D&D General D&D World vs. Modern Zombies?

[Yaarel]

Have a Resurrection spell "cure" any Undead.

Count the fungal zombies as a method of becoming Undead. The fungus has Shadowfell properties, even if natural.

A zombie infection would deal damage in the same way that other diseases can. Saves are possible. To reach zero hit points, and after failing three Death Saves, results in Undead status. Even reaching Bloodied condition might result in being under the influence of the infection in some way.

 

[Oofta]

Americans can accept a certainly level of violence but we're just not the kind of people who would easily accept zombie dongs visible on the screen.

That, and the dangly bits would likely be one of the first things to fall off. Not sure anyone wants to see that.

 

[GrimCo]

Depends on edition.

As someone who played extensively pf1 as cleric and antipaladin of Urgathoa and as avid lover of Libris Mortis from 3.x, this would be seen as divine blessing. Self replicating army of cannon fodder. Saves tons of money on black onyx

Clerics have turn/control undead, necromancers can control undead. 5ed did gimp necromancers a lot.

 

[Cadence]

Depends on edition.

As someone who played extensively pf1 as cleric and antipaladin of Urgathoa and as avid lover of Libris Mortis from 3.x, this would be seen as divine blessing. Self replicating army of cannon fodder. Saves tons of money on black onyx

Clerics have turn/control undead, necromancers can control undead. 5ed did gimp necromancers a lot.

I had fun playing a necromancer in 13th Age with his constant undead companion and the ability to temporarily bring more.

I'm now wondering how pissed the necromantic undead makers would be about a hoard of "natural" fungal-infecrted undead. (Which demon lord of fungi would that be pissing off Orcus?).

 

[MGibster]

Realistically the zombies are going to lose. Even without high level adventurers, the zombie cannot think, cannot reason, and therefore is incapable of adapting to new situations or learning from experience. You can literally set the same trap over and over and they will fall for it every single time.

 

[Oofta]

Realistically the zombies are going to lose. Even without high level adventurers, the zombie cannot think, cannot reason, and therefore is incapable of adapting to new situations or learning from experience. You can literally set the same trap over and over and they will fall for it every single time.

Zombies have never been an individual threat, they are only a threat because it's so out of the ordinary that people are caught off guard until there's a critical mass of zombies. That and because every living person eventually becomes a zombie in most fiction unless their body is destroyed if they were not killed prematurely because of a simple bite. Also depends on how hard they are to kill. As others have mentioned unlike what they show in The Walking Dead, it's not that easy to penetrate the skull to get to the brain. Even with modern weaponry, it's not that easy to repeatedly get head shots.

As I said above, I think people that are more familiar with simple weapons might stand a better chance but fighting off a horde is still going to be tricky.

 

[MGibster]

ombies have never been an individual threat, they are only a threat because it's so out of the ordinary that people are caught off guard until there's a critical mass of zombies.

Oh, I undestand that. Even against a horde of zombies I'm betting on a small group of people winning the day assuming we're at the point where they're no longer off guard. It won't take long for people to figure out zombies are beyond stupid and you can herd them where you want them to go. That means we get to choose when and where we want to fight them.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Modern zombies would be even easier to deal with in D&D than in real life.

Modern zombies reply on the Power of the Writer to start the story with them having already won or for the world's militaries and simple rope to trip running idiots to simply not work. The presence of magical mobility, various AoE effects, magical healing and immunity, magical obstructions, and difficult terrain actually existing, Modern zombies especially the goofy runners we're stuck with that would shatter their ankles at the first open field are absolutely doomed.

 

[payn]

Realistically the zombies are going to lose. Even without high level adventurers, the zombie cannot think, cannot reason, and therefore is incapable of adapting to new situations or learning from experience. You can literally set the same trap over and over and they will fall for it every single time.

Which is why I’ve always used them as more of an obstacle. Easy to kill not much of a threat but there are hundreds of them in a small town, with folks trapped in buildings, that are on fire…

 

[Oofta]

Oh, I undestand that. Even against a horde of zombies I'm betting on a small group of people winning the day assuming we're at the point where they're no longer off guard. It won't take long for people to figure out zombies are beyond stupid and you can herd them where you want them to go. That means we get to choose when and where we want to fight them.

I think it just depends. Let's say have a large multi-generational household, something common throughout history. Everyone goes to bed, they even safety bind grandma so if she turns in the middle of the night she can't get anyone. But instead of grandmas, little Oscar dies unexpectedly. Mom hears something and half asleep checks on what she thinks is just a sick child. Soon enough there's a house full of zombies, then a neighborhood, then a horde. Or any number of other scenarios.

Point is, you're going to continue to have flare-ups. When that happens, you may not have a choice on when or where you do the fighting, if you don't get it under control quickly it becomes a horde. Dealing with it quickly can be problematic because of lack of modern communication options. Or maybe not. Jimmy gets bitten by a zombie that was mostly buried in mud on the way home from the field and Pa pins zombie Jimmy against a handy tree with his hoe while Ma goes to get her favorite brain-bashing frying pan.

Of course a lot of this is worse if we assume D&D zombie stats as a guideline. They're easy to hit but have 22 HP and undead fortitude. Your standard commoner does 2 points of damage per hit and somehow manages to miss a walking corpse 1/4 of the time. Your standard guard doesn't do much better.

It's an interesting thought experiment but what happens depends on many, many assumptions.