When I say undead, you say...

[Ammutseba]

...what do you say? When I say something is an undead creature, which undead creatures spring to your mind? What would you assume I'm talking about? What are the most iconic undead creatures that, to your awareness, 3.X has produced?

[Blackhawk748]

...what do you say? When I say something is an undead creature, which undead creatures spring to your mind? What would you assume I'm talking about? What are the most iconic undead creatures that, to your awareness, 3.X has produced?

Skeletons lead by my Dread Necro usually.

[LoyalPaladin]

Skeletons lead by my Dread Necro usually.
I'd second skeletons. Probably with a bow.

[bjoern]

...what do you say? When I say something is an undead creature, which undead creatures spring to your mind? What would you assume I'm talking about? What are the most iconic undead creatures that, to your awareness, 3.X has produced?

First thing that always comes to my mind are the Zombies from Baldurs Gate:Dark Alliance. You could lop off their arms and they would just walk around and bite you. Then you cut off their heads and they just walk around and run into you and get gross zombie juices on you.

[Thurbane]

Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls and Vampires, in roughly that order.

[Boost]

"When I say undead, you say..."

... Turn Undead!

[Platymus Pus]

Dominate Undead!

[sideswipe]

obviously cinderspawn and desiccator, they are the most iconic undead ever.

[Blackhawk748]

obviously cinderspawn and desiccator, they are the most iconic undead ever.

Ive heard of the first one but i have no idea what the second one is

[Dormammu]

Ghouls & Ghasts! It's so scary to be paralyzed!

[sideswipe]

Ive heard of the first one but i have no idea what the second one is

libris mortis pg 94.

[Judge_Worm]

Alhoon, Draco Lich, Lich, Entombed, Skeleton, Vampire, Ghost

In almost that order, the first three at the same time of course.

[Coidzor]

Skeletal undead probably. Followed by Liches and incorporeal undead.

Which reminds me, mummified undead, of various types of mummification, need more love.

[(Un)Inspired]

Ghouls. They're just the first thing that springs to mind.

[Ammutseba]

First thing that always comes to my mind are the Zombies from Baldurs Gate:Dark Alliance. You could lop off their arms and they would just walk around and bite you. Then you cut off their heads and they just walk around and run into you and get gross zombie juices on you.
Eugh. Thanks for that visual. I'm just gonna... go bleach my brain now. And brush my teeth.


obviously cinderspawn and desiccator, they are the most iconic undead ever.
Those desiccators freak me out. I love the concept, but that picture makes my skin crawl.


Alhoon, Draco Lich, Lich, Entombed, Skeleton, Vampire, Ghost

In almost that order, the first three at the same time of course.
I'm going to guess you've got a general affinity for illithids, and that this explains why your first thoughts outlie the general spread a bit.


Skeletal undead probably. Followed by Liches and incorporeal undead.

Which reminds me, mummified undead, of various types of mummification, need more love.
I can think of mummies, great mummies, possibly that desiccator from earlier, the dry lich, and ... uh, are geluns undead? Do they count? You're right. though. The whole quarter feels like we missed a thematic opportunity.

Is anyone familiar with Atropus, from the Elder Evils supplement? If so, what do you suppose happens if no heroes can defeat it? What does it do? What happens to the world?

[atemu1234]

Skeletons lead by my Dread Necro usually.

Reminds me of Spooky, my Bard // Dread Necromancer.

[OldTrees1]

Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls/Ghasts, Liches, Ghosts, and Necropolitians* jump to my mind.

After a second Wights are added to the list.

*The inclusion of Necropolitians is probably a result of optimization discussions and not a result of it being iconic.

[Blackhawk748]

Reminds me of Spooky, my Bard // Dread Necromancer.

Nice, isnt there a bard PrC (Dirgesinger i think?) that makes them great Necros? Stack that with Dread Necro and you have a Necromantic god!!

[ZamielVanWeber]

Skeleton, zombie, lich, in that order.

[atemu1234]

Nice, isnt there a bard PrC (Dirgesinger i think?) that makes them great Necros? Stack that with Dread Necro and you have a Necromantic god!!

Dirgesinger, I believe.
Or at least a Necromantic Celebrity.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

...are they mindless?

If so, I have a Lesser Rod of Chain Spell and Command Undead!

If not, I have Unguent of Timelessness'd Bone Talismans of Turning which I'd cast with a Bead of Karma active.

(My current character actually does have both of those things, he's a Beguiler with UMD and an Ancestral Relic Runestaff.)

[Bad Wolf]

Undead Pazuzu.

[goto124]

Mindless shambling zombies. Shoot (fireballs) to kill.

