Can a player use Disguise to fool a zombie patrol?

[Scryangi]

Hello everyone,

A player of mine is a changeling and can cast a non-magical Disguise Self. It's an actual shapeshifting effect and not an illusion. Would this fool a mindless undead such as your typical zombie? Could a rogue disguise himself as a zombie and move past them? I always thought zombies had some sort of Life Sense but nothing in the undead traits suggests such.

Any insight would be appreciated. I allowed it, on the logic that this would mean the players would be deep in zombie territory when things go South.

I know Hide From Undead exists but that does way more than just hiding you, but actually makes you undetectable to them, which is completely different.

[schreier]

It works in walking dead 😁

Sounds like DM Fiat? They don't generally attack each other, so they have done kind of recognition?

[One Step Two]

My best answer is: Maybe

Due to the rules of the Animate Dead (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateDead.htm) Spell, when created Zombies either follow the caster, or remain in an area attacking any creature, or a specific kind of ceature. This means that if the Zombies are told to attack anything that isn't them, the disguise may not fly, if they are told to attack anything other than Zombies, it will work.

If these are free range zombies without any formal necromancer to control them, then the answer is by RAW, yes, Disguise works. Zombies have no inherent lifesense (nor do they qualify for the feat of the same name), an intelligence of 0, and a total Spot Modifier of +0, which means that as per the rules of Disguise (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/disguise.htm), as long as you don't draw attention to yourself, a relatively high disguise check can fool a base Zombie.

[Blackhawk748]

Depends on the orders that the Zombies got. Generally, zombies don't fight one another but who knows why that is. Otherwise what were they programmed to do?

[Scryangi]

So the general consensus is that zombies can be fooled by Disguise, and won't attack unless they would attack other zombies--such as if a necromancer orders to attack any zombies not wearing a certain symbol.

[Clementx]

An effect based on disguise self can't let you change your apparent Creature Type, so no, a changling can't impersonate an undead with just that. Wounds and injury are fine cosmetic details, but missing chunks of flesh is too far.

I would let it give the normal +10 to a Disguise check if the player went through the effort of smearing rotting bile and stuffing his pockets with zombie flesh. He would be a pale, sunken, and diseased looking humanoid with enough smell and camouflage to fake out mindless undead.

[daremetoidareyo]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?561021-Visual-Lies-A-Reference-for-the-Disguise-Skill

Heroes of battle p.94 you can disguise yourself as a corpse

[NotASpiderSwarm]

Disguise Self is a +10 to the check. There's nothing I can find that keeps you from changing type or subtype, and changing species is only -2*. Given that Zombie Spot is +0, basically any other Disguise bonus should make it so they literally can't make the roll to see through.

* I would houserule the penalty to be higher, but at the same time, I'm not sure if an Elf disguising as a Dwarf is really all that more difficult than a Human disguising as a Zombie.