Voadam
Legend
The October issues often had good stuff.
Undead Origins
The October issues often had good stuff.
Voadam
Legend
Denizens of Dread
Denizens of Dread:
3.5
Akikage (Shadow Assassin): Creatures spawned from ninjas and assassins who died while trying to destroy an assigned victim.
Ancient Dead: Created by the ritual preservation of a corpse and animated by dark magic.
“Ancient Dead” is a template that can be applied to any living creature.
Animator: Animator is an acquired template that can be added to any nonmagical object.
Arayashka (Snow Wraith): Arayashka are the souls of people who were killed by an arayashka.
Any humanoid slain by an arayashka and buried in an area where snow may fall rises as an arayashka during the next snowstorm.
Bastellus (Dream Stalker): Victims who die due to the bastellus’s dream invasion become a bastellus in 1d4 days.
Bat Skeletal Bat: ?
Boneless: First created in the laboratories of Darkon’s ruler through a bizarre ritual that separated and animated separately the bones and flesh of a corpse.
“Boneless” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (other than undead) that once had a skeleton.
Bowlyn: Without exception, the bowlyn were sailors on oceangoing vessels who died from an accident at sea.
Cat Crypt: ?
Cloaker Dread Undead: Undead Cloakers are rumored to be the tragic remnant of a resplendant cloaker drained by undead.
Corpse Candle: Corpse candles are incorporeal spirits of murdered individuals that attempt to coerce the living into gaining revenge upon their killers.
Crimson Bones: Crimson bones are gruesome undead created when a humanoid is flayed alive in a sacrificial ritual.
Crimson bones are not created purposely; they rise spontaneously from the dead, driven by hatred of the living and lust for vengeance.
Geist: Geists are the undead spirits of creatures that died a traumatic death with either a task uncompleted or an evil deed unpunished.
“Geist” is a template that can be added to any aberration, animal, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or shapechanger.
Bussengeist: Bussengeists are the spirits of people whose actions or inaction caused a great tragedy in which they were killed.
Poltergeist: Beings that become poltergeists often died in scenes of great violence and emotional turmoil.
Ghoul Lord: Ghoul Lords are the cursed souls of humanoids who dared to taste the flesh of their own race. These individuals gain the dire attention of the Dark Powers and are corrupted by their cannibalistic sins. They become twisted creatures, eventually dying and rising again in the form of ghoul lords, masters of the ravenous dead.
“Ghoul lord” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid reduced to 0 Constitution or less by a ghoul lord’s ravenous fever dies and rises as a ghoul lord in 24 hours if the body is not destroyed.
Spectral Hag: A spectral hag arises when a hag dies during an evil ceremony.
“Spectral Hag” is an acquired template that can be added to any hag.
Hound Dread Phantom Hound: Phantom hounds are the restless spirits of loyal dogs who failed in their duty to their master.
Hound Dread Carcass Hound: Carcass hounds are zombielike, mindless animated corpses.
Jolly Roger: A jolly roger is the restless corpse of a pirate or ship’s captain that died at sea.
Lebentod: Lebendtod are a dangerous form of undead first created by the necromancer Meredoth.
“Lebendtod” is An acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Lebendtod create more of their kind by breathing into the mouth of a dying humanoid (one below 0 hit points) as it draws its last breath. This requires a full-round action and provokes attacks of opportunity. The body must then be isolated for 72 hours. If the body is left completely undisturbed, the creature rises as a lebendtod.
Lich Elemental: “Elemental Lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature, provided it can create the required phylactery.
Mist Ferryman: A few sages hold that they are manifestations of the mists themselves, but most believe they represent the fate of those who die in the Misty Border, doomed to wander forever.
If an afflicted victim dies of ferryman's rot, her skin flakes away into
dust, leaving a skeletal corpse that rises as a mist ferryman in 6 rounds and retreats into the Mists.
Mist Horror: Some maintain that they are the spirits of evil beings who attracted the attentions of the Dark Powers but who were not evil enough to imprison in their own domain.
Other scholars have posited the theory that mist horrors are created from the bodies of creatures slain by a mist golem.
“Mist horror” is a template that can be applied to any living creature.
Odem: Odems are remnants of the spirits of evil humanoids that did not have the force of will to become ghosts.
Death's Head Tree Death's Head: When the heads ripen, they break off from the Death's Head tree and float away. When this happens, the heads’ type becomes “undead.”
Undead Treant: Thoroughly corrupted by evil in life, many dread treants assumed a vampiric existence in death.
Radiant Spirit: Radiant spirits manifest when a powerful paladin or lawful good cleric is killed before completing an important spiritual quest.
Remnant Aquatic: Remnants are the spirits of humanoids whose bodies were thrown into a watery, unconsecrated grave after they had been worked to death.
Rushlight: The rushlight is created from the spirit of an evil creature who has been burned alive.
skeleton Pyroskeleton: Created from the skeletons of murdered humanoids.
The undead priestess Radaga of Kartakass was the first to create pyroskeletons. On a night when the Mists were thick, Radaga and her minions took the corpses of six murdered soldiers and cast enlarge person, produce flame, protection from energy and animate dead on them. As the skeletons began to stir, enlarge person was cast on each a second time. The Mists fused with the newly created undead to allow enlarge person to increase the skeletons a second time. Others have since learned the methods, and each creator often experiments with the process until they create a distinct variant.
Skeleton Strahd Skeleton: Animated by Barovia's darklord.
Whether as a result of Count Strahd's own research or because of some inherent property of the land of Barovia is unknown.
Skeleton Strahd's Skeletal Steed: Strahd’s skeletal steeds are
the animated remains of heavy warhorses whose riders have fallen in battle against the lord of Barovia.
Spirit Waif: A spirit waif is the restless soul of a murdered child. Having become the victim of some nefarious beast, the child’s soul remains trapped on this plane.
Valpurleiche (Hanged Man): The valpurleiche, or hanged man, is the tortured form of a hanged humanoid filled with a tremendous amount of spite and hate during his execution. Some valpurleiches are created from the souls of those who were wrongly executed. Others are simply enraged criminals who want revenge despite their just sentence.
Vampire Chiang-Shi: If the chiang-shi drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a chiang-shi if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Nosferatu: If a nosferatu drains a humanoid or monstrous humanoid's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a nosferatu if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Nosferatu Cerebral vampire: Victims reduced to 0 Intelligence or below from a cerebral vampire's intelligence drain fall into a catatonic stupor. If they die while their Intelligence is still at 0 or below, they may return as cerebral vampires, depending on their Hit Dice.
Vampire Vrykolaka: If the vrykolaka drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a vrykolaka if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Dwarven Vampire: If a dwarven vampire drains a victim's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a dwarven vampire if it had 5 or more Hit Dice. For this to happen, however, the victim’s body must be placed in a stone sarcophagus and placed underground. Next, the master vampire must visit the corpse and sprinkle it with powdered metals. If all this occurs, the new vampire rises 1d4 days after the vampire’s visit.
Vampire Elven Vampire: If the elven vampire drains the victim’s Charisma to 0 or less, causing the victim to die, the victim returns as an elven vampire if it had 5 or more HD.
Vampire Gnome Vampire: To create a new minion, a gnomish vampire must drain a gnome victim's Constitution to 0 or less, then place the corpse in the same sarcophagus in which the vampire itself sleeps. The gnomish vampire must then lie atop its victim for three full days, not even leaving to feed, allowing its negative energy to seep into the victim. At the end of this period, the victim returns as a gnomish vampire if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Halfling Vampire: A halfling victim slain by a vampire's Constitution drain returns as a halfling vampire if it had 5 or more HD.
Wight Dread: Any humanoid slain by a dread wight becomes a dread wight in 1d4 rounds.
Any humanoid slain by a greater dread wight becomes a dread wight in 1d4 rounds.
Wight Dread Greater: Any giant slain by a greater dread wight becomes a greater dread wight.
Zombie Cannibal: An individual slain by a cannibal zombie rises swiftly to join his slayer and the pack as a new cannibal zombie.
Zombie Desert: The first desert zombies were the product of the experimentations of one of Har’Akir’s most powerful spellcasters, the ancient dead known as Senmet. Since his time, other powerful wizards and sorcerers in that desert realm have learned how to raise up the dead to serve them as desert zombies.
Zombie Mud: Mud zombies generally hail from Darkon, where Azalin Rex has discovered how to create minions that would keep going despite insurmountable problems, such as missing arms or legs.
Zombie Sea: ?
Zombie Strahd: Barovia’s darklord has mastered the secret of creating more potent zombies than the usual animated corpses.
Zombie Fog: ?
Fog Cadaver: The fog can animate any humanoid corpse within its mist-filled area. It can animate corpses that are buried in the ground unless they were blessed at the time of burial or are buried in sanctified ground. The fog can animate up to 10 dead bodies each round. A zombie fog can animate a total number of cadavers at any one time equal to its current hit points.
Zombie Lord: Zombie lords are created only through a rather unlikely set of circumstances. A humanoid of evil alignment must first be slain by an undead creature, without joining the ranks of the undead himself. Then, an attempt to restore the dead individual to life, such as through a raise dead spell, must go awry, with the deceased individual failing the necessary Fortitude save. If that happens, the deceased may enter undeath as a decayed, corpselike zombie lord.
“Zombie lord” is a template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid.
Ghast: If a ghoul lord slays its victim with its claws or bite, the victim returns as a ghast in 1d4 days.
Lebendtod create more of their kind by breathing into the mouth of a dying humanoid (one below 0 hit points) as it draws its last breath. This requires a full-round action and provokes attacks of opportunity. The body must then be isolated for 72 hours. If the body is disturbed in any way but left largely intact, it rises as a ghast.
Ghost: Ghosts are similar to - though more powerful than - geists, spirits of intelligent creatures who have died with unfinished business and who remain close to the physical world in the hopes of completing some goal.
“Ghost” is an acquired template that can be applied to any living creature.
Skeleton: A pyre elemental can touch the corpse of any once-living corporeal creature within its reach as a free action, animating it as a zombie or skeleton (depending on the condition of the corpse).
