Zombie Corpse Conditions

So the PCs stumble on a crypt full of zombies. But zombies rot. How intact are these zombies? Roll 2d6.

Roll	Result	Result Details
2	Nearly Skeletal	Patches of flesh cling to to their bones
3-5	Badly Rotted	Most of one side is skeletal
6-8	Somewhat Rotted	One arm or half the face is missing flesh
9-11	Slightly Rotted	Bone shows through in spots
12	Fresh Corpse	Pallid, but still appears human

Slightly rotted corpses are standard zombies.

Appearance affects two things: surprise and fear. A zombie in relatively good condition can walk the streets of a town, tricking victims into believing they are just ordinary citizens until it’s too late, allowing them to get closer before attacking. Halve the encounter distance in these conditions for the listed zombie varieties.

Conditions	Allows Surprise by…
No Light	Any zombie variety
Dim Light Silhouette	Badly Rotted
Shadows or Fog	Somewhat Rotted
Dim Light	Slightly Rotted
Cloudy Day	Fresh Corpse

A Fresh Corpse zombie also doubles its chance of surprise in any dim light or fog situation (except for No Light, where all chances are standard.)

Hirelings will generally only check morale after a fight has begun, but they will automatically flee if surprised by any zombie, or even when not surprised if they can see a Badly or Somewhat Rotted zombie clearly (dim light or better.) They will also immediately flee a Nearly Skeletal zombie if there is any light at all.

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(WIP) Icons

Posted without other comment...

(WIP) Undead Progression Road Map: Alternate

Here's the alternate chart idea I'm trying out. You can see here that mummified dead can become revenants or vampire mummies, but not vice-versa, or that rotting undead become skeletal, but not the other way around.


So, which do people prefer?

(WIP) Undead Progression Road Map

Working on a "road map" for how the undead progress or transform into each other. Names are not final, and I may make some adjustments and improvements. For example, I guess I could add arrows to show direction (transformations are one-way.)

Unbinding the Undead

An excerpt (rough draft) from the first chapter of Our Undying Neighbors. May have to rewrite and tweak a bit.

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Animated corpses and skeletons created by spells are a special case. They are not true undead – souls trapped between the land of the living and the realm of the dead. They are mindless automatons. However, occasionally a spell fails because of a curse on the corpse/skeleton, the location of the casting, or on the necromancer doing the casting. In any of those conditions, the GM secretly rolls 1d6$:$ on a 5+, the creation becomes accidentally undead.

Accidental undead act mindless when first created and are bound by the first set of orders given. They will obey these orders until either:

• Someone attempts to change these orders, or
• They encounter something from their past life, such as a long-lost love.

When either condition occurs, accidental undead will disobey their master if their current hit points are greater than the master’s Level + 2d6. Don’t add the master’s level if the master dies. Use the current master’s level, not necessarily the original master’s level.

The creation is still technically bound to obey; this is just a lapse in obedience. The master can command the undead again, triggering a second roll, but two successful challenges in a row, or any successful challenge after the master’s death, means the undead breaks free permanently.

Animated dead, whether mindless or accidentally undead, count as followers. Exceeding any limit on the number of followers has no effect on mindless animated dead, which will continue to execute the last order given. Accidental undead, on the other hand, will automatically break free when the master tries to acquire another follower beyond the limit.

While their master is still around to command them, accidental undead do not grow in strength. After their master dies, however, they can grow in power, which means that eventually they will break their bonds.

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Proof of ... Something

Yes, I'm doing... something. No, I haven't done much. But at least I'm thinking about it, for the first time in a long while.

Uncertain Undead

On G+, I posted some work-in-progress icons for both a revision of Our Infernal Neighbors and the upcoming Ranks of the Undead. What you see here is the icon for the mummy chapter, a good segue into what I'm doing with the project.

