D&D 5E Building an Undead Army!

[Herosmith14]

So, I've been working up a campaign setting (not nearly done yet), and I had an idea for a possible fun overarching enemy...nation...power...thing.

The base theme is it's a "nation" whose only (possibly) living inhabitant is a crazy powerful Necro. (S)He's waiting in his/her land, amassing his/her undead forces for an attack upon the world after a failed attempt centuries ago. They have established a council of particularly powerful Risen to help advice them and eventually serve as generals and admirals during the invasion, as well as a faction of strategic, intelligent, and stealthy summons to work with foreign pirates, bandits, and mercenaries to kidnap organic beings, dead or alive, to bring back to the army.

There are too many undead to count that could be used. Certainly plenty to be used as line-breakers and infantry, and a few that could be used as targeted trackers, like Shadows and Revenants. I think it would make sense for Big-Bad to have a Devourer (or two) under their control, and I'm open to ideas for specific undead troop rolls (particularly the covert ops). Also, I'm having trouble deciding what Big-Bad should be. Necrowizard? Death cleric? Oathbreaker? Undying Warlock? I was kind of hoping to save the actual monsters for the council, but a lich or vampire might make a lot of sense.

 

[Voort]

Also, I'm having trouble deciding what Big-Bad should be. Necrowizard? Death cleric? Oathbreaker? Undying Warlock? I was kind of hoping to save the actual monsters for the council, but a lich or vampire might make a lot of sense.

A mummy that rides a dracolich into battle.

 

[Thateous]

Why not all 4? Or at least don't cement yourself to one. Let the legends be unclear about exactly what the leader is/was. Maybe even throw them off by having an exceptionally strong minion of the BBEG be one of the 4. Or the 4 are just puppets like the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. M.Night Shamalan the crap out of it.

 

[Oofta]

When building a campaign, I frequently don't worry about details until I need them. You have a cool idea, the only thing you need to know at the start of the campaign is whatever the PCs would reasonably know plus what they could reasonably discover in the near term. In your case, the PCs have absolutely no chance to learn what the ultimate BBEG is, and have only rumors of who (or what) it could be.

That leaves you open to develop the campaign based on feedback from players, what they want to pursue and how things develop. It's always tempting to come up with this awesome in-depth campaign with tons of details ... only to find that you never use 90% of it.

 

[Eltab]

Where are all the undead coming from? If Iuz (or whoever your BBEG is) already killed the living in his land, no more babies to become future undead.
If he is sending parties to dig up the neighbors' graveyards, he will have constant border wars to deal with, draining his resources and delaying his plans. And drawing hostile attention from Paladins, Clerics, &c.
If he has set up shop someplace that has been densely inhabited since forever (like IRL Mesopotamia or Egypt), then he has resources to make hordes of fragmentary skeletons &c.

How you decide to handle this will be reflected in the monsters the PCs must face. It could be a clue to his eventual defeat, if they figure it out (themselves or via an ally NPC).

There is a thread somewhere on EnWorld titled Undead Origins which might be of interest to you.

 

[aco175]

A cool disease also helps take over regions. One that makes them rise as undead, a la Walking Dead, may raise tension among the players. Random bands of undead walking the countryside attacking all can set up many encounters. People in need, monsters in need, you can even have orcs or something go on the side of the PCs for a while to get away from the undead.

You can also have alive bad guys working for the leader. Cultists and evil clerics looking for power can hold positions. Merchants that cart around cages filled with wights or ghouls.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Where are all the undead coming from? If Iuz (or whoever your BBEG is) already killed the living in his land, no more babies to become future undead.

Always worth remembering! A savvy necro ruler should keep a stable living populace to support their legion of undead minions. Sure, the living have an annoying habit of eating, sleeping and crapping but they also make themselves, can serve as spies in enemy lands and bop that undead-turning cleric on the head before they cause trouble.

