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<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 7286475" data-attributes="member: 92511">Gnomes v. Kobolds and Goblins are the traditional D&amp;D pairing.Maybe go super old school and make it: Gnomes v. Trolls, instead. (Remember the original &quot;gnolls&quot; were alleged to be a mixture/magical combo between gnomes and trolls <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Also gives you a &quot;brutish&quot; intermediary foe between human-sized Orcs and, well, giant Giants.The Undead thing could be -as was generally true for folkloric [and medieval] beliefs- the result of some kind of a Desecration...either in the person's own soul/sins of their lifetime or in the mismanaging or tainting of their burial somehow. Maybe somewhere in the &quot;ancient lost civilization&quot; past, there was some big sin of the whole nation, i.e., another Tolkienism, of the ghostly army within the mountains of &quot;traitors&quot; who can not achieve their eternal rest because of their past transgression. If you want some free-willed undead, those would be the nobles or royalty...the source of that transgression. With skeletons and zombies, maybe ghouls and wights(?) being the general population (and those they've slain in the past centuries of unrest). So, it could become a piece of the campaign that the players eventually pick up on, that if there are &quot;mindless&quot; undead around, eventually there must be a more powerful [free-willed] undead source originating and controlling them...maybe in some twisted effort to restore their lost/forgotten empire/civilization. Things like ghosts or banshees might be location specific/bound. Clerics of evil deities could also wrest control of them from their creators (making for some tension between long lost civilization powerful undead and human [and other] evil cultists/clerics trying to increase their own power.It's simple, tropey, stealing/borrowing from Tolkien, but could be a reason/way to keep the undead things rare and strange and real/serious threats.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 7286475, member: 92511"] Gnomes v. Kobolds and Goblins are the traditional D&D pairing. Maybe go super old school and make it: Gnomes v. Trolls, instead. (Remember the original "gnolls" were alleged to be a mixture/magical combo between gnomes and trolls ;) Also gives you a "brutish" intermediary foe between human-sized Orcs and, well, giant Giants. The Undead thing could be -as was generally true for folkloric [and medieval] beliefs- the result of some kind of a Desecration...either in the person's own soul/sins of their lifetime or in the mismanaging or tainting of their burial somehow. Maybe somewhere in the "ancient lost civilization" past, there was some big sin of the whole nation, i.e., another Tolkienism, of the ghostly army within the mountains of "traitors" who can not achieve their eternal rest because of their past transgression. If you want some free-willed undead, those would be the nobles or royalty...the source of that transgression. With skeletons and zombies, maybe ghouls and wights(?) being the general population (and those they've slain in the past centuries of unrest). So, it could become a piece of the campaign that the players eventually pick up on, that if there are "mindless" undead around, eventually there must be a more powerful [free-willed] undead source originating and controlling them...maybe in some twisted effort to restore their lost/forgotten empire/civilization. Things like ghosts or banshees might be location specific/bound. Clerics of evil deities could also wrest control of them from their creators (making for some tension between long lost civilization powerful undead and human [and other] evil cultists/clerics trying to increase their own power. It's simple, tropey, stealing/borrowing from Tolkien, but could be a reason/way to keep the undead things rare and strange and real/serious threats. [/QUOTE]

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