(animated Dungeon) Scarier Zombies in D&D 5e
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2020
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I find zombies in D&D to be missing something pretty essential to what I think of as the problem with zombies: infection. 
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Using "hoard" instead of "horde" isn't a misspelling if you're the necromancer.
It was an accident but Skenk Mcgenk actually is :)
Zee Bashew so you can revive jocat’s dnd videos?
@@henryeberman6342 You had me worried about Jocat's channel... Turns out all his Crap Guide to D&D videos are still there.
Now, If I had a ring of wishes, the first wish would be to restore all of Zee's missing videos penalty free. ;)
@@jackielinde7568 There are more ZB videos?
@@epser5842 Well, before The Great Sundering, Zee's channel was packed full of videos. Then the great juggernaut, RUclips, lost their battle against The Great Power "US Federal Regulations" when their mighty cleric TFC used the ability "WTF, dude! You Can't Track Children Online!". In it's random and capricious nature, RUclips then turned its rage at being overpowered and took out its wrath upon the lowly artisan group known simply as The Content Creators. Entire channels were killed in the Great Sundering, and few were left unscarred and unbloodied.
And now, we peasants must satiate our desire for a higher knowledge on what little that has remained after The Great Sundering.
Okay, everyone:
- *hoard:* A lot of treasure
- *horde:* A lot of people or creatures
Thank you for your time.
Abelhawk saved me from saying it! TY
So a horde of zombies can also be a hoard of zombies if one happens to be a necromancer looking to build up an army.
FOR THE HOARD!
*rushes to the treasure room*
Oh, hi again Abelhawk. First Oddworld and now Animated Spellbook. We seem to have a few interests in common!
The third homophone refers to bards.
My two cents: there should be two kinds of zombies: "arcane zombies" and "plague zombies". Arcane zombies are animated dead, fueled by necromancy, and though relatively harmless can take a lot of damage (arm cleaved off? Just keeps going). Plague zombies are less tough, but are infectious.
Even if there isn't some special virus like is common in modern media, a zombie is a corpse and getting bitten or scratched by a rotting corpse is going to lead to a mundane infection that will kill you without treatment. If a real life person bites you most of the time it leads to an infection. This is a big problem for police. There was also the Viking who cut off some guys head and swung it around in celebration, he wound up dying because the head hit his thigh and a tooth nicked him.
@@elitemook4234 True, but this is Dungeons & Dragons. You've got magic for that kind of stuff. Healing magic and potions clearly does help protect against infections as well as actually heal, as you don't actually roll for infection after regular injuries (that bandits sword probably isn't exactly clean, and who knows where those arrow tips have been...)
@@Tutorp Yea, but you're going to burn through those potions really quickly.
@@elitemook4234 Or just make sure the party healer has a healing cantrip.
I like this take
zee hope you don't mind if I steal this for my entire next year and half long campaign okay thaaaaanks
Thaaaaaaaaaaanks, thank yooooooouuuuu, Zeeeeeeeeeeeeee
yes my next 10 month campain yay i can do this now although the one im doing now is full of monster mixes
Wait... Cor...
I mean, I know you ended up using husk zombies, but I don’t think those were an option... were you going to use these for that?
I like how this has only 3 comments. (4 now ig)
I changed this up a little to make them much more powerful and made it so if they fail the con save they also take 2d4 poison damage or half on a succuss among other cool tropes
I've never heard the term "Mercer Snarling" but it's perfect and I will be using this wordage from now on, thank you.
T O O T H Y M A W
"Come to consciousness"
You watch as
Sigil
You can see the
I’ll be quite honest, I was not expecting you to look identical to your animated version.
oh yeah yeah oh yeah yeah
Well, actually, the animated one is Skenk McGenk, his Chaotic Evil Necromancer. I'd say Skenk is his self-insert, but he also has another wizard, a little gnome guy, literally named after himself, Bashew.
I was actually expecting him to be closer to his 50s based on the animated version, not looking younger than I am.
He's trying to tell us something with those legs
He's trying to tell us that he has excellent legs
"Each Zombie starts with 1 HP"
*Flashbacks to my party's Cleric casting Spirit Guardians and doing a drive-by massacre of the entire Zombie horde*
And it's radiant damage so it'll instantly drop them
Fun concept in tandem with this: In real life there is a type of bee that eats rotting flesh. They make their honey out of meat. I use these Vulture bee hives occasionally as an indicator of undead nearby in my games. They look like normal bees for the most part but with a high enough Nature check, their exact species is revealed, and the player is given a little knowledge about them.
Essentially if there is a nearby, long-established or steady supply of undead, a hive may get constructed in the area, but a newly-constructed vulture bee nest would indicate a lot of rotting meat nearby.
That is freaking awesome. A bit of foreshadowing is always appreciated.
I have learned things! Now Samson finding bees with honey in a lion's corpse makes 1000% more sense!
@@timwoods2852 I don't doubt sampson found a beehive in the lion corps, however I'm reading that vulture bees live in the americas- if it were vulture bees it would need to be an undiscovered type to live in the middle east
@@amandamimic2725 It would have been around 4,000 years ago, so there's migration and adaptation as well.
@@timwoods2852 I'm not sure about that timeline there- but also an ocean is a bit far to migrate for most animals. Perhaps some type of vulture bee went extinct or hasn't been found, but I think the more likely explanation is that some normal bees made a nest in a dead lion
The real scary thing were those long legs
Do those legs go all the way up? Yikes yes they do.
That sounds like hate speech. Is that hate speech? I can't tell in these modern times were you're either a vegan or a bigot now. What happened to the middle class. And, uh.... Don't be a Limb-lengthist alt-radical hate guy. Ok??
Did I do it? Am I woke? Can I have my Twitter account back? I did good, right...?
Ooh God!! I just know I screwed up. Dammit! Dammit Damn IT! What do I have to do to prove I'm not a Nazi?!?!
I'll never live down that forsaken panini comment, and I'll have to look over my shoulder forever more when I'm not in total societal isolation....
I'm so screwed.
The single greats thing I've found for making zombies scary is the shove action. Have every other or so zombie make the shove action on a given player attempting to knock the player prone. This might not be a threat with one or two or five zombies, but ten? Oh boy, that's scary, you'll usually fail at least one shove if upwards of five zombies have attempted it and once you are down, every following attack is at advantage. Furthermore, they now take AOO when they stand and are at half of their movement. This can really spook players the first time you use it and it gives them a healthy respect for zombies from then on. Even barbarians will keep close to allies, just in case, the horde topples them.
Ohhh this is a really cool idea. Makes it less simple to just outrun the horde
that could lead to a followup where the pc gets pinned under a zombie for extra tension
See, what's interesting is that Zee is basically talking about turning arcane or thaumaturgical zombies into viral zombies.
The zombies you find in DnD are _animated_ dead, rather than _infected_ dead. Their limbs move through arcane majicks, their wills are driven by a hatred of the living. It's not a viral or fungal infection driving living tissue and driven through hunger and a want to spread.
While viral zombies are scary, yes, they're not magical.