[endur]

skeleton, zombie, vampire, ghost, ghoul, wight, lich

[Coidzor]

Nice, isnt there a bard PrC (Dirgesinger i think?) that makes them great Necros? Stack that with Dread Necro and you have a Necromantic god!!

Unfortunately, Dirgesinger just isn't that great. Dirgesingers get 1 song that bolsters undead against turning and 1 song that they have to keep playing and which only animates 1 undead, ever, and it has to be a fresh corpse, along with 3 songs that just debuff living foes. Now, if your character is into Epic and has the ability to have multiple songs active at once and is undead or similarly without need to rest, then, yeah, you can have a constant fully-leveled minion without the disadvantages of making that foe into a Dread Warrior. But, well, that's the least crazy thing an Epic spellcasting character can do.

Also, sets 5 levels of casting progression on fire to get the one bit of real necromancing.

[tadkins]

A lich, with a crooked, wiry arm, pointing at the target that he's about to sic his swarm of zombies and ghouls on.

[Sir Chuckles]

Atropal.

Unfortunately.

[OldTrees1]

Atropal.

Unfortunately.

Ouch. That aura hurts. Maybe go on a diet of Atropal Scions instead?

[M Placeholder]

To my mind, Dregoth the Kaisharga Dragon King from Dark Sun.

Four reasons

1 - He's an undead abomination that was once a man, and is now an undead dragon
2 - He's a 20th level psion, a 20th level defiler wizard, and a 9th level dragon with a challenge rating of 50
3 - His plan is the "Day Of Light" - He will lead his Dragon armies over Athas, slaughter everyone that refuses to turn into a Dragon, and use the power of the Pristine Tower to reshape reality and become the first true god of Athas.
4 - He is a horrific monstrosity that has helped lay waste to the world, and looks exactly like one should look like - Unnatural, with burning green eyes of fire, a slightly humanoid appearance and looking like the undead should - rotted and with bits hanging off him.

[M Placeholder]

Atropal.

Unfortunately.

The Atropal is so wrong on so many levels, it becomes gloriously right. Its just so insane, and the way it was illustrated in ELH was right on the money.

It also seemed like a throwback, in that a lot of the more fun monsters WoTC got rid of, and then they go and create something as unhinged as the atropal.

Only problem with it is the alignment. Something that is described as that hate filled and insane should really have a NE or CE allignment, instead of being LE.

[Spore]

Banshees and Liches. You can thank the Warcraft Universe for that (Sylvanas and Kel'Thuzad). Weirdly enough not Death Knight but mainly because "Fallen Paladin" and carry for an ancient weapon are popular tropes but not popular undead.

[Tiri]

Skeletons, zombies and then liches.

[GreatDane]

I immediately think of a horde of shambling zombies - slow, grotesque, and hard to kill.

In my mind, D&D's most iconic undead is the lich - the twisted, evil spellcaster who sacrificed his humanity for eternal life tied to a magic phylactery.

Order of the Stick probably contributed heavily to this opinion, since it a) features a lich as its (original) primary antagonist and b) is one of maybe three D&D media products I've been exposed to.

[Bronk]

To my mind, Dregoth the Kaisharga Dragon King from Dark Sun.

Four reasons

1 - He's an undead abomination that was once a man, and is now an undead dragon
2 - He's a 20th level psion, a 20th level defiler wizard, and a 9th level dragon with a challenge rating of 50
3 - His plan is the "Day Of Light" - He will lead his Dragon armies over Athas, slaughter everyone that refuses to turn into a Dragon, and use the power of the Pristine Tower to reshape reality and become the first true god of Athas.
4 - He is a horrific monstrosity that has helped lay waste to the world, and looks exactly like one should look like - Unnatural, with burning green eyes of fire, a slightly humanoid appearance and looking like the undead should - rotted and with bits hanging off him.

Cool! I'm not sure he's thought step three through all the way though... You'd think that a lot of people would agree just to get a power-up that would help in overthrowing him. Do you know if he'd let you choose which kind of dragon, or is he just turning people into draconic creatures?

I personally like the Hunefer... They're pretty tough, and I like the idea that the original body of anything that turns into a god becomes a human mummy thing.

[Coidzor]

Cool! I'm not sure he's thought step three through all the way though... You'd think that a lot of people would agree just to get a power-up that would help in overthrowing him. Do you know if he'd let you choose which kind of dragon, or is he just turning people into draconic creatures?

Not that kind of dragon. This is Athas, and dragons there are more like... grody transhumanists that destroy the biosphere/world as part of their transformation. Eventually they become something more like a dragon as we'd know it towards the end after transitioning through several steps, some of which would look like the Draconians from Dragon Lance, only super jacked up looking.

[aspekt]

My immediate response is...campaign filler.

But reading the full question my response is Liches. Especially 1ed Liches where encountering one almost guaranteed the death of at least one party member.