Vampire Spawn: A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by a chiang-shi’s energy drain attack rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If the chiang-shi instead drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a spawn if it had 4 or fewer Hit Dice.
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by a nosferatu energy drain attack rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If a nosferatu drains a humanoid or monstrous humanoid's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a vampire spawn.
Victims reduced to 0 Intelligence or below from a cerebral vampire's intelligence drain fall into a catatonic stupor. if they die while their Intelligence is still at 0 or below, they may return as cerebral vampires, depending on their Hit Dice.
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by the diseases spread by a vrykolaka rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If the vrykolaka instead drains the Victims reduced to 0 Intelligence or below from a cerebral vampire's intelligence drain fall into a catatonic stupor. If they die while their Intelligence is still at 0 or below, they may return as cerebral vampires, depending on their Hit Dice.
If a dwarven vampire drains a victim's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a vampire spawn if it had 4 or fewer Hit Dice. For this to happen, however, the victim’s body must be placed in a stone sarcophagus and placed underground. Next, the master vampire must visit the corpse and sprinkle it with powdered metals. If all this occurs, the new vampire spawn rises 1d4 days after the vampire’s visit.
An elf or half-elf that commits suicide due to the effects of an elven vampire’s Charisma drain rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If the elven vampire drains the victim’s Charisma to 0 or less, causing the victim to die, the victim returns as a spawn if it had 4 or fewer HD.
A halfling victim slain by a vampire's Constitution drain returns as a vampire spawn if it had 4 or fewer HD.
Zombie: Any humanoid slain by an undead cloaker’s energy drain (including the host) rises as a zombie 24 hours later.
A pyre elemental can touch the corpse of any once-living corporeal creature within its reach as a free action, animating it as a zombie or skeleton (depending on the condition of the corpse).
Humanoids slain by a Jolly Roger’s cackling touch rise as waterlogged zombies in 24 hours unless the body is blessed and given a traditional burial at sea.
Those who fail a zombie lord's aura of death save by more than 10 die instantly and become zombies.
Once per day, by making a successful touch attack, the zombie lord can attempt to turn a living creature into a zombie under his command. The target must make a Fortitude save. Those who fail are instantly slain, and rise in 1d4 rounds as a zombie under the zombie lord’s command.
Denizens of Dread:
3.5
Akikage (Shadow Assassin): Creatures spawned from ninjas and assassins who died while trying to destroy an assigned victim.
Ancient Dead: Created by the ritual preservation of a corpse and animated by dark magic.
“Ancient Dead” is a template that can be applied to any living creature.
Animator: Animator is an acquired template that can be added to any nonmagical object.
Arayashka (Snow Wraith): Arayashka are the souls of people who were killed by an arayashka.
Any humanoid slain by an arayashka and buried in an area where snow may fall rises as an arayashka during the next snowstorm.
Bastellus (Dream Stalker): Victims who die due to the bastellus’s dream invasion become a bastellus in 1d4 days.
Bat Skeletal Bat: ?
Boneless: First created in the laboratories of Darkon’s ruler through a bizarre ritual that separated and animated separately the bones and flesh of a corpse.
“Boneless” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (other than undead) that once had a skeleton.
Bowlyn: Without exception, the bowlyn were sailors on oceangoing vessels who died from an accident at sea.
Cat Crypt: ?
Cloaker Dread Undead: Undead Cloakers are rumored to be the tragic remnant of a resplendant cloaker drained by undead.
Corpse Candle: Corpse candles are incorporeal spirits of murdered individuals that attempt to coerce the living into gaining revenge upon their killers.
Crimson Bones: Crimson bones are gruesome undead created when a humanoid is flayed alive in a sacrificial ritual.
Crimson bones are not created purposely; they rise spontaneously from the dead, driven by hatred of the living and lust for vengeance.
Geist: Geists are the undead spirits of creatures that died a traumatic death with either a task uncompleted or an evil deed unpunished.
“Geist” is a template that can be added to any aberration, animal, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or shapechanger.
Bussengeist: Bussengeists are the spirits of people whose actions or inaction caused a great tragedy in which they were killed.
Poltergeist: Beings that become poltergeists often died in scenes of great violence and emotional turmoil.
Ghoul Lord: Ghoul Lords are the cursed souls of humanoids who dared to taste the flesh of their own race. These individuals gain the dire attention of the Dark Powers and are corrupted by their cannibalistic sins. They become twisted creatures, eventually dying and rising again in the form of ghoul lords, masters of the ravenous dead.
“Ghoul lord” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid reduced to 0 Constitution or less by a ghoul lord’s ravenous fever dies and rises as a ghoul lord in 24 hours if the body is not destroyed.
Spectral Hag: A spectral hag arises when a hag dies during an evil ceremony.
“Spectral Hag” is an acquired template that can be added to any hag.
Hound Dread Phantom Hound: Phantom hounds are the restless spirits of loyal dogs who failed in their duty to their master.
Hound Dread Carcass Hound: Carcass hounds are zombielike, mindless animated corpses.
Jolly Roger: A jolly roger is the restless corpse of a pirate or ship’s captain that died at sea.
Lebentod: Lebendtod are a dangerous form of undead first created by the necromancer Meredoth.
“Lebendtod” is An acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Lebendtod create more of their kind by breathing into the mouth of a dying humanoid (one below 0 hit points) as it draws its last breath. This requires a full-round action and provokes attacks of opportunity. The body must then be isolated for 72 hours. If the body is left completely undisturbed, the creature rises as a lebendtod.
Lich Elemental: “Elemental Lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature, provided it can create the required phylactery.
Mist Ferryman: A few sages hold that they are manifestations of the mists themselves, but most believe they represent the fate of those who die in the Misty Border, doomed to wander forever.
If an afflicted victim dies of ferryman's rot, her skin flakes away into
dust, leaving a skeletal corpse that rises as a mist ferryman in 6 rounds and retreats into the Mists.
Mist Horror: Some maintain that they are the spirits of evil beings who attracted the attentions of the Dark Powers but who were not evil enough to imprison in their own domain.
Other scholars have posited the theory that mist horrors are created from the bodies of creatures slain by a mist golem.
“Mist horror” is a template that can be applied to any living creature.
Odem: Odems are remnants of the spirits of evil humanoids that did not have the force of will to become ghosts.
Death's Head Tree Death's Head: When the heads ripen, they break off from the Death's Head tree and float away. When this happens, the heads’ type becomes “undead.”
Undead Treant: Thoroughly corrupted by evil in life, many dread treants assumed a vampiric existence in death.
Radiant Spirit: Radiant spirits manifest when a powerful paladin or lawful good cleric is killed before completing an important spiritual quest.
Remnant Aquatic: Remnants are the spirits of humanoids whose bodies were thrown into a watery, unconsecrated grave after they had been worked to death.
Rushlight: The rushlight is created from the spirit of an evil creature who has been burned alive.
skeleton Pyroskeleton: Created from the skeletons of murdered humanoids.
The undead priestess Radaga of Kartakass was the first to create pyroskeletons. On a night when the Mists were thick, Radaga and her minions took the corpses of six murdered soldiers and cast enlarge person, produce flame, protection from energy and animate dead on them. As the skeletons began to stir, enlarge person was cast on each a second time. The Mists fused with the newly created undead to allow enlarge person to increase the skeletons a second time. Others have since learned the methods, and each creator often experiments with the process until they create a distinct variant.
Skeleton Strahd Skeleton: Animated by Barovia's darklord.
Whether as a result of Count Strahd's own research or because of some inherent property of the land of Barovia is unknown.
Skeleton Strahd's Skeletal Steed: Strahd’s skeletal steeds are
the animated remains of heavy warhorses whose riders have fallen in battle against the lord of Barovia.
Spirit Waif: A spirit waif is the restless soul of a murdered child. Having become the victim of some nefarious beast, the child’s soul remains trapped on this plane.
Valpurleiche (Hanged Man): The valpurleiche, or hanged man, is the tortured form of a hanged humanoid filled with a tremendous amount of spite and hate during his execution. Some valpurleiches are created from the souls of those who were wrongly executed. Others are simply enraged criminals who want revenge despite their just sentence.
Vampire Chiang-Shi: If the chiang-shi drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a chiang-shi if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Nosferatu: If a nosferatu drains a humanoid or monstrous humanoid's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a nosferatu if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Nosferatu Cerebral vampire: Victims reduced to 0 Intelligence or below from a cerebral vampire's intelligence drain fall into a catatonic stupor. If they die while their Intelligence is still at 0 or below, they may return as cerebral vampires, depending on their Hit Dice.
Vampire Vrykolaka: If the vrykolaka drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a vrykolaka if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Dwarven Vampire: If a dwarven vampire drains a victim's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a dwarven vampire if it had 5 or more Hit Dice. For this to happen, however, the victim’s body must be placed in a stone sarcophagus and placed underground. Next, the master vampire must visit the corpse and sprinkle it with powdered metals. If all this occurs, the new vampire rises 1d4 days after the vampire’s visit.
Vampire Elven Vampire: If the elven vampire drains the victim’s Charisma to 0 or less, causing the victim to die, the victim returns as an elven vampire if it had 5 or more HD.
Vampire Gnome Vampire: To create a new minion, a gnomish vampire must drain a gnome victim's Constitution to 0 or less, then place the corpse in the same sarcophagus in which the vampire itself sleeps. The gnomish vampire must then lie atop its victim for three full days, not even leaving to feed, allowing its negative energy to seep into the victim. At the end of this period, the victim returns as a gnomish vampire if it had 5 or more Hit Dice.
Vampire Halfling Vampire: A halfling victim slain by a vampire's Constitution drain returns as a halfling vampire if it had 5 or more HD.
Wight Dread: Any humanoid slain by a dread wight becomes a dread wight in 1d4 rounds.
Any humanoid slain by a greater dread wight becomes a dread wight in 1d4 rounds.
Wight Dread Greater: Any giant slain by a greater dread wight becomes a greater dread wight.
