their vision. Never anything more than that. Let them get friggen paranoid.

Then drop the nightmare-things on them.

Atmosphere is 99% of horror.

Danin
2010-01-20, 03:04 AM
Picture a fight on a narrow bridge with no railings over a 20 foot deep pit.

Picture facing an opponent prone to using bull rush and knock back.

Picture a mob of regular, albeit flesh hungry zombies beneath with a grapple check of "yes" in the aforementioned pit.

Picture the look on your player's faces when they realize the charger is just a diversion so that the bridge can be collapsed, making it a race across while something tries to hurl them into said zombie pit.