What's your favorite type of undead?

[BlackOnyx]

With all the engaging discussion about the nature of the undead in the forums lately, I thought a post centered around a slightly more light-hearted topic might be fun for those looking for a change of pace.


That in mind:


Evil, not evil, tortured souls or quasi-elemental spirits—origins aside, what are your favorite undead creatures in 3.5e and why?


Looks, lore, raw power, or exploitable properties—any basis is fair game.

[ATHATH]

Necropolitans- they're my go-to type of undead for use as a PC.

[Elkad]

Your basic almost-mindless feeding frenzy undead.

Which means Ghouls, except I nerf their mental stats even more in my world (and make them faster). And the variants, like Ghasts.

Also fond of Juju Zombies - similar reason. Dead, aware they are dead, and full of rage for all things living.

[Blue Jay]

I've always felt like there are too many kinds of undead, and too many of them are just weird and morbid. I guess that's kind of the point, but...

My favorite undead are just plain ol' humble skeletons. They don't seem as a gross as other undead, and the simplicity is kind of appealing.

I also like shadows. I never could decide on how I'd build a shadow PC, though: they don't seem to really do anything in particular. Warlock, dread necromancer and ninja/rogue all seemed like nice build ideas, but I never managed to get motivated enough to build it.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Necropolitans, if a normal person could always be considered on the verge of death, they could be considered as always being on the verge of life.

At least that's how I run it. "I died, but I'm mostly over it".

[Thurbane]

Hopping Vampire (OA p.169), no doubt! Just like a regular Vampire (well, without energy drain, dominating gaze, fast healing, alternate form, gaseous form, spider climb, or bonus feats), but it hops! :smalltongue:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8f/bc/9d/8fbc9d0788a221a51cb9e596753fcf3b--vampire-oriental.jpg

[mastermisha1]

I'd have to go with Boneclaws. As a melee brute they offer a little something more than your standard bag of hp that hits hard.

[BlackOnyx]

My favorite undead are just plain ol' humble skeletons. They don't seem as a gross as other undead, and the simplicity is kind of appealing.


I'm right there with you. Skeletons are just so classic. Nothing quite sets the mood like a set of pearly white bones clattering about on their own.


From a gameplay standard, they have a lot of advantages, too. They're low cost (25gp for a basic humanoid via animate dead), low weight (~25lbs if you use real world estimates), and a lot cleaner than their fleshier counterparts tend to be.


Although necropolitan (mentioned by some others) has always sounded like an interesting template to play, I always thought it would be fun to RP a basic skeleton PC. I'm sure it would have its fair share of hardships, but it'd be cool nonetheless.


Outside of skeletons, tho, I've always had a soft spot for Slaymates and Haunting Presences from the Libris Mortis. Not particularly powerful or complex on their own, but very rich in RP potential.

[Jopustopin]

Oh Mohrg... In my eyes you're perfect.
They don't mean any disrespect

Oh Mohrg when you enter the battlfield you get my applause!
They don't realize it... but Mohrg, you have no flaws!

[Blue Jay]

I'm right there with you. Skeletons are just so classic. Nothing quite sets the mood like a set of pearly white bones clattering about on their own.

From a gameplay standard, they have a lot of advantages, too. They're low cost (25gp for a basic humanoid via animate dead), low weight (~25lbs if you use real world estimates), and a lot cleaner than their fleshier counterparts tend to be.

Although necropolitan (mentioned by some others) has always sounded like an interesting template to play, I always thought it would be fun to RP a basic skeleton PC. I'm sure it would have its fair share of hardships, but it'd be cool nonetheless.

Yeah, a lowly skeleton grunt is kind of the archetype I'd be interested in trying out sometime. It's hard to do a good job roleplaying a character with no personality, but if you can do it right, it would make things interesting. Maybe a lowly skeleton grunt was reanimated by an ancient contingent spell that the other PC's accidentally triggered; and then there's a sort of amnesiac story line, where it slowly regains memories of what it was in its ancient life. It's also mute and unable to communicate (because it only understands its ancient language).

You'd have to have the right kind of group to make it work right, I think: not everyone would find it interesting to roleplay alongside that. But, it could be pretty rewarding with the right kind of group.


Outside of skeletons, tho, I've always had a soft spot for Slaymates and Haunting Presences from the Libris Mortis. Not particularly powerful or complex on their own, but very rich in RP potential.

See, slaymates are one of the undead that I find too disturbing: I don't think I've even been able to stomach it long enough to read the entire stat block yet. I don't know: it's a child, I'm a father... it just feels like such a gross violation.

[Amphetryon]

To play? Necropolitan, no question.

To run as a DM? I like Shadows, & Drowned.