See, when I got to the mummy chapter, I realized I'd put in more detail, compared to the other chapters. When I did the zombie-vampire and skeleton-lich tracks, I took the existing OD&D monsters as data points and filled in the "missing levels". I added a few interpretive twists, but not much. But when I did the mummy track, there was only one OD&D monster to work with, so I went to the movies instead. I made Kharis my low-level datapoint and Imhotep my high-level datapoint. That added a lot more backstory, a lot more flavor... but it makes the other undead tracks seem kind of unoriginal by comparison.

I need to insert more flavor. For the rotting undead, I made a passing reference to a bargain with "darkness" as their method of survival. I need to emphasize that more. I already mentioned plans to randomize the method of slaying a vampire permanently, and just finished writing that table. Lots of entries based on different vampire legends from different regions. The implication of the random method of permanent death is that it comes from the vampire's bargain with darkness. I'm also adding a Bargain with Darkness table for the lower pre-vampire levels. The undead gets a special power in exchange for a price, which at the moment are additional vulnerabilities similar to the vulnerability to garlic and mirrors. So, an Unhallowed might get the power to change into a rat, but can be turned by a ring of salt, exactly as a vampire is driven away by a cross. I even added "Counting Obsession" to the Price Paid table; scattering poppy seeds on the ground forces the undead with a counting obsession to gather and count them all, instead of attacking or chasing the victim, but it otherwise works using the Turn Undead roll.

For skeletal undead, I'd made a few references to their obsession with magical research, which seemed natural as something a proto-lich would do. I need to emphasize that more, possibly with a random table or two. My rewritten lich doesn't have the periapt of other versions, but I'm thinking of making that into an optional random feature (get one extra power through an arcane gem or amulet, but destroying it removes that power and possibly affects the skeletal undead itself.) I'm also toying with the idea of a random magical obsession table.

I haven't quite decided what to do to improve the spectral undead. One idea may have to do with random vengeances. Or I might find inspiration in interpreting them as an analog to another class. In a sense, vampires are the undead equivalent to fighters, and liches are magic-users. I rewrote mummies to be a little like clerics. So spectres and ghosts would be thieves, specializing in sneaking and surprise attacks. I'll have to think about that some  more.

The Mummified Dead

The mummy kind of stands out among the ranks of the undead. A mummy is definitely corporeal, but it is unique in that the body has been prepared in a specific way. In the horror movies where the mummy originated, mummies are specifically created, a sort of advanced Animate Dead that traps some (The Mummy's Tomb, 1940) or all (The Mummy, 1932) of the spirit or soul in the corpse. The process is part of the embalming procedure and inflicted as a punishment, for Kharis, but it is the effect of a curse laid by the mummy himself, for Imhotep. The Monsters & Treasure write-up is closer to Kharis than Imhotep.

Because of this, I'd rather have mummies separate from other corporeal undead. Unlike M&T, I'm going to use both Kharis and Imhotep as my guidelines (and maybe a little Mumm-Ra.) Kharis himself changes in the movies, starting first as an automaton that must obey the will of the priests of the Egyptian gods, but then "waking up" when he sees the reincarnation of his true love. That suggests at least three different level of mummy, with Imhotep at the top. My overall concept is that mummies are as frightening in appearance as skeletons, become immune to mundane weapons sooner, but have a weakness to fire and are slower to increase in other powers. The central feature of mummified undead is their bandages becoming drier, more flammable, and more infected as they age.

Interesting names were in kind of short supply, so I re-used one AD&D name, the revenant, although I didn't re-use the stats or concept.

Vulnerability to Sunlight

Starts at the 1 HD (Bound Corpse) level as a morale effect (-1 on all attack rolls, Move reduced to 3; GM-controlled undead flee if morale breaks.)

Reduced at the 10 HD + level.

Vulnerability to Fire

No guaranteed extra damage to start, but bandages catch fire if damage roll is 5+ (1 point of damage per round after being struck, for the rest of the combat.)