My own version... Zombies can't die. They start with full HP, normal stats. However, they don't roll a save when they drop to 0 HP- they just pop back to 1. BUT! Each time this happens, they lose 1 foot (or 5 feet, or whatever) of Movement- and after that, they start losing Damage. So it's easy to make them unable to chase you in a couple hits, but you basically have to hack them apart, to fully dismember them, in order to get them to be not dangerous anymore.
Of course, you could keep the Critical Hit/Radiant weakness, as well. The HOLY LIGHT OF THE DIVINE should be able to cleanse the taint of undeath, certainly.
Much prefer this. Default DnD zombies are not what we currently understand in popculture as zombies, probably also the reason why they have a slam attack in the MM and not a bite.
In folklore, zombies were mostly used as slave labour and were more an objext of pity than fear - what made them scary was that there was someone nearby who might turn you into a zombie. The Living Dead movie monsters were originally envisaged as a form of Ghoul - so if you want that horror movie feel, I'd use ghouls instead of zombies to start with.
Or you can just copy and paste the "Curse of the Husk" ability from the Husk Zombie in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount to normal Zombies to retain the "Magical" theme of DND Zombies but with the result of Viral Zombies.
It sounds like the way to fully destroy your style of zombie, is the same way you kill Dead Space necromorphs, and then take steps to prevent reanimation.
Which is to target limbs when they're animated. So your players are rewarded for calling shots (saying that you're specifically targeting a body part before you roll to hit) on zombies.
Another reference to Dead Space logic, is to chop off limbs of random uninfected corpses that you come across. A proactive measure to prevent additional zombies/enemies.
Curses can definitly spread like viruses. Its magic.
I don't see how this would scare any playe....
*"Permanent loss"*
BY GOD !
The best way to scare/control players that are a bit too much full of themselves is doing this
Everytime you die and is brought back by magic spells or potions you lose 1 point in you Con, and you die permanently after you reach 0 Con
Permanent max hp loss is also a good way to warn the players not to be reckless
Even still being a game, players should value their characters lives and their hp
When you can magically heal, stitch or regenerate severed limbs and resuscitate, the fear of death or getting hurt can disappear
As a bonus (if you want to be cruel or just want your campaign to be on lvl hard) you can make only powerful spells to completely restore damages. As an example, a wound that it's not healed withing some hours after the fight will leave an ugly scar and severed limbs can't be stitched together without medicine+healing spells or potions that same way or by strong healing spells. "But that's it? Ugly scars? Missing a finger or two? That's nothing", maybe, if you are not considering you will lose ability points with this
Many scars can diminish your Charisma. You can be me most charismatic adventurer of all, but you will lose the passive effect of your high Charisma if you are covered with scars or is missing some teeth, an ear, nose or finger. The common first impression anyone get after seeing a very scarred person is shock
Plus, sometimes you may lose perception or dexterity if your body is missing some parts. A 5 finger hand is steadier with arrows than a 3-4 finger one and you can lose some perception points if you can't distinguish with more accuracy where the sound came from, since your are missing an ear or both of them. There is also the option to give disadvantage to some specific checks, if you don't want to cripple your players that much.
You may not recover well if that bone was healed far too long after the fight (not being able to use your full strength in some moves, loses some mobility, agility or your physical resilience, your Constitution)
@@Heron11177 why would scars lower charisma? Charisma is essentially how well you get your point across. Hell, if anything I'd give a bonus to intimidation if you are covered in scars.
@@louiesatterwhite3885 I read about this before, but I do think it said that having a scar gives you disadvantage on charisma persuasion checks, but advantage on intimidation checks (I can find the book and number for you if you want)
@@calebbailey6557 I doubt thatd be in a book, but I wouldnt say it's impossible. I'm intrigued if you can find me an official source to it.
If Zee started putting out a few actual-play streams on his twitch channel I wouldn't be mad. His games always sound ridiculous.
I'm still waiting on the conclusion of The Cold Road. Left us on a cliffhanger at the player death video.
The description of the GREAT uses of Feather Fall was epic!
"Mercer Snarling" lmao
Man, Zee is one of the few youtubers who's animated self is an accurate representation of himself.
I love how infectious zombies are then still just a minor annoyance to paladins with their disease immunity/save bonus(though it's then on them to protect their team even moreso than normal.) Also, along with each notable loud noise, combat itself is loud and would probably draw progressively larger numbers of zombies out of an infested area, good if as a DM you want to make the point about discretion being the better part of valor.
In my games certain diseases are too strong to be fixed with a Paladin's lay on hands, or they require a larger pool to be expended. If Paladins are the level needed to be immune, that's fine, but they can't be curing every type of disease just by using 5 HP.
@@william4996 I would make it take more, if you're going to change a core-class feature. Making diseases that are too strong for a paladin to fix just results in a player that has to lock themselves in a few select playstyles (by their oath) that now can't use the tools on one of the few things their tools are meant to be good for (effectively punishing the paladin for playing paladin). Remember, paladins are resource-intensive (often burning through their spell slots (and lay on hands) in rapid bursts, causing them to use spell slots obscenely fast, compared to other spellcasters/halfcasters). If they've always got more than enough Lay-on-hands available, you're not throwing them into enough combats.
@@main135s I like some diseases to actually be a threat. I'm very aware of how paladin plays, I almost exclusively play them at other tables.
@@main135s Totally agree with you. I've been playing a paladin in my current campaign just because I like the idea of being able to cure curses and diseases with all that godly goodness just for every disease to be more powerful than the gods apparently. So now I guess I'm just a fairly glow-in-the-dark fighter who doesn't hit as hard or often. :/
@@herpmcderp7666 I get what your saying, but a distinction to make is that in 5e, paladins aren't necessarily tapping into a gods power. It's weird and really is handled on a per player basis, but even in the class descriptions, it mentions something along the lines of "Maybe your code is more ancient than even the gods themselves" or something like that.
How I run it with my DM is that the gods that care about having paladins sort of champions a code and creates and/or contributes to almost like a "battery" of divine power that the paladins of that particular code can tap into to do their paladin things. It's this explanation that allows even atheists to become paladins (as in 5e, characters are no longer required to be religious to be a paladin, despite most oaths operating under fairly holy causes). Gods that champion the same code just add to the battery that already exists for that code. This allows the gods to focus on their clerics, as the "battery's" themselves choose who they lend their power to (and consequently stop lending power to if the paladin willingly breaks their oath). This explanation also offers reasoning as to why paladins aren't really as strong as the gods themselves (using divine powers and all) as it can be reasoned that the "battery" is bottle-necked per person.
I would also like to clear something up, paladins don't hit as often as fighters (since fighters get to attack so many times within 6 seconds, their arms should be on fire from the friction), but they can hit just as hard (per attack) if not harder. Paladins are the kings of single-target burst damage. My friends and I have a joke: "Power world: kill may be the fastest way to kill most enemies, but an angry paladin is a close second." Paladins (particularly paladin multiclasses (sorlockadins are scary and will make your DM hate you)) are just really good at killing single targets really fast, since they can expend so many resources to do it so quickly. I can't think of any other class that rolls as many damage dice against a single target in one full turn as a paladin. In addition, their burst damage in incredibly reliable for the resources it takes, since you can decide AFTER you hit/miss if you would like to smite.
