Really unique Undead

[HuManBing]

...and same goes to you too, Ail. I pointed out that he was not the first to mention Toben, and now it gives me great cheeky delight and scampish happiness to point out to you that you are not the first to point out to Gonzoron that he was not the first to mention Toben.

...now how's that for a terribly-written follow-on sentence? Eh? Eh? My English teacher would have a fit.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Ahem.... actually, I guess someone beat you to it, Ron. Not to sound displeasing and all, but read just before your post, please.

more like "preview before you post" I swear, that wasn't there when I started my post. In any case I hope any info I provided outweighs the faux pas of a false claim of "first"

[Korumil]

Thank you all for your suggestions. They'll certainly all be used in some way. My reason for asking about such a topic is that one of the members of said campaign is playing a Cleric with a decidedly necromantic bent and I'd like to show him, and eventually let him build, one or more of these "new breed" of undead.

Just the other week he encountered a creature taken from The Book of Fiends, Vol. 1 by Green Ronin Publishing. It's called a Bonedreg. There are multiple varieties, but it basically looks like a poorly kempt wolf skeleton.

The interesting part is that it isn't undead, despite looking exactly like one. It's simply a pile of bones animated as a construct. Thus it's immune to turning and rebuking attempts.

The Cleric was a bit disturbed by his rebuke attempts lack of effect, as well as the fact that positive healing seemed to have no effect.

It was great. He plans on building a sizable number and putting them in the front ranks of any undead attack to demoralize and shake the faith of the targets.

This is the sort of effect I'm searching for. I'm eager to see what else the perfectly twisted minds of the Frat can produce. The means are of little consequence, so long as the ends are sufficiently effective.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Hah! That cleric's confusion reminds me of something a designer at an old GenCon Ravenloft seminar said. He told us how a DM had walked up to him earlier in the convention, and thanked him vigorously for his role in creating the game-setting. Why? Because he could now tell his players that their characters see "a skeleton" shuffling toward them, and -- thanks to Ravenloft's many, many variants on undead and its addition of salient abilities to existing monsters -- his players (veteran gamers, all) would have no clue what they were up against!

[HuManBing]

Bone Golems are a good example of this. Azalin's domicile, Castle Avernus, is crawling with undead (as you'd probably imagine) but he still has zombie golems and bone golems hanging around too. The sight of these constructs is disturbing enough for anybody who sees them, but for somebody who tries to turn them with the force of their god, the failure of their faith is even more disturbing.

In RMC3, the creators added something called Archer Skeletons to Azalin's arsenal of undead. These were specially made skeletons that shot arrows at enemies. Arrows that missed would break and splinter into new skeletons.

[Jester of the FoS]

Libris Mortis has some neat stuff in there, especially if you view the undead as unique individuals instead of new forms of undead.

I recommends Grave-touched undead. Some class skills to lesser undead (ghouls usually) really beef them up.

[Guardian of Twilight]

Libris Mortis has some neat stuff in there, especially if you view the undead as unique individuals instead of new forms of undead.

I recommends Grave-touched undead. Some class skills to lesser undead (ghouls usually) really beef them up.

I absolutely agree that Libris Mortis is worth looking through. Some of the templates are great also.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Bone Golems are a good example of this. Azalin's domicile, Castle Avernus, is crawling with undead (as you'd probably imagine) but he still has zombie golems and bone golems hanging around too. The sight of these constructs is disturbing enough for anybody who sees them, but for somebody who tries to turn them with the force of their god, the failure of their faith is even more disturbing.

An entirely different version of the bone golem existed in the OD&D game system. A 3E conversion (re-titled "skeletal golem" to avoid confusion with Ravenloft's monster) can be found on the Vaults of Pandius website, along with other undead unique to the Mystara setting -- some of them very powerful; it's the setting that gave us nightshades, after all -- that might give your players a surprise or two.

[HuManBing]

One thing you can do is just to use fantastical creatures less.

The Monster Manual includes creatures like Hydras, Medusas, Minotaurs, and Chimeras... all of these creatures, however, were unique creatures in the original Greek mythologies that spawned them.

Other creatures like Giants, Titans, Ettins (Norse jotuns), and Trolls were the type that you encountered very rarely, and which only existed on the edge of humanity's vestiges.

For a high-fantasy campaign, of course you might have the PCs expect to see them more often. But for Ravenloft, especially in realms like Mordent, Lamordia, and perhaps Dementlieu, you can make it a lot less fantastical and therefore when a PC meets an unusual beast, it truly is bizarre.

In my campaign (and by extension my fiction, Interlopers) the three main characters have only just seen their first reptilian humanoid ever. As you can probably imagine, the reaction is one of extreme surprise, mixed with fear, horror, and repugnance. Followed by cautious examination and finally by a clinical interest.

You'd need to have an agreement of sorts with your PCs to suspend their disbelief and to play on the assumption of a mostly-human background. But you as the DM can definitely skew things in your favor by having them run adventures that are: a) sparser in combat and more on role playing, b) focusing on dealings with humans primarily, c) rooted in mundane details and goals, such as securing funding for a project, or stealing a peek at the plans of the opposing side.

After a few turns of spying on people, or cajoling people, or blackmailing people, your PCs will find it bizarre enough when they're called upon to defend themselves physically, and even moreso when their enemy is not some back-alley thug, but a lurching heap of bones and sinew that comes staggering from the darkness!

