Callos_DeTerran
2008-07-07, 10:02 PM
An icon to almost any horror fan is the flesh-eating zombie. Shambling animated corpses that know naught but the desire to feast on the flesh of living creatures to have a taste of the sweet life that eludes them so. Often times I wonder why this terrifying creature is so misrepresented in the media and in D&D both mechanically and merely from the viewpoint that you see it by. More importantly it is never quite explained where the zombies come from or if it does then the answer doesn't seem quite right. So, as many others have probably done, here is my representation of the plodding terror that are zombies as they will be represented in an upcoming game of mine that may or may not happen.
"Homo Mortuus" aka Mindless Zombie
http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs6/i/2005/062/1/8/Zombie_by_faust666.jpg
Creating A Mindless Zombie
"Mindless Zombie" is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal humanoid (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. It retains any subtypes except subtypes that indicate kind. It does not gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Hit Dice: Drop any Hit Dice from class levels (to a minimum of 1), double the number of Hit Dice left, and raise them to d12s. Mindless zombies gain an additional 10 hit points in addition to those gained from the Toughness feat.
Armor Class: Natural armor bonus increases by +2.
Base Attack: A mindless zombie has a base attack bonus equal to ½ its Hit Dice.
Attacks: A mindless zombie retains all the natural weapons of the base creature. A zombie also gains a slam attack (1d4 Small. 1d6 Medium, 1d8 Large)
Damage: Natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. A slam attack deals damage depending on the mindless zombie’s size. (Use the base creature’s slam damage if it’s better.)
Special Attacks: A mindless zombie retains none of the base creature’s special attacks. A mindless zombie gains the following special attack.
Bite (Ex) When a mindless zombie has an enemy in a grapple it may to choice to bite instead of using it's slam attack. A bite does damage equal to the mindless zombie's slam attack with quadruple strength modifier bonus and exposes the target to zombie rot.
Zombie Rot: Disease; Incubation period: 1 minute; Damage: 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha; this damage may not be healed (magically or naturally) until the disease itself is cured by a lesser restoration spell or an effect of similar power. A victim of zombie rot who dies will rise as a mindless zombie after 1d10 minutes have passed.
Special Qualities: A mindless zombie loses most special qualities of the base creature. It retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks. A mindless zombie gains the following special qualities.
Putrescent (Ex) A zombie is a foul and rotting carcass brought to a sick semblance of life. It is impossible to disguise them as anything else, and they are easy to track or locate due to their stupidity and clumsiness. Any attempt to use the Track feat against zombies gains a +10 circumstance bonus. Everyone within 5’ needs to make a Fortitude save (DC10) or become sickened.
Need to Feed (Ex) All mindless zombies require sustenance to maintain their unlife and the longer they go between meals the more of an impact their hunger will have. Conversely the more well fed a mindless zombie is the more dangerous it will be.
Each Day without feeding: -1 penalty to 'Link' score
Eating things with a 'weak' life force (plants, animals, frozen meat, etc): -1 penalty to 'Link' score every two days. This is in place of the previous penalty for not feasting at all.
Eats Daily (One human-sized meal): No penalty but only enough life force is received to maintain a mindless zombie's unlife.
Gorges (More then one human-sized meal): +1 bonus to 'Link' score for every human-sized meal after the first
Feast! (Every 'vibrant' human-sized meals (children, athletes, etc. Up to the GM): Cumulative +2 bonus to 'Link' score.
Fragile Link (Ex) Mindless zombies only have a tenacious link to unlife that can be ruptured by destroying the head. This is achieved by a critical hit or a called shot head (which gives the zombie a +6 modifier to AC instead of the normal +13). On a successful critical hit or called shot (head) the mindless zombie will be destroyed and fall to the ground.
Single Actions Only (Ex) Mindless zombies have poor reflexes and can perform only a single move action or attack action each round. A mindless zombie can move up to its speed and attack in the same round, but only if it attempts a charge.
Saves: Base save bonuses are Fort +1/3 HD, Ref +1/3 HD, and Will +½ HD + 2.