I got a little bit off topic there, but yeah; sounds to me like you need to tell your DM that them not letting you cure diseases is actively hampering your role within the party/world.
autofocust
Post notes! Huzzah!
Nice video and if you didn't see my comment on the livestream (dicebreaker) just wanted to say again keep up the good work. I always enjoy your videos.
Zee, we know that cameras have a hard time focusing on polymorphed creatures, and we also know that gold dragons can polymorph at will. (Why they feel the need to change shape in the presence of Will, I will never understand gold dragons.) Needless to say, we know you and your wife are the kindly gold dragons looking over us mere mortal D&D players and DMs.
By the way, if you're looking for topic suggestions, maybe a video about homebrewing spells or the underrated spell gems that DM's should be using for their NPCs (especially the BBEG).
autofocust locust
@Zee Bradshaw
I would have lesser restoration cure the infection, but give the zombies another ability. This one is to emulate the swarm of undead grabbing somebody and ripping them apart like ants.
Gnawing swarm:
At the end of the zombies turn, every character that is adjacent to a zombie must make a strength save, DC is 0 + 5 per zombie, or be grabbed and pinned to the ground. Characters who are prone during this check have disadvantage. At the start of the the zombies turn, any creature that they have pinned will take 2d8 damage per zombie adjacent to the target, save for half (str or dex save , DC 8 + 2 per zombie).
To escape the pin, do a contested grapple check against just one zombie, but the zombie gets an additional +1 for each zombie also adjacent to the pinned creature.
Any character brought to zero hp by Gnawing swarm is instantly killed and their corpse is left torn and mangled.
Hope you like this idea
Love this. The only change I would make as a DM is, rather than having a Strength or Dexterity save initially to try to redirect the hit from a zombie, I'd make it so there is only threat of infection if the attack would leave the character at less than half health, with infection guaranteed if it drops the character to 0, or if the player is hit while at 0.
This just fits more with how I tend to flavor combat. I usually don't describe blood being shed until the character is at half health, with some exceptions based on the specific attack. This gives the players a bit more of a buffer and helps the squishy spellcasters out a bit, but would hopefully make resource and health management more important as well. Still inspire that cautious style of play, but maybe allow the players to try something crazy and cinematic every once in a while as well.
Side Note: A bunch of 1 health zombies makes the more impressive undead that I'd definitely throw in that don't have 1 health a LOT more impressive. Very Left 4 Dead. Hahaha
"You should let the player choose STR, DEX, or CON."
Oh Zee, you're so nice, you give your players a choice!
I mean keeps it very fair for homebrew and as a player you can't be reasonably upset at having all the choices
@@shenronsgoldfish "Cant be reasonably upset", but they will. They always are.
@@andrewbryner2187 yeah but look if you have 3 bad saves and they are all physical stats you don't get to complain about a save
I am actually not the biggest fan of this free choice as the 'hit' already occured at this point and you don't have the chance of deflecting blows in may other situation. By default players make CON saves against sickness. As CON kind of encapsulates your ability to 'not die', I'd say it's fine to let your players just make a CON saves. If they do not want to get hit in the first place that is captured by the DEX bonus to AC and your ability to take the dodge action. If you want to be hit on an armored body part, this is captured in the AC you get from your armor.
"Roll a con save."
*Wizard sweats nervously.*
His drawn self is scarily accurate to his real self. Great animations, great tips, and great humor.
The Spawn of Kyuss in Volo's can get "Oh no I'm infected".
I threw i think 6 spawn of kyuss at a 8th level party once that included a paladin and a cleric. A fight with Spawn can really get out of hand quickly if the players get to mant of the worms on them.
Spawn of Kyuss are special, though. Terrifying and kind of specific to Kyuss villains. I’d recommend checking out the Age of Worms module from 3.5.
The Spawn of Kyuss is also meant for higher CR parties, unfortunately. It's less an undead and more a large, ambulatory swarm of rot grubs.
The Spawn of Kyuss are such sick monsters. The way I'd run it is to have the person still able to talk. Begging to be killed, or fearfully warning people to not let the Spawn touch them, "lEsT yOu EnD uP lIkE mEeEeEe!"
Very _System Shock 2._
@@Coryn02 Kinda, realistically the only thing making it CR 5 instead of 2-3 is its hp pool.
Remember, immunity to disease makes you immune to the worms hp reduction (or the worms in general if you're a very kind dm).
Even as a child zombies were not scary until they started sprinting.
Left 4 Dead really gave us that good
These zombies CAN actually be fun. I had a guy run these exact ones from the video in a one-shot tower defense sorta deal where it was me and I think 5 or 6 other players, all surviving a large horde of undead. You get clever enough with your spell combos and you can hold them back pretty well. They were all coming down this one road, so we comboed our spells to throw up every defense we could, one of which was this ice spell that made the ground difficult terrain while also raining down hail, while another cast wall of thorns like right on it, which at some point the zombies stopped running forward when they couldn't get through the wall or the ice storm. I was playing a crazed fire mage at the time, so to light up the fucking world, I cast wall flame in front of the thorn wall, with the zombies able to run through the wall of fire but getting scorched when they passed through to the other side, this ended up setting the wall of thorns on fire and only added to our defenses. We burned through our spells in clever enough ways that the horde of undead never made it to the house.
I fell it depends on the type of zombies, I imagine zombies are week in DnD because they are just a magically reanimated pieces of flesh, the weakest form of necromancy. now a zombie that spreads fells more like a disease or a curse, its a different kind of evil. something that creates a curse that can destroy a entire city or empire should be more powerful than a 3rd lvl spell like animate dead.
how about contagion/cause disease? lvl3 in every edition cept 5th. in which it is 5th.
I have nothing to say, this is just for the youtube algorithm
Out here doing gods work
Likewise
Is there a way to heal zombies? Either by accident or by choice?
Are only wild zombies homebrewed? Or how do you deal with something like the finger of death and party created zombies?
Necrotic possibly?
Isn't a trope in fictional media that using healing/cure spells on the undead actually hurts them? I think the only proper way to heal is by consuming flesh, and if is fresh(alive) it heals more. that would make more sense, and if you want to up a bit, make it gain skills of those who the zombie ate.
they have hit dice, so they should be able to short rest. Presumably they can also long rest.
There’s a spell in xanathars that can heal undead but I don’t remember the name
The spell is negative energy flood, and it gives them temporary hit points.
Those... Those legs... Did they come of the "just a torso" zombie?!
Idea: Make the zombies look more human, less decayed. Make it harder to tell apart from normal people at a glance.
They could be a variant of regular zombies; “Fresh” zombies are the recently deceased infected that survived an outbreak from another town, only to succumb to their wounds later... And now, ironically, they’re probably going to start the next outbreak.