Zombie Cannibal: An individual slain by a cannibal zombie rises swiftly to join his slayer and the pack as a new cannibal zombie.
Zombie Desert: The first desert zombies were the product of the experimentations of one of Har’Akir’s most powerful spellcasters, the ancient dead known as Senmet. Since his time, other powerful wizards and sorcerers in that desert realm have learned how to raise up the dead to serve them as desert zombies.
Zombie Mud: Mud zombies generally hail from Darkon, where Azalin Rex has discovered how to create minions that would keep going despite insurmountable problems, such as missing arms or legs.
Zombie Sea: ?
Zombie Strahd: Barovia’s darklord has mastered the secret of creating more potent zombies than the usual animated corpses.
Zombie Fog: ?
Fog Cadaver: The fog can animate any humanoid corpse within its mist-filled area. It can animate corpses that are buried in the ground unless they were blessed at the time of burial or are buried in sanctified ground. The fog can animate up to 10 dead bodies each round. A zombie fog can animate a total number of cadavers at any one time equal to its current hit points.
Zombie Lord: Zombie lords are created only through a rather unlikely set of circumstances. A humanoid of evil alignment must first be slain by an undead creature, without joining the ranks of the undead himself. Then, an attempt to restore the dead individual to life, such as through a raise dead spell, must go awry, with the deceased individual failing the necessary Fortitude save. If that happens, the deceased may enter undeath as a decayed, corpselike zombie lord.
“Zombie lord” is a template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid.
Ghast: If a ghoul lord slays its victim with its claws or bite, the victim returns as a ghast in 1d4 days.
Lebendtod create more of their kind by breathing into the mouth of a dying humanoid (one below 0 hit points) as it draws its last breath. This requires a full-round action and provokes attacks of opportunity. The body must then be isolated for 72 hours. If the body is disturbed in any way but left largely intact, it rises as a ghast.
Ghost: Ghosts are similar to - though more powerful than - geists, spirits of intelligent creatures who have died with unfinished business and who remain close to the physical world in the hopes of completing some goal.
“Ghost” is an acquired template that can be applied to any living creature.
Skeleton: A pyre elemental can touch the corpse of any once-living corporeal creature within its reach as a free action, animating it as a zombie or skeleton (depending on the condition of the corpse).
Vampire Spawn: A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by a chiang-shi’s energy drain attack rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If the chiang-shi instead drains the victim’s Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a spawn if it had 4 or fewer Hit Dice.
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by a nosferatu energy drain attack rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If a nosferatu drains a humanoid or monstrous humanoid's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a vampire spawn.
Victims reduced to 0 Intelligence or below from a cerebral vampire's intelligence drain fall into a catatonic stupor. if they die while their Intelligence is still at 0 or below, they may return as cerebral vampires, depending on their Hit Dice.
A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by the diseases spread by a vrykolaka rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If the vrykolaka instead drains the Victims reduced to 0 Intelligence or below from a cerebral vampire's intelligence drain fall into a catatonic stupor. If they die while their Intelligence is still at 0 or below, they may return as cerebral vampires, depending on their Hit Dice.
If a dwarven vampire drains a victim's Constitution to 0 or less, the victim returns as a vampire spawn if it had 4 or fewer Hit Dice. For this to happen, however, the victim’s body must be placed in a stone sarcophagus and placed underground. Next, the master vampire must visit the corpse and sprinkle it with powdered metals. If all this occurs, the new vampire spawn rises 1d4 days after the vampire’s visit.
An elf or half-elf that commits suicide due to the effects of an elven vampire’s Charisma drain rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days after burial.
If the elven vampire drains the victim’s Charisma to 0 or less, causing the victim to die, the victim returns as a spawn if it had 4 or fewer HD.
A halfling victim slain by a vampire's Constitution drain returns as a vampire spawn if it had 4 or fewer HD.
Zombie: Any humanoid slain by an undead cloaker’s energy drain (including the host) rises as a zombie 24 hours later.
A pyre elemental can touch the corpse of any once-living corporeal creature within its reach as a free action, animating it as a zombie or skeleton (depending on the condition of the corpse).
Humanoids slain by a Jolly Roger’s cackling touch rise as waterlogged zombies in 24 hours unless the body is blessed and given a traditional burial at sea.
Those who fail a zombie lord's aura of death save by more than 10 die instantly and become zombies.
Once per day, by making a successful touch attack, the zombie lord can attempt to turn a living creature into a zombie under his command. The target must make a Fortitude save. Those who fail are instantly slain, and rise in 1d4 rounds as a zombie under the zombie lord’s command.
Last edited:
Voadam
Legend
Manual of Monsters
Manual of Monsters
3.5
Spirit of Vengeance Greater: When a powerful creature takes to the grave with intense feelings of hatred and business unfinished, she will occasionally rise again as a greater spirit of vengeance.
Spirit of Vengeance Lesser: Any humanoid slain by a greater spirit of vengeance becomes a lesser spirit of vengeance on the following round.
Scourge: "Scourge" is a template that can be added to any creature.
Banshee: Banshees were once beautiful female night elves who were brutally murdered by demons during the fall of Kalimdor. Their restless spirits were left to wander the world for many ages in silent, tortured lamentation.
Banshees are relatively rare and difficult to produce; even the Lich King does not truly know what causes a banshee to be produced among his minions. It is some supernatural perversion or imbalance of the soul that sheds its mortal shell and walks forth as one of these spectral beings.
“Banshee” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Crypt Fiend: As the nerubian empire was dismantled, the remnants were scattered and the dead were raised as minions of Ner’zhul.
“Crypt fiend” is an acquired template that can be added to any nerubian.
Forsaken: The forsaken are humans transformed into the undead, with all the powers associated with the Scourge.
“Forsaken” is a template that can be added to any human character.
Ghoul of the Scourge: “Ghoul of the Scourge” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Shade: Shades are created by a formal ritual of sacrifice, in which a single acolyte who has completely proven himself to Nr'zhul is brought over to the far side of death. The plague is allowed to enter his body, and powerful necromancers spend several days transforming the acolyte's pitiful shell into a devastating creature of undeath. The ritual occurs in a place known as the Sacrificial Pit, where the focused energy of the Lich King and his necromancers are at their most powerful.
"Shade" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Skeletal Mage: These Powerful skeletal Sorcerers are extremely dangerous undead, usually created independently through force of unrequited will.
“Skeletal mage” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Skeletal Warrior: Skeletal warriors are extremely dangerous undead minions, usually created independently through the force of unrequited will.
Skeletal warriors are created from the fallen bones of dead opponents. Skeletons can be created even without the assistance of necromancers.
“Skeletal warrior” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Withered: This template can be applied to any dead creature through the use of necromancy or to any creature brought close to death by a member of the Scourge.
"Withered" is a template that can be added to any aberration, animal, dragon, fey, magical beast, plant, or other monstrous creature.
Wraith: “Wraith” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Zombie: These undead are created from plague-infected individuals, but their bodies are not as riddled with the disease as those of more powerful undead.
“Zombie” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Abomination: Abominations are large created creatures, similar to flesh golems. These magically created automatons are incredibly powerful, possessing (literally) the strength of ten human men. Constructing one requires a great understanding of necromancy and science and the capacity to both animate undead and cause magical healing to living flesh. They are difficult to create, but once made they are fanatically loyal servants and tremendously powerful warriors.
The twisted, mutilated bodies of abominations are comprised of multiple dead limbs and body parts from various corpses.
The animating force of an abomination is a blasphemous conglomeration of the souls incorporated into the corpses that make up the abomination’s unliving flesh.
An abomination is created from the mutilated and disease-ridden corpses brought from the battlefield. It stands over 8 feet tall and weighs well over 500 pounds. The skin of an abomination is a sickly green and yellow, obviously covered with disease and twisted with horrible magics. It has no possessions and carries only the items given to it by its creator.
This creature costs 40,000 gp to create, which includes the cost of collection and dissection of more than 10 bodies to be used as the abomination’s flesh and organs. Each of these bodies must be infected with the Lich King’s plague, so that they will properly mutate when affected with the rituals to create the abomination proper. Assembling the body requires a successful DC 12 Craft (leatherworking) or Heal check.
The creator must be at least 14th level and be able to cast divine spells. Completing the ritual drains 400 XP from the creator and requires animate dead, animate objects, bless, bull’s strength, regenerate, and spell resistance.
Ghost: Ghosts are the spectral impressions of individuals who died due to the plague or due to some incredibly traumatic incident.
Manual of Monsters
3.5
Spirit of Vengeance Greater: When a powerful creature takes to the grave with intense feelings of hatred and business unfinished, she will occasionally rise again as a greater spirit of vengeance.
Spirit of Vengeance Lesser: Any humanoid slain by a greater spirit of vengeance becomes a lesser spirit of vengeance on the following round.
Scourge: "Scourge" is a template that can be added to any creature.
Banshee: Banshees were once beautiful female night elves who were brutally murdered by demons during the fall of Kalimdor. Their restless spirits were left to wander the world for many ages in silent, tortured lamentation.
Banshees are relatively rare and difficult to produce; even the Lich King does not truly know what causes a banshee to be produced among his minions. It is some supernatural perversion or imbalance of the soul that sheds its mortal shell and walks forth as one of these spectral beings.
“Banshee” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Crypt Fiend: As the nerubian empire was dismantled, the remnants were scattered and the dead were raised as minions of Ner’zhul.
“Crypt fiend” is an acquired template that can be added to any nerubian.
Forsaken: The forsaken are humans transformed into the undead, with all the powers associated with the Scourge.
“Forsaken” is a template that can be added to any human character.
Ghoul of the Scourge: “Ghoul of the Scourge” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Shade: Shades are created by a formal ritual of sacrifice, in which a single acolyte who has completely proven himself to Nr'zhul is brought over to the far side of death. The plague is allowed to enter his body, and powerful necromancers spend several days transforming the acolyte's pitiful shell into a devastating creature of undeath. The ritual occurs in a place known as the Sacrificial Pit, where the focused energy of the Lich King and his necromancers are at their most powerful.
