PDA

View Full Version : [3.5] Do zombies continue to decay?



Kami2awa
2010-08-19, 05:55 AM
Just a quick question;

Do zombies created by Animate Dead continue to decay? Usually most undead are depicted as rotten corpses, but the spell gives no indication of whether or not they decay after animation. On the contrary, it states that they last forever (until destroyed).

In this case, do they get an automatic Gentle Repose effect, leading to some very creepy possibilities for using bodies immediately after death and creating zombies indistinguishable from the living at first glance. It also raises the possibility of using Animate Dead to fulfill the function of Gentle Repose, to keep bodies fresh for components/resurrection(/food :smalleek:).

If they do decompose, you could see necromancers using various embalming techniques to keep them from rotting too fast (or even keeping them naturally/magically frozen until needed!) And would they eventually count as Skeletons? Furthermore, if they become too decomposed to continue to move, can they then be resurrected as if destroyed?

kamikasei
2010-08-19, 06:07 AM
I think this is one of those things that's been answered a bunch of times over several editions, differently each time.

Planescape: Torment, for example, had embalmers tending to zombies. I'm sure I've seen the zombie-turned-skeleton thing before, too.

I'd say a straightforward compromise between "free gentle repose" and "rotting normally" would be to say that the negative energy animating a zombie prevents the microorganisms that would rot it from taking hold. So the body deteriorates, but it doesn't rot. Look at the description of liches, who seem to resemble mummified or vacuum-sealed corpses - dessicated flesh stretched thin, papery skin, etc. Clearly dead, but not putrescent.

I would treat both "eventually becomes a skeleton" (for a value of "eventually" roughly equal to "whenever the DM feels like it") and "counts as destroyed once it's too deteriorated to move" as reasonable rulings, though.

hamishspence
2010-08-19, 06:09 AM
Don't know about 3.5, but I think the 4E Open Grave book suggests that, past a certain point, decomposition stops and the negative energy preserves the body, for zombies.

It does say that blood is what keeps a vampire from decomposing though- without blood, decomposition begins (blood can reverse it).


It also raises the possibility of using Animate Dead to fulfill the function of Gentle Repose, to keep bodies fresh for components/resurrection(/food :smalleek:).

I think BoVD has rules for diseases that afflict people who eat the flesh of fiends, trolls, and maybe the undead.

PersonMan
2010-08-19, 08:34 AM
Yes. If I'm not misremembering, it says something like 'zombies fall apart after a month or so' somewhere in their description in the MM.

Evard
2010-08-19, 08:59 AM
How else would you get a skeleton then? When a mommie skeleton and a daddy skeleton....?

:smallbiggrin:

Zeta Kai
2010-08-19, 09:15 AM
In my games which feature zombies, I use this custom template instead the one in the MM. It includes rotting (losing ~1HD per week; at 0HD, the creature collapses) & random maladies (broken bones, open sores, putrid smell, etc.). As my zombie campaigns feature a LOT of zombies, it helps to make each one a little different, lest the game feel like a monotonous grind.

Tyrmatt
2010-08-19, 09:27 AM
I used to make a distinction between plague zombies and necromantic zombies.

Plaguers decomposed but could feast upon the living to repair damage done to them. They weren't healed by negative spells as they weren't in any way animated by negative energy.
Necromantically animated zombies didn't decay past the state the corpse was in when it was zombified but couldn't eat to restore themselves, only be healed by direct negative energy.

Actually I believe they could eat but it required the necromancer to focus to direct the digestive and re-constructive processes. Useful if he had time to burn and a big pile of people but generally a quick negative energy pulse kept them in check.

dsmiles
2010-08-19, 09:31 AM
Don't know about 3.5, but I think the 4E Open Grave book suggests that, past a certain point, decomposition stops and the negative energy preserves the body, for zombies.

It does say that blood is what keeps a vampire from decomposing though- without blood, decomposition begins (blood can reverse it).



I think BoVD has rules for diseases that afflict people who eat the flesh of fiends, trolls, and maybe the undead.

I believe you are correct on the 4e 'official' ruling.

Personally in 3.5/3.0/2e I used the "if they're not tended by a necromancer/embalmer periodically, they tend to decompose at a normal rate until they become 75% decomposed, then they use the stats for skeletons" schtick.