[3.5]Undead Bruiser

[Thurbane]

Can anyone suggest a monster for an upcoming game?

I'm looking for an "undead bruiser"...a Large or Huge, bipedal undead. It has to have an INT score (and feats) - I want it be able to utilize feats like Knockback and Large and in Charge.

I'm looking for something anywhere from CR 8 to about CR 11.

So far, the best I can come up with is a Gravetouched Ghoul 1/2 Ogre Fighter X, but that seems a little uninspired. The Hulking Corpse from Libris Mortis would be ideal, except that it is non intelligent, and can't gain feats. AFAIK, Awaken Undead would not give it retrospective feats?

[crazedloon]

Necrocarnum Zombies (MoI)can have feats and have some cool abilities. The only problem is of course the fact that you need some fluff reason to have one around (make your own or add and incarnum user to the fight or as a big bad)

[Akal Saris]

Maybe a dread warrior from one of the Faerun books?

Awaken undead might give an unintelligent undead skills and feats or it might not, that's probably a DM's call there.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The Tainted Minion template in Heroes of Horror would work, if applied to any large- or huge-size monstrous humanoid. Good candidates would include Minotaur, Blackscale Lizardfolk from MM3, and Dragonkin from the Draconomicon. Any of those would need to have some class levels to fall within your CR range, so add Fighter with the Dungeoncrasher variant to go with Knockback. It would even get DR 10/Good and Fast Healing, making it an extremely dangerous opponent.

[Runestar]

MM3 has the boneclaw, cr5 (10 HD). You can advance it to 22HD for cr8, then maybe tack on additional templates/class lvs (such as spellstitched or swordsage) to make up for the shortfall. It has an edge over conventional undead thanks to its unholy toughness ability, which ensures it has plenty of hp to weather whatever punishment your party dishes out.

Damage and AC are a bit on the crappy part though, so you may need some choice gear to plug its weaknesses.

And best of all, it is available as a free preview if you do not own MM3.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...040905a&page=2

[SpikeFightwicky]

I second the Boneclaw! Those guys are brutal, especially if advanced, and unholy toughness gives them some beefy HP.

[AslanCross]

The Boneclaw is awesome. One of my favorite Undead monsters ever.

The Deathbringer from MM2 has Int, but unfortunately it's CR 17.

[Volkov]

Storm Giant Fallen paladin Blackguard Death knight.

[hamishspence]

Intelligent undead templates, like Dread Warrior, or Ju-ju zombie, from Unapproachable East, might work if applied to a low-CR big biped.

[AslanCross]

In that vein, Death Knight Skullcrusher Ogre Warblade.

EDIT: Oh, fail. Death Knight can only be applied to humanoids.

[Douglas]

An advanced Mohrg might work.

[AslanCross]

The Corpse Creature template from BOVD gives +4 Strength, -2 Dex, and doesn't kill the base creature's int. Intelligent zombies, essentially. You can apply it to a Bluespawn Godslayer for some crazy awesome blow abuse.

[Kaiyanwang]

Corpse Creature (BoVD) Skullcrusher Ogre (MMIII) War Hulk (MH)?

For Smart Zombies, remember Juju Zombies (UnEast), too.

Didn't see Hamishpence's post

And.. yes, Boneclaw is very good, if advanced on the Combat Reflexes tier...

[Thurbane]

Thanks for the advice. There is a couple of Boneclaws in the adventure already, so I might just advance one to 22HD for my purposes.

[Deth Muncher]

Thanks for the advice. There is a couple of Boneclaws in the adventure already, so I might just advance one to 22HD for my purposes.

Do you yell "Boneclawwws got yoooou! Threeeee minutes!" every time they show up?