"Shade" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Skeletal Mage: These Powerful skeletal Sorcerers are extremely dangerous undead, usually created independently through force of unrequited will.
“Skeletal mage” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature.
Skeletal Warrior: Skeletal warriors are extremely dangerous undead minions, usually created independently through the force of unrequited will.
Skeletal warriors are created from the fallen bones of dead opponents. Skeletons can be created even without the assistance of necromancers.
“Skeletal warrior” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Withered: This template can be applied to any dead creature through the use of necromancy or to any creature brought close to death by a member of the Scourge.
"Withered" is a template that can be added to any aberration, animal, dragon, fey, magical beast, plant, or other monstrous creature.
Wraith: “Wraith” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Zombie: These undead are created from plague-infected individuals, but their bodies are not as riddled with the disease as those of more powerful undead.
“Zombie” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Abomination: Abominations are large created creatures, similar to flesh golems. These magically created automatons are incredibly powerful, possessing (literally) the strength of ten human men. Constructing one requires a great understanding of necromancy and science and the capacity to both animate undead and cause magical healing to living flesh. They are difficult to create, but once made they are fanatically loyal servants and tremendously powerful warriors.
The twisted, mutilated bodies of abominations are comprised of multiple dead limbs and body parts from various corpses.
The animating force of an abomination is a blasphemous conglomeration of the souls incorporated into the corpses that make up the abomination’s unliving flesh.
An abomination is created from the mutilated and disease-ridden corpses brought from the battlefield. It stands over 8 feet tall and weighs well over 500 pounds. The skin of an abomination is a sickly green and yellow, obviously covered with disease and twisted with horrible magics. It has no possessions and carries only the items given to it by its creator.
This creature costs 40,000 gp to create, which includes the cost of collection and dissection of more than 10 bodies to be used as the abomination’s flesh and organs. Each of these bodies must be infected with the Lich King’s plague, so that they will properly mutate when affected with the rituals to create the abomination proper. Assembling the body requires a successful DC 12 Craft (leatherworking) or Heal check.
The creator must be at least 14th level and be able to cast divine spells. Completing the ritual drains 400 XP from the creator and requires animate dead, animate objects, bless, bull’s strength, regenerate, and spell resistance.
Ghost: Ghosts are the spectral impressions of individuals who died due to the plague or due to some incredibly traumatic incident.
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Voadam
Legend
Warlords of the Accordlands Monsters and Lairs
Warlords of the Accordlands: Monsters and Lairs:
3.5
Gravel Spawn: Gravel spawn are an abomination -- undead gargoyles formed from the hacked bits and pieces of slain gargoyles.
Gaunt Crypt: A Crypt gaunt is created through ritual.
Gaunt Swamp: Most swamp gaunts were men and women killed deep in the marshes of the Accordlands. Marsh hags are notoriously careless with their refuse, and discard failed experiments into the swamps, where it suffuses the corpses. The potions' magical energy grants the swamp gaunts unholy animation.
Ghost Bog: Ghost bogs are the animated corpses of the fallen whose bodies are so saturated with magic that they are reanimated in death.
Hag Undead: Certain powerful hags have used their potions to give themselves the immortality of the undead.
Nekrast: Occasionally, a necromancer of insufficient power to become a lich spontaneously arises after death as a nekrast. Those with a penchant for fire magic have the best chance at returning as one of these creatures. Rumors say that books of lost lore can guide a necromancer along the path to becoming a nekrast; these have yet to be verified.
Unclean Spirit: Unclean spirits are the undead remnants of dead elves, fueled by intense hatred.
Woundwraith: Popular belief (to the extent that anyone is willing to think at much length about woundwraiths) holds that they are the restless spirits of those lost to madness.
Purgatoire: Those who are bound to serve a king or great lord and who die in some grand quest or fundamental duty may rise as a purgatoire. Bodyguards who fail to protect their charges and questing knights who die in pursuit of their goal are the most common purgatoires.
"Purgatoire" is a template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoids creature.
Severed: The Severed are undead elves who have willingly given their own lives in order to trade mortality for the everlasting youth of undeath.
To become Severed undead requires a great sacrifice to one of the Elements, the elven pseudo-gods, with each Element demanding a different type of sacrifice and offering a different form of immortality: Blood (ritual murder of a blood relation, to become a Severed vampire), Bone (24 hour rite in which the would-be Severed's every bone is broken, to become a Severed revenant), Flesh (a simple mass slaughter of a dozen people to become a Severed ghoul), and Spirit (ritually removing and rebinding the would-be Severed's soul to his own body, to become a Severed wraith).
"Severed" is a template that can be added to any elven or half-elven creature.
Lich: ?
Skeleton: ?
Zombie: ?
Warlords of the Accordlands: Monsters and Lairs:
3.5
Gravel Spawn: Gravel spawn are an abomination -- undead gargoyles formed from the hacked bits and pieces of slain gargoyles.
Gaunt Crypt: A Crypt gaunt is created through ritual.
Gaunt Swamp: Most swamp gaunts were men and women killed deep in the marshes of the Accordlands. Marsh hags are notoriously careless with their refuse, and discard failed experiments into the swamps, where it suffuses the corpses. The potions' magical energy grants the swamp gaunts unholy animation.
Ghost Bog: Ghost bogs are the animated corpses of the fallen whose bodies are so saturated with magic that they are reanimated in death.
Hag Undead: Certain powerful hags have used their potions to give themselves the immortality of the undead.
Nekrast: Occasionally, a necromancer of insufficient power to become a lich spontaneously arises after death as a nekrast. Those with a penchant for fire magic have the best chance at returning as one of these creatures. Rumors say that books of lost lore can guide a necromancer along the path to becoming a nekrast; these have yet to be verified.
Unclean Spirit: Unclean spirits are the undead remnants of dead elves, fueled by intense hatred.
Woundwraith: Popular belief (to the extent that anyone is willing to think at much length about woundwraiths) holds that they are the restless spirits of those lost to madness.
Purgatoire: Those who are bound to serve a king or great lord and who die in some grand quest or fundamental duty may rise as a purgatoire. Bodyguards who fail to protect their charges and questing knights who die in pursuit of their goal are the most common purgatoires.
"Purgatoire" is a template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoids creature.
Severed: The Severed are undead elves who have willingly given their own lives in order to trade mortality for the everlasting youth of undeath.
To become Severed undead requires a great sacrifice to one of the Elements, the elven pseudo-gods, with each Element demanding a different type of sacrifice and offering a different form of immortality: Blood (ritual murder of a blood relation, to become a Severed vampire), Bone (24 hour rite in which the would-be Severed's every bone is broken, to become a Severed revenant), Flesh (a simple mass slaughter of a dozen people to become a Severed ghoul), and Spirit (ritually removing and rebinding the would-be Severed's soul to his own body, to become a Severed wraith).
"Severed" is a template that can be added to any elven or half-elven creature.
Lich: ?
Skeleton: ?
Zombie: ?
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Voadam
Legend
Into the Black
Into the Black: A Guide to Below:
3.5
Hellscorn: Driven by banal motivations such as greed and lust, some discontent lovers break their partner’s trust, fulfilling their primordial desires with someone else. Viewing the spurned lover as an inconvenient obstacle on the road to true happiness, the two new companions gleefully plot and carry out his earthly demise in the ultimate act of betrayal. Yet, while most individuals cross the fine boundary between love and hate during life, some spirits only complete the transition after death. Rising from the grave in search of revenge.
Hellscorns rise from the grave solely to wreak vengeance against their killers.
Waking Dead: Bereft of any formal medical training or knowledge, physicians and healers sometimes incorrectly pronounce their patients dead. Unfortunately, the individual actually lapsed into a deep coma, a catatonic state that simulates death, thus fooling the average layperson and the professional alike. Before long, the slumbering person awakens to a horrific nightmare, finding himself trapped within a coffin. Despite his feverish efforts to escape his eternal tomb, he eventually succumbs to thirst and suffocation. The sheer terror and frantic desperation experienced during his final moments serve as the catalyst transforming his corpse into the terrifying waking dead.
Gremmin: The discovery of gold and other precious minerals invariably draws the rapacious interest of desperate prospectors craving instant wealth and fortune. Enraptured by the mesmerizing allure of fabulous riches, starry eyed speculators hastily delve deep into the earth, fully intent on staking their claim to the dense veins of precious minerals before anyone else. In their mad rush to unearth the buried treasure, they pay no regard to practical concerns such as food, water, and leaving a discernible trail back to the surface. After the initial ecstasy subsides, the hungry, thirsty, and hopefully lost miner finally realizes the gravity of his predicament. Although ultimately doomed to a lonely and prolonged death, he refuses to part from his spectacular find, a sentiment that sparks his transformation into a gremmin after his earthly demise.
Walking Disease: No natural or artificial environment serves as a better incubator for disease than sewers. Teeming with copious volumes of rotting organic material, stable temperatures and abundant moisture, countless virulent bacteria, viruses and fungi abound within the filthy, nutrient rich habitat. Nearly all of these infectious agents remain simple, non sentient organisms, but some inexplicably form a vast symbiotic community on a humanoid corpse that acquires a degree of intelligence, plaguing the subterranean world as the dreaded walking disease. Although seemingly created as a part of a natural evolution, sages unanimously agree that humanoid intervention undoubtedly plays a role in the birth of this horrific scourge. The consensus lays the blame for these abominations on the wicked priests and worshippers of several nefarious deities performing their devilish rituals and savage rites in the anonymity and security of the sewers.
Undead: Despite every possible contingency, some spirits fail to pass into the next world, remaining trapped in an unnatural state between life and death. Some powerful individuals consciously aspire to achieve undead status, but most unwillingly join their ranks either through death at the hands of such a creature, through the magical intervention of a mortal or via the unfortunate circumstances surrounding their earthly demise.
