Need ideas on what to play in a zombie apocalypse D&D setting

[Klorox]

Kinda weird, but the DM is gonna try this as a world. Think walking dead meets D&D. If zombies bite you, you’re infected.

There are artificial limbs and such. Starting level 1.

[Intregus182]

Do you know if your starting out pre apocalypse and you play through the fall of society or will you start with the world already in a post apocalyptic state

[RogueJK]

Devotion Paladin seems to be the obvious answer. Immune to disease. Able to turn undead, heal, cure disease, and create large amounts of food and water. Hard to hit, and hits hard.

[kazaryu]

Kinda weird, but the DM is gonna try this as a world. Think walking dead meets D&D. If zombies bite you, you’re infected.

There are artificial limbs and such. Starting level 1.

i mean...a cleric/paladin is going to tend to be pretty good in such a setting. even if the DM doesn't let you use any of their spells/features that cure disease or make you immune to it. obvously, if the DM does let those spells/features work as normal, its even better.

but channel divinity by itself gains a good amount of power if you know that you're going to encounter a good amount of undead.

so i'd definitely consider making sure that there's at least one cleric/paladin in the party.

and if a single bite guarantees infection, then you probably want to focus on getting a really good AC. so maybe a githzerai forge cleric.

heavy armor proficiency, turn your armor into +1 armor for free. *and* at level 3 you learn shield.

if you're ever able to get full plate then you could be sitting at a standard 21AC (18+1 (forge) +2( shield) with the potential to pump it up to 26 with the shield spell, or 28 with shield of faith. and the sanctuary spell to *Really* make sure you don't get bit.

grab the fighting initiate (or MC fighter) fighting style for another +1 if you want.


OTOH, if your DM allows anti disease spells/features to work. i you might consider going paladin, devotion to be specific (devotion can turn undead). play safe until level 3, once your divine health comes online you step forward and 'tank'. maybe go dexadin and avoding heavier armor. make yourself look like lunch. ideally you'll take more hits, but since you can't be zombified, its overall safer than your allies taking the hits. meanwhile if an ally DOES get bit you can lay on hands to cure them (on top of being able to eventually cast lesser restoration).

realistically i'd recommend having one of each in the party anyway, even if you're not able to become immune/cure the zombie plague. paladin smites are extra efficient against undead. especially if he's using a slightly modified vanilla statblock since radiant damage can bypass the undead fortitude feature. of course the pally would probably want to armor up were that the case. but they're likely going to be the best overall frontliner.

[Klorox]

Do you know if your starting out pre apocalypse and you play through the fall of society or will you start with the world already in a post apocalyptic state
Post apocalypse.

Thanks to the others for the devotion paladin suggestion. I like that too, but I wanted some outside opinions here.

I might even multiclass here.

[kazaryu]

Post apocalypse.

Thanks to the others for the devotion paladin suggestion. I like that too, but I wanted some outside opinions here.

I might even multiclass here.

oh, and another thing i just thought of that you may want to consider...tabaxi. climb speed to help prevent you from being cornered (although im still pretty partial to the githzerai idea. shield is a super attractive spell under these condition....

rogue/monk in general could be interesting due to their mobility. AT+tabaxi could be interesting. you can grab shield from the AT levels, and the tabaxi climb speed couples well with your mobility. unfortunately you'd have to wait till 8 to get misty step unless you grab fey touched at level 4.



and something else i just thought of, as an addendum to my previous post: if your DM allows the alternate spell lists in tashas, a cleric gets access to aura of purity at level 7 (prevents disease within 30 feet of you)...but thats definitely something to ask the DM about. how features like divine health, or spells like lesser restoration will work.

[PallyBass]

Warforged have a racial immunity to disease so they would be a good pick. It's always fun to be Arnold Schwarzenegger in an apocalypse.

Cleric turns standard zombies into mulch between their channel divinity and Spirit Gaurdians spell.
In addition to extra AC Forge domain gets Wall of fire. Standard zombies are mindless and don't avoid hazards so they should throw themselves into their demise. That being said this is a homemade campaign so who knows what new twists (intelligent/ extremely durable/ agile zombies?)come with the zombie menace.

Fighter and Barbarian I think will struggle, the one trope that tends to stick with a zombie apocalypse is Zombie Hordes, and most nonmagical martials lack a means to deal with a huge amount of enemies, barring using chockepoints.

Any way to gain access to a ranged cantrip may come in handy for plinking away at a horde from a rooftop.

[Klorox]

How do you guys think a hexblade archer might fare?

[PallyBass]

How do you guys think a hexblade archer might fare?

I think your biggest worry would be running out of ammo with an archer. Eldritch Blast is always solid though.

[RogueJK]

I think your biggest worry would be running out of ammo with an archer. Eldritch Blast is always solid though.