[DeepShadow of FoS]

In the order of Toben the Many, may I recommend an old undead from Dragon Magazine called a "spiritus anime." The basic idea is that of an odem that can only possess dead corpses instead of the living. This avoids the complaints about "hijacking" the PC--if that's even an issue--and still presents the "relentless onslaught" problem found with other such undead. It's not Toben, so it can't possess multiple targets at once, but it's much more like Lucre, the coin golem from CotN: Created, who continually rebuilds his body when "killed." Except Lucre can't animate the corpses of those he kills.

Under the right circumstances, a spiritus anime can be seriously bad news. In addition to the fodder provided by an earthquake or flood in a graveyard, there's always the chance that the creature will run into town and start killing people. If each body kills one townsperson before the PC's catch it, it's still breaking even, and if the deaths are spaced out in the right way, PC's might be fooled into thinking they are facing a series of typical spawning creatures rather than a single foe. Other tactics include abandoning a host body after a single hit, so that foes will think the body unusable and neglect to take the proper precautions.

According to the article, the only way to put one to rest forever is to find and destroy the original body...and since these things are created by being buried alive (accidently or deliberatly) PC's may have to do a lot of digging. The creature can only animate corpses within a 100 yards of it's home body, though, so perhaps the best way would be for the body to have been exhumed already and hidden for some reason.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

The more I think about it, the more I think that you may be asking for multiple things.

1) You want an undead that can strike fear into the hearts of veteran warriors.

2) You want a creature that is unique, as inspiration for the necromantic PC.

I think these are two different requests because IMHO, a unique creature is not necessary to terrify PC's. What you need is an intelligent creature with unique tactics.

Consider a typical ghost. As an incorporeal creature, ghosts can move through objects and even use them as cover. Give one of them a gaze attack and try the following tactic: let the ghost take cover in a large solid object, with only its head sticking out. Give it a readied action to withdraw fully into the object when attacked, and it can hit anyone around with its gaze weapon as a free action if they are in range. Sure, there are ways around this, but a frustrated warrior with a ghost touch weapon might not wait for them, and might be severely hurt by a simple game of peek-a-boo.

[alhoon]

I agree that Toben or a Toben-like thing is a great step to what you want. Now for trully horrific effects:

- add something unexpected (beyond Toben's intelligence, his ability to turn those killed to Toben zombies, the disease etc) like damage reduction 10/good or 10/wood to make him tougher, perhaps a kind of laugh like the Jolly Roger etc.

Bad things follow, proceed at your own risk

- add unsettling things. If you know the players you many know what unsettles them. Perhaps a Toben zombie playes a violin before the combat, made of beating human hearts. Perhaps the PCs stumble upon the zombies as they make some weird necrophiliac ritual, perhaps even with a willing (Charmed, derranged) living participant...
Give the unsettling thing some power too. Like make them roll willpower checks, or they start feeling more and more inclined to participate in the ritual with rotten zombies. Give the music produced by the violin the ability to create a so comforting lullaby that induces dowsiness to the PCs.
Make sure that whatever you use, will take effect slowly (a ticking clock) but seemingly irrivocably. I.e Every 1-2 rounds after failing the will save the sleepyness gives them a culmulative -1 to hit rolls. Or what starts out in the first round as an unsettling unexplained desire progresses each round to become more like a need to feel the touch of rotten flesh.

Things that work are usually things the PCs take for granted or that are against the PCs taboos. Like small children looking innocent and being terribly dangerous or necrophilia. Other examples that come to mind:

- The PCs dead relatives and loved ones, perhaps a distant relative killed. That would personalize the encounter and remind them that the rotting corpses were people before that. Perhaps the zombies cry out in pain when hit, seemed terrified and ask for forgiveness each time the score a hit. Perhaps the rotten grannies that do 1d6+6 damage with each hit have tears in their eyes.

- Have the PCs make wisdom checks a bit after the combat is joined... whoever succeeds suddenly realizes... that his heart doesn't beat! No ill effects, no changes in feeling. Just something missing. If you don't like that, have them lose their shadows.
Don't give explanations, don't have Toben (or whatever) give explanations, personally I would advise you to not know the explanation yourself. Perhaps combine that with the violin thing or whatever means you used.
After the battle, the heartbeat or the shadow returns.

- Have the PCs suddenly realize that they crave for the undead flesh. Slowly (After a failed will) they get penalties to their usual attacks up to a -4 to hit rolls and they get a powerful bite attack with culmulative bonuses if they swallow the rotten chunks of flesh they cut off with their bites.

etc

[The Howling]

I don't know if it'll help, but here are 2 NPCs I sometimes use:

Neurosis is a Death Knight, surrounded by a shroud of shadows, and who has the powers of a Crusader. He worships Kiaransalee, and uses many necromantic spells, mixed with his Death Knight abilities.

He has also received Dark Gifts (as mentioned in the "Complete Necromancer Handbook").

Kraagenz is another undead, originating from the Forgotten Realms. He's a Skuz, a powerful undead dwelling in swampy areas.
Kraagenz is also a high-level Necromancer, with unique powers. Such an opponent, with minor Skuz minions, can terrify a powerful gathering of PCs.