Continues to be vulnerable to mundane fire throughout progression

At the 7 HD level, takes double damage from fire, plus can still catch fire

Fearful Appearance

Starts at the 1 HD level as a morale check for NPCs (flee in panic if morale breaks)

At 4 HD, causes fear in PCs of 4 HD or less who fail a save (-1 on all attack rolls, Move reduced to 3 unless fleeing.)

At 7 HD, causes panic in PCs of 4 HD or less who fail a save (player's choice: flee or be paralyzed.)

Immunity to Mundane Weapons

Starts at the 2 HD (Niche Lurker) level as an immunity to normal missiles; both magical and silver arrows will still do standard damage, as will ordinary melee weapons.

At 4 HD, only magic weapons are effective

At 5 HD, magic weapons do half damage

Mummy Rot

Starts at the 3 HD level as a cloud of dust when it strikes for 5+ damage (save vs. poison or stunned 1d6 rounds by choking.)

At 5 HD, wounds caused by mummies take ten times longer to heal

Mummified Undead Progression Track

HD		Undead Rank		Cumulative Features
1		Bound Corpse		fears the sun (-1 attack, Move 3), catches fire easily, frightens NPCs
2		Niche Lurker		immune to normal missiles
3		Moldering Lurker		choking rot
4		Tomb Stalker		cause fear, immune to mundane/silver weapons
5-6		Mummy		rotting disease, half damage from magic weapons
7-9		Mummy Lord		cause panic, embalm victims, double damage from fire
10+		Revenant		vulnerable to fire/sun only when bandaged, regenerates

Mummy Names

While I finish up the spectral undead, I'm also working on mummies. Originally, I figured a mummy would just be a specific variant of the corporeal undead, but then I had a few ideas about what could make them distinct as an entire "class" of undead, with a progression of powers and behaviors uniquely their own.

The problem, though, is that there's only one mummy-like undead listed in OD&D. So I have to come up with a bunch of names for greater and lesser varieties of mummies. That may delay me a bit.

If anyone knows of some legendary mummy-like creatures, that might help. Please, no unique fictional creations.

Phantasm to Ghost Undead Ranks

The third group of ranks of the undead is the incorporeal or spectral undead, meaning those undead that have lost their physical forms and exist as ethereal spirits. Wraiths, spectres and ghosts are the best known of these.

The dead and other spirits (like Angry Spirits) are related to the incorporeal undead but there's a distinction: true spirits tend to be invisible and completely non-material, while spectres and their kin are often quite visible and retain a pseudo-materiality, especially in their weaker forms, shedding their materiality as they grow more powerful. I imagine them to be sort of thick masses, something like a cross between a mass of fog and a clump of spider webs floating through the air in a humanoid shape (the technical name for this being "ectoplasm".) This is the result of their being drained by other undead; a wraith or spectre's attack should drain substance as well as life. causing victims to feel a little weightless as they approach death.

Because they are partially substantial in their weaker stages, they are still vulnerable to physical attacks, but they become invulnerable a little quicker than the corporeal and skeletal ranks of the undead. All are nearly silent (+1 to surprise.)

I've changed the ghost a bit to fit the spectral progression and to eliminate some AD&D-isms, so I'll probably doing a separate post on them. The new low ranks (phantasm, shade, phantom) all have names that have been used before, but for quite different monsters.

Vulnerability to Sunlight

Starts at the 1 HD (Phantasm) level as a morale effect (-1 on all attack rolls, Move reduced to 3; GM-controlled undead flee if morale breaks.)

Ghosts (10 HD) can't materialize to attack in daylight

Fearful Grip/Gaze

Starts at the 1 HD (Phantasm) level as a slowing touch (Move is halved, strike last every round; Elves and Heroes are immune, and they can break the grip of fear by shaking or slapping a victim.)

At 2 HD, creatures of less than 4 dice are paralyzed when touched.

At 10 HD +, their gaze causes minor aging.

Immunity to Mundane Weapons

Starts at the 1 HD (Phantasm) level as an immunity to normal missiles; both magical and silver arrows will still do standard damage, as will ordinary melee weapons.