[PrismCat21]

and then there's a sort of amnesiac story line, where it slowly regains memories of what it was in its ancient life.

There's actually a prestige class for that.
Emancipated Spawn from Savage Species.
It can be taken by Undead created from a create Spawn ability and that is free from control. It's three levels long and you slowly regain your feats, class features, memories and class levels you possessed in life.

[Blue Jay]

There's actually a prestige class for that.
Emancipated Spawn from Savage Species.
It can be taken by Undead created from a create Spawn ability and that is free from control. It's three levels long and you slowly regain your feats, class features, memories and class levels you possessed in life.

Yeah, I've looked into that one, and it did catch my imagination awhile back. But, it feels like turning a roleplay opportunity into a series of mechanics might ruin the experience somehow. And I don't know how you'd get it to work for a skeleton: does any undead create skeletons with a Create Spawn ability? I guess it's probably not too much to ask for a DM to handwave that little detail away.

Also, there's the Libris Mortis undead monster classes, which explicitly let you become an undead spawn without losing your previous racial and class abilities, so Emancipated Spawn is kind of just throwing away three levels for some turn resistance and a good Will save, mechanically speaking. And you'd have to spend those three levels being really handicapped.

I love the concept of it, but it just seems like it would make the game harder, unless you and your DM planned it out carefully beforehand. Actually, that might still be fun to do: I should try it sometime. :smallsmile:

[Thurbane]

One of my personal faves (and I haven't had a chance to use one in a game yet) is the Vitreous Drinker (MM4 p.174). Why?
Vecna related fluff. https://media.taxtimcdn.com/images/tick.gif
Reminds me of Ningauble of the Seven Eyes (Fritz Leiber character). https://media.taxtimcdn.com/images/tick.gif
It uses spectral ravens! (I have a weird obsession with corvids). https://media.taxtimcdn.com/images/tick.gif

...I may use a Vitreous Drinker Sorcerer/Binder/Anima Mage as a BBEG one day. Raven familiar, summoning a raven through Malphas. Maybe even a Swarm Shifter (bats re-fluffed into ravens).

[NontheistCleric]

I like wraiths, partly because I like the image my mind conjures up when I think of them.

Also, I find it interesting that getting killed by a wraith might be used by a commoner as a way of becoming an immortal undead creature, something which is usually reserved for those with the power to become liches or something similar. Of course there's the downside of being enslaved to the wraith that killed you, but some careful planning could get around that.

[rel]

I'm going to go with skeletons. Especially if they look like they just stepped off the set of the old Jason and the Argonauts movie.

[Remuko]

Throwing my hat in with skeletons. I just love how human skeletons looks. I am so sad that zombies are so much popular IRL because I'd love to see some horror movies with Skeletons but everything needs to be so realistic and skeletons don't really work without magic or other physics bending mechanics.

But yeah an Awakened Skeletons replacing its first undead HD with a class level could be really fun to play.

[TheBrassDuke]

The Charnel Hound and Boneyard are my favorite Undead, because they’re a mashup of dead things, pretty large, scary, and damn powerful!

[JyP]

But yeah an Awakened Skeletons replacing its first undead HD with a class level could be really fun to play.
Are there any rules to play this, with Level Adjustment ? Last I checked, it was Bone Creature template from BoVD... any update to 3.5 ?

[Blue Jay]

Are there any rules to play this, with Level Adjustment ? Last I checked, it was Bone Creature template from BoVD... any update to 3.5 ?

No, the Bone Creature template never got an LA, so currently the only way to play a skeleton is with house rules or 3rd-party stuff. Inevitability's LA Assignment project came up with LA +1/+0 for the skeleton template (I'd provide a link, but my phone doesn't display URL's for me to copy/paste, so I'll just try to link it later).

I didn't realize that the humble skeletons were so popular. I was completely expecting people to prefer the more powerful undead, like wraiths and vampires and liches.


The Charnel Hound and Boneyard are my favorite Undead, because they’re a mashup of dead things, pretty large, scary, and damn powerful!

I made a boneyard/lich villain for one of my games. I ended up making it sort of a pushover villain in the end though, because I'm too nice to my players; but it would have been terrifying if I'd played it fully. But the boneyard is a really cool idea.


To play? Necropolitan, no question.

To run as a DM? I like Shadows, & Drowned.

My DM for an online game has us fighting some Drowned simultaneously with some Desiccators, so almost every round, we have to save against drowning and drying out at the same time. :eek:

[Kraleo Duro]

Vampires style! ^^

[Zanos]

As a DM? Liches. I usually brew my liches up scary. Couple centuries of experience for creatures that usually live less than a hundred years makes them pretty terrifying to go against. Plus there's that spicy self-determination in doing whatever is necessary to prolong your life through nothing but your own talents. 4e ruined that though.

