steeldragons
Steeliest of the dragons
I think, for my homebrew setting, I'm going to rewrite some of the undead abilities and kind of..."structure" of them.
What I'm thinking is, going back to old school kind of "if it kills you, you rise as one of its minions" thing...but not, necessarily, of the same type.
Basically, I'm thinking each type of free-willed undead can generate lesser undead than itself, until you get to the very powerful ones, who can choose to make lesser minions or "almost equals."
Like so...
Skeletons: clearly the very bottom. Using not even fresh corpses, but just bone remains. These are Animated undead. Mindless -or given/capable of a single simple task at a time. Every necromancer's best friend. Able to be generated through spell or ritual, random magical happenstance, wellsprings of evil, etc... Easily generated, easily controlled, easily destroyed by phsyical, magical, or spiritual (turning) means.
Zombies: pretty much all the same as the Skeletons, except they have various fleshy bits still attached. They are Animated Undead. Mindless and incapable of carrying out any more than the simplest single instruction (attack. halt. etc...). If you like the "brainz" variety of zombie, then when they kill you they eat you. You do not rise. You're just dinner. Otherwise, they don't even bother with that.
Ghouls: these are the first self-perpetuating kind of undead. They are not "mind-less" but rather "single-minded." Find and eat living flesh is their sole modus operandi. They can and do gather into "packs" which can operate frightfully efficiently with this single cause ever in mind. Ghouls generate themselves quite by accident. Those wounded, but not slain, by a ghoul must save or become infected with "Ghoul Fever." This turns the unfortunate fellow into a ghoul, themselves, by the following nightfall. They are not under the control of ghoul that wounded them, nor driven by any impulse other than the devouring of living flesh. If that brings them into contact with other ghouls (searching for the same thing), so be it. But no ghoul ever seeks/tries to "make" another ghoul. If you are living and they attack/wound you, they are trying to eat you. If you are slain by a ghoul, they eat you. If you are wounded but not slain by a ghoul and don't find a Remove Disease spell (or similar curative magic), you're turning into a ghoul. They can, at times, be controlled by superior undead (or other powerful evil personalities) through the use/bribing/training with offers/rewards of warm flesh. They also, sometimes, can retain enough of their former life to speak/respond to instruction, simplistically.
Shadows (or some prefer "Shades"): the lowliest of the incorporeal undead. These, like the ghoul, are not "mindless" but "single minded." They search, ever, to "warm" themselves from the eternal chill of the brush of the negative energy plane (call it Shadow, Shadowfell, whatever your cosmology uses) with the fire/light (a.k.a. soul) of the living being...hence their debilitating chilling touch effect against the living. Unlike ghouls, they can and will follow instructions as long as the end goal/result is to get them "light." e.g. Shadows will easily follow commands to "Go destroy the interlopers. Feed on their light and bring me the magic sword born by the warrior." They do not retain individual will or personality, as most other incorporeal undead possess. They are, due to their generally intangible state, immune to most varieties of non-magical or non-spiritual attack, though even the simple "Light" spell causes them harm and a "Protection Circle/from Evil/Magic" holds them at bay.
Wights: First of the "willed" if not necessarily "free-willed" undead. The Wight retains the cruelty, hate, and wickedness of its mortal self, consumed by the evil(s) they perpetrated in life -and/or the evil of their creation- to make that working/furthering of evil and destruction of the living their sole concern and purpose. Like all undead, sensing the "light" of the living is a horror and pain to them and they hate the living for it. When one is killed by a wight, the remaining corpse is not risen as another wight. The wight's power is not so great as to replicate itself. Generally inhabiting lonely places and burial sites, festering in their evil, the wight MAY CHOOSE in some twisted desire for minions or power, cause the slain to rise as a zombie (or skeleton if there are only bones to work with). If the wight knows a particular ritual, they might also raise slain foes as ghouls. Any or all of these lesser undead will follow the commands of the creating Wight.