Into the Black: A Guide to Below:
3.5
Hellscorn: Driven by banal motivations such as greed and lust, some discontent lovers break their partner’s trust, fulfilling their primordial desires with someone else. Viewing the spurned lover as an inconvenient obstacle on the road to true happiness, the two new companions gleefully plot and carry out his earthly demise in the ultimate act of betrayal. Yet, while most individuals cross the fine boundary between love and hate during life, some spirits only complete the transition after death. Rising from the grave in search of revenge.
Hellscorns rise from the grave solely to wreak vengeance against their killers.
Waking Dead: Bereft of any formal medical training or knowledge, physicians and healers sometimes incorrectly pronounce their patients dead. Unfortunately, the individual actually lapsed into a deep coma, a catatonic state that simulates death, thus fooling the average layperson and the professional alike. Before long, the slumbering person awakens to a horrific nightmare, finding himself trapped within a coffin. Despite his feverish efforts to escape his eternal tomb, he eventually succumbs to thirst and suffocation. The sheer terror and frantic desperation experienced during his final moments serve as the catalyst transforming his corpse into the terrifying waking dead.
Gremmin: The discovery of gold and other precious minerals invariably draws the rapacious interest of desperate prospectors craving instant wealth and fortune. Enraptured by the mesmerizing allure of fabulous riches, starry eyed speculators hastily delve deep into the earth, fully intent on staking their claim to the dense veins of precious minerals before anyone else. In their mad rush to unearth the buried treasure, they pay no regard to practical concerns such as food, water, and leaving a discernible trail back to the surface. After the initial ecstasy subsides, the hungry, thirsty, and hopefully lost miner finally realizes the gravity of his predicament. Although ultimately doomed to a lonely and prolonged death, he refuses to part from his spectacular find, a sentiment that sparks his transformation into a gremmin after his earthly demise.
Walking Disease: No natural or artificial environment serves as a better incubator for disease than sewers. Teeming with copious volumes of rotting organic material, stable temperatures and abundant moisture, countless virulent bacteria, viruses and fungi abound within the filthy, nutrient rich habitat. Nearly all of these infectious agents remain simple, non sentient organisms, but some inexplicably form a vast symbiotic community on a humanoid corpse that acquires a degree of intelligence, plaguing the subterranean world as the dreaded walking disease. Although seemingly created as a part of a natural evolution, sages unanimously agree that humanoid intervention undoubtedly plays a role in the birth of this horrific scourge. The consensus lays the blame for these abominations on the wicked priests and worshippers of several nefarious deities performing their devilish rituals and savage rites in the anonymity and security of the sewers.
Undead: Despite every possible contingency, some spirits fail to pass into the next world, remaining trapped in an unnatural state between life and death. Some powerful individuals consciously aspire to achieve undead status, but most unwillingly join their ranks either through death at the hands of such a creature, through the magical intervention of a mortal or via the unfortunate circumstances surrounding their earthly demise.
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Voadam
Legend
Into the Blue
Into the Blue:
3.5
Lost Sailor: Lost sailors are a rare form of undead created from seafarers who died far from their beloved ocean. Longing for the comfort of the water’s embrace, these seafarers could not rest in death, crawling forth from their graves to trek overland to reach the sea. They usually only rise when they are buried within a handful of miles of the ocean, yet still feel robbed of it in death.
The irony of being such a short distance from their goal only makes the spirits of the mariners more restless.
Sea Scorned: A very rare form of undead, a sea scorned is the wife or lover of a sailor and wanderer slain while traveling the seas. They are normally only encountered near seaside or aquatic settlements. These are the unfortunate, lonely souls that take their own lives over the loss of a loved one, becoming doomed to stand vigil forever, waiting for their dead love to return.
Unwanted: Among some sailors, it is bad luck to save a man who falls overboard: it is believed that what the sea wants, the sea takes, and no one wishes to evoke the sea’s wrath by standing in its way. Unfortunately, men sometimes fall over the side of their own accord—or are given some help by an angry comrade—but still are not rescued for fear of angering the sea. The sea does not want these men, but they are forced upon it. Either through the sea’s anger or their own rage at not being rescued, these lost men sometimes return as undead. Called the unwanted, they were rejected by both seas and men, and have returned to take their vengeance on both.
Unwanted is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature lost at sea.
Floating Dead: Floating dead are undead born of those who die on the open sea in life boats, or who perish floating adrift while clinging to the hope that help will come.
Into the Blue:
3.5
Lost Sailor: Lost sailors are a rare form of undead created from seafarers who died far from their beloved ocean. Longing for the comfort of the water’s embrace, these seafarers could not rest in death, crawling forth from their graves to trek overland to reach the sea. They usually only rise when they are buried within a handful of miles of the ocean, yet still feel robbed of it in death.
The irony of being such a short distance from their goal only makes the spirits of the mariners more restless.
Sea Scorned: A very rare form of undead, a sea scorned is the wife or lover of a sailor and wanderer slain while traveling the seas. They are normally only encountered near seaside or aquatic settlements. These are the unfortunate, lonely souls that take their own lives over the loss of a loved one, becoming doomed to stand vigil forever, waiting for their dead love to return.
Unwanted: Among some sailors, it is bad luck to save a man who falls overboard: it is believed that what the sea wants, the sea takes, and no one wishes to evoke the sea’s wrath by standing in its way. Unfortunately, men sometimes fall over the side of their own accord—or are given some help by an angry comrade—but still are not rescued for fear of angering the sea. The sea does not want these men, but they are forced upon it. Either through the sea’s anger or their own rage at not being rescued, these lost men sometimes return as undead. Called the unwanted, they were rejected by both seas and men, and have returned to take their vengeance on both.
Unwanted is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature lost at sea.
Floating Dead: Floating dead are undead born of those who die on the open sea in life boats, or who perish floating adrift while clinging to the hope that help will come.
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Voadam
Legend
Lore of the Gods
Lore of the Gods:
3.5
Defiler: ?
Husk: If the shell of a deceased victim is not destroyed, it will rise as a husk in 2d4 days.
Ka Spirit: In many ancient cultures, people were sacrificed during the burial of important individuals. It was believed that their spirits would serve that of the deceased in the afterlife. The ka spirit is the soul of one of these unfortunates.
In order to create a ka spirit, ancient necromantic rituals must be performed, involving the victim being killed by a special cursed scarab of death. Such knowledge is mostly now lost, isolated to a few terrible cults who still perform the ceremony.
Mummy: Mummies are preserved corpses animated through the auspices of dark desert gods best forgotten.
Skeleton: Any humanoid killed by the ka spirit’s rotting possession ability rises again as an undead in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under the command of the ka spirit. Treat these unfortunates as standard zombies or skeletons, with none of the abilities they formerly had in life.
Zombie: Any humanoid killed by the ka spirit’s rotting possession ability rises again as an undead in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under the command of the ka spirit. Treat these unfortunates as standard zombies or skeletons, with none of the abilities they formerly had in life.
Lore of the Gods:
3.5
Defiler: ?
Husk: If the shell of a deceased victim is not destroyed, it will rise as a husk in 2d4 days.
Ka Spirit: In many ancient cultures, people were sacrificed during the burial of important individuals. It was believed that their spirits would serve that of the deceased in the afterlife. The ka spirit is the soul of one of these unfortunates.
In order to create a ka spirit, ancient necromantic rituals must be performed, involving the victim being killed by a special cursed scarab of death. Such knowledge is mostly now lost, isolated to a few terrible cults who still perform the ceremony.
Mummy: Mummies are preserved corpses animated through the auspices of dark desert gods best forgotten.
Skeleton: Any humanoid killed by the ka spirit’s rotting possession ability rises again as an undead in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under the command of the ka spirit. Treat these unfortunates as standard zombies or skeletons, with none of the abilities they formerly had in life.
Zombie: Any humanoid killed by the ka spirit’s rotting possession ability rises again as an undead in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under the command of the ka spirit. Treat these unfortunates as standard zombies or skeletons, with none of the abilities they formerly had in life.
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Voadam
Legend
Wildwood
Wildwood:
3.5
Arboreal Defender: Once powerful warriors or leaders, arboreal defenders are hopelessly cursed beings. Trapped inside their decaying carcasses, they are forced to do Haiel’s bidding as punishment for the atrocities they committed against the forest during their lives.
Arboreal defender is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
Wildwood:
3.5
Arboreal Defender: Once powerful warriors or leaders, arboreal defenders are hopelessly cursed beings. Trapped inside their decaying carcasses, they are forced to do Haiel’s bidding as punishment for the atrocities they committed against the forest during their lives.
Arboreal defender is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature.
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Voadam
Legend
Creature Collection Revised
Creature Collection Revised:
3.5
Alley Reaper: An alley reaper is the spirit of an assassin or cutthroat who died with blood on his hands. Belsameth - considering that person particularly ruthless, cunning, and deceitful - gave him an extended lease not on life, but on the world.
Bottle Imp: Rumor has it that these horrible shadowy creatures are crafted from the ghosts of children by using dark rituals.
Carnival Crewes Necromantic Golem: Not every corpse is reanimated sufficiently intact to serve as an individual warrior, and many who begin undeath in good repair become so severely damaged that they can no longer perform field service. From these remnants are made the Krewe of Bone’s so-called necromantic golems. They are golems only in that they are constructed, usually by sewing or lashing remains together around carefully constructed hardwood and iron frames. The rest of the process is completed by the Krewe’s sons of Mirth, using the powers of the blood and curses that saturate Blood Bayou to give a sort of life to the dead tissue. After the proper rituals are enacted, the pieces of the golem gain a dark communal life and begin acting as parts of a single, terrible undead behemoth, the product of long hours of careful craftsmanship. Built not only for the battlefield, but also as works of art to be used in the carnival, these monstrosities are the pride of the Bones.
Chardun-Slain: The God Chardun, the Great General, awards distinguished soldiers and units the gift to carry on their wars after death. Chardun-slain rise one full solar cycle after their deaths, apparently at the behest of the Great General, and resume whatever assignment cost them their lives.
Fleshcrawler: Fleshcrawlers were once wicked humans who made dark bargains and ultimately were taken to the Abyssal Caldera, where demon lords made them undead and gave them dark gifts.
