Are Undead Scary?

[Aaron L]

OK, I've gotta ask, having never played previous eds, what the frack did Energy Drain do previously? As it stands now, that thing puts the fear of god into every player I know!

They drained levels. No save, no coming back from it. Bang, youre two levels lower.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Depends on the type, vampires so-so, they have sex appeal. zombies are horrible in numbers, your swarming undead. Skeletons no problem. Liches are just mean. Ghost, spiteful but you just don't see them coming. Then there are those others, the special one, your headless horseman and such, they are fast, nasty and have fun at killing you, those are the one you got to watch out for.

 

[Kurotowa]

Which scary? Horror movie 'oh gods what it is run for your lives' scary, or brave adventurer 'I hate undead they're tough to kill and way too dangerous' scary. I'll give them the second, not the first. They're scary in the same way an angry dragon is. A threat to life and limb. Adventurers are too brave and too well equiped for them to be more.

 

[Pielorinho]

It depends on the context. When an undead creature can communicate pathos, it can be wonderful--one of my favorite moments in an old game involved the PCs' first confrontation of a simple, tied-up ghoul who had 24 hours previously been a drunk sailor on leave in town, and who was enraged with grief and hunger and begging them to let him free so that he could eat. He was no threat to the PCs at all, but they were pretty unnerved by him.

Statwise, they're no scarier than other creatures of their level. But they can be played for beaucoup unnatural points.

And yeah, Honesty_Algebra's art is fantastic: someone needs to hire her!

Daniel

 

[IronWolf]

Not so scary for the brave adventurers....

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Not in the least, as a matter of fact whenever I face one I smirk and chuckle and then attack with full force.

 

[Crothian]

Not so scary for the brave adventurers....

I'll have to fix that.....

 

[IronWolf]

I'll have to fix that.....

Rats! I had hoped you quit reading this thread! Called out by the DM!

 

[Testament]

They drained levels. No save, no coming back from it. Bang, youre two levels lower.

OK, now that's just hateful, and makes no sense whatsoever. When there's a threat like that out there, someone's gonna develop a way to undo it. As it stands, there's still no save, but at least you've got that buffer period before it becomes permanent. And the fact that energy drain reduces your ability to stand up to further attempts means its still scary.

 

[Algolei]

My mother's maiden name was undead.