Wraiths: The "normal" wraith strikes fear into the heart of all that find themselves in their dark company. Few and far between, only the most vile and wicked of humans find themselves elevated to such unnatural heights of evil. Willed, though rarely "freely so," the wraith is beholden to the evil that created it be that a greater undead (see Spectre) or more powerful evil (i.e. high level evil cleric, extraplanar entity, etc...). It can devise strategies and "think/reason" for itself to undertake its appointed task...but can not act out of its own freely chosen course of action. Incorporeal other than the cloaks and armors in which they shroud themselves, the wraith's touch -by weapon or hand- drains the essence (soul/light) of life from those so stricken. Those fully drained/slain by the wraith are consumed by the negative energies flooding into their lifeless form, those same of which the wraith is comprised, falling forever into darkness to become simple shadows under the thrall of their slayer.
"Wraith Lords" (a la the Witch-king of Angmar) are similarly beholden to their supernatural creators and the festering will of Evil that both consumes and fuels them, but can, in addition to generating minions of shadows, choose to create wights or "normal" wraiths themselves...all of whom would fall under the command of the wraith lord. A Wraith Lord possess a much higher degree of self-awareness and determination to the "standard" wraith (if a wraith could ever be considered "standard") but is still not entirely, itself, "free-willed."
And so on and so forth into the truly powerful undead which, for my campaign world, include severely limited numbers of banshee, mummies (and the Mummy Hierophant), spectres, vampires (and Vampire Lords), death knights, and liches.
Liches, clearly, don't care about making more liches, though might use their magic to generate skeletons, zombies, ghouls or shadows.
Death Knights prefer to simply slay, though can raise skeletal soliders to do their bidding.
Vampires generate vampire spawn, wights or ghouls. All under their thrall. Vampire lords can choose to make individuals other free-willed (though not as powerful as they) "full" vampires...or lesser controlled creatures.
Spectres can make wraiths.
Those slain by the Banshee are simply slain though may -through no power of the Banshee- become ghosts in their own right. Ghosts (e.g. phantoms and other recognizable appartitions) are an individual case by case basis and can not create other undead themselves.
What I'm thinking is, going back to old school kind of "if it kills you, you rise as one of its minions" thing...but not, necessarily, of the same type.
Basically, I'm thinking each type of free-willed undead can generate lesser undead than itself, until you get to the very powerful ones, who can choose to make lesser minions or "almost equals."
Like so...
Skeletons: clearly the very bottom. Using not even fresh corpses, but just bone remains. These are Animated undead. Mindless -or given/capable of a single simple task at a time. Every necromancer's best friend. Able to be generated through spell or ritual, random magical happenstance, wellsprings of evil, etc... Easily generated, easily controlled, easily destroyed by phsyical, magical, or spiritual (turning) means.
Zombies: pretty much all the same as the Skeletons, except they have various fleshy bits still attached. They are Animated Undead. Mindless and incapable of carrying out any more than the simplest single instruction (attack. halt. etc...). If you like the "brainz" variety of zombie, then when they kill you they eat you. You do not rise. You're just dinner. Otherwise, they don't even bother with that.
Ghouls: these are the first self-perpetuating kind of undead. They are not "mind-less" but rather "single-minded." Find and eat living flesh is their sole modus operandi. They can and do gather into "packs" which can operate frightfully efficiently with this single cause ever in mind. Ghouls generate themselves quite by accident. Those wounded, but not slain, by a ghoul must save or become infected with "Ghoul Fever." This turns the unfortunate fellow into a ghoul, themselves, by the following nightfall. They are not under the control of ghoul that wounded them, nor driven by any impulse other than the devouring of living flesh. If that brings them into contact with other ghouls (searching for the same thing), so be it. But no ghoul ever seeks/tries to "make" another ghoul. If you are living and they attack/wound you, they are trying to eat you. If you are slain by a ghoul, they eat you. If you are wounded but not slain by a ghoul and don't find a Remove Disease spell (or similar curative magic), you're turning into a ghoul. They can, at times, be controlled by superior undead (or other powerful evil personalities) through the use/bribing/training with offers/rewards of warm flesh. They also, sometimes, can retain enough of their former life to speak/respond to instruction, simplistically.
