15 Levels of Uber Zombie Need Help Please

[Armyguyclaude]

Hi all!

I'm creating an uber zombie. My regular DnD group is doing a one shot and I'm looking to make Patient Zero so to speak. The premise of our One Shot is a battle royale and winner becomes a Necromancer's General. So far I've taken these templates:

1) Curst LA +3
2) Favored Spawn of Kyuss (No LA)
3) Swarm Shifter (No LA)
4) Ravenous (No LA)
5) Evolved Undead LA +1
6) Fast Zombie (No LA)

I haven't taken any base race yet or figured out classes, feats, wealth by level 15 for items. I'm not really looking for everything, but some nudges in this direction or that would be great. My current idea so far is I run at someone with Fast Zombie bonus speed. I then either attack them with a natural attack to invoke a grapple check or turn into a swarm of Kyuss Worms. If I grapple I get a free bite and can use Foul Embrace to spit Kyuss worms at my enemy. My goal is to infect everyone on the battle field and just turn them into mini me's. I doubt I need much more in the way of defense and I don't think I need to deal damage as my Kyuss worms will turn everyone into my slaves, but there could definitely be better ideas out there.

The only things I know for certain we can't use is Infinite Loops, and making a magic item that has 9th level spells attached to it. To prevent Wish abusing. I know I could add a bajillion other templates on here, but I want to keep it simple. Puke worms at people or swarm shift into 10,000 worms and crawl into their mouths, eyes, ears, etc and slowly turn them into zombies. Do I even need anything else?

Evolved undead is just for thematic purposes and creeping doom.

Thank you everyone who may help out. Love this community.

Side question:
Can swarms make grapple checks?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Say someone used Awaken Undead if you don't otherwise have an Int score.

Base creature could be a Cave Troll (MM3), pretty good with physical attacks.

[Armyguyclaude]

Say someone used Awaken Undead if you don't otherwise have an Int score.

Base creature could be a Cave Troll (MM3), pretty good with physical attacks.

It says Cave Troll's LA is +6. How do I know what bonuses it get's though? Stats, Skills, HD, Etc?

Thanks btw. Cave Troll looks fun

[PoeticallyPsyco]

NOTE: this all assumes an Awakened Zombie (which you probably want anyway, because otherwise your character is literally mindless and only follows orders).

Let me see. For a relatively simple melee brute, I'd go for a large race (the Half-Ogre template is +2 LA) and take the War Hulk prestige class. With 7 levels of War Hulk the base class doesn't matter a huge amount as long as it's got full BAB, so for simplicity's sake let's say Barbarian. (Other good options are Fighter and Ranger, or if you want to get more complicated Crusader or Warblade).

So, Barbarian 6/ War Hulk 7 (LA +2 to make the ECL 15). The only two feats you need to qualify are Power Attack and Cleave.



Now for some complexities. All these are optional, unless I'm misremembering the quick zombie rules and they can't take full attacks; in that case you really want the Lion Spiritual Totem ACF (look for the orange text):

Two of my favorite feats are Improved Trip and Knock-Down. Now every time you smack someone, you get to trip them, and then smack them again! You can get Improved trip after spending a feat on its prerequisite Combat Expertise (which requires an Int of 13), but rather than doing that you can trade your Uncanny Dodge (barbarian class feature) to get Improved Trip for free (https://molivero.com/dndtools/USRD/srd/classes/baseCore/barbarian.html#wolf-totem)!

Reach weapons! Gotta love them; since you're large you'll be able to reach 20ft away with them. Wear armor with armor spikes so you can still attack people up to 10ft away. (You can also Two Weapon Fighting with a reach weapon and your armor spikes, which is really cool). (Alternatively, Improved Unarmed Strike costs a feat but works even better with Power Attack, and still works for TWF).

More attacks really help you. All of these tricks only work during a full attack (except 5), and all of them work with each other.
1. Fighting with a weapon in each hand is one way to do that. Two Weapon Fighting and Improved Two Weapon Fighting give you an extra attack each, but hurt your Power Attack feat extra damage (fix this with a third feat, Oversized Two Weapon Fighting, or use a two handed weapon and armor spikes/unarmed strike, see above). Going Ranger 6 instead of Barbarian 6 gets you TWF and Improved TWF for free, or just go Barbarian 4/ Fighter 2 and use the two bonus feats for the best of both worlds.
2. Natural attacks get added to your full-attack routine for free (at -5 to hit). Using Darfellan (Stormwrack) as your base race (Half-Ogre Darfellan) gives you a bite attack but hurts your land speed a bit. More complex is a few (probably 2) levels of Totemist, and binding Girallon Arms to your totem chakra to give you four claw attacks (technically you get all four even if you're holding a weapon, but your DM might frown on getting more than two while holding a big old spear).
3. Improved Unarmed Strike is great for TWF as mentioned above, but it also qualifies you for Snap Kick. Make an extra unarmed strike; all attacks this round are at -2 to hit.
4. Just like Wolf Totem trades Uncanny Dodge for Improved Trip bonus feat, you can trade your normal Rage for the ability to enter a Whirling Frenzy (https://molivero.com/dndtools/USRD/srd/classes/baseCore/barbarian.html#whirling-frenzy). This works basically the same way, but instead of a bonus to Constitution while raging (which you can't use because you're undead anyway) you get a +2 bonus to AC/Reflex and an extra attack each round if you take a -2 to hit on all attacks that round.
5. You know what's great? Being able to full attack and move on the same turn. You can do this with a 5ft step and a full attack, but if you trade away your Fast Movement you can get Pounce with the Lion Spiritual Totem (https://molivero.com/dndtools/USRD/srd/classes/baseCore/barbarian.html#spiritual-totem). Now every time you charge, you can make a full attack at the end! NOTE: I can't remember if quick zombies can make full attacks, but if they can't THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE! Even if they can, it's really good.