As a necromancer, I like bloodhulks, because they're beefy bruisers you can make out of any corpse. Zombie dragons are cool mounts, too.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Liches because I can't get out of my head the idea of a lich doctor that take your body as payment after you die.

I like Dragon Skeletons and Humans Skeletons just because they are cool.

[ExLibrisMortis]

(Good) Lich + Renegade Mastermaker 10 + phantom template. Selectively incorporeal undead (living construct).

[Thurbane]

If I apply the Corrupted by the Abyss template (EttDP) to an Undead (say, a Wight), does it's type change to Aberration? If yes, does it gain a Con score? Or does it keel over dead as an Aberration with no Con?

[Pugwampy]

Brain in a jar !!!

[thelastorphan]

Devourer hands down. I love those things and generally use them in place of litches.

[NontheistCleric]

If I apply the Corrupted by the Abyss template (EttDP) to an Undead (say, a Wight), does it's type change to Aberration? If yes, does it gain a Con score? Or does it keel over dead as an Aberration with no Con?

It's type would change. There are two possibilities for the Constitution score.

The wight could become an aberration with no Con score, in which case it would follow the rules for such creatures, namely:

A creature with no Constitution has no body or no metabolism. It is immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless the effect works on objects or is harmless. The creature is also immune to ability damage, ability drain, and energy drain, and automatically fails Constitution checks. A creature with no Constitution cannot tire and thus can run indefinitely without tiring (unless the creature’s description says it cannot run).
Remember, a creature dies from having Con 0, not Con -.

The other possibility is that it would follow the precedent set by Sentry Ooze that a template-applied ability score bonus to a nonability gives the target creature that ability score with a value equal to the bonus. The wight you mention would then gain a Con score of 4.

[unseenmage]

As a PC? Skeletons. They're stylish and dapper. What's not to like?

As a GM? Ghosts. For the revenging.

As an optimizer? Necropolitans and Spellscribed undead.

Of all time? The Golem Remnant from the Far Corners of the World: Monsters of the Lost City (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20041126a) web enhancement for showing that even Constructs can be undead.

Golem Remnant
Large Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 16d12 (104 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (perfect) (8 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +2 deflection), touch 15, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/--
Attack: Incorporeal touch +11 melee (1d6 Wisdom damage)
Full Attack: 4 incorporeal touches +11 melee (1d6 Wisdom damage)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Possess object, touch of madness
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., fast healing 5, incorporeal traits, madness, spell resistance 18, undead traits
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +11, Will +6
Abilities: Str --, Dex 18, Con --, Int 2, Wis 3, Cha 15
Skills: Listen +8, Spot +7
Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility
Environment: Any ruins
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 8
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: 17-48 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: --

A strange, shimmering sheet of vapor rises out of the ground -- a shapeless cloud of what could be steam or fog were it not for the burning eyes that lurk deep in the creature's core. Four tendrils of mist extrude from the nearest facing of the creature, questing hungrily for prey.

With the passage of countless ages, the majority of any guardians and sentinels that survived the ancient cataclysm long since died or moved to different regions. Yet one category of creature in particular remained at their posts: constructs. The golems and other animated guardians created by the ancients simply remained at their posts, patient and silent, awaiting new orders that would never come. Eventually, the elements wore down even these ancient constructs, and their bodies fell apart from disuse.

Yet so strong was the binding magic that anchored the animating elemental spirits to these ancient golems that when the bodies died, their elemental "souls" died as well -- yet they did not return to the elemental planes once their bodies wasted away. Still bound to a body that no longer existed, these disembodied elemental spirits transformed into strange undead known today as golem remnants.

A golem remnant is a particularly unusual undead creature. The elemental spirits that create them are no longer bound to the Material Plane, yet their ages of idle torment that ended with dissolution universally leave them insane, and once freed, they seek out other statues, suits of armor, even dead bodies to inhabit and animate. With each new "body," their original programming becomes more and more corrupted, and the eventual fate of all golem remnants is to become a nearly-mindless killer locked into a ruined city by a purely psychological cage of insanity.

Combat

A golem remnant prefers to spend its time within a solid object, and it uses this "body" to attack mindlessly. Once its body is destroyed, the remnant momentarily cannot inhabit a new body, and until it refocuses its animating energies, it lashes out at anything living with tendrils of vapor that infuse the mind with visions of madness and anguish. Golem remnants modify their melee attacks with their Dexterity modifier rather than their Strength modifier.

