The Power of the Zombie!

[Kzach]

In this thread, JGulick suggested a way to modify zombies.

This reminded me of a long-time ambition to do something very similar, ever since I read Year of the Zombie.

So, now 4e is here, I figured I'd give it a shot. But me not being math-oriented I also figured I'd need some sort of input from smart people.

Basically, I'd like to make a zombie that can only be killed by massive damage (hacking it to bits), crit (caving in the head, classic zombie movie style), or through radiant damage (smoking it with righteous power!).

The massive damage thing kinda negates it being a minion, but the crit/radiant thing also weakens them (sure it's only a 5% chance, but that's to KILL).

So I'm not quite sure how to go about it. The save idea doesn't particularly appeal, but it does mean they could be minions and still cop a beating before going down. Any suggestions?

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

So I'm not quite sure how to go about it. The save idea doesn't particularly appeal, but it does mean they could be minions and still cop a beating before going down. Any suggestions?

You could give them immunity against all energy types besides radiant, resistance 10 against weapon damage, and an ability that automatically kills them on a crit. That would mean that non-radiant energy basically couldn't take them down, they can die from weapons but it takes more effort, and go down with a crit. Easiest way, I think.

 

[JGulick]

I kinda think the Zombie Hulk in the MM is almost there if you increase its vulnerability (give it the Zombie Weakness, and perhaps make that cancel the Rise Again power).

Giving it a bit more Resists might work to balance that and keep it a fair Lv8 Brute, but I'd beware of Resist Alls and VERY wary of Immunities. They're very tricky to balance and can do something 4E tries hard to avoid, which is to render certain characters nigh-useless in a combat.

 

[DanmarLOK]

When you say massive damage are you talking about a huge hit point pool or just a really big hit? In the first case the easiest thing to do is either increase their hitpoints or give them a damage resist of X. You could also up the hitpoints and lower their defenses significantly so that they're easy to hit but they're a mountain of toughness to take down.
Give it a power/weakness where they take double damage on criticals (aka x4, 2 from the crit and another 2 from the weakness) to simulate head shots perhaps. Or even higher although at that point you run into issues with the randomness being a factor and one in 20 hits will do huge damage. Assuming you're using a d20 and not some varient like a 3d6+2 or something that generates a bell curve on to hits instead of flat percentages.

Perhaps add a 'called shot' house rule where the player can take a negative X on the to hit roll to gain a multiplier on the damage, basic attacks only kind of thing. Example -5 to hit for x2 damage. -10 for x3 etc.

The radiant thing is easy, just up the vulnerability to whatever you feel works best for it's health pool. This does tend to drastically increase the value of divine's when facing it though and makes it harder if the party doesn't have one.

 

[erik_the_guy]

Do you mean you want them to only be affected by heavy hits, but not by little things like broken arms or ribs? If this is the case just give them all resist 5 to all damage. You might allow radiant attacks to ignore this. Lower their HP a bit. Now the average attacks that deal 5-10 will only hurt them a bit, while criticals and other powerful attacks will deal a serious chunk of their HP.

Tinker with the numbers, maybe use less or more resist (more for higher level zombies). I suggest halving their HP if you do this, then see how that goes.