Some other good feats: With the number of enemies you'll be hitting, you've got decent odds of setting off a huge chain reaction of death with Great Cleave (when you kill an enemy, make another Great/Mighty Swing starting with a person standing next to them; repeat until people stop dying). To make your charging more terrifying, Leap Attack improves Power Attack while charging and lets you jump over rough terrain. Shock Trooper is typically recommended for charging, but you probably don't actually need it unless you're already taking Improved Bull Rush (see below). Combat Reflexes lets you take multiple attacks of opportunity a round as long as your Dexterity is high enough. Extra Rages lets you rage/frenzy two more times a day.

Knocking people to the ground and smacking them repeatedly is super fun, but what if you could (also) smash them into the ground? If you're taking at least 2 levels of fighter, Dungeon Crasher trades one (two if you go 6 levels) of your bonus feats for the ability to smash into nearby objects for damage. If you're going this route, you want the feats Improved Bull Rush and Knockdown. The latter lets you bull rush automatically if you do enough damage on a hit (you will); if they're smaller than you or you're jumping with Leap Attack you can bull rush them right into the ground for Dungeon Crasher damage. Note that you can combine this with, well anything I've talked about so far, but especially tripping with Knock-Down.



So the more complicated build might look something like this:
Half-Ogre Darfellan Barbarian (Whirling Frenzy, Lion Spiritual Totem, Wolf Totem) 3/ Totemist 2/ Fighter 2/ War Hulk 6
With feats (by level):
1. Power Attack
2. Improved Trip (Wolf Totem Bonus)
3. Cleave
6. Improved Unarmed Strike, Two Weapon Fighting (Fighter Bonus)
7. Knock Down (Fighter Bonus)
9. Extra Rages
12. Improved Two Weapon Fighting

What's the attack routine look like? Let's assume you've got a normal Glaive for your reach weapon (opponents 15-20 ft away), and had a Strength of 15 before racial adjustments (and put all your level-up points into STR, too for a total of 15+2+6+12+3 = 38, +14 bonus), and that you're in a whirling frenzy. And let's go ahead and use a full 6 points of BAB for Power Attack. And for Meldshaping, let's say you've also got Dread Carapace shaped (like Power Attack for natural weapons) but all 3 Essentia is in Girallon Arms. So here it is: Glaive +11 (2d8+34)/ Glaive +11 (2d8+34)/ Glaive +6 (2d8+34)/ Unarmed Strike +11 (1d4+13)/ Unarmed Strike +6 (1d4+13)/ Bite +7 (1d8+15)/ Claw +10 (1d6+17)/ Claw +10 (1d6+17). And each of those hits three squares, and gives you a free trip attempt on each creature hit (you have +23 to opposed trip attempts). Each creature you trip, you get to smack again with your glaive (+13 to hit, 2d8+34 damage), and I'm pretty sure this can be a Mighty Swing too, so attacks on two more squares as well. Likewise, you get another Mighty Swing if you drop an opponent below 0 HP.

Or you could throw 3 boulders (+19/+19/+14 to hit, 2d8+15 damage, 50ft range increment, 250ft max range) that also hit two squares each. Note if you've got opponents both close and far, you can use boulders instead of Glaive attacks in the above routine. Same +11/+11/+6 bonus to hit, but use the 2d8+15 damage.

[Menzath]

As good as the speed bonus from fast zombie is, the template still specifically calls out that you only get one attack per round(sorry no pounce). If you happen to be a troll or other grapple oriented creature that has more than one attack, I would recommend using the gravetouched ghoul, or possibly another undead template that isn't so limiting, and let's you keep all the base creatures attacks, special attacks, and qualities.

On that note a crystalline troll has a base template that you can use starting with 1hd or class level and has +5lvl adjustment(sadlythe other trolls do not).

And for an odd one from mm2, an Ormyrr. It's average intelligence, but has some good grapple bonuses, be it from size or special abilities.

And sadly without some cheese swarms cannot normally grapple. Swams don't "attack" so they cannot intiate a grapple.

Edit: wait, you do know adding the zombie template at the end gets rid of all the other templates special attacks and qualities, right?
Edit2: that and being curst gives you the special quality:undead, it doesn't actually change your creature type to undead which some of the following templates need, also after seeing your post in another thread, I can understand a little more about this. Template stacking can be very confusing at times, and one template in the wrong place makes it all come crashing down. But that's part of the fun learning experience.

[ShurikVch]

1) Curst LA +3
2) Favored Spawn of Kyuss (No LA)
3) Swarm Shifter (No LA)
4) Ravenous (No LA)
5) Evolved Undead LA +1
6) Fast Zombie (No LA)Well, firstly: are you a player which creating PC, or a DM preparing encounter?
Because, if you're a player - then Swarm Shifter is strait out: this template isn't for PC
(And if you're DM - then LA doesn't matter, just CR)

Curst and Favored Spawn of Kyuss are mutually exclusive: one required "Humanoid", and the other one - "living, corporeal creature"

Also, Curst limits your race choice to various Humanoids; maybe, including (Lesser) Planetouched Outsiders, and Living Constructs via Greater Humanoid Essence

Fast Zombie required Zombie - which isn't in your list (and mutually exclusive to both Curst and Favored Spawn of Kyuss)