Setting these undead apart

[Grimmjow]

It's late but i wanted to get this up before i went to bed.

Im sending my group into a subterranean level of a temple that they entered a while ago. The temple belongs to pelor and they have been sent in there by a priest of his to find the rune of endless fire (yes the runepriest one).

I was paging through the monster manual and found a lot of cool creatures i could use only that they are mostly undead. Pelor doesn't like undead. So i need a way to explain that these aren't your normal undead, but that they are servants of pelor.

I was thinking about using blazing skeletons, skeleton tomb guardians, and some mummies (which my group hasn't encountered any yet)

One thing I'm thinking about putting in there is that the priest sending them in there will tell them that they only come to life in order to guard the rune, but i think there needs to be more than just that in order to set these apart from the blood thirsty undead they have been fighting so far.

any ideas?

 

[Jhaelen]

Well, in 3e there were the 'deathless'; basically undead with good alignments. The main difference would be that unlike undead they'd be vulnerable to necrotic damage and resistant or immune to radiant damage. Likewise you should change their attacks so they're doing radiant damage. Most of the rest is a matter of describing them differently.

Alternatively (or in addition) you could create a 'theme' for the Daathless, similar to the ones found in the DMG2 and other sources:

Give each undead a 'signature' power that does something that is reminiscent of Pelor's domains.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

Just a first impression to your post, and my initial thoughts.

I think you're right in making the undead stand out using Pelor as a theme. Fire is good for that, and you can reflavor any undead you want to use as doing radiant/fire damage.
Pelor is also the god of strength and healing, so you can look to those to add a bit more variety if you wish.

You also say the temple is subterranean. Maybe this has had some effect on the undead/spirits who dwell there. Combining earth and fire to me makes magma. You could justify using magma elementals and the like for a little more variety.

Lastly, any priest or maybe even low-level angels that might have been tasked with guarding/caring for the temple may have somehow survived the long years. Their isolation has made them lose sigh of their task and they're now insane over protecting the temple from invaders (like the heroes).

Hope this sparks some ideas.

 

[Grimmjow]

they'd be vulnerable to necrotic damage and resistant or immune to radiant damage. Likewise you should change their attacks so they're doing radiant damage.

I was thinking this while i went to bed would make it harder for the group seeing as how they stacked on radiant damage.

I think you're right in making the undead stand out using Pelor as a theme. Fire is good for that, and you can reflavor any undead you want to use as doing radiant/fire damage.
Pelor is also the god of strength and healing, so you can look to those to add a bit more variety if you wish.

Thank you i hope my players think its right also

You also say the temple is subterranean. Maybe this has had some effect on the undead/spirits who dwell there. Combining earth and fire to me makes magma. You could justify using magma elementals and the like for a little more variety.

Lastly, any priest or maybe even low-level angels that might have been tasked with guarding/caring for the temple may have somehow survived the long years. Their isolation has made them lose sigh of their task and they're now insane over protecting the temple from invaders (like the heroes).

Hope this sparks some ideas.

I was thinking an angel of Valor buffed with a few powers would make a fun end boss.
I like the elemental idea too i don't think my group has battle any of them yet so that would be a fun idea too.
I also looked at the first snake and maybe some spiders in a side room that they wouldn't NEED to go in but could for a little XP from the spiders.

 

[Arctic Wolf]

Hmm I want to approach this is several ways since this could be a lot more interesting.

1) Undead: Maybe instead of having them as your run of the mill undead, describe them as being mostly made of sand and just get read of the vurn to radiant and resist necrotic. This will show that they are clensed undead and definitely have them have some radiant and fire abilities. Also on a sidenote, have some fire contructs/warforged. Would be a good way to break the undead theme a bit with the elementals.

2) Traps/Puzzles: A temple is a great thing for traps and puzzles. One Puzzle that came to mind is trying to move the Sun around into a position that corresponds to the time of day. That would be fun to do . For some traps, of course have fire traps but also try to implement some others that go along with his beliefs.

 

[Grimmjow]

i have no ability to come up with puzzles but if you have any id love to run them.

As far as traps go i was thinking about using what i call "The Breath of Pelor". Mainly just flame jets. Nothing to fancy but i think it would be fun. The group as already gotten by 4 of them using teleporting spells so I'm thinking (may be a little crazy) 10 of them right at the start of the thing.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Mummies and skeletal tomb guardians are already OK, as they are often found in that sort of role. And the skeletons are unaligned rather than evil, anyway.

Another thing you could do is take an undead you like and change it's keyword from undead to construct, and remove the radiant vulnerability. Instead of an animated skeleton, it's a an animated statue.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm picturing an undead invoker with those radiant blinding attacks. Yes, your PCs will hate that. Also, they will be confused

I'm also picturing crystalline statues (with resistance or immunity to radiant and necrotic) with trapped souls in them. Those statues could be mobile "prisons" and breaking them open releases the evil souls within. These incorporeal undead inflict necrotic damage; fortunately, the statues were immune to these attacks...

 

[Perun]

You could re-flavour the mindless/low-Int undead as guardian constructs or animated statues. Just tweaking resistances and vulnerabilities a bit should do it, I think. Make them semitransparent instead of skeletal, wreathed in radiant sunlight instead of flames, shining instead of rotting, etc.

Sentient or incorporeal undead could be re-imagined as astral humanoids (with phasing, if appropriate). Motes of glowing golden light that transform into humanoid forms as they advance sort of thing. Again, just a few tweaks with resistances, vulnerabilities and alignment.

If your players are relying on radiant damage, don't overly handicap them with radiant resistance (but don't make it easy for them, either, especially if Pelor is established as an actively anti-undead deity in your campaign).

Hope this helps.