Trying to find some undead

[chinlamp]

I've got an undead-themed area in a campaign I'm doing. I've looked through all the source books I have access to, and there are a couple undead themes that I can't find, either because they don't exist or because I'm blind.

Restrictions to the undead: None of them can be raised by necromancers or created by rituals, they need to naturally come into being (i.e. a salt mummy, an allip, a drowned, etc.), they need to be able to be scaled up to or already be around CR7 or 8, or groupable with creatures of the same type or other creatures to make a CR7 or 8 encounter. CR9 will be a really hard challenge but my players have been doing CR's 1 above their rating with only 3 players, and as we're about to get a 4th, 2 above their CR should be doable.

Now, onto the undead I want to find/might need to create if they don't exist:

An undead of someone who died of starvation.

An undead who commited suicide (similar to an allip, as they can't be scaled up that high, and I don't want to give what's coming away by having a heap of obvious suicides)

An undead who died with a love of money/surrounded by money/just before they gained a lot of money (pretty sure I've seen this somewhere before, but I can't for the life of me find it)

Suggestions for undead that leave their bodies behind when they rise (I'm wanting to have a lot of lifeless corpses just lying around but never jumping up at them to really surprise them when the final skeleton they come across is an actual undead).

Thanks for any and all help.

[Runestar]

Suggestions for undead that leave their bodies behind when they rise (I'm wanting to have a lot of lifeless corpses just lying around but never jumping up at them to really surprise them when the final skeleton they come across is an actual undead).

Libris mortis has the forsaken shell, which is the animated skin of past victims.

[chinlamp]

Libris mortis has the forsaken shell, which is the animated skin of past victims.

Yeah, but that's the animated skin 'of past victims'. Not necessarily of the original person. My area doesn't really have a lot of places for there to be victims (it's an isolated island).

[Togath]

For the suicide undead, you could apply the advanced undead (from libris mortis)template to an allip.

For "undead who leave their bodies behind when they rise" do you mean bones or skin separating(like the skeleton or forsaken shell), the head separating and becoming a monster(like the nukekubi or manananggal), or do you mean becoming a ghost(like the ghost, specter or wraith)?

edit; while the nukekubi and manananggal don't have official stats in dnd, there are a few creatures published that are similar to them.

[chinlamp]

For the suicide undead, you could apply the advanced undead (from libris mortis)template to an allip.

For "undead who leave their bodies behind when they rise" do you mean bones or skin separating(like the skeleton or forsaken shell), the head separating and becoming a monster(like the nukekubi or manananggal), or do you mean becoming a ghost(like the ghost, specter or wraith)?

Like a ghost (I imagine an allip leaves behind their body as well, and become just a manifestation of the deceased's insane soul).

I'll try the advanced undead template, but as I want there to be a 'boss' of the undead in the area, I'm hesitant to do so as he's simply a bone creature with class levels (and advancing him further is not something I want to do). But that seems to be my only option at this stage.

[Shadowknight12]

An undead of someone who died of starvation.

Famine Spirit, MM2, page 96.


An undead who commited suicide (similar to an allip, as they can't be scaled up that high, and I don't want to give what's coming away by having a heap of obvious suicides)

The allip fulfils that niche, though you can use a ghost, huecuva (Fiend Folio, page 94) or even a spectre, in a pinch. Any of those three can have killed themselves and then rise as undead. The ghost needs no further explanation. The huecuva was a highly religious person who lost their faith or betrayed it in some terrible way and died believing their god(s) had forsaken them. The spectre rises from violent, wrathful death. You could use a vampire, too, if you go by the Real Life superstition that suicides rise as vampires unless properly buried.


An undead who died with a love of money/surrounded by money/just before they gained a lot of money (pretty sure I've seen this somewhere before, but I can't for the life of me find it)

An effigy (MM2, page 89) might work, as they are undead who died believing they had been deprived from their rightful due. Dragon Magazine 336 has a very useful article on the origins of several types of undead, and they mention that a possible origin for ghouls is people who metaphorically fed on others throughout their lives, like greedy exploiters, tax collectors and slave-drivers. It specifically mentions greed throughout it. The cannibalism aspect is left for ghasts.


Suggestions for undead that leave their bodies behind when they rise (I'm wanting to have a lot of lifeless corpses just lying around but never jumping up at them to really surprise them when the final skeleton they come across is an actual undead).

Wraiths, spectres, shadows, allips, sword wraiths, ghosts and so on. Pick any incorporeal undead. They almost always (the Crimson Death is a special exception) leave their bodies behind when they're created. The Crimson Death is a special exception because it specifically requires a death via exsanguination and then the destruction of the physical corpse.

[Togath]

for the ghostly creature, the specter or wraith could be good, as could the white wraith (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/wraith) from pf.

[chinlamp]

Famine Spirit, MM2, page 96.



The allip fulfils that niche, though you can use a ghost, huecuva (Fiend Folio, page 94) or even a spectre, in a pinch. Any of those three can have killed themselves and then rise as undead. The ghost needs no further explanation. The huecuva was a highly religious person who lost their faith or betrayed it in some terrible way and died believing their god(s) had forsaken them. The spectre rises from violent, wrathful death. You could use a vampire, too, if you go by the Real Life superstition that suicides rise as vampires unless properly buried.



An effigy (MM2, page 89) might work, as they are undead who died believing they had been deprived from their rightful due. Dragon Magazine 336 has a very useful article on the origins of several types of undead, and they mention that a possible origin for ghouls is people who metaphorically fed on others throughout their lives, like greedy exploiters, tax collectors and slave-drivers. It specifically mentions greed throughout it. The cannibalism aspect is left for ghasts.



Wraiths, spectres, shadows, allips, sword wraiths, ghosts and so on. Pick any incorporeal undead. They almost always (the Crimson Death is a special exception) leave their bodies behind when they're created. The Crimson Death is a special exception because it specifically requires a death via exsanguination and then the destruction of the physical corpse.

Famine Spirit and Effigy are unusable to me as they are CR19 and 17 respectively, and I need something around CR7 or 8.

The other suggestions are what I was thinking I was gonna have to go with, but I wasn't sure if there were any other options.

[Shadowknight12]

Famine Spirit and Effigy are unusable to me as they are CR19 and 17 respectively, and I need something around CR7 or 8.

The other suggestions are what I was thinking I was gonna have to go with, but I wasn't sure if there were any other options.

MM2 is vastly known to have terrible CRs. I would advise you to re-do the CR yourself. A guesstimation from my part says that you'll end up with something between CRs 10 to 14 for them.

[Deadtissue]

You could use the True Ghoul from the White Kingdom. Ghouls who overcame their feral nature but are still undead. They use class levels to vary the CR. They were in Dungeon magazine and also later issues in the Age Of Worm Campaign. I have used them alot for years as undead masterminds as the Vampire is too cliche and too high level for low to mid level groups (at least the way I run them :))

Sorry AFB so cannot give you the exact issue number.

[Togath]

Technically, anything with an int of 3 or higher can take class levels, and most cases of ghoul npcs I’ve seen have ghouls(or ghasts) with levels, rather than advanced hd ones.

[chinlamp]

Technically, anything with an int of 3 or higher can take class levels, and most cases of ghoul npcs I’ve seen have ghouls(or ghasts) with levels, rather than advanced hd ones.

Hm... I completely forgot that.

Ghouls with swashbuckler levels? I think I can do that.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, they've actually been really helpful and I'm now almost done with my dungeon.