Abilities: A mindless zombie’s Strength increases by +2, its Dexterity decreases by 2, it has no Constitution or Intelligence score, its Wisdom changes to 10, and its Charisma changes to 1.
Skills: A mindless zombie has no skills.
Feats: A mindless zombie loses all feats of the base creature and gains Toughness.
Environment: Any land and underground.
Organization: Varies depending on surrounding population
Challenge Rating 1/2 HD+1
Treasure:
Alignment: Always neutral evil.
Advancement: —
Mindless zombies are those poor souls caught between death and life but having the unfortunate turn of fate to not even be aware of their condition. All that worries at a mindless zombie's mind is the ever present and ever ravenous hunger that yearns for the life of all things around them to cool the burning desire for a time. They are always seeking new meat to devour and in the process create more of themselves in an epidemic that can quickly destroy small or large population centers if left unchecked.
The main threat of mindless zombies is how they unknowingly lure enemies to over-exposing themselves to assault. Many commanders make the intial assumption that mindless zombies will in fact recognize damage to themselves and retreat if too heavily damaged, or if they are in a group and take enough casualties, only to swamped by a mob of mindless zombies crawling over the dead to get at the living. Relentless and untiring chase are also common causes of death among those fighting mindless zombies who find themselves in a no-win situation and forced to try and flee.
However it is the bite that is most fearsome of a mindless zombie's ability as it almost invariably spells doom for the one bitten. A mindless zombie's mouth is a virulent cocktail of dangerous bacteria, disease, and hostile pathogens that would kill a living creature and when thrown together like they are it becomes a condition dubbed 'zombie rot'. Only the most advanced of technological medical centers have the capability to remove the affliction (fantasy settings obviously have an easier time of it) but the danger lays that even if the one bitten can stave off the deadly effects of the disease, once they die they are doomed to rise as one of the mindless zombies themselves unless the body is properly disposed off and right away.
"Homo Supernus Mortus" aka Thinker zombies
Creating A Thinking Zombie
"Thinking Zombie" is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal humanoid (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. It retains any subtypes except subtypes that indicate kind. It does gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Hit Dice: Change the HD from class levels to d12’s, add 10 hit points in addition to ones from Improved Toughness, and recalculate the number of hit points accordingly.
Armor Class: Natural armor bonus increases by +2.
Base Attack: A thinking zombie has a base attack bonus equal to what it's classes says it should.
Attacks: A thinking zombie retains all the natural weapons of the base creature. A zombie also gains a slam attack (1d4 Small. 1d6 Medium, 1d8 Large)
Damage: Natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. A slam attack deals damage depending on the thinking zombie’s size. (Use the base creature’s slam damage if it’s better.)
Special Attacks: A thinking zombie retains none of the base creature’s special attacks. A mindless zombie gains the following special attack.
Bite (Ex) When a thinking zombie has an enemy in a grapple it may to choice to bite instead of using it's slam attack. A bite does damage equal to the mindless zombie's slam attack with quadruple strength modifier bonus and exposes the target to zombie rot (Disease; Incubation period: 1 minute; Damage: 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha; this damage may not be healed (magically or naturally) until the disease itself is cured by a lesser restoration or an effect of similar power).
Special Qualities: A thinking zombie loses most special qualities of the base creature. It retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks. A thinking zombie gains the following special qualities.
Call the Fallen (Su) The connection of a thinking zombie to 'the White Tree' is greater then that of a mindless zombie and a thinking zombie has one other important facet that a mindless zombie lacks. Willpower. It's with this willpower that a thinking zombie can impose it's will over that of other zombies and command them. A thinking zombie can command 1/level and only zombies that have a Link bonus of +0 or below, lacking the force of will to exert themselves over a well-fed zombie. Only simple commands can be given to a mindless zombie since it lacks the capacity for creative thinking and doesn't remember it's previous life. Mindless zombies will even stop feeding or simply die if commanded. Commanding mindless zombies is a standard action for the thinking zombie but it may issue commands to any mindless zombies under it's thrall during that standard action. Establishing this command is a full-round action per mindless zombie but the duration is indefinite or until the mindless zombie is released.
