(3.5) Undead as Templates (Monsters) (P.E.A.C.H.)

[DracoDei]

Basically I think that almost all undead should be templates... here is something off the cuff. Feel free to join in with conversions of OGL of stuff from this forum. Or might non-OGL stuff without the fluff be acceptable?

This was a bit complex... please tell me if I missed anything... unusually enough I am pretty confident of the CR adjustment for the medium one (the reason should be obvious if you think about it)... for everything else I just picked numbers that made a pretty pattern mathmatically. Many of the tables were inspired by the tables on the Zombie.

Mummy
((Not going to redo the Mummy Fluff))

Creating a Mummy
Mummy is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system (referred to hereafter as the base creature). They can be created via Create Undead, or perhaps (by clerics only) via more time consuming methods that require less magical expertise or have other advantages.((Someone needs to write up rules that actually give a reason to have actual mummification involved in the process sometimes... maybe they can be set to gaurd a certain area (or suffer eternally...) without counting against the HD the creator can control.))

Size and Type: Size is unchanged. Type changes to Undead.
Hit Dice: Any hit-dice of NPC classes are lost. Racial Hit-Dice and PC classes are retained, do NOT change to d12's and are NOT re-rolled. Hitpoints are adjusted for the change of the constitution modifier to +0 (unless it was already +0). In addition the creature gains a number of undead Hit-Dice as provided on the following chart. BAB and save adjustments have been included for convenience.
{table="head"]Size|Hit-Dice|BAB|Fort|Reflex|Will
Fine|1/2d12| +0| +0 | +0 | +2
Diminutive| 1d12 | +0| +0 | +0 |+2
Tiny| 2d12| +1| +0 | +0 |+3
Small| 4d12 | +2 | +1 | +1 |+4
Medium| 8d12 | +4 | +2 | +2 |+6
Large| 16d12 | +8 | +5 | +5 |+10
Huge| 32d12 | +16 | +10 | +10 |+18
Gargantuan| 64d12 | +32 | +21 | +21 |+34
Colossal| 128d12 | +64 | +42 | +42 |+66
[/table]
((I briefly considered having racial HD change to Undead, but I think this way works better...))
Speed: Reduced by all movement speeds by 1/3, rounded up. All extraordinary forms of flight lose two maneuverability classes (minimum clumsy).
AC: Natural armor bonus increases by a number based on the zombie’s size:
{table="head"]Mummy Size|Natural Armor Bonus
Fine|+2
Diminutive|+4
Tiny|+6
Small|+8
Medium|+10
Large|+12
Huge|+14
Gargantuan|+20
Colossal|+28
[/table]
Base Attack: Recalculate from scratch.
Attacks:A zombie retains all the natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature. A zombie also gains a slam attack.

Damage: Natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. A slam attack deals damage depending on the zombie’s size. (Use the base creature’s slam damage if it’s better.)
{table="head"]Mummy Size|Slam Damage (Plus Disease)
Fine|1
Diminutive|1d2
Tiny|1d3
Small|1d4
Medium|1d6
Large|1d8
Huge|1d10
Gargantuan|2d6
Colossal|3d6
[/table]
Special Attacks: A [name] retains all special attacks from the base creature (except from lost class levels), and also gains the following ones.

• Despair (Su): At the mere sight of a mummy, the viewer must succeed on a DC (14 + Mummy's Charisma modifier) Will save or be paralyzed with fear for 1d4 rounds. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by the same mummy’s despair ability for 24 hours.
• Mummy Rot (Su):
  Supernatural disease—Slam, Fortitude DC 14+Mummy's Charisma modifier, incubation period 1 minute; damage 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha.
  
  Unlike normal diseases, mummy rot continues until the victim reaches Constitution 0 (and dies) or is cured as described below.
  
  Mummy rot is a powerful curse, not a natural disease. A character attempting to cast any conjuration (healing) spell on a creature afflicted with mummy rot must succeed on a DC 20 caster level check, or the spell has no effect on the afflicted character.
  
  To eliminate mummy rot, the curse must first be broken with break enchantment or remove curse (requiring a DC 20 caster level check for either spell), after which a caster level check is no longer necessary to cast healing spells on the victim, and the mummy rot can be magically cured as any normal disease.
  
  An afflicted creature who dies of mummy rot shrivels away into sand and dust that blow away into nothing at the first wind.

Special Qualities: A Mummy retains all special qualities from the base creature(except those derived from class levels lost), and also gains the following ones:

• Vulnerability to Fire
• Damage reduction 5/-
• Resistance to Fire : Equal to told number of NON-undead hit-dice (racial+retained class levels).
• Undead Traits: including 60' Darkvision.