[Just to Browse]

I think of wraiths and the nightwalker. Scary undead monsters are so cool.

[Segev]

"Minions!"

[M Placeholder]

Cool! I'm not sure he's thought step three through all the way though... You'd think that a lot of people would agree just to get a power-up that would help in overthrowing him. Do you know if he'd let you choose which kind of dragon, or is he just turning people into draconic creatures?


There is only one choice that Dregoth will give (The people of the city of Raam will have one choice - Death) - transformation into a Dray, which is basically to a full dragon king what the Dragonborn are to Baramut. They look like scaled down versions of the dragon kings.

The sourcebook Terrors of the Dead Lands (Available for free at Athas.org) had truly horrific undead, and they described the transformation of several in the book itself, the most horrific was the transformation into a Morg (an Athasian Mummy). That is horrifying.

Some of undead of Athas include flying pixie heads, Elves that run every night across the desert and psionically force people to run with them until they drop dead, and from the Terrors of Athas, there are undead plants that were killed by defiling wizards.

Probably the most horrific in my view, are Krags, Elemental priests who died in elements opposed to the ones they worship, and have come back as undead monstrosities. A flaming corspe with the few remaining bits of flesh on it burning forever, with green eye sockets burning with fire, and gray mist dancing around them, screaming in agony at their demise and with a hatred for the living - now theres an undead creature. Tragic, horrifying and terrifying? Check, check, and check - thats what the undead should be.:smallsmile:

[Bronk]

Coidzor, Dark Sun Gnome: Hmm, I see. I think after my transformation I'd be a bit miffed!

[Eric Scott]

When I think of undead, I think of a Brain in a Jar riding the back of a squirrel...

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Reading the thread title, the first thing was "Turn Undead." The first actual undead creature was lich, though. I have to agree with some of the above posters that it is one of the iconic DND monsters.

[Endarire]

Zombie or Lich.

[Seruvius]

Skeletons. Usually skeletons marching in formation, mechanically thrusting their spears at any living creature nearby, with some form of necromancer/vampire in the background controlling them.

[Valameer]

Skeletons are the most essential undead creature, to me.

I've always wanted to see skeletons be more on the menacing / threatening side. I've played them up like a Terminator before, glowing red eyes, methodically advancing to kill a character regardless of how much punishment they've taken, and it worked to great effect.

They just need better stats. The "Terminator" scene only worked because the player was playing a level 1 commoner at the time.

[goto124]

Stab undead!

[Sam K]

When I say undead, you say...

...orphans!

[Deox]

Lich and Drowned.

[tiercel]

Strahd von Zarovich.

Vhen you haf ahn excuse to berake out ze cheezy vahmpire ahccent... plus the Grand Conjunction series of Ravenloft adventures, never mind Castle Ravenloft

[Hamste]

...orphans!

Dang it, I was going to say this. Also efficient work force.

[atemu1234]

...orphans!

Taste good with ketchup!

[Sam K]

Dang it, I was going to say this. Also efficient work force.

Sorry, but I feel that after the last VC, I have a strong claim on the undead orphans domain for the playground.

[LoyalPaladin]

...orphans!
Fixed. Now, I smite evil. 1d20


Strahd von Zarovich.

Vhen you haf ahn excuse to berake out ze cheezy vahmpire ahccent... plus the Grand Conjunction series of Ravenloft adventures, never mind Castle Ravenloft
Ah yes, the most iconic undead baddy in all of D&D. Good choice.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

First thought is Skeletons. First monster I ever faced in D&D and I have an actual army of them in miniatures. Second and third are zombie and Strahd's zombies.

Then I turn around and put my DM hat on...first thought is dracolich and second is banshee.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Ah yes, the most iconic undead baddy in all of D&D. Good choice.

This might just be because I started getting into tabletop games on the cusp of 3.0, but when I think iconic undead DND baddy, I think Vecna. It's a little odd, too, since I ended up playing just about every setting but Greyhawk when 3.5 was still printing. I guess Die, Vecna, Die! is more memorable, at least as far as names for a module go.

[Hazrond]

one of the iconic undead for me are Shadows

[Sheogoroth]

Wights.
My first experience with one of them resulted I my char getting turned to spawn and the party fleeing.

[Almarck]

Raveners. Basically skelelich dragons.
Out of all the undead I've seen it's what's closest to my heart. I like dragons... and undead dragons well...

[Ammutseba]

Lich and Drowned.

Oh man, the drowned... ugh. Not a bad ugh, but those guys are terrifying. Attack from melee? You drown. Attack from a distance? Too many hps. And they're coming toward you...


Alright, thanks for all of your answers. I should have enough data for now. :smallsmile:

[Th3N3xtGuy]

Skeleton Warriors from Wow/Warcraft 3