Book of the Dead - Monster Manual by Mesh Hong

Mesh Hong · May 26, 2009

I have created an undead monster manual for the heoic tier.

The 69 page book contains 59 monsters in total ranging from levels 2 to 13. Each creature has its own stat block and short description, I have also included relevant information such as disease charts and special magical loot.

I have split the book into 2 sections, General and Themed. The general section contains individual undead threats that could easily be slotted into existing encounters. The themed section presents notable or otherwise connected undead built around a certain premise.

The following is a list of entries taken from the index:

General Undead

Bloated Zombie
Boneblade Skeleton
Clutching Zombie
Corpse Catapult
Crawling Hand
Festering Corpse
Fey Spirit
Fidget Tick
Flowing Death
Heavy Skeleton
Wraithkind Memotic
Pit Horror
Poisonbound Skeleton
Rage Zombie
Razor Wraith
Restless Spirit
Shadow Creeper Zombie
Skeletal Spear Guard
Skeletal Tomb Guardian
Spectral Strangler
Thrice Cursed Crone
Unholy Golem
Zombie Alchemist
Zombie Needle Horror
Zombie Ripper
Zombie Swarm

Themed Undead

Undead Bat Master and Bats
Tattered Champion and Minions
Slaughterborn Spirit Gatherer and Spirits
Battlefield Ghosts
Unstable Blood Zombies
Dragonborn Undead Legion
Flesh Prince of Orcus and his undead experiments
Raa’Kal’Ram’Raa, mummy with undead guards
Corpse Cradle Abomination and its controlling undead parasite

I of course would welcome any feedback or requests.

Thanks

Neubert · May 26, 2009

Wow, it looks very nice, thanks for sharing!

I have a question though. I looked at the first couple of monsters and noticed that the Bloated Zombie has:
Zombie Weakness
Any critical hit reduces the Zombie to 0 HPs, destroying it

But the next couple of zombies does not. I would suggest removing it from the Bloated Zombie however, as a critical hit in the first round of combat would destroy it.
(Also, I found it a little weird that the level 5 controller has it, but not the level 4 brute - or is that to show that they are more frail?)

If you want to keep it in, maybe have a crit do an amount of damage equal to the zombies bloodied value?

Mesh Hong · May 26, 2009

To me, its a question of variety and balance.

Zombie Weakness is an official part of zombie design as per the MM1 so it is something that players can reasonably expect as part of some zombie encounters. In the heroic tier critical hits are not that common, so it is a wonderfully heroic event against these few threats, and something that will make the players feel powerful and heroic without unbalancing an encounter.

This of course is balanced with variety, not all zombies are constructed or animated in the same way so not all zombies have zombie weakness. It is a case by case basis, but if you feel a creature should or shouldn't have it then please make any changes you wish to tie into your own game world.

Your idea of a crit doing damage equal to the creatures bloodied value is quite interesting (and something I have never considered), it is a little bit fiddly but very usable. I may incorporate this mechanic in "Book of the Dead; part 2: Paragon tier"

Thanks

fissionessence · May 26, 2009

Thanks!

I don't tend to read over monsters for fun, but I've saved this in my monsters folder for future use

~

Mesh Hong · May 26, 2009

fissionessence said:
Thanks!
I don't tend to read over monsters for fun, but I've saved this in my monsters folder for future use

No probs, thats what its there for.

Mentat55 · May 26, 2009

I am running a heroic tier game that is basically a sort of magical post-apocalyptic points of light setting where the PCs will face all the horror staples: zombies, vampires, mummies, werewolves, etc. So this compilation looks to be perfect for me! I will try and take a look through it, and hopefully I can provide some feedback from actual game play.

DanmarLOK · May 26, 2009

Awesome bit of work.

Neubert · May 26, 2009

Mesh Hong said:
To me, its a question of variety and balance.
(snip)

Okay, makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

Rechan · May 26, 2009

The first monster I looked at (Fey Spirit): An at-will area affect power that restrains is too powerful, imo. It'd be much more palatable as a rechargable power.

Rechan · May 26, 2009

I hope you do another one of these soon, Mesh Hong. I want to see a compilation of your Slime Beetle/Digester Beetles, and those aberrations you posted over in the Undead thread, in addition to anything else you've made.