Fragile Link (Ex) Thinking zombies only have a tenacious link to unlife that can be ruptured by destroying the head. This is achieved by a critical hit or a called shot (head) (which gives the zombie a +13 modifier to AC). On a successful critical hit or called shot (head) the thinking zombie must make a massive damage save (25 for a critical hit, 30 for a called shot, and 40 for a confirmed critical called shot) or be immediately destroyed. Unlike mindless zombies most thinking zombies realize that their heads are their weak point and will take measures to protect themselves or be on the look out for someone trying to destroy their head. This is represented by the normal bonus to AC against a called shot (head).
Need to Feed (Ex) Thinking zombies require sustenance to maintain their unlife and the longer they go between meals the more of an impact their hunger will have, just like their mindless ‘cousins’. Conversely the more well fed a thinking zombie is the more dangerous it will be. However the amount of feeding required to keep the brain active and working properly as well as the body requires more food. At the same time thinking zombies live with the ever present threat that if they do not feed as often as they should that they may degenerate into a mindless zombie.
Each Day without feeding: -2 penalty to 'Link' score
Eating things with a 'weak' life force (plants, animals, frozen meat, etc): -2 penalty to 'Link' score every two days. This is in place of the previous penalty for not feasting at all.
Eats Daily (One human-sized meal): No penalty but only enough life force is received to maintain a mindless zombie's unlife.
Gorges (More then one human-sized meal): +1 bonus to 'Link' score for every human-sized meal after the first
Feast! (Every 'vibrant' human-sized meals (children, athletes, etc. Up to the GM): Cumulative +2 bonus to 'Link' score.
Rotten Sacrifice (Su): When a thinking zombie is forced to make a massive damage save from a head shot or critical hit it can make a special check (This check is a 1d20+Link bonus) to steal the unlife from nearby mindless zombies. The thinking zombie must be aware of the mindless zombies and (if his/her check succeeded) gains a +1 bonus to the massive damage save for each mindless zombie sacrificed. Each sacrificed zombie immediately falls dead to the ground and cannot be animated again. Upon success the thinking zombie survives the critical hit or called shot but must spend 1d6 hours repairing or attempting to mend the damage before being able to take any other actions.
Saves: Base save bonuses are as the thinker zombie's classes dictate.
Abilities: A mindless zombie’s Strength increases by +2, its Dexterity decreases by 2, it has no Constitution, it’s Intelligence decreases by 1, its Wisdom remains unchanged, and its Charisma decreases by 1.
Skills: A thinking zombie gains skill points and class skills as their class says they do..
Feats: A thinking zombie gains the Improved Toughness feat.
Environment: Any land and underground.
Organization Solitary or small group (2-6)
Challenge Rating: HD+3
Treasure
Alignment: Always evil.
Advancement: By class
Thinking zombies are the fear of many survivors of a zombie apocalypse since they represent such a deadly change from the norm they had grown accustomed too. Somehow, usually through different methods, a person on the verge of death knowingly or not discovered a way to keep their brain oxygenated during that crucial period between death and undeath, preventing the brain's death and allowing the victim to retain most of themselves after turning.
A thinking zombie is a threat in that those first changed or those first meeting survivors after changing will often fool themselves into thinking that they can contain their need to feed and try to return to their human lives. As one might imagine sometimes a sympathetic survivor will try and assist in this endeavor and try to help the thinking zombie 'return' to a civilized 'alive' life which generally has disastrous consequences when the thinking zombie finally gives into it's need to feed and goes on a feeding frenzy. Since thinking zombies also carry zombie's rot this can quickly become a grave emergency after which, if a thinking zombie has survived this frenzy, the zombie in question usually embraces it's unlife.
The other dangers of thinking zombies is that some will coordinate small squads of mindless zombies to help them find food, using them as diversions or to flank and hold unto survivors making a squad of mindless zombies under a thinking one very dangerous indeed. Additionally, based on what ever stat is the highest for the thinking zombie, they gain additional supernatural abilities as described under "The White Tree".
