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I have created an undead monster manual for the heoic tier.
The 69 page book contains 59 monsters in total ranging from levels 2 to 13. Each creature has its own stat block and short description, I have also included relevant information such as disease charts and special magical loot.
I have split the book into 2 sections, General and Themed. The general section contains individual undead threats that could easily be slotted into existing encounters. The themed section presents notable or otherwise connected undead built around a certain premise.
The following is a list of entries taken from the index:
Undead Bat Master and Bats Tattered Champion and Minions Slaughterborn Spirit Gatherer and Spirits Battlefield Ghosts Unstable Blood Zombies Dragonborn Undead Legion Flesh Prince of Orcus and his undead experiments Raa’Kal’Ram’Raa, mummy with undead guards Corpse Cradle Abomination and its controlling undead parasite
I of course would welcome any feedback or requests.
I have a question though. I looked at the first couple of monsters and noticed that the Bloated Zombie has: Zombie Weakness
Any critical hit reduces the Zombie to 0 HPs, destroying it
But the next couple of zombies does not. I would suggest removing it from the Bloated Zombie however, as a critical hit in the first round of combat would destroy it.
(Also, I found it a little weird that the level 5 controller has it, but not the level 4 brute - or is that to show that they are more frail?)
If you want to keep it in, maybe have a crit do an amount of damage equal to the zombies bloodied value?
Zombie Weakness is an official part of zombie design as per the MM1 so it is something that players can reasonably expect as part of some zombie encounters. In the heroic tier critical hits are not that common, so it is a wonderfully heroic event against these few threats, and something that will make the players feel powerful and heroic without unbalancing an encounter.
This of course is balanced with variety, not all zombies are constructed or animated in the same way so not all zombies have zombie weakness. It is a case by case basis, but if you feel a creature should or shouldn't have it then please make any changes you wish to tie into your own game world.
Your idea of a crit doing damage equal to the creatures bloodied value is quite interesting (and something I have never considered), it is a little bit fiddly but very usable. I may incorporate this mechanic in "Book of the Dead; part 2: Paragon tier"
I don't tend to read over monsters for fun, but I've saved this in my monsters folder for future use
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I am running a heroic tier game that is basically a sort of magical post-apocalyptic points of light setting where the PCs will face all the horror staples: zombies, vampires, mummies, werewolves, etc. So this compilation looks to be perfect for me! I will try and take a look through it, and hopefully I can provide some feedback from actual game play.
The first monster I looked at (Fey Spirit): An at-will area affect power that restrains is too powerful, imo. It'd be much more palatable as a rechargable power.
I hope you do another one of these soon, Mesh Hong. I want to see a compilation of your Slime Beetle/Digester Beetles, and those aberrations you posted over in the Undead thread, in addition to anything else you've made.
The first monster I looked at (Fey Spirit): An at-will area affect power that restrains is too powerful, imo. It'd be much more palatable as a rechargable power.
Yes the Fey Spirit is quite annoying, I can see what you mean about its Psychic Lock power it is very strong against melee.
One of my design philosophies is to create monsters that require different approaches to destroy. The Fey Spirit is a creature that has a powerful area of control up to about 5 squares, but is slow moving. Ranged powers will be consistantly more effective than attempts to melee the creature so a group facing them should adapt their tactics accordingly.
Also while it has some strong control effects its damage is on the low side which reduces its threat level somewhat.
Also Restrained is not really that much more danagerous than immobilised, it has the added effect of giving the target a -2 to attack, making them grant combat advantage and prevents them from being push,pulled or slid.
Having said all that you could change Psychic Lock to a recharge power, if you did this I would recommend upgrading the damage to either 2d6+4 or 2d8+4. The problem with the creature then would be that its only at will would be pittifully weak and the creature would not have as much character. (I know, a highly subjective term)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rechan
I hope you do another one of these soon, Mesh Hong. I want to see a compilation of your Slime Beetle/Digester Beetles, and those aberrations you posted over in the Undead thread, in addition to anything else you've made.
I have started work on my next project; "The Book of Distant Stars" which will contain heroic level aberations. Though it could be a while until I have it ready for release.
Anyway thanks for the feedback, I will have a bit more of a think about the Fey Spirit and see if I can come up with a better design.
Wow, I wasn't expecting so many downloads, thank you.
It might be nice if some of those that downloaded it gave some feedback on its usefulness or relevance to their own games so that I could address any issues in future releases and produce a product that would better serve the community.
I've read through it and overall I have to say it's extremely well done. With a few very minor "hmm would I have done that?" I would use them all as is. I like the flavor of virtually of the undead-o's.
The included 'delve' was a nice bonus and seems quite playable.
While for some groups undead are over done, I can easily find places to use these guys with my own players and I think they'll find them all quite entertaining to go up against.
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Is this based on my undead thread?
If so kudos for the work involved - you were the main contributor.
Looking at names and stats, good job. One thing that would be good for all of 4e (not just this) is more flavour text. You need it to give a good description. Other than that, good job.
Continue the good work. If you're interested in kobolds, swing by my new thread; Kobolds: Life's little failures. It's for my new campagain.
Im looking for kobolds that don't fail. Have you ever heard of Meepo? If no google him. We need that kind of surprise in 4e.
Once again, kudos for the hard work, I hope to see more from you in the future.
DanmarLOK: I would appreciate any of your criticisms, no matter how trivial, as constructive feedback will go to improve future creations. The main issue when designing creatures for other people to use is to make the powers crystal clear, if some of my wording could be improved please point it out.
Thanks for the undead monster manual. I'm currently working on an adventure requiring a lot of undead and was starting to run out of options from official sources. This will be a big help.
I also like the island side adventure you've built in and I think I can use it.
If I come up with any questions/concerns/comments once I start putting the monsters into my adventure, I'll be sure and let you know. I'll also try to post something after I've run them here.
power, if you did this I would recommend upgrading the damage to either 2d6+4 or 2d8+4. The problem with the creature then would be that its only at will would be pittifully weak and the creature would not have as much character. (I know, a highly subjective term)
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