Golem Bone: Bone golems are constructed through the use of magical tomes and access to at least 4 Medium skeletons. Creating the golem requires a successful DC 15 Craft (bone) check.
CL 5th; Craft Construct, bone construct (Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers, Chapter Five), gentle repose, polymorph other, caster must be at least 5th level; Price 2,000 gp; Cost 1,000 gp +80 xp
Ice Haunt: Legends say that a man who dies in the snow cursing the goddess of the bitter arctic winds will rise again on the night of the full moon, hungry for warm, raw flesh to fill his shrunken belly.
Ice haunts are the frost-rimed remains of travelers who starved to death in the blizzards of the north, undead creatures with pale white skin and withered flesh.
Inn Wight: Inn-wights are the ghosts of children who do not realize that they are dead, and they wander a city in search of warmth and comfort.
Marrow Knight: These knights are crafted from the bones of humans and horses defeated and collected by the necromancers of Hallowfaust.
Memory-Eater: Creatures slain by a memory-eater rise in 1d6 days as a memory-eater.
Mistwalker: ?
Slarecian Ghoul: There is little dispute that these ghouls were once slarecians. Whether they became ghouls to escape destruction or were subject to it upon death due to a predilection for cannibalism is hardly of concern to the unfortunates who face them.
Slarecian Shadowman: ?
Spirit of the Plague: After death, the spirits of those who had agonized under Chern's plagues the longest, those whose wills were broken and spent at death, returned to the mortal world bound by Chern’s will.
A very few souls who die from a communicable illness rise as spirits of the plague a few months later to ignite epidemics.
Undead Ooze: The undead ooze is created when an ooze of any other sort violates the grave of a restless and evil soul. A malevolent spirit, still tied to the rotting flesh consumed by the ooze, occasionally enters it. This is the last meal the ooze takes as a living creature, as it is changed into a thing of undeath and filled with a hatred of the living as well as a low cunning.
Unholy Child: These deceptive creatures are the spirits of infants murdered or left to die by their parents.
Well Spirit: The ghost of a being who drowned in a well.
Butcher Spirit: Butcher spirits are what remains of animals once sacrificed in religious rites to feed the relentless hunger of the titan Gaurak. The animals’ wholesale slaughter was avenged by an angry Denev, who sought to destroy the ravenous lord’s cults by allowing the animal spirits to remain in the world to lash out at their murderers.
“Butcher spirit” is an acquired template that can be added to any animal.
Unhallowed: Sometimes, perhaps once in a hundred years, a child is born bearing signs that he or she is beloved of the gods. She may be stronger, smarter, swifter or more beautiful than
any other child. Above all, she is gifted with abundant blessings and is clearly destined for greatness in the fullness of time. These souls go on to become mighty warriors, legendary paramours, silver-tongued thieves or righteous holy men, meant to share their talents with those in need. It is a fundamental truth of the universe that the gods expect much of those to whom they give the greatest gifts.
Sometimes that trust is betrayed. With a single act, these blessed individuals turn their backs on their sacred pacts with the gods and heed the call of self-interest and evil.
People are fallible, and power can corrupt. Not everyone is up to the challenges of a disciplined and compassionate life, and the temptations of base nature are always present. Usually, once these heroes lose their way and use their mighty skills to indulge their dark sides, there is no turning back. Such a violation of sacred trust earns them the eternal enmity of the gods. When these fallen souls reach the end of their lives, nothing but an eternity of torment awaits them.
Along with all the gods’ wonderful gifts comes an equally powerful ego, and many corrupted heroes do not go so easily into the afterlife. They linger in the world of the living by sheer black will. The more their bodies rot, the more they cling to their physical existence, knowing that everything they feel is just a pale shadow of the punishments that await them.
These tormented spirits, called the Unhallowed because of their abandonment by the gods, are very powerful undead creatures whose influence can bring ruin not just to individuals, but to entire kingdoms.
Unhallowed Faithless Knight: The faithless knight was once a bold and noble warrior who, in a moment of rashness or passion, committed an act of terrible cowardice or dishonor so great that it violated the most essential tenets of his patron deity’s faith.
“Faithless knight (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature that possesses levels in fighter or paladin and betrayed the tenets of his god in life.
Unhallowed False Lover: The false lover was once the paragon of charm and beauty, who effortlessly won the hearts and souls of any who looked upon him. He inspired heroes and heroines to great deeds, gave birth to new forms of art and literature and transformed the cultures of entire kingdoms with his wit and grace. Ultimately, however, he betrayed those dreams, crushing the spirits of those who loved him, sometimes simply because he could. He left a trail of broken lives in his wake, exulting in raw sensuality and power. As the years passed and his looks began to wane, he lapsed into bitterness, spitefully using his powers to manipulate those around him and leech every last drop of happiness from their lives.
“False lover (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature with a Charisma of 15 or greater and betrayed the trust and love of multiple paramours in life.
Unhallowed Forsaken Priest: There is no greater crime in the eyes of the gods than that committed when a holy woman forsakes her vows of obedience and uses her influence to lead innocent members of the faith down paths of corruption and iniquity. The forsaken priest is a creature who betrayed the highest offices of her patron deity and, since that time, has been a force of malevolence and temptation to any soul caught in her clutches.
“Forsaken priest (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature that has levels in the cleric class, followed one of the gods of good and used his influence in the clergy to lead worshipers of his god away from the god’s tenets.
Unhallowed Treacherous Thief: The treacherous thief was cursed by the gods for betraying those who trusted him, all for the sake of nothing more than petty greed. He used his skills to steal from those who had almost nothing to call their own, simply for the joy of taking what did not belong to him. He murdered people for nothing more than a handful of coins. And now, in death, there is no treasure in the world great enough to buy his way out of damnation.
“Treacherous thief (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature that has levels in the rogue or bard class and performed acts of great treachery.
Creature Collection Revised:
3.5
Alley Reaper: An alley reaper is the spirit of an assassin or cutthroat who died with blood on his hands. Belsameth - considering that person particularly ruthless, cunning, and deceitful - gave him an extended lease not on life, but on the world.
Bottle Imp: Rumor has it that these horrible shadowy creatures are crafted from the ghosts of children by using dark rituals.
Carnival Crewes Necromantic Golem: Not every corpse is reanimated sufficiently intact to serve as an individual warrior, and many who begin undeath in good repair become so severely damaged that they can no longer perform field service. From these remnants are made the Krewe of Bone’s so-called necromantic golems. They are golems only in that they are constructed, usually by sewing or lashing remains together around carefully constructed hardwood and iron frames. The rest of the process is completed by the Krewe’s sons of Mirth, using the powers of the blood and curses that saturate Blood Bayou to give a sort of life to the dead tissue. After the proper rituals are enacted, the pieces of the golem gain a dark communal life and begin acting as parts of a single, terrible undead behemoth, the product of long hours of careful craftsmanship. Built not only for the battlefield, but also as works of art to be used in the carnival, these monstrosities are the pride of the Bones.
Chardun-Slain: The God Chardun, the Great General, awards distinguished soldiers and units the gift to carry on their wars after death. Chardun-slain rise one full solar cycle after their deaths, apparently at the behest of the Great General, and resume whatever assignment cost them their lives.
Fleshcrawler: Fleshcrawlers were once wicked humans who made dark bargains and ultimately were taken to the Abyssal Caldera, where demon lords made them undead and gave them dark gifts.
Golem Bone: Bone golems are constructed through the use of magical tomes and access to at least 4 Medium skeletons. Creating the golem requires a successful DC 15 Craft (bone) check.
CL 5th; Craft Construct, bone construct (Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers, Chapter Five), gentle repose, polymorph other, caster must be at least 5th level; Price 2,000 gp; Cost 1,000 gp +80 xp
Ice Haunt: Legends say that a man who dies in the snow cursing the goddess of the bitter arctic winds will rise again on the night of the full moon, hungry for warm, raw flesh to fill his shrunken belly.
Ice haunts are the frost-rimed remains of travelers who starved to death in the blizzards of the north, undead creatures with pale white skin and withered flesh.
Inn Wight: Inn-wights are the ghosts of children who do not realize that they are dead, and they wander a city in search of warmth and comfort.
Marrow Knight: These knights are crafted from the bones of humans and horses defeated and collected by the necromancers of Hallowfaust.
Memory-Eater: Creatures slain by a memory-eater rise in 1d6 days as a memory-eater.
Mistwalker: ?
Slarecian Ghoul: There is little dispute that these ghouls were once slarecians. Whether they became ghouls to escape destruction or were subject to it upon death due to a predilection for cannibalism is hardly of concern to the unfortunates who face them.
Slarecian Shadowman: ?
Spirit of the Plague: After death, the spirits of those who had agonized under Chern's plagues the longest, those whose wills were broken and spent at death, returned to the mortal world bound by Chern’s will.
A very few souls who die from a communicable illness rise as spirits of the plague a few months later to ignite epidemics.
Undead Ooze: The undead ooze is created when an ooze of any other sort violates the grave of a restless and evil soul. A malevolent spirit, still tied to the rotting flesh consumed by the ooze, occasionally enters it. This is the last meal the ooze takes as a living creature, as it is changed into a thing of undeath and filled with a hatred of the living as well as a low cunning.
Unholy Child: These deceptive creatures are the spirits of infants murdered or left to die by their parents.
Well Spirit: The ghost of a being who drowned in a well.
Butcher Spirit: Butcher spirits are what remains of animals once sacrificed in religious rites to feed the relentless hunger of the titan Gaurak. The animals’ wholesale slaughter was avenged by an angry Denev, who sought to destroy the ravenous lord’s cults by allowing the animal spirits to remain in the world to lash out at their murderers.
“Butcher spirit” is an acquired template that can be added to any animal.
Unhallowed: Sometimes, perhaps once in a hundred years, a child is born bearing signs that he or she is beloved of the gods. She may be stronger, smarter, swifter or more beautiful than
any other child. Above all, she is gifted with abundant blessings and is clearly destined for greatness in the fullness of time. These souls go on to become mighty warriors, legendary paramours, silver-tongued thieves or righteous holy men, meant to share their talents with those in need. It is a fundamental truth of the universe that the gods expect much of those to whom they give the greatest gifts.