"The Link" aka 'Why the dead guys get up and bite'
Coming soon!
"The White Tree" aka 'Holy sh*t, did you see what it just did?!'
Coming soon!
"Homo Mortuus" aka Mindless Zombie
http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs6/i/2005/062/1/8/Zombie_by_faust666.jpg
Creating A Mindless Zombie
"Mindless Zombie" is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal humanoid (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. It retains any subtypes except subtypes that indicate kind. It does not gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Hit Dice: Drop any Hit Dice from class levels (to a minimum of 1), double the number of Hit Dice left, and raise them to d12s. Mindless zombies gain an additional 10 hit points in addition to those gained from the Toughness feat.
Armor Class: Natural armor bonus increases by +2.
Base Attack: A mindless zombie has a base attack bonus equal to ½ its Hit Dice.
Attacks: A mindless zombie retains all the natural weapons of the base creature. A zombie also gains a slam attack (1d4 Small. 1d6 Medium, 1d8 Large)
Damage: Natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. A slam attack deals damage depending on the mindless zombie’s size. (Use the base creature’s slam damage if it’s better.)
Special Attacks: A mindless zombie retains none of the base creature’s special attacks. A mindless zombie gains the following special attack.
Bite (Ex) When a mindless zombie has an enemy in a grapple it may to choice to bite instead of using it's slam attack. A bite does damage equal to the mindless zombie's slam attack with quadruple strength modifier bonus and exposes the target to zombie rot.
Zombie Rot: Disease; Incubation period: 1 minute; Damage: 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha; this damage may not be healed (magically or naturally) until the disease itself is cured by a lesser restoration spell or an effect of similar power. A victim of zombie rot who dies will rise as a mindless zombie after 1d10 minutes have passed.
Special Qualities: A mindless zombie loses most special qualities of the base creature. It retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks. A mindless zombie gains the following special qualities.
Putrescent (Ex) A zombie is a foul and rotting carcass brought to a sick semblance of life. It is impossible to disguise them as anything else, and they are easy to track or locate due to their stupidity and clumsiness. Any attempt to use the Track feat against zombies gains a +10 circumstance bonus. Everyone within 5’ needs to make a Fortitude save (DC10) or become sickened.
Need to Feed (Ex) All mindless zombies require sustenance to maintain their unlife and the longer they go between meals the more of an impact their hunger will have. Conversely the more well fed a mindless zombie is the more dangerous it will be.
Each Day without feeding: -1 penalty to 'Link' score
Eating things with a 'weak' life force (plants, animals, frozen meat, etc): -1 penalty to 'Link' score every two days. This is in place of the previous penalty for not feasting at all.
Eats Daily (One human-sized meal): No penalty but only enough life force is received to maintain a mindless zombie's unlife.
Gorges (More then one human-sized meal): +1 bonus to 'Link' score for every human-sized meal after the first
Feast! (Every 'vibrant' human-sized meals (children, athletes, etc. Up to the GM): Cumulative +2 bonus to 'Link' score.
Fragile Link (Ex) Mindless zombies only have a tenacious link to unlife that can be ruptured by destroying the head. This is achieved by a critical hit or a called shot head (which gives the zombie a +6 modifier to AC instead of the normal +13). On a successful critical hit or called shot (head) the mindless zombie will be destroyed and fall to the ground.
Single Actions Only (Ex) Mindless zombies have poor reflexes and can perform only a single move action or attack action each round. A mindless zombie can move up to its speed and attack in the same round, but only if it attempts a charge.
Saves: Base save bonuses are Fort +1/3 HD, Ref +1/3 HD, and Will +½ HD + 2.
Abilities: A mindless zombie’s Strength increases by +2, its Dexterity decreases by 2, it has no Constitution or Intelligence score, its Wisdom changes to 10, and its Charisma changes to 1.
Skills: A mindless zombie has no skills.
