Zombifying dead PC's

[TIPOT]

So I've recently started playing Dnd again after my last group messily broke up with a completely new group of players (half of which have never played before). I volunteered to DM as I was the most experienced at it and second session managed to get a TPK. :') No one was especially bothered (most people weren't happy with their characters anyway) so they've all rolled but fresh new characters to discover what happened to their old characters.

They were investigating a cave full of undead which they managed to cut a large swave through before dying. I figure to make up dungeon harder and to surprise the players I can bring their old characters as some kind of undead. What kind of undead is the main thing I'm struggling with and would like some advice on.

The old party consisted of:

A level 2 human ranger, used a bastard sword and short sword (had really high ability scare rolls too)
A human fighter 1, cleric 1, sword and board user
An elven wizard 2 (had fairly poor spell choices went with blasting spells)
A dwarven rogue 2 with a shortbow and cutlass
A generic npc guide who I could bring back (died near the entrance)


New party

Another Ranger 2 bastard sword/short sword wielder
A gnome archivist 2
Probably a warlock 2
Probably a Paladin 2
Probably a Knight 2 (new player)


So what can I turn the old party into that'll be an appropriate challenge for the new one? I do have the possibility of breaking the old group up into smaller groups.

[Manly Man]

If you separate them a bit, you could do the old party as ghouls, since standard humanoid zombies really lose their difficulty unless you start tacking on a bunch of extras by the time the party gains a level.

If you want, you could let the ghouls use weaponry to a degree, although most often, they'll likely either go one-handed or barehanded, so as to leave at least one claw free for paralyzing. I'd recommend them just having their natural attacks, what with how new the players seem, but once they get a good taste of how the undead can be either very hard or very easy to defeat, up the ante with them later.

For a boss, if the new party is still in relatively good shape, you could even have him be a ghast to either go one-on-party with them, or have a couple minions of his own, such as a pair of skeletons or zombies.

[Vhaidara]

Ghouls are a bad plan. 4-5 ghouls, between Ghoul Fever and the paralysis (12 is pretty low, but your group's saves are also pretty low) has a pretty real chance of another TPK. And that will probably make some people mad. Wiping is one thing, wiping on your previous characters is another thing altogether.

I'd recommend Corpse Creatures from Book of Vile Darkness. They're basically zombies with both actions and they keep their old class features.

[Manly Man]

Ghouls are a bad plan. 4-5 ghouls, between Ghoul Fever and the paralysis (12 is pretty low, but your group's saves are also pretty low) has a pretty real chance of another TPK. And that will probably make some people mad. Wiping is one thing, wiping on your previous characters is another thing altogether.

I'd recommend Corpse Creatures from Book of Vile Darkness. They're basically zombies with both actions and they keep their old class features.

That would work pretty well too. That they would retain more of their former image would help put some drama into the whole scene, since even if the characters don't know who the undead baddies are/were, the players likely will.

Note that I did say for the ghouls to be separated, and I'm pretty sure that a party of five, with at least two who could attack from a distance, would be able to take out a pair of ghouls quite handily.