Yeah, these would basically just be the 22hp zombies, but nevertheless...
How about using Izombie esque rules? They have to eat fresh flesh (not human specifically, although you could rule it as they have to eat the flesh of whatever race they were before) or they start to rot and become dumber and more aggressive until their motor functions and mental faculties deteriorate enough that they're a shambling zombie.
I would rule it as the zombie has to consume 2 cubic inches of flesh from an intelligent (read any playable race) per day or they lose 1 point of int until they consume said flesh. This effect is cumulative for each day after initial infection using the rules presented in the video. Once their int drops below 4 the condition is permanent and they are now a phb zombie but with their AC being that of whatever armour they're wearing.
Anytime before their int drops under 4 they can be cured if a greater restoration spell is cast on them. If you want to make it harder you can say that the spell has to be cast at higher level depending on how much they've degenerated. I would say if their int is 4 its a 9th level spell slot, if it's 5 it's 8th etc.
@@elizataylor1726 Cool but when would there be time for this mechanic to come into play? The party encounters zombies, and kills them immediately, or dies, no?
@@gabesd6697 if a member of the party gets injured by a zombie and doesn't make the save
Horde instead of hoard at 1:18 idk why I caught that I'm usually terrible at spelling lmao but amazing video as always!
How many boards could the mongols' hoard if the mongol horde could hoard boards?
@@craigh5236 Horde: group of militants, hoard: (n) stash of valuable items. (v) accumulating such items.
If the zombies belong to a character or npc it becomes a hoard instead.
I suppose it's more of a "using the wrong type of that word" than it is spelling lol. Also these replies are golden.
This is actually extremely pertinent to a Bodak one shot I need to have done by today, so thanks! Perfect timing, great advice. Already have some neat ideas for implementation.
Wonderful vid as always and excellent advice. But I have to mention this:
Horde. Instead of hoard.
A dragon’s treasure hoard is threatened by the zombie horde.
It's not a misspelling if you're the Necromancer
The Necromancers zombie hoard was threatened by the artificers treasure golem horde
A Dragon paying your party to purge or lure the zombie hordes they can't get to would be cool.
Love your zombies. Only addition I made was to add the use of cure disease, one casting adds back 1 of PCs max HPs but fully cure the zombie curse. This way I was able get a bunch of low level PCs infected and it became a resource management exercise that they had to juggle until they reached a cleric capable of casting greater restoration.
Chased by wolves and suffering exhaustion they really appreciated the cure disease of their paladin. An ability that rarely gets any love in the game. Thanks
DM: these new zombies are attracted to noise.
Bard: Can I change my class?
Ok so I was deciding on what adventure to let my homebrew players run through, and I think you just gave me a way to make it more fun.
My initial idea was to introduce my own version of the Machine of Lum The Mad as some sort of tourist attraction during a festival in a kingdom. Of course, no one knows what it does, and I think a zombie outbreak caused by someone being "unlucky with the machine" a day after the festival is a good way to spook things up.
This way, I can raise the tensions via a zombie infection, and provide amazing or hilarious effects for the players who are brave enough to actually try and use the machine themselves.
Great take on Zombs! I'd like to add a means of notifying only the affected player of the outcome of their save, so they can incorporate the "I'm infected but I'm hiding it," trope that we see so much in zombie media... and well in reality too at this point.
Great video - it's inspired me to write a one-shot about defending an ancient castle from a circle of wights and their zombie hordes. Can't wait until I move, and can afford to start donating through Patreon again. Keep up the great videos, especially the animated segments!
Question.
So a zombie's HP would be based on freshness?
No the Max HP are. HP are set to 1.
@@genijable The opposite.
* in a wine tasting voice * yes, this zombie is rather fresh, the rotting aroma is exquisite, and is that a touch of, dare I say, peach farmer?
@@genijable Why have the max HP so much higher than their HP, especially if it's 1?
@@Murarius43 so allies can boost them easier
Literally just had a necromancer in waterdeep’s city of the dead 😭
That's scary
It's actually a really interesting idea. Xcom 2 uses a very similar mechanic for it's zombies.
During missions in areas with an infestation of them (They're mutated humans really) any loud noise has a chance to attract the horde. And when the horde is aware of you they will keep coming until you finish the mission and get out.
2:25 your a zombie vampire, or a vampire with a high performance. You have no shadow.
Or a vampire with Disguise Self.
Been missing you, our belove ginger wizard. Hope you also upload the old vids of D&D.
"mercer snarling" lol someone send this to Matt so he knows we appreciate his sounds
I’ve been looking for something to base a story arc around for my party’s death clerics. This is great! I can already imagine a lich or a mad necromancer creating a new breed of zombie based off an infection. Released it in a populated city to test it but didn’t realize they were immune to turn/destroy undead, so the holy people find it difficult to destroy them in mass and they begin to take over. The paladins are the only ones who can keep the front lines cuz they’re immune, but often get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. The dead take over the city, civilians can’t leave due to a neighboring city barricading them in, and the party are trapped in like the rest.
My favorite thing to do when it comes to Homebrew and zombies: Give the undead resistance feature to other creatures, and in turn lower their Dex by 2, and then set their mental stats to 4 or less. I also lessen their speed by 5 or 10, depending on what it is already. This has terrified my players' characters, even when confronted with simply zombie kobolds. I think the 'biggest' zombie I've ever run was a Zombie Hill Giant
I love this so much.
Now to make them even scarier, add infected spiders that have 1 hp but are highly infectious. If an infected spider bites a defeated zombie, it becomes an infection carrier. Infection carriers have 1 hp, but explode into a cloud of infection, that lasts 2 turns, when killed.
One of my favorite Zombie encounters was in a post apocalyptic hospital that had a Nano-Zombie outbreak. At one point hunks of infected flesh would jump off the zombies and come after the players, developing small tentacles and eyes if they were not killed quickly. The players burned that hospital to the ground and escaped in a stolen hot air balloon. Boy that balloon came in handy later in the game.
I have seen it run in a similar way except when a certain number is reached they get the swarm template.
Fighting with large weapons? One zombie appears.
Cast a loud spell? Bard starts performing?1d4 zombies appear.
He said “Happy 2020” cause this came out 2 months before COVID, on a serious note, thanks for this, Zee Bashew, this video has always helped me.
In my homebrew setting for D&D zombies are mostly created through a magical plague. I think if your game isn't focused on zombies you could lessen the severity by having a zombie require to grapple an enemy, in which case they can bite as a bonus action and then a PC can make a save.
If you want them to be harder but also not be too hard on your players i suppose this could work.
After last night's Critical Role, this was perfectly timed.
Definitely! I also liked how he called the DM voicing the zombies "Mercer Snarling"
Which episode? (I’m catching up)
It’s not just the infection that’s the fear factor, but the unyielding, never tiring, ever hungering creeping death that could follow you to hell’s half acre and back if it has its sight set on your general direction especially in great numbers. You could possibly add in an extra fear factor by a tailing group or horde of zombies gaining ground on the party by however long they take a rest by a set number of dice equating to how much ground they gain. This adds the tension of regulating rest, do you take a rest to regain some spell slots and hope you don’t hear the moans in the night, do you set up shifts and patrols to keep your party from being waylaid in the dead of night or do you risk losing potentially needed rest to try and stay a step ahead of the shambling jaws calling for their next meal.