Yep. Eldritch Blast:

Never runs out of ammo
Is available as early as Level 1
Doesn't require Pact of the Blade
Doesn't require Hexblade subclass
Makes more than two attacks (eventually)
Can push an enemy
Can pull an enemy
Bypasses most damage resistance
Get hits at the same range as a Longbow with Sharpshooter if you combine Eldritch Spear with Spell Sniper (600' range)

If you want a Warlock "Archer", you can just carry around a long curved staff (spell focus) that looks like a bow, and flavor your Eldritch Blasts as magic arrows.


However, a Hexbow does have the added benefit of being able to access Eldritch Smite and the Sharpshooter feat's -5/+10. So you won't get as many hits or have as many rider effects as an Eldritch Blade Faux Archer, but you can nova harder on lone attacks. (Although when dealing with hordes of zombies, you don't necessarily need to land big hits... A greater number of smaller hits are better against a mass of zombies.)

[Chad.e.clark]

Artificer sounds strong in such a setting. Con saves, medium armor and shields. Infusions for stronger defense and not having to worry about tracking ammo seems good too.

[Sigreid]

I'd go with Celestial Warlock with a chain pact.

[Person_Man]

I would probably go with Necromancer Wizard. The main down side of commanding an army of undead is the stigma of walking around with a bunch of undead. But if there are always undead around when you’re adventuring, there is not much of a down side. Plus when you’re being overrun by a mob of hostile undead, you can just cast Invisibility and walk away.

[Skrum]

I ran a 3 session dungeon that was overrun by zombies. The zombies were all mummies (with reduced HP, movement speed, and chance to hit), so getting hit by them even once was extremely risky. The players were level 3. The character that did by far the most work was a tabaxi swashbuckler rogue - get in, hit + SA, get out and move far enough away that the slow-moving zombies couldn't retaliate. Granted, it was a contrived scenario, but this character basically carried the party. It was extremely effective and the only time I've been impressed by a rogue.

Yes, you'll be starting at 1 so this won't be available immediately, but I'd recommend it in a zombie game. Dhampir might be worth a look too - they have extra base movement that comes in handy a surprising amount of times, and all day spider climb starting at 3 could be very potent as well.

[J-H]

Zombies are usually slow and dumb, but numerous. A druid offers above-average crowd control options with Entangle and most especially Spike Growth. You also have alternate movement modes for reconnaissance, and some good damage options with Sunburst, Sunbeam, etc., as well as healing abilities. Dream Druids offer a safe(r) way for the party to rest uninterrupted.

[Mastikator]

Dhampir. Play as a half-zombie.
Hunger: Flesh or raw meat
Origin: You survived being attacked by a vampire zombie but were forever changed.

Spiderclimb will probably give you a ton of mileage since zombies are probably not good climbers.

Vengence or devotion paladin would be thematically appropriate as an anti-zombie half zombie.

Background: Haunted one makes sense here too.

[follacchioso]

What about an Undying Warlock? They are usually considered a weak class, but they are better in a zombie apocalypse setting. You can walk through a horde of zombies, and they may not even be able to attack you.

Actually, coming to think about it, they are perfect as a one-level multiclass option, as you only really need their lv1 trait. What about an Oathbreaker 6/Undying Warlock 1+?.

[animorte]

So I might lean toward Undead Warlock here. You are a solid blaster, some decent control, and still have survivability. But first and foremost, just blend in! and try not to take a shotgun like Bill Murray in Zombieland

Or Mercy Monk. Hands of Healing for removing disease and of course, rule #1: Cardio… they’re fast!

Dreams Druid has Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow, excellent for getting a decent rest. This concept could be extremely valuable. Having reliable ways to stay safe while resting us awesome.

Alarm should be a good spell to keep nearby for somebody, if not several people, to have a larger area of safety and warning for incoming piles of brain-seeking-decay.

[Bobthewizard]

Almost any cleric, but light is my favorite for its sculpted, radiant fireball channel divinity. Spirit guardians will be great against swarms of zombies.

Devotion paladin as mentioned.

I also like an evocation wizard here. When things fall apart you can drop a fireball on the party and end things.

[Oramac]

Dhampir. Play as a half-zombie.
Hunger: Flesh or raw meat
Origin: You survived being attacked by a vampire zombie but were forever changed.

Spiderclimb will probably give you a ton of mileage since zombies are probably not good climbers.

Vengence or devotion paladin would be thematically appropriate as an anti-zombie half zombie.

Background: Haunted one makes sense here too.

I was going to suggest Warforged Vengeance Paladin, but I think Mastikator has an even better idea here. You still get the disease immunity from Paladin, plus all the story-appropriate Dhampir goodness.

[NecessaryWeevil]

The clearly best answers have already been given, but if you want something different, a caster focused on Int-save spells could have a good time. Lesser undead tend to be quite stupid.

[XmonkTad]

If you're still looking for ideas, Sun Soul monk has all the radiant damage at range you could ever want. Be a Centaur and stay at whatever range you want, as long as you don't have to climb anything.