Shadows (or some prefer "Shades"): the lowliest of the incorporeal undead. These, like the ghoul, are not "mindless" but "single minded." They search, ever, to "warm" themselves from the eternal chill of the brush of the negative energy plane (call it Shadow, Shadowfell, whatever your cosmology uses) with the fire/light (a.k.a. soul) of the living being...hence their debilitating chilling touch effect against the living. Unlike ghouls, they can and will follow instructions as long as the end goal/result is to get them "light." e.g. Shadows will easily follow commands to "Go destroy the interlopers. Feed on their light and bring me the magic sword born by the warrior." They do not retain individual will or personality, as most other incorporeal undead possess. They are, due to their generally intangible state, immune to most varieties of non-magical or non-spiritual attack, though even the simple "Light" spell causes them harm and a "Protection Circle/from Evil/Magic" holds them at bay.
Wights: First of the "willed" if not necessarily "free-willed" undead. The Wight retains the cruelty, hate, and wickedness of its mortal self, consumed by the evil(s) they perpetrated in life -and/or the evil of their creation- to make that working/furthering of evil and destruction of the living their sole concern and purpose. Like all undead, sensing the "light" of the living is a horror and pain to them and they hate the living for it. When one is killed by a wight, the remaining corpse is not risen as another wight. The wight's power is not so great as to replicate itself. Generally inhabiting lonely places and burial sites, festering in their evil, the wight MAY CHOOSE in some twisted desire for minions or power, cause the slain to rise as a zombie (or skeleton if there are only bones to work with). If the wight knows a particular ritual, they might also raise slain foes as ghouls. Any or all of these lesser undead will follow the commands of the creating Wight.
Wraiths: The "normal" wraith strikes fear into the heart of all that find themselves in their dark company. Few and far between, only the most vile and wicked of humans find themselves elevated to such unnatural heights of evil. Willed, though rarely "freely so," the wraith is beholden to the evil that created it be that a greater undead (see Spectre) or more powerful evil (i.e. high level evil cleric, extraplanar entity, etc...). It can devise strategies and "think/reason" for itself to undertake its appointed task...but can not act out of its own freely chosen course of action. Incorporeal other than the cloaks and armors in which they shroud themselves, the wraith's touch -by weapon or hand- drains the essence (soul/light) of life from those so stricken. Those fully drained/slain by the wraith are consumed by the negative energies flooding into their lifeless form, those same of which the wraith is comprised, falling forever into darkness to become simple shadows under the thrall of their slayer.
"Wraith Lords" (a la the Witch-king of Angmar) are similarly beholden to their supernatural creators and the festering will of Evil that both consumes and fuels them, but can, in addition to generating minions of shadows, choose to create wights or "normal" wraiths themselves...all of whom would fall under the command of the wraith lord. A Wraith Lord possess a much higher degree of self-awareness and determination to the "standard" wraith (if a wraith could ever be considered "standard") but is still not entirely, itself, "free-willed."
And so on and so forth into the truly powerful undead which, for my campaign world, include severely limited numbers of banshee, mummies (and the Mummy Hierophant), spectres, vampires (and Vampire Lords), death knights, and liches.
Liches, clearly, don't care about making more liches, though might use their magic to generate skeletons, zombies, ghouls or shadows.
Death Knights prefer to simply slay, though can raise skeletal soliders to do their bidding.
Vampires generate vampire spawn, wights or ghouls. All under their thrall. Vampire lords can choose to make individuals other free-willed (though not as powerful as they) "full" vampires...or lesser controlled creatures.
Spectres can make wraiths.
Those slain by the Banshee are simply slain though may -through no power of the Banshee- become ghosts in their own right. Ghosts (e.g. phantoms and other recognizable appartitions) are an individual case by case basis and can not create other undead themselves.
