Discussion: Memorable Undead PCs/NPCs From Your Past (or current) Campaigns

[BlackOnyx]

With some of the recent events in my party's current campaign (most notably the adoption of an adorable little slaymate and the dethroning of a vampire tyrant), I've really found myself enjoying interactions with undead characters as of late.


Digging into their psyche, setting aside misconceptions, dealing with the logistical differences in their care and upkeep—the whole experience has really been a treat.


On that note, do any of you have stories of memorable undead PCs/NPCs in your campaigns?


What were they like? How did they deal with their undead status? I'd love to hear about them.

[Talverin]

Alisera was a Sergeant in the Army of the Free Men of Grigori from a particular homebrew campaign I ran based on the Fall From Heaven setting (http://fallfromheaven.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page)

When she fell in battle, along with much of the rest of the army, in a cowardly ambush by a huge swarm of Undead, the party (Who had been members of her squad, before being forced to flee from the routing remains of the army) assumed her dead alongside the rest. However, unknown to them, many of the officers of the Grigori army had been targetted by the vampires who were leading the Undead to be raised and serve as captains in the now-undead army. Her unusually strong will and resistance to orders led to her being moved away from the frontlines, and instead sent to garrison duty in an old abandoned dwarven fortress tucked into the mountains.

The close presence of a more powerful Vampire kept her... mostly focused, and he forced her to fight the party. Thanks to Gentle Repose, she did not appear as rotted and torn as many of her fellow Vampires, leading the party to believe she yet lived. They fought her, but tried to keep her alive. Even with her attacking them, they defeated the more powerful Vampire, setting her free... at which point she surrendered, and confessed that she had been turned. Devastated by confirmation of her death, the staunch barbarian struck her dead on the spot, critting her horrendously with his greataxe. Despite her few on-screen appearances, the party had built some respect and an idea of fellowship with her, and being forced to slay her, for a while, alienated the barbarian from the party, with them claiming she could have been saved, and him responding that, had she her own mind, she would have wanted to die. All of this combined to make her a memorable NPC.

Also, before Shadow of Mordor made it popular, there was a particularly fresh undead of nebulous type that they must've slain a half dozen times, and each time he was brought back with... minimum necessary repairs. He bore all the marks of their prior battles. Only when his antipaladin nature was revealed in the corrupting of a potent church did the party finally slay him for good. He was impaled to the altar he had tried to desecrate with a powerful holy weapon. The fact that they had finally put an end to him was enough for the party; so much so that they didn't even argue when asked to return the holy blade.

[Florian]

What were they like? How did they deal with their undead status? I'd love to hear about them.

I use the Golarion-based explanation model for undeath, so most (if not all) of them are terrible damaged creatures and pretty deranged (a lot of them are stuck in time, or permanently locked in to certain emotional states and so on.)

A memorable one was an NPC, the ghost of a cleric, that pledged to help the party at a task. Problem was, the ghost could only understand the world thru the filter oh how she knew it before she died, her perception of the ruined keep that the whole episode took place in being as if it was still whole. So she often gave tips and commands like "Up the stairs!" that didn't make sense because there were no more stairs, or grew irritated when people simply passed thru "walls".

[Falontani]

I play with the dead more than my fair share in campaigns. In one campaign I am a Dread Necromancer, in another I am DMing a group that has a Master of Shrouds, a Dread Necromancer, and a Death Master (yes they fight over every body). In yet another campaign I played as a Death Master. I and several of the DMs that I play with have several house rules on the undead, among other creatures.
#1: Undead always have maximum HP/HD. This does make undead significantly more tanky early on, and less so later.
#2: All creatures with 3+ intelligence that has advanced to their minimum HD (progressed through monster class/racial HD) may take class levels.
#3: We play in Eberron where alignments are much looser, so you dont necessarily have to role play every undead as evil.

With that said some stories: The Master of Shrouds had summoned a wraith. During their encounter with the BBEG Druid the wraith con drained the druid. They waited until the druid rose as a wraith, and then attempted to rebuke/command the wraith. After rolling initiative the death master went first and failed to command him. The wraith went next and critically hit the death master, doing half of his total con in one hit. The Dread Necromancer went next and fully commanded the BBEG Druid Wraith. Little did he know that the wraith did indeed rise as Lawful Evil as wraiths are. The Druid turned wraith lost its druid magic because its no longer any Neutral. Said druid also heavily spent feats for dragonmarks. Which are unusable when undead. The dread necromancer was very unhappy that this wraith was significantly weaker so he commanded it to wait until the light of day and subject itself to the full brilliance of day. The Death Master was highly against this because he truly cared for the undead. What ensued was the most hilarious fight between two necromancers with Tomb Tainted Soul.
In another one I had this troll Bone Claw (we homebrewed a template for them) that was just hilariously over powered for how few HD it had. It had combat reflexes and could make AoO from 25 ft

Finally had a slaymate that was a BBEG's daughter. She acted like she was still alive and was playing with dolls and stuffed animals. The dolls/stuffed animals were actually all effigies that were to protect the slaymate because the father learned his lesson after she died. The group befriended the Slaymate and were really happy with the Slaymate, until the Dread Necromancer commanded the Slaymate. The dolls all attacked and nearly killed the Dread Necro before the fight finished. The Master of Shrouds was extremely mad at the Dread Necro because he had taken a liking to her and was going to make her his undead cohort. And after being commanded she started acting completely differently. ... In game these were a lot more fun that I am making them out to be...