[D&D 3.5] Undead Apocalypse

[Lateral]

If a single powerful spawn-creating undead were to be transported into the center of an urban area, would it be enough to start an undead apocalypse (I.E. making enough spawn before going down to have the spawn destroy and spawn-ize the entire city)? How powerful would the undead have to be? Discuss.

[Tvtyrant]

Yup, more then doable. Specifically using a Bodak or Shadow. None magic doesn't hurt a shadow, and a Bodak kills things by looking at them. One Bodak could probably destroy a city all by itself.

[Chilingsworth]

depends on the specific undead type, since that in turn affects how long the spawn take to form. Also depends on how long it takes for compentent help to arrive.

Your best bet would be creatures that can raise spawn in rounds, like shadows and spectres, as opposed to days like vampires.

[Urpriest]

Yeah, the majority of spawn-creating undead have those they kill rise after 24 hours, so a moderately competent city guard could kill the one undead and burn any relevant bodies. You'd need an undead powerful or sneaky enough to take on the whole city, or with a faster spawn creation.

[Lateral]

Well, what I mean is that most metropoli have high-level casters who could neutralize the threat.

Edit: Take any undead with a 1d4 round spawntime.

[Jack_Simth]

Way too many variables.

If you drop a Wight in the middle of a bunch of unarmed and unarmored commoner-1's, you're going to get a Wightocolypse in fairly short order (1d4 rounds between when the Wight hits, and when there's another Wight, and the Wights will rarely miss). However, if there happens to be an 11th level Wizard running a spellcaster's booth or some such right there, it could be over with one Empowered Scorching Ray, with no lives lost at all.

A Spectre, played intelligently, and maybe given access to a Ring of X-Ray Vision, could totally do it, though.

[Tvtyrant]

The easiest way to do it would be to have a Nightshade enter the city and summon Dreadwraiths and Greatershadows. I would like to see some guardsmen overcome that (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG196.jpg)thing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/nightshade.htm#nightwalker).