[3.5] Undead Templates for Encounter Variety

[Maginomicon]

I look at the undead available (at least, at lower levels) and feel this lamesauce feeling that I'm restricted in what that can mean for encounter variety.

I thought, "Wait, isn't the fluff for a lot of undead that they used to be some other creature?" so I figured there must be templates for those creatures (after all, the power of creatures transformed into those undead should be proportional to the base creature, not cookie-cuttered into the original undead)... but there weren't any really other than skeletons and zombies and a few minor high-level additions.

Then I found these undead TEMPLATES in Dragon Magazines, and all of my variety problems were solved. I figured I'd share the results with you. Below is a list of where I found things, what they are, their CR increases, LA increases (if any), and base creature requirements.

Dragon Magazine #300 page 70

Mummy Template (CR +2; LA +4; any corporeal except constructs, oozes, & undead)
Ghost Brute Template (reprinted in Libris Mortis) (CR +2; LA+5; any corporeal with Charisma less than 8 except constructs, oozes, & undead)
Wight Template (CR +2; LA +4; any corporeal except constructs, oozes, & undead)
Wraith Template (CR +3; LA +6; any corporeal except constructs, oozes, & undead)

Dragon Magazine #307 page 38

Bodak Template (reprinted in Dragon Compendium) (CR +4; LA --; any corporeal except constructs, oozes, plants, & undead)
Ghoulish Template (reprinted in Dragon Compendium) (CR +1; LA --;

any giant or monstrous humanoid, or
any humanoid with 4+ HD)

Ghastly Template (reprinted in Dragon Compendium) (CR +2; LA --;

any giant or monstrous humanoid, or
any humanoid with 7+ HD)

Scion of Kyuss Template (CR +2; LA --;

any Medium-sized or smaller humanoid, monstrous humanoid, or giant with 9+ HD,
any Large-sized of those types with 13+ HD, or
any Huge-sized of those types)


Dragon Magazine #313 page 60

Deathtouched (Sorta Planetouched) Template (no CR entry; LA +1)
Fetch (Sorta Half-Ghost) Template (CR +1; LA +5; restricted as ghost)
Gheden (Sorta Half-Zombie) Template (no CR entry; LA +1; restricted as zombie)
Ghul (Sorta Half-Ghoul) Template (CR +1; LA +3; restricted as ghoul)
Katane (Sorta Half-Vampire) Template (CR +1; LA +4; restricted as vampire)


Granted, the Deathtouched and Gheden are more like race templates than monster templates, and the existing Half-Vampire Template from the Bad Latin book is maybe a little better than the Katane template, but they work for this purpose.

What I Want To Know:

In 3.5, are there any other obscure or semi-obscure undead templates that can be used to fill out the undead hordes in a scaling fashion?


What Would Additionally Be Blatantly Off-Topic:

Discussions about allegedly "interesting" undead that are not... in-fact... undead templates.
Whining about Dragon Magazines in-general.
Whining about the template stats in comparison to the original undead entry.

[Vaz]

Libris Mortis has variant templates for already known undead- zokbies, lichs vampire and the like.

[ArcturusV]

Book of Vile Darkness has "Bone Creature" and "Corpse Creature" that I believe qualifies for what you are looking for.

[Karnith]

I know of a few of these, though they may not all be terribly obscure:

Savage Species has a bunch of undead templates - Ghost Brute (any Animal, Magical Beast, or Plant with a Charisma score of less than 8; CR +2, LA +5), Mummified (any corporeal Animal, Giant, or Humanoid; CR +3, LA +4), Spectral (any Aberration, Animal, Dragon, Giant, Humanoid, Magical Beast, or Monstrous Humanoid; CR +3, LA +7), Umbral (any Aberration, Animal, Dragon, Giant, Humanoid, Magical Beast, or Monstrous Humanoid; CR +3, LA +5), Wight (any Humanoid; CR +3, LA +4), and Wraith (any Humanoid; CR +5, LA +7).

Libris Mortis updated some of them (Ghost Brute, Mummified, and Umbral), and also included the Gravetouched Ghoul (any corporeal Aberration, Fey, Giant, Humanoid, or Monstrous Humanoid with Int 3 or greater; CR +1, LA +2), Necromental (any Elemental; CR +1), and Revived Fossil (any corporeal creature with a skeletal system; skeleton-like CR progression based on HD) templates. Necropolitan is in there, too, but that's not so obscure.

Complete Psionic has the Spectral Savant (any Humanoid that can complete a specific ritual; CR +2, LA +4).

Draconomicon has the Dracolich (any evil Dragon; CR +3, LA +4), Ghostly Dragon (any Dragon with a Charisma score of 8 or higher; CR +2, LA +5), Skeletal Dragon (any Dragon; CR = Base dragon's CR x 1/2), Vampiric Dragon (any Dragon of at least adult age; CR +2, LA +5), and Zombie Dragon (any Dragon of at least adult age; CR = Base dragon's CR x 1/2).

Fiend Folio has the Huecuva (any Humanoid with Cleric, Druid, Paladin, or Monk levels; CR +2) and Swordwraith (any Humanoid with Fighter levels; CR +2) templates.

Heroes of Horror has the Tainted Minion (any Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid with at least mild levels of both corruption and depravity; CR +1).

Magic of Incarnum has the Incarnum Zombie (any corporeal creature that has a skeletal system, zombie-like CR progression based on HD and size).

Monster Manual II has the Death Knight (any evil humanoid character of 6th level or higher; CR +3, LA +5). Dragonlance Campaign Setting has the similar-but-better Death Knight of Krynn.

Unapproachable East has the Dread Warrior, of Animate Dread Warrior fame (any Humanoid of at least 3 HD), and the Juju Zombie (any formerly living corporeal creature with an Intelligence score of at least 1; CR +2).

[ShurikVch]

There are templates "two creatures in one": Symbiotic and Tauric.
With couple of additional templates it's possible to fit in undead creatures.

Tauric creature will be 'Monstrous Humanoid', but still have "Con -"

And Symbiotic can be made of two undeads via Woodling template on top of Shadow, Corrupted, Half-Illithid or Pseudonatural