At 4 HD, silver arrows do half damage

At 5 HD, can only be struck by magical weapons

At 10 HD +, can only be struck by magic weapons when they have materialized; otherwise, they can only be attacked by ethereal opponents.

Level Drain

Starts at the 3 HD (Phantom) level as 1 level drained per hit.

At 5 HD +, drains 2 levels per hit.

At 7 HD +, touch has additional effect (see variant Angry Spirits for possible attacks)

At 10 HD +, level drain is replaced with aging.

Corporeal Undead Progression Track

HD		Undead Rank		Cumulative Features
1		Phantasm		fears the sun (-1 attack, Move 3), touch slows victims, gust of wind slows and does 1 point damage, no damage from normal missles (unless silver)
2		Shade		paralyze victims with fear (elves or heroes counteract)
3		Phantom		drain 1 level/hit
4		Wraith		half damage from silver arrows, no damage from gusts of wind
5-6		Spectre		drain 2 levels/hit, hit only by magic weapons
7-9		Spectral Lord		attack has additional special effect
10+		Ghost		aging gaze/touch, can't be physically attacked unless materialized

Zombie to Vampire Undead Ranks

The first group of ranks of the undead I'm going to tackle is the corporeal undead, which runs from Zombie to Vampire Lord.

Sort of. Animated zombies are mindless automatons, Neutral in alignment. Ghouls, etc., are Chaotic, so these must be Chaos Zombies, with some kind of intellect lurking in their unnaturally mobile flesh. They have the same features as animated undead, but they can think, which makes them dangerous. They are created by wights or other level-draining corporeal undead, or possibly also by a failed Animate Dead spell, as in Clark Ashton Smith's "The Dead Will Cuckold You".

Zombies look like rotting corpses, with hunks of flesh missing, but their flesh slowly repairs as they grow stronger. Ghouls are covered with tainted green flesh and a few spots of mold, but aren't missing any chunks of flesh; wights are pallid and unhealthy-looking. After the 4 HD level, corporeal undead look like pale, ordinary mortals.

Powers, weaknesses and other features of higher-ranked undead emerge from the earlier, weaker forms.

Vulnerability to Sunlight

Starts at the 1 HD (Zombie) level as a morale effect (-1 on all attack rolls, Move reduced to 3; GM-controlled undead flee if morale breaks.)

Becomes paralysis at 4 HD level

7 HD +: killed by sunlight

Fearful Grip/Gaze

Starts at the 2 HD (Ghoul) level as a paralyzing touch (Elves and Heroes are immune, and they can break the grip of fear by shaking or slapping a victim.)

At 4 HD, turns into a gaze attack that acts as Hold Person, rooting victims of 4 HD or less to the spot where they're standing.

At 7 HD +, turns into Charm Person, although a vampire could certainly opt to merely frighten with their gaze instead of charm.

Immunity to Mundane Weapons

Starts at the 3 HD (Wight) level as an immunity to normal missiles; both magical and silver arrows will still do standard damage, as will ordinary melee weapons.

At 5 HD, silver weapons (melee or ranged) do half damage, and mundane weapons do no damage.

At 7 HD +, only magic weapons are effective (and unless the vampire is staked, immersed in running water, or exposed to sunlight, death is temporary.)

Level Drain

Starts at the 3 HD (Wight) level as 1 level drained per hit.

At 7 HD +, drains 2 levels per hit.

Summoning Aid

Of the undead in Book 2, only vampires summon other creatures (rats, bats, and wolves)

I've added an ability to summon rats (only 5d6, not as many as a vampire) to the new corporeal undead.

Regeneration

Of the undead in Book 2, only vampires regenerate.

The new Unhallowed (proto-vampire) monster can also regenerate, but at only 1 hp/round.

Vulnerability to Garlic, Mirrors and Crosses

Vampires can be turned by the cross, a sprig of garlic, or a mirror, even if presented by someone who isn't a cleric.