Possess Object (Su): As a standard action, a golem remnant can move into a square occupied by any Large or Huge object. This object immediately animates as an animated object (see Monster Manual, page 13). Damage done to the animated object is not transferred to the golem remnant. While animated, the object's natural attacks gain the benefit of the golem remnant's touch of madness (see below). The object does not gain the benefit of the golem remant's fast healing, but if a golem remnant is damaged before it possesses an object, its fast healing continues to work on its own hit point total, so that when it is eventually forced out of the animated object it has likely healed most or all of the damage it may have already suffered. The possessed object does gain the benefit of the golem remnant's spell resistance.

A golem remnant can be forced to vacate its possessed body in one of two ways. Successfully targeting a possessed object with dispel chaos or dispel evil forces the golem remnant to vacate the object if it penetrates the creature's spell resistance and it fails a Will save (use the golem remnant's Will save, not the animated object's Will save). A golem remnant is also driven out of its possessed object if the animated object is destroyed. Once a golem remnant is driven out of a body, its animating powers are momentarily drained. It must wait for 1d4 rounds before using the power again.

Touch of Madness (Su): The golem remant's touch inflicts 1d6 points of Wisdom damage, or 2d6 points of Wisdom damage on a successful critical hit. While the golem remnant is possessing an object, the animated object's natural attacks deal this additional Wisdom damage as well.

Madness (Ex): A golem remnant uses its Charisma modifier to adjust its Will saving throw rather than its Wisdom modifier.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Skeleton cats

[BlackOnyx]

Maybe a lowly skeleton grunt was reanimated by an ancient contingent spell


You know...I never thought of that. With Contingent Spell, Create Undead, and a little DM fiat, you'd have a pretty "safe" method for allowing a necromancer PC to ascend to undeath.

With all of the skeleton talk in mind, playing as a bone creature might be a lot of fun.



See, slaymates are one of the undead that I find too disturbing: I don't think I've even been able to stomach it long enough to read the entire stat block yet. I don't know: it's a child, I'm a father... it just feels like such a gross violation.


Ah. I could see that being a bit of a stumbling block.


Still, I still find myself really liking the slaymate concept. An innocent, confused undead child searching for a parent-figure to guide and protect it. Depending on how you RP it, the presence of that twisted parent/child relationship could (ironically) be the one thing keeping the necromancer's humanity in check.


That said, I'll admit the image provided for them is a little disturbing. I tend to reimagine them a bit more like the "little sisters" from Bioshock.



One of my personal faves (and I haven't had a chance to use one in a game yet) is the Vitreous Drinker (MM4 p.174). Why?
Vecna related fluff.


Wow, that thing's even more Vecna-esque than Vecna. Really gets the point across.



Also, I find it interesting that getting killed by a wraith might be used by a commoner as a way of becoming an immortal undead creature, something which is usually reserved for those with the power to become liches or something similar.


I feel like that would actually make for a really good story hook for a cult in a campaign.


A small village off in the middle of nowhere where, instead of dying, the elderly/infirm are offered up and "reborn" as undead thralls of the master wraith that rules the over them.



Of course there's the downside of being enslaved to the wraith that killed you, but some careful planning could get around that.


I also like to live dangerously.



I'm going to go with skeletons. Especially if they look like they just stepped off the set of the old Jason and the Argonauts movie.


Human Warrior Skeleton, Low Framerate Variant

Medium Undead

Planar Instability (Ex): As permanencied Blink spell, but between the material and negative energy planes.

Hypnotic Synchronization (Ex): When two or more Low Framerate Skeletons move adjacent to one another, creatures within 30 feet must make a DC 13 will save or or become fascinated for 1d4 rounds.

CR +1 - 1/2

[Pugwampy]

I have a miniature army of zombies . 99 percent of my mini orders from i have to have another zombie . As a DM i appreciate that they are tougher than skeletons

I dont know if i like zombies or i am just a victim of media brain washing

http://s6.postimg.org/axkydd1m9/121.jpg

[NontheistCleric]

I feel like that would actually make for a really good story hook for a cult in a campaign.

A small village off in the middle of nowhere where, instead of dying, the elderly/infirm are offered up and "reborn" as undead thralls of the master wraith that rules the over them.

It gets even more interesting when the master wraith dies and his command over all his thralls is broken.

I think it could also make for an interesting sort of villain. Imagine a commoner who tells the PCs a story of a wraith that is troubling his community. When they go to fight it, he tags along, and when the PCs fight the wraith, he places himself in harm's way where the wraith can easily drain him. He dies. The PCs manage to kill the master wraith, and our commoner rises from his body a completely free being, now in possession of the powers of flight, incorporeality, energy draining, immortality and massively boosted mental stats (for a commoner, at least). Then he finishes off the tired PCs and makes them into his new thralls.

Or at least, that's the plan.