Feats: A mindless zombie loses all feats of the base creature and gains Toughness.
Environment: Any land and underground.
Organization: Varies depending on surrounding population
Challenge Rating 1/2 HD+1
Treasure:
Alignment: Always neutral evil.
Advancement: —
Mindless zombies are those poor souls caught between death and life but having the unfortunate turn of fate to not even be aware of their condition. All that worries at a mindless zombie's mind is the ever present and ever ravenous hunger that yearns for the life of all things around them to cool the burning desire for a time. They are always seeking new meat to devour and in the process create more of themselves in an epidemic that can quickly destroy small or large population centers if left unchecked.
The main threat of mindless zombies is how they unknowingly lure enemies to over-exposing themselves to assault. Many commanders make the intial assumption that mindless zombies will in fact recognize damage to themselves and retreat if too heavily damaged, or if they are in a group and take enough casualties, only to swamped by a mob of mindless zombies crawling over the dead to get at the living. Relentless and untiring chase are also common causes of death among those fighting mindless zombies who find themselves in a no-win situation and forced to try and flee.
However it is the bite that is most fearsome of a mindless zombie's ability as it almost invariably spells doom for the one bitten. A mindless zombie's mouth is a virulent cocktail of dangerous bacteria, disease, and hostile pathogens that would kill a living creature and when thrown together like they are it becomes a condition dubbed 'zombie rot'. Only the most advanced of technological medical centers have the capability to remove the affliction (fantasy settings obviously have an easier time of it) but the danger lays that even if the one bitten can stave off the deadly effects of the disease, once they die they are doomed to rise as one of the mindless zombies themselves unless the body is properly disposed off and right away.
"Homo Supernus Mortus" aka Thinker zombies
Creating A Thinking Zombie
"Thinking Zombie" is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal humanoid (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. It retains any subtypes except subtypes that indicate kind. It does gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Hit Dice: Change the HD from class levels to d12’s, add 10 hit points in addition to ones from Improved Toughness, and recalculate the number of hit points accordingly.
Armor Class: Natural armor bonus increases by +2.
Base Attack: A thinking zombie has a base attack bonus equal to what it's classes says it should.
Attacks: A thinking zombie retains all the natural weapons of the base creature. A zombie also gains a slam attack (1d4 Small. 1d6 Medium, 1d8 Large)
Damage: Natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. A slam attack deals damage depending on the thinking zombie’s size. (Use the base creature’s slam damage if it’s better.)
Special Attacks: A thinking zombie retains none of the base creature’s special attacks. A mindless zombie gains the following special attack.
Bite (Ex) When a thinking zombie has an enemy in a grapple it may to choice to bite instead of using it's slam attack. A bite does damage equal to the mindless zombie's slam attack with quadruple strength modifier bonus and exposes the target to zombie rot (Disease; Incubation period: 1 minute; Damage: 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha; this damage may not be healed (magically or naturally) until the disease itself is cured by a lesser restoration or an effect of similar power).
Special Qualities: A thinking zombie loses most special qualities of the base creature. It retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks. A thinking zombie gains the following special qualities.
Call the Fallen (Su) The connection of a thinking zombie to 'the White Tree' is greater then that of a mindless zombie and a thinking zombie has one other important facet that a mindless zombie lacks. Willpower. It's with this willpower that a thinking zombie can impose it's will over that of other zombies and command them. A thinking zombie can command 1/level and only zombies that have a Link bonus of +0 or below, lacking the force of will to exert themselves over a well-fed zombie. Only simple commands can be given to a mindless zombie since it lacks the capacity for creative thinking and doesn't remember it's previous life. Mindless zombies will even stop feeding or simply die if commanded. Commanding mindless zombies is a standard action for the thinking zombie but it may issue commands to any mindless zombies under it's thrall during that standard action. Establishing this command is a full-round action per mindless zombie but the duration is indefinite or until the mindless zombie is released.