Most zombie encounters: a necromancer's tomb, or somewhere out in the open.
Where my group encountered zombies: the back room of the we happy few yoga club and cult in the Atlanta district of Nemrakt.
DM: Makes zombies more dangerous and deadly
Me: *Laughs in Cleric*
my dm: lets add zombies, me and the other cleric: Spirit guardians
This is going to be so helpful with some upcoming sessions in my campaign! I had home brewed some infectious undead mechanics, but I really like the way you've set up infection and spread in this. Thank you!
"Mercer snarling"
*_ʸᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼ_*
This was great, maybe also account for zombie age and condition in figuring out their speed.
Imagine not being able to control the undead
This post was made the Nagash gang
The endgame area of my campaign world is a cursed landscape where everything that dies becomes undead. It's also slowly spreading. This mechanic would be pretty perfect to represent that beyond-the-borders spread.
Also another thing I've done with zombies is give them a slam attack that grapples on a hit, and an infectious bite attack they can only use on a grappled victim. So as soon as some unfortunate gets grappled, the surrounding zoms all pile on with their bite attacks.
"adventure is the friends that you make a long the way, and you can make a lot of those if they are infectious" probably a necromancer... thanks for sharing Mr.Bashew.
Ehhhhhhhh, I’d argue that the real terror of Zombies is that they WERE living people at some point. Infection is the overdone modern crap.
I’d just have the GM describe each zombie as needed, give personality to what the person was, compared to what’s been done to their body.
Necromancers don’t care, generally at least, what the body is, child, elderly or strong Barbarian, it’s all more necrotic flesh for the horde.
Also the infection comes with awkward questions. Like “why isn’t everyone dead yet?” Or “why aren’t Necromancers actively hunted for bringing such a devastating plague upon the land?” Or, best of all “why don’t people burn their dead now that they know just how bad it could get?”
Fair opinions, but id answer those questions with ignorance. Most zombies are kept under the control of the necromancer that created them so most townspeople wouldn't be aware they even existed. I'd also say that zombies breakdown over time so that every day they have a 50/50 chance of losing a hitpoint. So when an outbreak occurs the town is quickly consumed into zombies that then break down and decay. Also even most villagers have a decent chance of surviving that con save,.
Actually religons in DnD should destroy or restrict the dead to discourge new necromancers since they are almost always are the mid way to final bosses in almost every story.
By the way why is everyone NOT using dead labour. You don't have to go full "i will include everyBODY" type. Necromancers have more construction and general workforce than that one big evil Empire because he/she/it? adds more without lossing any manpower.
Oh and "
Turmoil at the front
Wilhelms forces on the hunt
There's a thunder in the east
It's an attack of the deceased
They've been facing poison gas
7, 000 charge en masse
Turn the tide of the attack
And force the enemy to turn back
And that's when the dead men are marching again
"
Uncanny valley. We are wired to look for patterns. To recognize our kind, what is not our kind, and what is pretending to be our kind. A walking corpse hits the "it looks exactly like us but something is wrong" part. It WAS a person. Now it is a thing. And worse it has a face maybe you recognize.
@@temkin9298 Regarding the workforce thing, keep in mind the Necromancer would need to keep casting Animate Dead at least once per day for each four bodies they control to keep them in line. While not a huge burden in moderation, it is an expenditure of resources and if you are likely to be hunted down for having an undead workforce, you will want some spells on the back burner to either defend yourself or escape.
Also while undead workers certainly don't complain and may not tire, they might not be suitable for all sorts of work. Unskilled labor, guard duty, heavy lifting, sure. But any more delicate work may require living workers or more intelligent undead that might be harder to control.
@@josephperez2004 Well, apprentices are a must in any big projects, delicate work is a hard but doable with "forced to work" workforce. Each necromancer needs 3 undead to keep up at most.
So 20 necromancers roughly equals to 60 workers. They themselves can also do delicate work. Perhaps industrial machines would be able to make complex work to pulling a lever.
Plus nothing is better guardians then uncontroled horde of undead(granted you need some help to keep them and invaders from leaving).
the infection feels very science zombies and not very necromancy zombies
PS
is "Infection" a disease or a poison?
You can still have the infection even if the source is a spell or curse
Lycanthropy and vampirism can both be achieved by curses or by getting them from a cursed/infected enemy. I'm not sure, but I even think that the infected Lycanthrope can be cured with a spell that can cute diseases and not specifically spells that cleanse curses
@@Heron11177 remove curse does work on lycanthropy, only if the individual was not born as one. Greater restoration also cures lycanthropy. Its is considered by games rules both a curse and a disease. However, if someone is born a lycanthrope, only wish can cure them.
Yeah, the fantasy zombie should be more Voodoo style: you don't become an undead, but you *do* rack up fatigue via disease. Get enough fatigue, and you fall unconscious, at which point the zombie's owner can start giving you basic orders, and the player eventually starts going to a place where orders can be given.
If the players don't notice something is wrong early enough, they now have a sudden rescue mission and zero prep time. They also won't know a player in that state can be given simple orders, so may suddenly get shanked by their friend during the rescue if they aren't careful.
Most importantly, they have no idea *why* this is happening, since it could just be a curse, and the zombies just a distraction. That's important, because a key part of Zombies is not knowing why they're such a threat at first.
Here's an idea for making not just zombies a bit scarier, but all undead (and by extension necromancers). First, anytime any undead monster kills a creature that could become a zombie, there's a small chance that creature will become a zombie. Second, while most zombies still work like normal D&D zombies, anytime a zombie is created, regardless of how it was created, it has a chance of being an infectious zombie, similar to the ones you described.
So, now, every undead is potential outbreak source, and every encounter with zombies has true terror of infection: uncertainty ("Is cutting this person's arm off really necessary, or are we just being paranoid?")
A mechanic I use for infection is rolling 1d4 or 1d6 for extreme exposure, one roll per hour of resting, or every 30 minutes of active play, combat, traveling or exploring. When the infection reaches or surpasses their max hp they turn, removing limbs and greater restoration cure
Me: Hey, maybe we should run infecting zombies.
Me: No.
Me: Why not, it'd be cool.
Me: I'm too scared.
Me: But you'd be the D-
Me: TOO. SCARED.
Me: . . . Okay then. . .
To be fair, the PC probably would find a way to feed the plot critical NPC to the 'hoard'.
That's how my DM would be. They can be utterly brutal but they always feel really bad about it.
I am the complete opposite of that. I love running Gothic horror campaigns, and it is my players that have to book a therapist.
