3.X Zombies: How Can They Be More Of a Threat?

[Presto2112]

You know it. I know it. Current edition zombies are friggin pushovers, unlike movie zombies - those nigh unstoppable, animal intelligence, burst of speed, death-spreading killing machines!

What can be done, stat-wise, to make PCs fear zombies?

Here are a couple of my ideas...

1) Once per minute, give them the ability to charge at up to triple their base speed.

2) All zombies have a bite attack which, if the victim fails a Fortitude Save, rapidly drains the victims Con. The victim becomes a zombie when its Con score reaches 0.

Comments? Additions?

Also, what would adding these two extra things do to a zombie's CR?

 

[DragonLancer]

I don't know. D&D zombies are just mindless animated corpses, rather than the flesh-eating Romero style zombies.

I agree with the bite attack but depending on the level and equipment of the party, they would need a decent BAB and the save for CON loss should be slightly higher than normal to make them the nessecary threat.

 

[Presto2112]

There was something in the 1E Monster Manual 2 called the Juju Zombie. Was that ever updated to later editions?

 

[Dog Moon]

There was something in the 1E Monster Manual 2 called the Juju Zombie. Was that ever updated to later editions?

Yes. IIRC, it was in one of the FR books. Unapproachable East maybe.

 

[mr_outsidevoice]

JuJu Zombies are in Unapproachable East

You can also use the Mob Rules from DMG II for a truly scary Zombie Horde.

 

[Zephrin the Lost]

Libre Mortis has some great variant zombies in the back of the book. Some cam move and attack in a round, some carry disease, some have a bite attack, and so on. Also Corpsecrafter feats allow the folks who make zombies to deadly them up a little.

--Z

 

[JDJblatherings]

Scatter in a few Ghouls, Ghasts and Wights now and again. Zombie mobs get a heck of a lot more respect from playes if you do that now and again.

 

[robertliguori]

One approach is to template Ghouls a bit. Ghouls are fast, smart, infectious, and getting into a position where multiple ghouls is making a full attack on you is basically death for a character without an absurd Fort save.

 

[Piratecat]

Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary has stats for a "dread zombie" template. It gives them brain-eating if they successfully grapple you! (If they successfully pin you, the next round you make a fort save or get your brain eaten. Zombies might work together on the grapple.) This alone made my zombie encounters 300% more fun.

 

[jdrakeh]

I do believe that you have just sold one Advanced Bestiary for Green Ronin! To the subject at hand, though. . .

There are certain things that D&D, by design, simply doesn't do well. It can do them, yes, but only with a significant application of elbow grease and, even then, the results often feel forced. This very issue (weak-ass zombies) is in part what prompted my thread about exploring settings with alternate systems about a week back. Zombies in Ars Magica, for example, are fearsome.

There is a lot of stuff (including zombie survivial horror) that I'd like to do in D&D settings but which D&D supports rather poorly, largely due to the rapid upward power spiral of PCs. I believe that the creature advancement rules in the MM were (at least in part) a direct response to this particular issue. Sadly, they're kind of half-assed and few people use them.

I truly hope that more concrete guidelines for creature advancement or building are part of 4e.