Fragile Link (Ex) Thinking zombies only have a tenacious link to unlife that can be ruptured by destroying the head. This is achieved by a critical hit or a called shot (head) (which gives the zombie a +13 modifier to AC). On a successful critical hit or called shot (head) the thinking zombie must make a massive damage save (25 for a critical hit, 30 for a called shot, and 40 for a confirmed critical called shot) or be immediately destroyed. Unlike mindless zombies most thinking zombies realize that their heads are their weak point and will take measures to protect themselves or be on the look out for someone trying to destroy their head. This is represented by the normal bonus to AC against a called shot (head).
Need to Feed (Ex) Thinking zombies require sustenance to maintain their unlife and the longer they go between meals the more of an impact their hunger will have, just like their mindless ‘cousins’. Conversely the more well fed a thinking zombie is the more dangerous it will be. However the amount of feeding required to keep the brain active and working properly as well as the body requires more food. At the same time thinking zombies live with the ever present threat that if they do not feed as often as they should that they may degenerate into a mindless zombie.
Each Day without feeding: -2 penalty to 'Link' score
Eating things with a 'weak' life force (plants, animals, frozen meat, etc): -2 penalty to 'Link' score every two days. This is in place of the previous penalty for not feasting at all.
Eats Daily (One human-sized meal): No penalty but only enough life force is received to maintain a mindless zombie's unlife.
Gorges (More then one human-sized meal): +1 bonus to 'Link' score for every human-sized meal after the first
Feast! (Every 'vibrant' human-sized meals (children, athletes, etc. Up to the GM): Cumulative +2 bonus to 'Link' score.
Rotten Sacrifice (Su): When a thinking zombie is forced to make a massive damage save from a head shot or critical hit it can make a special check (This check is a 1d20+Link bonus) to steal the unlife from nearby mindless zombies. The thinking zombie must be aware of the mindless zombies and (if his/her check succeeded) gains a +1 bonus to the massive damage save for each mindless zombie sacrificed. Each sacrificed zombie immediately falls dead to the ground and cannot be animated again. Upon success the thinking zombie survives the critical hit or called shot but must spend 1d6 hours repairing or attempting to mend the damage before being able to take any other actions.
Saves: Base save bonuses are as the thinker zombie's classes dictate.
Abilities: A mindless zombie’s Strength increases by +2, its Dexterity decreases by 2, it has no Constitution, it’s Intelligence decreases by 1, its Wisdom remains unchanged, and its Charisma decreases by 1.
Skills: A thinking zombie gains skill points and class skills as their class says they do..
Feats: A thinking zombie gains the Improved Toughness feat.
Environment: Any land and underground.
Organization Solitary or small group (2-6)
Challenge Rating: HD+3
Treasure
Alignment: Always evil.
Advancement: By class
Thinking zombies are the fear of many survivors of a zombie apocalypse since they represent such a deadly change from the norm they had grown accustomed too. Somehow, usually through different methods, a person on the verge of death knowingly or not discovered a way to keep their brain oxygenated during that crucial period between death and undeath, preventing the brain's death and allowing the victim to retain most of themselves after turning.
A thinking zombie is a threat in that those first changed or those first meeting survivors after changing will often fool themselves into thinking that they can contain their need to feed and try to return to their human lives. As one might imagine sometimes a sympathetic survivor will try and assist in this endeavor and try to help the thinking zombie 'return' to a civilized 'alive' life which generally has disastrous consequences when the thinking zombie finally gives into it's need to feed and goes on a feeding frenzy. Since thinking zombies also carry zombie's rot this can quickly become a grave emergency after which, if a thinking zombie has survived this frenzy, the zombie in question usually embraces it's unlife.
The other dangers of thinking zombies is that some will coordinate small squads of mindless zombies to help them find food, using them as diversions or to flank and hold unto survivors making a squad of mindless zombies under a thinking one very dangerous indeed. Additionally, based on what ever stat is the highest for the thinking zombie, they gain additional supernatural abilities as described under "The White Tree".
"The Link" aka 'Why the dead guys get up and bite'
Coming soon!
"The White Tree" aka 'Holy sh*t, did you see what it just did?!'
Coming soon!