D&D General Pseudo-Undead: Have They Ever Appeared After 1e?

[the Jester]

Basically, what it says in the title. The pseudo-undead were these humanoids that imitated undead creatures. They were in the 1e MM2, though I can't recall ever seeing them anywhere else. Were they ever even in an adventure?

Yes, I'm going to convert them to 5e.

 

[el-remmen]

I used them in 3E - but my own re-invention of them.

 

[Richards]

I've never seen them anywhere after AD&D 1E, but there's a "Dragon's Bestiary" article in Dragon #198, "The False Undead," that has two creatures (and one potion effect) that mimic undead creatures but are in fact quite alive.

Johnathan

 

[Yaarel]

Basically, what it says in the title. The pseudo-undead were these humanoids that imitated undead creatures. They were in the 1e MM2, though I can't recall ever seeing them anywhere else. Were they ever even in an adventure?

Yes, I'm going to convert them to 5e.

The Spore Druid? It makes sorta-deathlike creatures by fungus puppeting corpses.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Can't say I've ever heard of this sort of thing directly. There were "deathless" in 3e, which were undead, but created by direct divine intervention. As a result, they were more like carefully-preserved dry corpses, and were powered by positive energy, so they weren't dangerous to living beings (and in fact were just as antagonistic toward regular undead as normal living beings would be.)

Also, in my home DW game, I've had "shroombies" as a thing. It's a fungus that, as a "regular" systemic infection, animates the host's dead body, creating something that is feeding on death but technically alive, sort of like cordyceps except full-body instead of "just the head." Eventually the corpse is completely consumed and the fungus loses the ability to move around, but that takes a rather long time. Prior to that point, the dead flesh is semi-animate due to the fungus.

 

[Tonguez]

I've never seen them anywhere after AD&D 1E, but there's a "Dragon's Bestiary" article in Dragon #198, "The False Undead," that has two creatures (and one potion effect) that mimic undead creatures but are in fact quite alive.

Johnathan

the concept was picked up in 3e Liber Mortis but under a different name (I think it might have been a template or a feat rather than a monster too).

 

[MNblockhead]

Other than every morning when I first look in the mirror after waking up, I've not seen any.

 

[Celebrim]

It seems like they were used in the adventure that came with the 2e AD&D DM's Screen, but that was a terrible adventure.

I have never felt the need to use them, but I could if I strained be convinced to create a cult that disguised themselves as undead so that they could live among ghouls and zombies safely. Feels like the Walking Dead may have done something like that.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Spoilers to 5e Mad Mage

Spoiler

in Mad Mage, there are a group of actors pretending to be vampires in order to scare people to give them treasure. Not sure if that is what you mean...

 

[Davies]

Basically, what it says in the title. The pseudo-undead were these humanoids that imitated undead creatures. They were in the 1e MM2, though I can't recall ever seeing them anywhere else. Were they ever even in an adventure?

I believe that the only time they were used in an official adventure was the notorious Castle Greyhawk joke dungeon, where they appear in a list of monsters thought dumb. As @Celebrim notes, there are people pretending to be undead in Terrible Trouble at Tragidore, but the term pseudo-undead is not used.

The closest thing to a 2nd edition version of them was the vampyre monster that appeared in the first Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium, a living creature with vampiric tendencies and so like a pseudo-vampire.

 

[the Jester]

Okay, so I've done my conversion. It's in this pdf- I'm not done with the P's after it, which you can tell because they're highlighted. Anyway, here are my version of the pseudo-undead for 5e, along with a bunch more P monsters.

 

[tetrasodium]

There are deathless in eberron. I think one of the ravenloft domains or a ravenloft adventure had some kind of pseudoundead "goblyns" things but don't remmber much. Yes they were spelled with a "y".

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

There are deathless in eberron. I think one of the ravenloft domains or a ravenloft adventure had some kind of pseudoundead "goblyns" things but don't remmber much. Yes they were spelled with a "y".

Goblyns were transformed/cursed humans in 2E at least. They were hardcore too, with more HP than an ogre, auto hitting each round for 2d6 face chomping damage if both claws hit. The face chomp dealt permanent Charisma damage, and given their really good THAC0 (13!), it was fairly likely that both claws would hit.