Café de Nuit

Im just curious what types of undead are most prevalent in the campaigns run by the members of this community-

-The classic Vampire?
-The Arcane Lich?
-The shambling Zombie?
-The ravinous Ghoul?
-The ethereal Ghost?
-The simple skeleton?
-The vengefull Wright?
-The visious Wraiths?
-The dusty Achient dead?
-The created Horrors or
-The Unique and unexplianed

Ghouls. Mostly because they can appear pretty much anywhere in the Core (my main playground) without requiring some terrible over-necromancer. They're good for simply keeping players nervous about going out at night without resorting to a principle bad guy of the campaign.

Bloody Morgan

I can't vote on this as I tend to move focuses as the plot demands it. Nothing tends to stand out the most in my campaigns.

Though the Necromancer player in my campaign prefers to summon Zombies at the moment. Yes, summon, not animate.

I'd have to go with ghosts because it's much easier to make a ghost unique and interesting. Ghosts usually end up being the center of more single sessions and smaller story arcs than most other undead for me.

I usually use vampires as major villains, but I really only need a couple of those per campaign.

It's spelled "Wight", by the way ... simple mistake. But then, when you say vengeful, I am given to suspect you mean the Revenant.


As for what I use, most ... it depends upon the needs of the adventure. I will say that in my many ravenloft games my stats seem to follow this trend:

-3 Vampires
-2 Liches
-Hordes of zombies (zombies are a monster best used in hordes)
-About a dozen ghouls.
-A handful of ghosts
-About a dozen skeletons
-2 Wights
-1 Revenant
-1 Wraith
-1 Mummy
-1 Golem (which really shouldn't be classified as undead)
-3 Shadows
-1 demi-lich
-A scattering of varied undead from most of the 2E monster companions.

I chose ghosts because in my view, they're pretty much everywhere. All the nastiness in RL means few people die peacefully, and many die with tasks unfinished. This may also be influenced by the fact that I have a PC with Ghostsight in the party, so I often stick in a minor ghost or geist for him to put to rest as part of his information gathering. Also, he's got the Haunted feat, so there's a Geist around pretty much all the time (when I remeber he's there).

Other than that, I try to spread things out. I also like to use non-undead as much as possible to a) dispel the myth that RL is ONLY about undead, and twist expectations along those lines b) make critical hits and sneak attacks matter. I used to keep a log of all the monsters I used to try and keep things evenly varied, but I lost track.

My most recent adventure involved a lot of undead, though:
1 Vassalich
1 Vampire
2 Stitched
2 Composite zombies
Several assorted unique Skeletons and Zombies with Salient abilities from VRGttWD

And some other stuff:
1 Gargoyle Golem
1 Mechanical Golem
1 Fir

Hard to say. In quantity I'd have to say Skeletons and zombies but that doesn't really count does it?

I'd have to say vampires cause I think there's one vampire in my game every 5 sessions even if the focus of the current quest is another monster.

As villains usually mummies, vampires or unique undead (restless dead).
As encounters usually obedients (under a villain).
As (mostly)-single monster villains ghosts.

As villians I use mostly vampires... just a personal favorite. I am currently working a campaign around a particular ghoul lord...

This gentleman has sparked a deep hatred for my players in the despicable deeds he has done... such as kidnapping a child and making the heroes watchas she turns.

Strangely, I've used ghouls the most. I think because they are a great all-around monster. They can challenge a low-level party with just a few of them. But a high number of ghouls can challenge a mid-level party as well. They fit alot of different scenarios. Finally, they're just good to throw in for obligatory combat. Sure that doesn't happen much, but when it needs to happen, they're a good threat.

In my case it's a matter of which undead I use LEAST. Vampires and Liches are at the top of my "don't use often" list; I want to challenge myself and try to create a Gothic undead campaign without these two staples.

As for the most common, I tend to use the Ancient Dead more often, because somehow they could easily be tweaked to be "not evil."

I also use ghosts a lot. They tend to lend themselves well to my style of ravenloft DMing. i.e. investigation, curses, hauntings etc. I also use the occasional vampire. However the monster I without a doubt use the most is that of mankind. While not undead they are all the same a brilliant monster to use.

I love zombies personally, especially after the abilities from Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead. The concept of having a zombie right behind you all the time sure does add a new element to the walking dead. I can just smell the fear from my players now!

>>However the monster I without a doubt use the most is that of mankind. While not undead they are all the same a brilliant monster to use.<<


Needless to say, but since the poll was about monsters I didn't bother mentioning this. Ravenloft gms, of all settings, should be cognizant of this fact.

I mostly use skeletons and zombies because they can challenge the players to around tenth level. I'm thinking of using a zombie lord, I love the concept of the raise dead gone horribly wrong.