Low level monster?

[Faust]

In my next campaign the first quest of the pc will be to explore and abandonned monaster where some monk order used to keep an evil artifact.

I want them to fight the monks(who are now undeads) but what kind of undead should I use? Take note that the quest will have 3 lvl 1 players.

[Stygian Inquirer]

If they are only 1st level monks, you could use vampire spawn and maybe there is a master vampire controlling the entire order and is searching for the artifact. Also remember that if you are using 3E instead of 3.5E that your PCs might not be able to beat the DR of the vampire spawn.

Otherwise, I might use Quevari monks (during the Bloodmoon of course) if you don't have to use undeads. There was a thread a while ago about them if you want to know more about them. They might welcome the PCs into the monastery only for the Bloodmoon to take effect and have them go homicidal.

I would be careful however because you must remember that CR is calculated with regards to parties of 4 characters. So make sure to add all of the levels of the PCs together and divide by four to get the party's average CR level (in this case 3/4). Also remember that if the Party's level is the same as the Encounter Level (EL), the party will on average use up 20% of all of its resources. Just keep this in mind so as to not overwhelm the PCs (unless you want to ). See the RL:DMG for more info.

I hope this helps you. Good luck!

[Jennifer]

Hi Faust,
In the first session of my campaign, the party encountered some undead too. They were skeletons. At first level these were quite a challenge especially since I used fear checks the first time the party saw the remnants of once living human beings.
I took into account that simple people from Mordent do not often see skeletons, the bodies of the deceased perhaps, but unles the cause of death was particularly gruesome, no skeletons.

It worked rather well, I had a party of five level 1 characters and with a little trouble they smashed the skeletons to bits. You can also rule that the lowlevel undead disintgrate as soon as the force that animated them, the evil artefact perhaps, is removed of destroyed. This makes it more likely for the party to survive.

Jennifer

[Malus Black]

Zombies are always fun, especially if you give them a bit of intelligence and the fearsome speed ability from the Guide to the Walking Dead. The really nice thing about zombies is that they can pass for human if you give them cloaks and hoods and something to hide the smell, even the more decomposed ones. It's always fun when the players realize they left the slashing weapons at home.

[The Giamarga]

How about Huecuva?

Undead spirits of good clerics who were unfaithful to their god and turned to the path of evil before death; thus punished to roam the world in a form hated by all good clerics.

from: http://www.sulerin.com/creatures/creatu ... 0328104523


A 3E conversion from the Creature Catalog:
http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/undead/huecuva.htm


They're also available in the following books: Tome of Horrors 1, 1E Fiend Folio, Dungeon#86, Dungeon#94, Monstrous Compendium Volume 2, Monstrous Manual

[Faust]

Thank you, seriously I love you! Exactly the kind of stuff I was searching for. So the big boss will be an hecuva and the wandering monsters, normal zombies...