*The HP should be based on the average level 1 NPC villager, but 3/4th to 1/4th based on decomposition time or "freshness".*
*Instead of letting players pick STR/DEX/CON it should just be CON if they get hit since their ability to not get hit is already covered by the AC mechanic which isn't just armor in the traditional sense, it is your ability to not take damage, whether through dodging or plating or redirecting/parrying. They definitely shouldn't be as fragile as or more fragile than a bird because they are still a reanimated human corpse*
*You should increase their AC slightly(should be also based around the average low level npc villager) if they are immune to death except from brain damage, have strikes that miss their increased ac become non cranial attacks that reduce their HP but these attacks should be incapable of dropping them below 1. This way low level players could try to dismember their arms (which should reduce their chance to hit) or dismember their legs(1/2 or 1/4 movement depending on how many limbs are removed.*
I have to disagree. The DM has to keep track on everything that is on the field. When you have many enemies with a lot of HP it becomes messy for the DM. Having 1HP monsters makes it very easy however. You either kill it, or you do not. What will happen if the players cast a fireball and bring 17 zombies on them while having more then 1HP is this. The DM will be bogged down in trying to record and note which is which and how much HP everything has. The combat will grind to a halt. It will take ages for the players to play as the DM is mostly doing all work. I heard this happened in 4th edition a lot. I prefer to respect my players time enough to not make them wait 5 min for their next move.
@@Cloud_Seeker This is why it would be great to have a computer handle calculations so that DMs have even more creative freedom to have massive battles without having to use cheesy shortcuts.
@@Guts-the-Berserker Many people do not use computers. Even if you are using computers it still takes to much time to update every single enemy all the time. It moves the combat from grinding to a halt to massive delays. It also isn't cheesy to have 1HP monsters when you have a mechanic which forces the players to think about the noises they are making.
@@Cloud_Seeker It doesn't take long at all, just look at Solasta, Baldur's Gate 3, and Talespire. Companies are competing right now to bring us a fleshed out, minimally dumbed down table top D&D experience for the first time ever without awkward simplifications or RTS elements thrown in. The future looks bright when this type of competition is happening around the subject of video gaming and table top gaming. Talespire seems to be the loftiest but the other two bring a more down to earth niche for casual fans to get hooked on the table top formula. I'm interested to see if BG3 implements GM mode from their previous game of DOS2 because if they do that would breed more competition for Talespire and Solasta and any other group that tries to helm the daunting task of actualizing the TTG mechanics into the video game format.
The 1 HP mechanic is an example of an awkward simplification based on the limitation of having humans handle these combat variables in a timely manner, and just imagine the EPIC campaigns that DMs can finally craft when they get there hands on the tools from these games. SURE it goes without saying that you cannot replicate the simplicity of getting together physically with your best buds BUT this opens up your D&D groups to a global audience among your friends which makes this an exciting era to be alive in my opinion.
Now, I know I was pretty harsh saying the things I say about this zombie idea(which is a great idea really) but it is with the context of what could be possible with the near limitless creativity that freeing a DM from math would bring. Zee Bashew is a top tier DM for sure but this specific change to the HP is definitely made because he along with every DM worth their salt hate having to do so much math during combat to speed things along.
I can't wait to see what happens with these games. Hell I could be totally wrong and they could flop but the possibilities are extremely exciting. Hope for the best, but if the worst comes to pass we still have our TTG.
@@Guts-the-Berserker Oh yeah. Lets look at all types of games that are NOT classic tabletop RPG's. Sorry dude but when you bring up PC games you kind of lose the argument. We are not talking about games with a virtual DM like Baulder's gate. We are talking about those types of games you buy books for and sit infront of a tabel with pen and paper.
"The 1 HP mechanic is an example of an awkward simplification based on the limitation of having humans handle these combat variables in a timely manner"
- A human IS controlling everything. You ARE subject to human limitations. We are talking about a TABLETOP RPG!!! Not a PC game.
"and just imagine the EPIC campaigns that DMs can finally craft when they get there hands on the tools from these games"
- The DM already have all control. It is them that play Gods and tell how everything should go. They also have to do all small things like keeping track over how many goblins are in this tent. Are again talking about Tabletop RPGs and not PC games.
"Now, I know I was pretty harsh saying the things I say about this zombie idea(which is a great idea really) but it is with the context of what could be possible with the near limitless creativity that freeing a DM from math would bring."
- I do not actually see it as harsh but rather more stupid. You presented the argument that are based on having a computer game without an actual DM. I was thinking you was going to use something like Roll20 but the examples you gave are just laughable. I think you have completely missed the context in the video. This change is made to not only create a setting, and to free up DM workload. You talk about creativity and how much creativity is lost, but I think you fail to understand you are destorying creativity by outright rejecting 1HP zombies as part of a setting and mechanic. If we are going only by what you said here. Having a endless horde just isn't possible on a tabletop.
"I can't wait to see what happens with these games."
- I have no idea what you are talking about because we are talking on a completely different type of medium. Its like talking about Smartphones when we are talking about good olf fashioned newspapers.
The thing in D&D is not the fear of zombies, but the fear of undeath
Zombies are just reanimated corpses. As you said, without a legion of cadavers and the fear of being infected, they have a lot more weakness than motives to fear them. Hell, lycanthropes have their disease and zombies don't
But the thing is... The other undead are scary ones. A nightmarish bone golem that can kill with just its laugh, a banshee that can do the same with her scream, a shadow that can cripple your stats and then turn you into another darkness incarnate spirit, a freaking lich that can come back as many times it is prepared if you do not destroy its phylactery(ies) or even try harder to scare you to death by making a dragon into a lich too
Curses and monsters that cannot be damaged by normal ways of hacking and slashing physical bodies are way more scarier than zombies with infectious undead diseases, but I repeat myself by agreeing that zombies and other lesser undeads should have a way to spread their cursed state just like lycanthropes and shadows
I ran a zombie apocalypse survival game and I did a thing like the crowd drawing thing and just added more zombies and put armor on them, but what I added was they can make a bite attack/ grapple that does lots of extra damage while grappled every turn
0:35 you're confusing fantasy zombies with sci-fi zombies there.
Is that a bad thing? Tropes can go both ways.
It's not so much confusion as pointing out that D&D zombies aren't really very scary (because they're really not), but if you add certain cinematic elements to them, you can potentially have a much more interesting story. And you can always say that 'plague zombies' are different than 'necromantic zombies', or something like that.
Me, I've got a whole new adventure idea to add to my Homebrew campaign!
Yeah, I was gonna say something similar. Fantasy zombies aren't some kind of infection like the modern idea of zombies. They're much closer to the real-world origin of the zombie concept, which comes from voodoo and is the idea of bringing the dead back to life as servants, using magical powers.
Honestly I've actually been thinking of stories where a Zombie apocalypse happens in a more medieval era rather than the usual modern day trope.
What I do? I put zombies in swarms, players run all the time.
have the swarm surround
Siege, maybe?
Remote island, village or something. The group has to clear a path or survive until help arrives.
Could be really tense at low levels where the group can't just, you know, fly away or the like.
You have been running in full plate for twenty minutes. You are now tired. And what's that I hear coming over the horizon? Persistence predation. Now you know how all those deer felt when your ancestors jogged them to death.
