Did anyone else notice...

[UngeheuerLich]

Depends on how you want to resolve the conflict. At the least, a strength check against a static DC to see if you're strong enough to actually perform the act. Or maybe opposed strength checks, with the zombie getting a chance to rip off your arm if you fail the check. Or a strength check vs. the zombies fort save. Or, a strength "attack" vs. the zombies "fort" defense.

Unless you're more into the story. At which point you just let the player succeed.

no opposed checks. And since the attacker may chose with which ability to attack the defender can at least take the better of two scores. So I hope and think it will be that way, that opposed rolls are completely substituded by attack vs defense.

To topic: giving undeads with body a constitution score is ok. It defines the ability to withstand sudden changes of your body like turning to dust etc. I was more concerned about their intelligence, which is now 2. That means they are now intelligent as animals...

 

[Ranger REG]

So, does that mean I can poison or sicken an undead, even though said non-magical poison or virus would just be attacking dead tissues and/or organs of an undead?

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well... Actually some poisons could quicken the deterioration of muscle and bone, which could work on undead.

 

[helium3]

\I was more concerned about their intelligence, which is now 2. That means they are now intelligent as animals...

Ehh. I don't mind this. I've always assumed that zombies and skeletons (and anything that's unintelligent really) are reasonably battleminded, even if they don't think per se. Basically, they know how to fight and that's about it.

 

[helium3]

Well... Actually some poisons could quicken the deterioration of muscle and bone, which could work on undead.

Right. But now we're straddling the line between chemically and biochemically active here. (*sigh* More simulationist clomping nerdism, I know A poison usually directly attacks a specific metabolic process or cellular structure. If all you wanted to do was dissolve flesh or bone, there's any number of chemical substances that will do just that. Hydrogen Fluoride is a good example. It will actually diffuse through flesh (reacting with any calcium ions it finds along the way) and eventually start attacking the calcium in your bones.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well... *shifty eyes* When all else fails... MAGICAL POISON! brewed from the life-sucking plants of the Shadowfell Ahh... Fantasy always a way

 

[Incenjucar]

Maybe vampires and other life drainers will sometimes lose Con if they don't feast or some such.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Or perhaps, if they are hit by Radiant energy, some won't lose HP but instead lose Con:

-Vampire hisses as skin begins to peel back, and its flesh becomes brittle.

-Spirit's immaterial form begins to grow hazy and distorted.

 

[Dausuul]

I know they're trying to reduce blanket immunities in 4E, but I'll be really amazed if undead are not still immune to poison and disease. (Chemicals that inflict structural damage rather than disrupting biological processes are better classed under "acid" IMO. Even if they aren't actually acid.)

As for why undead still have Con, there are probably various reasons, but I think a major one will have been the desire to make undead PC races eventually.

Or perhaps, if they are hit by Radiant energy, some won't lose HP but instead lose Con:

No ability damage in 4E.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Right forgot.

Also, mhmm... Undead races, I could so see a Shadowfell campaign.