Sometimes that trust is betrayed. With a single act, these blessed individuals turn their backs on their sacred pacts with the gods and heed the call of self-interest and evil.
People are fallible, and power can corrupt. Not everyone is up to the challenges of a disciplined and compassionate life, and the temptations of base nature are always present. Usually, once these heroes lose their way and use their mighty skills to indulge their dark sides, there is no turning back. Such a violation of sacred trust earns them the eternal enmity of the gods. When these fallen souls reach the end of their lives, nothing but an eternity of torment awaits them.
Along with all the gods’ wonderful gifts comes an equally powerful ego, and many corrupted heroes do not go so easily into the afterlife. They linger in the world of the living by sheer black will. The more their bodies rot, the more they cling to their physical existence, knowing that everything they feel is just a pale shadow of the punishments that await them.
These tormented spirits, called the Unhallowed because of their abandonment by the gods, are very powerful undead creatures whose influence can bring ruin not just to individuals, but to entire kingdoms.
Unhallowed Faithless Knight: The faithless knight was once a bold and noble warrior who, in a moment of rashness or passion, committed an act of terrible cowardice or dishonor so great that it violated the most essential tenets of his patron deity’s faith.
“Faithless knight (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature that possesses levels in fighter or paladin and betrayed the tenets of his god in life.
Unhallowed False Lover: The false lover was once the paragon of charm and beauty, who effortlessly won the hearts and souls of any who looked upon him. He inspired heroes and heroines to great deeds, gave birth to new forms of art and literature and transformed the cultures of entire kingdoms with his wit and grace. Ultimately, however, he betrayed those dreams, crushing the spirits of those who loved him, sometimes simply because he could. He left a trail of broken lives in his wake, exulting in raw sensuality and power. As the years passed and his looks began to wane, he lapsed into bitterness, spitefully using his powers to manipulate those around him and leech every last drop of happiness from their lives.
“False lover (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature with a Charisma of 15 or greater and betrayed the trust and love of multiple paramours in life.
Unhallowed Forsaken Priest: There is no greater crime in the eyes of the gods than that committed when a holy woman forsakes her vows of obedience and uses her influence to lead innocent members of the faith down paths of corruption and iniquity. The forsaken priest is a creature who betrayed the highest offices of her patron deity and, since that time, has been a force of malevolence and temptation to any soul caught in her clutches.
“Forsaken priest (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature that has levels in the cleric class, followed one of the gods of good and used his influence in the clergy to lead worshipers of his god away from the god’s tenets.
Unhallowed Treacherous Thief: The treacherous thief was cursed by the gods for betraying those who trusted him, all for the sake of nothing more than petty greed. He used his skills to steal from those who had almost nothing to call their own, simply for the joy of taking what did not belong to him. He murdered people for nothing more than a handful of coins. And now, in death, there is no treasure in the world great enough to buy his way out of damnation.
“Treacherous thief (Unhallowed)” is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature that has levels in the rogue or bard class and performed acts of great treachery.
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Voadam
Legend
Creature Collection III
Creature Collection III
3.5
Ashcloud: Although attributed to Chern by the divine races, titanspawn themselves blame these undead on the goddess Belsameth, or sometimes on the Lord of Destruction, Vangal.
Carcass: Gathered and created from the fallen ranks of the Ghoul King‘s most stalwart enemies, these undead atrocities have been denied any hope of a dignified death,
corrupted into some of the most grotesque of the Ghoul King’s slaves.
Bloated to an obscene size by the fell magics of the Ghoul King, carcasses are grossly obese. Jagged horizontal incisions through which all their internal organs are removed, split their distended abdomens into gaping maws, leaving the creatures nothing more than gigantic rotting husks. Once the bodies are magically and surgically altered, they are then reanimated and sent out on stumps of morbid fat to tromp back against the ranks of the Ghoul King's foes.
Deep Stalker: Some claim these creatures arise from slaughtered sea life, while others claim they are the twisted souls of evil men who perished at sea. Perhaps they are some combination of the two.
Dread Crawler: Along the coast of Termana, near the fearsome Isle of the Dead, there is a salt bog and bayou. This area was once inhabited by a species of large, roachlike vermin, but the negative energies of the Isle reached out and transformed them into undead servants of the Ghoul King.
Forsaken Spirit: When Chem was felled by the high elves, he cursed not only the living with his foul breath, but those who were dying, dead, or not yet born as well. So great was its wrath that he shackled the souls of his destroyers to the earth, while infecting them with diseases potent enough to affect even the undead.
Ghoul Hound: Created through secret necromantic rituals, these relentless predators are animated by their dark masters to hunt down and terrify the living.
An afflicted canine who dies of a ghoul hound's ghoul fever rises as a ghoul hound at the next midnight.
Ghoul Gormul: Gormul ghouls draw much of their power from the stone embedded in their bodies. This necromantic development of the Ghoul King is crafted from a semiprecious gemstone found only on the Isle of the Dead and apparently imbued with quantities of negative energy. While only the Ghoul King possesses the secret of creating Gormul ghouls.
The process of creating a Gormul ghoul wipes out all memory of its previous life.
Ghoul Overghast: Theories about overghasts’ origins abound. Most scholars believe that they were created spontaneously by explosions of necromantic energy near the end of the Divine War - the same energies that are thought to have created the fearsome Isle of the Dead. While these notions have not been confirmed, it is known that on occasion an ordinary ghast can be transformed into one of these creatures.
Ghoul Poisonbearer: The poisonbearer is yet another undead creation of the Ghoul King, lord of the Isle of the Dead.
Love-Scorned Soul: These sad creatures are the undead remains of particularly strong-willed people who died tragically because of their love for another. A woman slain en route to the altar, a man who fell from his bedroom window after finding his lover in the arms of another, victims of the unhallowed monster known as the false lover - any of these might return as a love-scorned soul. Embittered and warped by their deaths, love-scorned souls appear as spectral versions of their former lives, their once happy features twisted by sorrow, anger, despair, and hatred.
Mummy Spiderweb: Spiderweb mummies are created by necromancers with the aid of a rare species of spider found only in southern Termana. These so-called mummy spiders are harmless in small numbers, but those who wish to create spiderweb mummies breed the arachnids by the tens of thousands. Fresh corpses are given to these spiders, which immediately cover them in webbing and inject their bodies with a poison that preserves the flesh for future consumption. Normally, the spiders would feed upon the corpse for weeks or months, but once it has been treated with enough venom, the corpse is then taken back by the necromancer and subjected to profane rituals that bring it back to a shambling semblance of life. The mummy spiders also lay their eggs on the corpse, and spiderweb mummies are often crawling with hundreds if not thousands of the tiny creatures.
On the Isle of the Dead, however, the fell necromantic energies that abound there will sometimes spontaneously create a spiderweb mummy from the corpses of those who die near a mummy spider lair.
Mummy Spiderweb Ghoul King's Guard: The Ghoul King’s necromancers make fearsome versions of these already dangerous hunters.
Pain Doll: Pain dolls are tormented undead creatures created by cruel and sadistic ritual.
While pain dolls can be created by evil cults. necromancers and the like, they can also be created spontaneously, as the victims of cruel torture return to madness-tinged unlife.
A cleric of at least 16th level can create a pain doll using a create undead spell cast in a special 6-hour ritual, requiring a DC 17 Ritual Casting check for each hour; the body to be animated must be slain during this special torture ritual, which also requires a single DC 15 Profession (torturer) check.
In addition, victims of especially wicked torture have been known to rise spontaneusly as pain dolls (especially those who worship Chardun or Vangal), seeking vengeance upon those who tormented them.
Phoenix Black: The black phoenix's dying place becomes an unholy spot, prowled by undead. Living things shun the area; plants refuse to grow there; milk curdles and food spoils; and only foul beasts are willing to call the tainted locale home. Inevitably, a bird dies near the spot of the black phoenix's death, and this bird rises as the new black phoenix. It rapidly grows in size, absorbing the nearby death energy, and the cycle of the black phoenix continues.
Plague Gator: As the forsaken elves struggled against Chern, bits of his corrupt flesh flew everywhere, some landing many leagues away in the swamps of northern Termana. There, alligators that consumed his flesh were transformed into the perversions now known as plague gators.
Slon Gravekeeper: The gravekeeper is an undead slon, the first to be buried at a particular graveyard.
An elder slon who dies suddenly and cannot make its way to an established graveyard becomes the gravekeeper of a new gravesite.
Unbegotten: Closely related to forsaken spirits, they are the spirits of elven children who died from Chern’s curse while still in their mothers’ wombs.
Soulless: The Sisters of the Sun learned of such horrors when they originally pushed the Ghoul King from the western kingdoms back to the Isle of the Dead. The Army of the Living watched as the very life force was drawn from the first 13 Sisters to step onto those bleak shores. Consumed by undeath, these 13 turned against their former fellows.
Since that time, a few other unwary paladins have been captured by the Ghoul Lord’s servitors and brought to the Isle to be twisted by its dark power.
“Soulless” is a template that can be added to any living creature with levels in paladin or ex-paladin.
Undead: Few mortal creatures have ever attempted to eat an entire dirgewood fruit, and none who has is known to have survived. Tales of what might happen to those who “live” through such an attempt vary - some believe they would gain permanent command over the dead, and others that they would be transformed into strange, powerful, and unique undead themselves.
The passage of the black phoenix causes the dead to rise, randomly imbuing corpses below it with varying degrees of unholy might. It is attracted to places of death, disease, and oppression, where, as it passes, ghouls, skeletons, vampires, and other fell beings rise up from among the dead.
Any corpse or skeleton within a black phoenix's aura of undeath or that the phoenix casts its shadow upon as it flies overhead may rise up as some type of undead.
Ghoul: Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with two or three class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a ghoul.
An afflicted humanoid who dies of a ghoul hound's ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight.
An afflicted humanoid who dies of a ghoul overghast's ghoul fever rises as a normal ghoul at the next midnight.
