Dread Zombies

-

Undead: Undead are once-living creatures animated by spiritual or supernatural forces.

They have darkvision.

Undead have immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).

They have immunity to bleed, death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.

Undead are not subject to nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. They are immune to damage to their physical ability scores, as well as to exhaustion and fatigue effects.

They cannot heal damage on their own if they are unintelligent, although they can be healed. Negative energy (such as an inflict spell) can heal undead creatures. They may heal fast regardless of the creature’s intelligence.

They have immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).

Undead are not at risk of death from massive damage, but are immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points.

They are not affected by raise dead or reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead.

Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.

Though they resemble the mindless undead that fill out the ranks of armies commanded by evil necromancers and the clerics of dark gods, dread zombies (sometimes known as zombie lords) are fit to command such troops themselves. Dread zombies are created when the magic used to animate a zombie or other corporeal undead goes awry, or when a dread mummy breathes death on a living creature. Sometimes when the ceremony to create a lich fails, the would-be lich instead becomes a dread zombie, attaining eternal unlife at an unexpected cost (the loss of some of the intelligence it had in life). These undead recognize and mourn their lost mental acuity, and this knowledge translates into a sick hunger for living brains.

A dread zombie can automatically command all normal zombies (as command undead). Normal zombies never attack a dread zombie unless compelled.

When the dread zombie makes a successful grapple check to deal damage with its bite attack against a pinned or helpless living foe, the latter may die as the dread zombie consumes its brain. Creatures immune to critical hits and those with multiple heads are not killed by this attack.

A dread zombie looks like the walking corpse of a living creature. Maggots writhe beneath its papery skin and worms crawl through its muscles. Its eyes, however, are not the foggy, fluid-filled orbs of a normal zombie – they shine with a life-like and evil intelligence.

Dread zombies are resistant to channeled energy.

Dread zombies are surrounded by an unnatural aura.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Runeforged Weapons

-
Aura strong (two variable schools); CL 13th Slot none; Price +2 bonus; Weight N/A Each runeforged weapon opposes a school of magic. The wielder gains a +2 morale bonus on all saving throws against spells from the weapon’s opposed magic. All runeforged weapons are, to a certain degree, empathic. They enhance sin or virtue in those who wield them, so a fighter armed with a dominant weapon becomes more domineering than before, for example. Anyone wielding a runeforged weapon takes a –2 penalty on all Diplomacy checks, as her vices or virtues are magnified at the expense of personality. A creature that carries two runeforged weapons (even those of the same type) takes a –5 penalty on all attack rolls, Will saving throws, and skill checks, as her mind is constantly assailed by multiple empathic urges. Each of the seven Thassilonian schools of magic is opposed by a single runeforged weapon quality—each of these being the combination of that school’s opposition schools. The correct component ...
Read more

Getting to Runeforge (Neth (XI) 3rd-Kuthona 8th (XII), 4712 AR)

-
Image
Of Runeforge itself, very little is written. The heroes knew that Runeforge was once a legendary place of learning and discovery for students of the arcane, but that its location had remained a mystery—Thassilonian scholars believe it to have been lost during the empire’s fall. The heroes travelled to Rimeskull using a combination of teleporting and magical flight. The Sihedron Circle From the rocky eastern shoreline of Lake Stormunder, the ground rises into the craggy snow-dappled roots of Rimeskull, casting its long shadow over this area. Yet not all of the ground here is rugged and mountainous. Several hundred feet from the lake’s edge, the land suddenly levels off to create a circular hill. Rocks and tenacious shrubs poke through the scattered clumps of snow here, but they are dwarfed by the ring of seven ten-foot-tall stone heads that circle the hill’s edge, their faces angled inward at each other, mouths agape. To the east, the sheer mountainside of Rimeskull rises, icy and w...
Read more

Dragons

-
Image
A dragon is a reptile-like creature, usually winged, with magical or unusual abilities. They have darkvision and low-light vision. They have immunity to magic sleep effects and paralysis effects. Dragons breathe, eat, and sleep. True dragons are divided into two broad categories: chromatic and metallic. Chromatic dragons are almost universally evil, seeking only to slake their endless lust for food, treasure, and bloodshed. Metallic dragons are generally good and often protect the lands under their care. Each dragon has a breath weapon. Their areas vary with the dragon’s size and type. A dragon can use its breath weapon when it is grappling or being grappled. Dragons have darkvision and blindsense. They see four times as well as a human in dim light and twice as well in normal light. They have spell-like abilities. A dragon knows and casts arcane spells as a sorcerer. Its power depends on its age. Dragons become resistant to weapons damage as they age, except for magi...
Read more