If you really wan't to be cruel. Give them a big treasure drop before any zombies show up and then really hick them with the tired stick.
Make their goal to defeat the zombies. Have them think they can deal with them. Surprise them with more or more powerful undead to lock them down (Archers maybe. Faster Zombies or surround them as Lean Lover said)
Sometimes they try to fight the horde, but they tend to regret and retreat anyway
I love your content! I don’t even play d&d but just seeing your excitement and creativity on display makes me want to try it. I was trying to show someone your stuff and I couldn’t find some episodes wats up wid that.
This fits so well into a oneshot I made about a noble manor overrun by cultists dumping bodies into streams, affixing flesh to crossbow shots, or spreading bodily fluids on spikey traps
Sees new ZB vid: OOOOOOOO
Sees tittle: Also EWWWWWW
Worst thing I ever did was mod some zombies. Basically, far off in a swamp, a cult was raising a long lost God of Undeath. Being the nice God he was, he turned them into zombies as thanks. The big difference was that these were basically divine zombies. They didn't try to hit or bite. They tried to grapple. And they were crazy strong. Also, the divine plague could turn literally anything into a zombie version.
So, the mid level party, I think they were around 11 or 12th level at that point, is chilling in a town about hundred or so miles from that swamp. They were doing downtime, drinking and goofing around, when the first wave of the plague hit them. Being mid level, they scoffed at the zombies, and the fighter especially, who was half drunk, went diving in for a little recreational zombie slaying.
The cleric, being the only sober member of the party, was the only one who noticed these zombies were really strange, and tried to stop him. As usual, he didn't listen. Nobody ever listened to the cleric.
So, about two turns later, he's got about five of these things grappling him, and made most of his Con saves. He failed one, and that was all it took. I roll a d4, and let the fight continue for the next one turn, as I had rolled a one. The party is still laughing about zombies being thrown at them at their level, while the Cleric is getting seriously freaked out by how bizarre these things are.
Then the fighter turned. Like, right then. He became a zombie at the start of his turn, and proceeded to start attacking his own party.
I was unpopular after that. More so when the party finally paid attention to the Cleric and ran like hell, cresting a rise on the edge of town, and seeing an endless wave of zombies coming at them. Max unpopularity hit when the zombie Harpies showed up a few sessions later.
By the time zombie giants were rolling across the land, they pretty well hated me.
Oh, they did manage to slay the God and save the day, but there were a few new characters rolled along the way.
Basically, don't tell your DM his encounters are laughably easy. He may just take that as a challenge and stop playing nice, and yes, making the encounters easy. I admit, i was going easy on them, and had told them I was.
Little appreciation goes a long ways, guys. Otherwise, divine zombie plague.
as a gm i can say ive never had that problem(usually i over tune encounters by mistake(i expect the party to work together darn it))
that said i love to roll dice every once in a while for no reason, keeps them on edge
Punishing players for saying something mean about your encounters is the mark of a bad DM. Your encounter was unfair and not based at all on how the balancing of 5e works, some people like lopsided games and don’t mind stuff like this, and honestly, if you left out the part at the end I don’t think anyone would mind. But the fact that you threw a frankly bullshit encounter at your party and then are trying to brag about it like you did something cool is pretty pathetic TBH.
Mr. Wonky yeah I’d agree with you here. Players are gonna make jokes about stuff, it’s just how it works. Taking that personally and using your trusted position as a DM for revenge or whatever you call it is pretty darned petty. Wouldn’t do that in my campaign.
@@TheWonkster sounds like the party shouldn't have overestimated themselves actually. DM did nothing wrong. There's literally official monsters like the banshee that can drop you
The d4 instakill was super shitty, the rest sounds all right, but you trowed such a difficulty spike that it's ends up being pretty shitty
Spending the end of 2023 rewatching the Zee Bashew playlist waiting for new vids in the new year.
Zee thank you for uploading cool and interesting videos. You have inspired me twice now to run one-shots for my DnD group, first with gritty realism/goodberry and now with this. You and your work has brought and will bring much joy to this bunch of nerds.
Who's here after watching CR last night and wanted to see more on undead?
gotta be honest zee
not a fan of this one
dnd zombies have always been very diferent from zombies in traditional media.the fear of zombies isnt that they can infect you,its that they are effectively endless since the necromancer who has had to raise them can just use more bodies to make more undead.
Just wanted to say thanks! This video gave me a great idea for a horde fight. Zombies have pooled hp (each individual zombie has 1hp) and the amount of attacks the horde get depends on how surrounded you are (max of 8). Secondly hits will infect you if you fail a DC 10 con save. The infection causes a point of exhaustion. For every day you remain infected or if you fall unconscious you have to make a dc 10+lvl of exhaustion+ days infectes to prevnt it advancing (more exhaustion) they hit full exhaustion BOOM zombie
I literally made some similar homebrew rules a week ago for my custom world in a Pathfinder campaign I'm running. The only difference between your rules and mine is that I've differentiated between arcane created zombies and plague zombies. Plague zombies are what you've just described, and occur naturally. If a necromancer wants a hoard of plague zombies they have to cultivate it by taking control of infected undead or alchemically creating the virus and infecting living creatures with it. Standard created undead raised by magic aren't infectious. I guess I've also got some alternate rules for the loud noises, specifically: if I've planned a lot of zombies in the area, more zombies show up, but I also came up with a 1D4 modifier for when I don't have a specific number in mind.
I've also got some "lookout" zombies I've called screamers that never have more than 1 hp, have no jaws or hands so can't bite or scratch and so can't become infectious, but they have a bonus to perception and scream loudly whenever they see something move to call in the hoard. I've also toyed with ideas for pit zombies (legless fellas that hide in water filled pits disguised as puddles who try to grapple and drag under players), and tank zombies (mutated beefy boys and girls with lots of HP that behave more like flesh golems) but I haven't built either of them yet. I'm really glad you made this video. Zombies are a lot of fun, and one of the more easily customized creatures. They're a great place to get started for DM's who want to learn how to build customizeable monsters IMO.
Thanks for this. Great version for a zombie horde campaign with low level characters.
What I always did with zombies is add to their slam attack. On a successful slam attack the zombie gets a free grapple check. If 2 or more zombies grapple the same target that target is knocked prone. For higher level encounters I also added a 1d4 bite attack that zombies get for free on a successful grapple check and gave them all the old swarm feature (+1 attack for each adjacent ally). This made individual zombies barely a threat but a group of minion zombies could deal significant damage.
I actually did something similar in a recent story. There was an infection that gave players levels of exhaustion once they get infected, if they fail their daily DC saves. If they died, they came back as a zombie. It wasn't directly caused by zombies, but since the whole thing was about figuring out how it spread, they didn't know that, upping the fear.