Saves: Recalculate from scratch.
Abilities: Modify the base creatures ability scores as follows: Str +14, Constitution changes to --, Int -4, Wis +4, Charisma +4.
((Should the STR bonus vary based on size, most templates DON'T do that... but maybe it would be better in this case if it did. +14 is a lot.))
Skills: Remove all skill bonuses from lost class levels, if any. Add (2+Int Mod) skill points for the undead hit-dices (minimum 1 per such hit-dice).
Feats: Remove any feats from lost class levels, then add feats for any undead hit-dice gained. If the mummy gains any feats in this way and does not have Alertness, then it must take that feat as one of the feats it gains. If it already had alertness, or gains at least 2 feats from its undead hit-dices, and it does not already have the Great Fortitude feat then it must take that feat as well.
Environment: Any
Organization:
No class levels: Solitary, warden squad (2-4)*, or guardian detail (6-10)**
Class Levels: Solitary or tomb guard (1 with class levels and 6-10** mummies without class levels)
Challenge Rating: Correct this for any class levels lost (thus reducing a many creatures to CR 0), then apply the modifications on the following chart.
{table="head"]Mummy Size|Challenge Rating
Fine|+2
Diminutive|+2
Tiny|+3
Small|+4
Medium|+5
Large|+7
Huge|+10
Gargantuan|+14
Colossal|+19
[/table]
((All lines except for Medium are VERY much up for debate))
GMs should think VERY carefully before using mummies against parties of without in-party access to Remove Disease.
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: by class level if any were retained, otherwise by hit-dice up to 1 hit-die less than needed to advance to the next size-class using the Hit-Dice gained table provided above.
Level Adjustment: -
*Huge or smaller only.
**Large or smaller only

[PersonMan]

This looks interesting. I wholeheartedly support this venture. I'll probably be using this for mummy-like creatures in an upcoming campaign.

[DracoDei]

This looks interesting. I wholeheartedly support this venture. I'll probably be using this for mummy-like creatures in an upcoming campaign.

Can you PLEASE give a report on how it goes? What you used (dragons are a different kettle of fish from humanoids, and there is a great deal of variety in animals), what the characters were, the tactical terrain, etc.?

[PersonMan]

Can you PLEASE give a report on how it goes? What you used (dragons are a different kettle of fish from humanoids, and there is a great deal of variety in animals), what the characters were, the tactical terrain, etc.?

I will. At this point, the players are fairly low level, so it'll be a rather tough we-must-escape battle during a coup de etat/attack by the BBEG and his nation. I'm not sure about the details yet, but I'll fill you in after the battle. I'll try to work it in for the next meet(Saturday or Sunday), but I might have to wait until next week.

[DracoDei]

Great!

Now, what would people like to see next? (I might do another one at some point... and the question might be relevant regardless of who does the next one.)
In the SRD our options are:
Allip
Bodak
Devourer
Ghoul/Ghast/Lacedon
Mohrg
Nightshade, Nightcrawler*
Nightshade, Nightwalker*
Nightshade, Nightwing*
Shadow
Spectre
Wight
Wraith

*These might be argued to have never been alive or to be sculpted from the soul, rather than reanimated from the body... certainly their forms are rather unique.

[Mulletmanalive]

Interestingly, exactly what you are doing presently has already been done within the OGL.

I only mention it because unlike Ravenloft's version, The Slayer's Guide to Undead by Mongoose Publishing actually takes things straight off of the Monster Manual entries...

In the case of Allips, Morghs and Shadows, i never really saw the logic as the fluff made out that they had no real connection to the soul or memories of their original "donor"

[DracoDei]

Interestingly, exactly what you are doing presently has already been done within the OGL.

I only mention it because unlike Ravenloft's version, The Slayer's Guide to Undead by Mongoose Publishing actually takes things straight off of the Monster Manual entries...

Well, there still might be some benefit to having it developed independently here for free use... but that does make it at least slightly less high-priority.

In the case of Allips, Morghs and Shadows, i never really saw the logic as the fluff made out that they had no real connection to the soul or memories of their original "donor"

I might grant the point for you allips and shadows. Mohrgs still have their original body approximately. If we accept your argument, that "merely" means a few things like:

• All class levels get dropped.
• The mental ability scores part reads "INT Changes to 11, Wisdom and Charisma Change to 10" or "Discard or original mental ability scores, roll 3d6 for each" (if we want to emphasize that they aren't all COMPLETELY cookie-cutter), instead of "Mental ability scores are unchanged".

A wyrmling red dragon mohrg is still going to have more attacks, natural armor, and the ability to fly. A locanthah mohrg is still going to be much more effective in an aquatic campaign than the standard (probably human-based) one.

In short, if you are saying Mongoose Publishing messed up (either in their reworking/expansion of the fluff (which I assume they did) or their crunch), I wouldn't know. If you are saying there is no reason to "templatify" Allips and Shadows (I am leaning towards "the basic body image remains, influencing the shape of the undead, and the madness of greater minds is more powerful" IE keeping at least the Allips as templates), I would have to think about it. Mohrg's OTOH I think I have demonstrated it is irrelevant for as far as determining IF a template is needed (but not what that template should look like).

[hamishspence]

Savage Species and Dragon Compendium both did quite a few of these. Though they weren't as wide as I'd like (many tended to be limited to humanoids, but not all).

Templates in Savage Species:

Mummified creature
Spectral creature
Umbral (shadow) creature
Wraith creature
Wight creature

Templates in Dragon Compendium:

Ghoulish creature
Ghastly creature
Bodak

These are the ones I can recall offhand- there may be more.

[Mulletmanalive]

The logic really was that "Allips don't resemble their donor in the first place," so there didn't seem to be any point in differentiating them. The description was that they were basically amorphous things. I'll admit that the more powerful minds thing is perfectly valid, though. Perhaps basing the template off the stats of the monster rather than the monster itself, like the way that Living Spells work?

Again, you're right on Mohrgs.

The difference between a dragon shadow and a Gargantuan Advanced Shadow is pretty moot, so i'm not sure if that's really worth the effort, unless you want to have them keep their previous traits?

Certainly a worthwhile use of time would be creating a template that allows one to turn a given creature into a Night-insert verb here-ers. They seemed to be more elemental than undead but they were definately an interesting addition to the cosmology...one that was never built upon.