Of course, if our necro ruler is aggressively expanding their territory, they'll be harvesting undead from their fallen foes, assuming of course, their foes are mostly medium-sized humanoids. Waging war through necromancy relies on the snowball effect, where the aim of the game is to keep the momentum going at all costs. Kill, harvest, replenish - rinse and repeat. Stalls - sieges, negotiations, bad weather - are costly, time, perhaps ironically, is not on the side of the immortals, because as Eltab mentions, undead are a finite resource. Even those that can create more undead through slaying the living still require a supply of living to replenish their numbers.

Where are all the dead coming from?

So, our necro ruler isn't constantly at war. Where are they getting the dead to replenish, let alone expand, their forces?

Perhaps a supernatural event or power can be the source of the undead. A gate to an afterlife, bristling with hungry spirits eager to feast on the sould of the living. Following this thinking, our necro ruler will find the vast majority of the minions being incorporeal undead - wraiths, specters, ghosts and the like - some of which might posses the living, perhaps as spies or elite warriors.

As others have mentioned, a good 'ole disease, perhaps magical in nature, is always fun. Perhaps it animates those that die to it, at least long enough for them to walk (tunnel?) to the lands of their future master. Perhaps it happens after a time when someone dies - or maybe every new moon the diseased dead all rise together, relying on their weight in numbers to blunder through any opposition on their way 'home'. Whatever you choose, we can expect a fair number of zombies to fill the ranks of our necro ruler.

Or maybe you go with something more spectacular -- our necro ruler has, through some means, acquired the power to send spectral cyclones to ravage the lands beyond his realm. These foul vortexes of evil manifest in battlefields, graveyards and other places where many have died. With their distinctive scream, they whisk the dead from the very ground, carry them away through the air, delivering them to our necro ruler, ready for reanimation. With such a supernatural force in play, our necro ruler could find all manner of dead amongst their ranks, tho skeletons, zombies and even ghouls should be common.

Whatever you choose, it's going to be a lovely thought exercise. Good luck!

 

[Slit518]

Perhaps the big bad are a family of 3 (3 seems to be a number associated with the occult, paranormal, evil, etc...)

Each person could bring a slightly different element to it.

The patriarch could be a Necromancer obsessed with finding the secret of eternal life, and when he finally died of old age or was killed by the villagers afraid of him or what-have-you, a curse was spread out across the land turning everyone and all in a certain radius into zombies/skeletons to fight for his cause. The Necromancer could also be a Lich.

The matriarch could be a Death Cleric, who was laid to rest years ago in a tomb. It turns out she was a vampire and the villagers had staked her into a resting place, some missions (being tricked by the BBEG the whole time) could revolve around unearthing he remains and freeing her corpse.

The child (grown) could be a Warlock or a Oathbreaker Paladin. I like Warlock or flavor. The villagers could of wrapped the corpse in sacred bandages, burying it beneath the crusts of the earth in a forgotten tomb. Thus, when the child is unearthed it can be a mummy.

 

[Iskande]

Read this story about the Millenium King. It's a close approximation except he's a good guy.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Millennial_King

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Always worth remembering! A savvy necro ruler should keep a stable living populace to support their legion of undead minions. Sure, the living have an annoying habit of eating, sleeping and crapping but they also make themselves, can serve as spies in enemy lands and bop that undead-turning cleric on the head before they cause trouble.

Of course, if our necro ruler is aggressively expanding their territory, they'll be harvesting undead from their fallen foes, assuming of course, their foes are mostly medium-sized humanoids. Waging war through necromancy relies on the snowball effect, where the aim of the game is to keep the momentum going at all costs. Kill, harvest, replenish - rinse and repeat. Stalls - sieges, negotiations, bad weather - are costly, time, perhaps ironically, is not on the side of the immortals, because as Eltab mentions, undead are a finite resource. Even those that can create more undead through slaying the living still require a supply of living to replenish their numbers.

Where are all the dead coming from?

So, our necro ruler isn't constantly at war. Where are they getting the dead to replenish, let alone expand, their forces?!

But here is the thing. The Dead outnumber the Living and always will. Open enough graves, find a battlefield and you are pretty much never going to run out of the dead.