D&D General Alternatives to lich or vampire?

[Voadam]

Here is the existing 5e Monster Manual flavor description about making Mummy lords.

In the tombs of the ancients, tyrannical monarchs and the high priests of dark gods lie in dreamless rest, waiting for the time when they might reclaim their thrones and reforge their ancient empires.
Under the direction of the most powerful priests, the ritual that creates a mummy can be increased in potency. The mummy lord that rises from such a ritual retains the memories and personality of its former life, and is gifted with supernatural resilience. Dead emperors wield the same infamous rune-marked blades that they did in legend. Sorcerer lords work the forbidden magic that once controlled a terrified populace, and the dark gods reward dead priest-kings' prayers by imparting divine spells.
Heart of the Mummy Lord. As part of the ritual that creates a mummy lord, the creature's heart and viscera are removed from the corpse and placed in canopic jars. These jars are usually carved from limestone or made of pottery, etched or painted with religious hieroglyphs.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Id rather give it unique monster abilities to make it engaging.

But maybe that's just me.

Im a bit of a convert to the argument that 'PCs get PC stuff, NPCs and monsters do their own thing.'

I've reached the point where if I throw a ghoul at my PCs, they know what a ghoul is able to do and aren't scared. But if I give a ghoul the ability to rage, or a bit of spellcasting? That completely throws them off.

So they can have both unique monster abilities, plus PC abilities. Way more fun than just giving more hit points or AC.

 

[Flamestrike]

I've reached the point where if I throw a ghoul at my PCs, they know what a ghoul is able to do and aren't scared. But if I give a ghoul the ability to rage, or a bit of spellcasting? That completely throws them off.

Yeah but you can give them any ability you want.

Frightening glare, an aura that buffs other nearby undead (perfect for Ghasts), a porcupine damage effect, double the HP, a Leadership ability or Parry, the Brute ability or whatever.

As a general rule, PC abilities are fit for PCs only (who are expected to use those abilities over a 6ish encounter/ 2 short rest adventuring day).

Coming from 3.E its refreshing. I loathe statting up a monster with templates and class levels for 15 minutes when it literally only exists to die in a combat.

 

[Oofta]

Yeah but you can give them any ability you want.

Frightening glare, an aura that buffs other nearby undead (perfect for Ghasts), a porcupine damage effect, double the HP, a Leadership ability or Parry, the Brute ability or whatever.

As a general rule, PC abilities are fit for PCs only (who are expected to use those abilities over a 6ish encounter/ 2 short rest adventuring day).

Coming from 3.E its refreshing. I loathe statting up a monster with templates and class levels for 15 minutes when it literally only exists to die in a combat.

Adding class levels is one of the options discussed in the DMG chapter 9 under "Monsters with Classes".

You certainly don't have to add classes, sometimes I do sometimes I don't. Just depends on my goal for the monster. In my last campaign I had a BBEG ancient red dragon with several levels of sorcerer that worked quite well and wasn't particularly difficult to build. As long as you don't get too caught up in details or try to do an optimal build I don't find it takes much longer than upgrading a monster using the standard monster build rules.

 

[Gadget]

Most of the intelligent, keep your general personality type undead seem to be a bit beyond, "Pay a sum of money, and you get in the door" type of ventures. There seems to be powerful curses involved and dark deeds, not merely a rich amoral guy wanting a longer life. I mean, he could conceivably pay someone to perform a Clone type thing for him, or have him sell out to some really evil power for a potion of longevity.
Or he could have recently been given a magic Ring that is very useful and seems to prolong his life, but now he is feeling all stretched out and seems to spend more and more of his time in Ethereal Plane and unseen in the World. Well on his way to becoming a Wraith, under the dominion of the Dark Power that made the Ring.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

An undead Rakshasa.

 

[Voadam]

Check here for some ideas of existing backstories for undead creation if you want to match your concept to existing stuff.

 

[glass]

Yeah but you can give them any ability you want.

They are giving them abilities they want. Just because you do not want to give monsters class levels, that does not make @Urriak Uruk's doing so wrongbadfun.

_
glass.

 

[Quartz]

So, IMC, I want to make a noble lord undead. As in, part of his backstory involves him wanting to become undead, and he pays a sum of money, and then does that.

Death Knight or Animus.

 

[Quartz]

On reading the whole thread, it seems to me that you actually just want to give your antagonist an extended lifespan. For a relatively benign method you might care to read 'The Testament of Jeremy Lord Northam' which is decidedly non-PG so no link. In an early Dungeon Magazine there's Azurax Silverhawk who keeps himself from getting old by having a painting which inflicts damage on the vicinity. There's a spell in 1E /2E 'Life Force Transfer' which transfers the caster's life force to a new person - your antagonist might have a ring which does this once per decade or under a particular astronomical event which just happens to be approaching. In one of the 3rd party 3E supplements there's someone who supplies souls to demons to stay young. There are many methods.