I've added this to the Unhallowed, as well as making them cast no shadow or reflection.

Vampire Lords get one additional power: a daily free 5th level cleric spell. This is in addition to any clerical or magic-user ability they may have retained in life. Also, because they ought to be just a little more fearsome, Vampire Lords can use their Charm Person on undead that aren't mindless. Unless a player is running an undead character, this won't have much direct effect, but it does mean that Vampire Lord lairs will have many other undead in residence, as servants to their lord.
The random spell list for a Vampire Lord's extra power:

1. Dispel Good
2. Finger of Death
3. Feeblemind
4. Quest
5. Insect Plague
6. Animate Dead

The table below summarizes this as "Cumulative Features" that corporeal undead gain as they increase in rank.

Corporeal Undead Progression Track

HD		Undead Rank		Cumulative Features
1		Zombie		fear the sun (-1 attack, Move 3)
2	->	Ghoul		paralyze victims with fear (elves or heroes counteract)
3	->	Wight		drain 1 level/hit, immune: normal missles (unless silver)
4		Tomb Dweller		paralyzed by sunlight, gaze = Hold Person, call 5d6 rats
5-6		Unhallowed		regenerate 1 hp/round, turned by cross/garlic, silver = half damage, immune: other mundane weapons
7-9		Vampire		regenerate 3 hp/round, drain 2 levels/hit, Charm Person gaze, killed by sunlight, other vampire details
10+		Vampire Lord		+ one daily 5th level reversed Cleric spell, Charm affects undead

Some notes:

• The arrow next to Ghoul indicates that it can become a Ghast instead of a Wight, in which case it never develops the special powers of Wights, Tomb Dwellers, Unhallowed, or Vampires, although they can still grow stronger and will still develop the weaknesses of those other undead.
• Likewise, the arrow next to Wight indicates that, if it chooses to allow its flesh to rot away, it becomes an incorporeal Wraith instead. In that case, it follows that track instead of the corporeal track.

I'll have some specific write-ups of the behavior of Tomb Dwellers and Unhallowed later.

Undead Level Advancement

Old Geezer posted a story on RPGNet about a vampire PC and his flying undead army encounter another band of vampires and spectres in the sky. The GM of this particular group had newly-minted vampire victims rise as skeletons and "progress" through the standard undead types. And, therefore, when one undead drained an undead opponent, the opponent "regressed" to a previous undead type. (See his post for the humorous consequences.)

Now, some people in that thread objected that this broke their expectations of the way a fantasy world should work. A zombie with rotting flesh shouldn't become incorporeal as it gains level, then become corporeal with intact flesh when it finally becomes a vampire! Honestly, if you're going to use an amusing rule like this, you shouldn't be griping about "realism". But, for their sake, here's an idea: separate "tracks" for corporeal and non-corporeal undead (and a possible third track for mummies.) Actually, skeletons are half a HD, in Monsters & Treasure, not 1 HD as in OG's example. So let's make a skeletal undead track as well!

Undead Progression Tracks

HD		Corporeal		Skeletal		Non-Corporeal
1		Zombie		Skeleton	*	Phantasm
2		Ghoul	?	Coffer Corpse	*	Shade
3		Wight	*	Bone Wight	*	Phantom
4	*	Tomb Dweller	*	Tomb Remnant		Wraith
5-6	*	Unhallowed	*	Tomb Lord		Spectre
7-9		Vampire	*	Walking Relic		Spectral Lord
10+		Vampire Lord		Lich	?	Ghost

Undead marked with an asterisk are those I plan on writing up. Those marked with a question mark I might modify, but have official write-ups (for AD&D, but they'll work for OD&D as well.) The vampire lord and spectral lord would be just standard vampires and spectres, but with more hit dice and a couple extra powers:

Vampire Lord

Roll once for random reversed 5th level Cleric spell as a daily power

... But replace Commune with Feeblemind and Create Food with Animate Dead

Spectral Lord

Roll once on angry spirit variants table for an addition power