In the Elden Times, somewhere between year 124 of the Elder Age and timeline -63867 of Ye Olden Days, a character of mine was prone to casting "Summon Shadow" (summoning at the start or just before combat, instructing the summoned monstrosities to finish off any humanoid opponents he'd afflicted with a wand of Ray of Enfeeblement, and then instruct any spawn produced (victims of shadows immediately rose as shadows under the command of their killer) to leave with them upon the expiration of the spell (originally it was "Serve my master" but a small army of shadows following my character around got on the game-breaking side of things fairly quickly).
Shadows can be reeeeeally scary, especially to non-Strength based parties. Pitting them against commoners and such can inspire that sense of dread you were talking about since they can enter spaces the size of a keyhole and are effectively invisible in darkness. Imagine whole villagers fully lit and awake during night hours. The anxiety of not letting the fire burn too low, of the risk of fire, the local privy could hold a deadly threat, not just the local stinking cloud!
Another fun thing with zombies is that they're one of the few pseudo-templates that can be put onto NPCs, which allows you to also get in on the fun times of having special types of super zombies.
Should be able to model the ambusher/sneaky type of zombies, fast zombies, and big hulking zombies pretty readily without too much additional modification. Things like spitters and boomers would probably be a bit trickier but still within the realm of possibility without going full homebrew.
a couple of other things I have found for zombies to increase their difficulty
corpse multiplication- if a zombie is destroyed in a single blow or otherwise dismembered badly by a hit, the severed parts can reanimate separately, when the zombie attacks, these parts attack too as part of that action. A zombie dismembered sufficiently wont reanimate
explosive decomposition- dead bodies tend to acquire a lot of gas while rotting. Fires can light this stuff. A sufficiently rotting zombie when afflicted with fire damage has a dc10 chance of exploding in a 10 foot radius dealing force damage equal to the fire damage taken
I misunderstood the Descent 2e group limit on zombies in the Game Master app tutorial, allowing for unlimited zombies. It was one of the most fun dungeons I've ever played!
We could see a magic staff summoning them but we couldn't get through the wall of rotting meat. We were trapped in a doorway which is probably the only reason we survived, limiting us to fighting a handfull at a time. As this was the tutorial, eventually it started prompting us to check out the staff. I think I said out loud "would if I could thanks!" The zombies couldn't infect us but the fear of being over run was palpable. My take away is hordes need MOAR ZOMBOS!
I like the changes. I could see a whole campaign based around these creatures as well as stronger dead monsters when the party levels up. Put them in a large city, have them hunt for supplies, and require that they protect the shop keepers shack if they want to keep getting supply deliveries (as well as other npcs).
Interesting ideas here! My players are currently in the classical "dark foreboding forest" area and do run the chance of running into Zombies. I particularly like the idea of loud noises running the risk of attracting more and may use that next time we play :)
I just ran a session using this and it was a HUGE success, thank you so much for sharing!
Fantastic Video as always Zee! Definitely going to try this out in my game
Was not ready to see Zee's real face, I had almost forgotten there was a human behind the tiny cartoon scholar I've come to love. Also from your animated character design, I assumed you were a short chunky fellow. MY PERCEPTIONS HAVE BEEN ALTERED!
I used infectious mutant zombie like things once, it scared the bejeezus out of my party. I should probably use that again soon. You wanna make things really nasty, make it so some Zombies explode when killed (or those killed by AoE attacks explode) and creatures within a certain radius have to make a dex save, if they pass they take half damage and are fine, if they fail, full damage and auto infected. Range 15 foot radius (add/subtract 5 feet up/down from medium), damage of zombie creatures explosion: Bludgeoning/piercing = to hit die x1 for tiny, x2 for small, x4 for medium, x6 for large, x8 for huge, and x10 for gargantuan.
For any low level creature I always add the average damage to the dice roll so while they may have meager health they always pose a threat if they can actually get ahold of a player character even at higher levels.
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! I haven't used D&D Zombies before but was looking to use them, now I can.
I was thinking of writing a medieval zombocalypse game about a week ago, and came up with very similar stats to those described in the video. However, I consider an infected player to be poisoned, which in 5e causes a character to have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. The infection would kick in, in a number of hours equal to the party members constitution roll. For the strong and hardy, it could take over a day to for the infection to show symptoms and from there the countdown to death and turning could take minutes, but for the meek and the tired, you could turn within the hour and be helpless within the fray as you do so. These rolls would be hidden from the players so that any character in story that gets bit, puked on, or just walks through blood splatter with open wounds, is suddenly a ticking time bomb and everyone is stuck in the blast radius. Also: the PCs would have to actually /learn/ to aim for the head if they haven't yet encountered undead, otherwise, unless they land a crit, they just continue to hack and slash with most weapons until they're left staring at a screaming, gasping, puddle of gore. Also: Zombies aren't necessarily violent in their assaults, moreso they desperately hunger, so the primary attack of an infected would be to initiate a grapple and then follow the grapple with a bite, which in turn makes them far less deadly alone, but outright insta-death in groups, especially among newly-risen suspects who are still fairly intact, mobile, and strong, but also may projectile vomit as their still-intact digestive system spasms with the rest of their barely-active muscle tissue.
I often use zombies as more of a natural disaster rather than a set combat encounter. Think of them like lava.
Introduce an encounter in a claustrophobic setting with memorable elements (moonless night, flooded marsh next to a burning windmill casting everything in silhouette as ash falls down like grey snow, knee deep mud with zombies popping up from the thick opaque muck, only a few bits of debris functioning as stable platforms to stand on, etc), then after they learn to fear zombies in a group of a dozen or so, you have them crest a hill and see the hoard churning below, thousands strong, roiling like putrescent ants.
The town is only 2 days away, the party needs to warn them to evacuate. But it's pissing down rain, the roads are washed out with muck and the wilderness is a tough hike in the best of conditions. Also, the party knows that the hoard might be slow, but they don't stop. They don't need to eat or sleep or get exhausted. Every rest they take is a chance for the hoard to close the gap.
Your with this video is perfect! I just started working on a zombie survival campaign and this video gave me some good ideas thanks man
I love this! Also, I've seen the dmg's...uh...rule variation where instead of killing a zombie and that is that, the surplus damage (you hit a 10 hp zombie with 22 damage) gets "transferred" to the next zombie (as long as the zombie is standing next to it)! Gonna try it out soon in my campaign, kinda excited :D
Don’t forget to use overrun! We have a rule (used mostly for undead like zombies). The simplified version is if all available spots surrounding them are occupied, then they are overrun by the zombies and are taken down and a bite or scratch is pretty guaranteed. Works so great in dungeons
Good zombie mod.
I also mod raising skeletons.
upon raising a skeleton the caster must roll percentage dice a roll of 99 produces a skeletal mage and a roll of 100 produces a skeletal knight.
Skeletal mage has 15 hp and access to all fire and frost based cantrips and is able to cast darkness once a day as well as burning hands twice a day. 2 attacks and one bonus action per round.
Skeletal knight has 55 hp depending on the level of the caster( lvl 10 +10 hp/lvl15 +20 hp/lvl 20 +40 hp) the knight wears chain mail armor and has a +2 shield (it falls apart upon killing the knight) and a +1 weapon. 2 attacks and one bonus action per round.