An afflicted humanoid who dies of a poisonbearer ghoul's ghoul fever rises as a normal ghoul at the next midnight.
Ghast: Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with four or more class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a ghast.
Skeleton: Battle rams that fall honorably in battle are resurrected by the powers of Chardun and continue to serve him as undead.
In the same manner as humanoid followers of Chardun, battle rams serve their evil god loyally and, if slain in battle, rise from the dead after 30 days. A risen battle ram gains the skeleton template.
Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with less than two class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a zombie or skeleton.
Wight: Any creature killed by the Gray Man’s energy drain rises as a wight under the control of the Gray Man 1d4 rounds after being slain.
Zombie: For several minutes after the bleak crow captures a soul, its plumage becomes luminescent, emitting a soft, eerie light and giving the bird an almost ghostly appearance. The body of an individual whose soul is thus captured rises as a mindless undead creature under the Crow’s control.
As a standard action, a bleak crow can capture the soul of a dying or recently dead creature within 30 feet. The soul of any creature that has been dead for less than 1 hour is eligible to be captured, but the crow must be able to see the body to use this ability. The crow makes a Will save with a DC equal to its target’s total HD during life. If this check succeeds, the crow captures the soul, and the body immediately rises as an undead servant of the crow.
The undead servant is identical with a zombie of equal size.
Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with less than two class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a zombie or skeleton.
An opponent slain in any way by the Gray Man other than by energy drain animates as a zombie under the Gray Man’s control 1d4 rounds after being slain.
Creature Collection III
3.5
Ashcloud: Although attributed to Chern by the divine races, titanspawn themselves blame these undead on the goddess Belsameth, or sometimes on the Lord of Destruction, Vangal.
Carcass: Gathered and created from the fallen ranks of the Ghoul King‘s most stalwart enemies, these undead atrocities have been denied any hope of a dignified death,
corrupted into some of the most grotesque of the Ghoul King’s slaves.
Bloated to an obscene size by the fell magics of the Ghoul King, carcasses are grossly obese. Jagged horizontal incisions through which all their internal organs are removed, split their distended abdomens into gaping maws, leaving the creatures nothing more than gigantic rotting husks. Once the bodies are magically and surgically altered, they are then reanimated and sent out on stumps of morbid fat to tromp back against the ranks of the Ghoul King's foes.
Deep Stalker: Some claim these creatures arise from slaughtered sea life, while others claim they are the twisted souls of evil men who perished at sea. Perhaps they are some combination of the two.
Dread Crawler: Along the coast of Termana, near the fearsome Isle of the Dead, there is a salt bog and bayou. This area was once inhabited by a species of large, roachlike vermin, but the negative energies of the Isle reached out and transformed them into undead servants of the Ghoul King.
Forsaken Spirit: When Chem was felled by the high elves, he cursed not only the living with his foul breath, but those who were dying, dead, or not yet born as well. So great was its wrath that he shackled the souls of his destroyers to the earth, while infecting them with diseases potent enough to affect even the undead.
Ghoul Hound: Created through secret necromantic rituals, these relentless predators are animated by their dark masters to hunt down and terrify the living.
An afflicted canine who dies of a ghoul hound's ghoul fever rises as a ghoul hound at the next midnight.
Ghoul Gormul: Gormul ghouls draw much of their power from the stone embedded in their bodies. This necromantic development of the Ghoul King is crafted from a semiprecious gemstone found only on the Isle of the Dead and apparently imbued with quantities of negative energy. While only the Ghoul King possesses the secret of creating Gormul ghouls.
The process of creating a Gormul ghoul wipes out all memory of its previous life.
Ghoul Overghast: Theories about overghasts’ origins abound. Most scholars believe that they were created spontaneously by explosions of necromantic energy near the end of the Divine War - the same energies that are thought to have created the fearsome Isle of the Dead. While these notions have not been confirmed, it is known that on occasion an ordinary ghast can be transformed into one of these creatures.
Ghoul Poisonbearer: The poisonbearer is yet another undead creation of the Ghoul King, lord of the Isle of the Dead.
Love-Scorned Soul: These sad creatures are the undead remains of particularly strong-willed people who died tragically because of their love for another. A woman slain en route to the altar, a man who fell from his bedroom window after finding his lover in the arms of another, victims of the unhallowed monster known as the false lover - any of these might return as a love-scorned soul. Embittered and warped by their deaths, love-scorned souls appear as spectral versions of their former lives, their once happy features twisted by sorrow, anger, despair, and hatred.
Mummy Spiderweb: Spiderweb mummies are created by necromancers with the aid of a rare species of spider found only in southern Termana. These so-called mummy spiders are harmless in small numbers, but those who wish to create spiderweb mummies breed the arachnids by the tens of thousands. Fresh corpses are given to these spiders, which immediately cover them in webbing and inject their bodies with a poison that preserves the flesh for future consumption. Normally, the spiders would feed upon the corpse for weeks or months, but once it has been treated with enough venom, the corpse is then taken back by the necromancer and subjected to profane rituals that bring it back to a shambling semblance of life. The mummy spiders also lay their eggs on the corpse, and spiderweb mummies are often crawling with hundreds if not thousands of the tiny creatures.
On the Isle of the Dead, however, the fell necromantic energies that abound there will sometimes spontaneously create a spiderweb mummy from the corpses of those who die near a mummy spider lair.
Mummy Spiderweb Ghoul King's Guard: The Ghoul King’s necromancers make fearsome versions of these already dangerous hunters.
Pain Doll: Pain dolls are tormented undead creatures created by cruel and sadistic ritual.
While pain dolls can be created by evil cults. necromancers and the like, they can also be created spontaneously, as the victims of cruel torture return to madness-tinged unlife.
A cleric of at least 16th level can create a pain doll using a create undead spell cast in a special 6-hour ritual, requiring a DC 17 Ritual Casting check for each hour; the body to be animated must be slain during this special torture ritual, which also requires a single DC 15 Profession (torturer) check.
In addition, victims of especially wicked torture have been known to rise spontaneusly as pain dolls (especially those who worship Chardun or Vangal), seeking vengeance upon those who tormented them.
Phoenix Black: The black phoenix's dying place becomes an unholy spot, prowled by undead. Living things shun the area; plants refuse to grow there; milk curdles and food spoils; and only foul beasts are willing to call the tainted locale home. Inevitably, a bird dies near the spot of the black phoenix's death, and this bird rises as the new black phoenix. It rapidly grows in size, absorbing the nearby death energy, and the cycle of the black phoenix continues.
Plague Gator: As the forsaken elves struggled against Chern, bits of his corrupt flesh flew everywhere, some landing many leagues away in the swamps of northern Termana. There, alligators that consumed his flesh were transformed into the perversions now known as plague gators.
Slon Gravekeeper: The gravekeeper is an undead slon, the first to be buried at a particular graveyard.
An elder slon who dies suddenly and cannot make its way to an established graveyard becomes the gravekeeper of a new gravesite.
Unbegotten: Closely related to forsaken spirits, they are the spirits of elven children who died from Chern’s curse while still in their mothers’ wombs.
Soulless: The Sisters of the Sun learned of such horrors when they originally pushed the Ghoul King from the western kingdoms back to the Isle of the Dead. The Army of the Living watched as the very life force was drawn from the first 13 Sisters to step onto those bleak shores. Consumed by undeath, these 13 turned against their former fellows.
Since that time, a few other unwary paladins have been captured by the Ghoul Lord’s servitors and brought to the Isle to be twisted by its dark power.
“Soulless” is a template that can be added to any living creature with levels in paladin or ex-paladin.
Undead: Few mortal creatures have ever attempted to eat an entire dirgewood fruit, and none who has is known to have survived. Tales of what might happen to those who “live” through such an attempt vary - some believe they would gain permanent command over the dead, and others that they would be transformed into strange, powerful, and unique undead themselves.
The passage of the black phoenix causes the dead to rise, randomly imbuing corpses below it with varying degrees of unholy might. It is attracted to places of death, disease, and oppression, where, as it passes, ghouls, skeletons, vampires, and other fell beings rise up from among the dead.
Any corpse or skeleton within a black phoenix's aura of undeath or that the phoenix casts its shadow upon as it flies overhead may rise up as some type of undead.
Ghoul: Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with two or three class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a ghoul.
An afflicted humanoid who dies of a ghoul hound's ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight.
An afflicted humanoid who dies of a ghoul overghast's ghoul fever rises as a normal ghoul at the next midnight.
An afflicted humanoid who dies of a poisonbearer ghoul's ghoul fever rises as a normal ghoul at the next midnight.
Ghast: Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with four or more class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a ghast.
Skeleton: Battle rams that fall honorably in battle are resurrected by the powers of Chardun and continue to serve him as undead.
In the same manner as humanoid followers of Chardun, battle rams serve their evil god loyally and, if slain in battle, rise from the dead after 30 days. A risen battle ram gains the skeleton template.
Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with less than two class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a zombie or skeleton.
Wight: Any creature killed by the Gray Man’s energy drain rises as a wight under the control of the Gray Man 1d4 rounds after being slain.
Zombie: For several minutes after the bleak crow captures a soul, its plumage becomes luminescent, emitting a soft, eerie light and giving the bird an almost ghostly appearance. The body of an individual whose soul is thus captured rises as a mindless undead creature under the Crow’s control.
As a standard action, a bleak crow can capture the soul of a dying or recently dead creature within 30 feet. The soul of any creature that has been dead for less than 1 hour is eligible to be captured, but the crow must be able to see the body to use this ability. The crow makes a Will save with a DC equal to its target’s total HD during life. If this check succeeds, the crow captures the soul, and the body immediately rises as an undead servant of the crow.
The undead servant is identical with a zombie of equal size.
Any animal, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid corpse with less than two class levels and within a dirgewood's foul influence range that remains in contact with the ground for 1 full round is animated into a zombie or skeleton.
An opponent slain in any way by the Gray Man other than by energy drain animates as a zombie under the Gray Man’s control 1d4 rounds after being slain.
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