Skeletons, Zombies, and Animated Corpses

[Voadam]

Also, are there any templates for animated corpses? All I know is that CoC d20 has one, but is there one for generic d20 fantasy/D&D?

Dozens and dozens, that's pretty much the definition for corporeal undead and there are lots of templates for them.

 

[Seeten]

my Necromancer/Pale Master prefers raising Ghouls, and Wights. Call me elitest.

 

[Hand of Evil]

One eats brains, one does not.

I like to think that there is a migration from one to the other but it really has never come up in game. But this is something I would like to see for all monsters, relationship and evolution.

 

[JimAde]

The Animate Dead spell says that if you animate a recent kill as a skeleton its flesh falls of. I prefer the old-fashioned way myself.

From a game standpoint, the two types do serve different purposes. Especially when you are animating creatures with more than one or two hit dice. A zombie hill giant and a skeleton hill giant would fight quite differently I would think.

 

[Estlor]

Of course, one needs to ask the question: Since skeletons and zombies are typically used as expendible shock troops for a necromancer or more powerful undead creature, is it necessary to worry about the transition from one to the other?

Personally, my thought is that the magic that animates a zombie keeps it steady at the point of decay it had reached when it was animated. If that's something not compatible with your concept of the mindless undead, it's easy enough to determine that the zombie has reached the point of critical decay and will now be a skeleton. Just remove the zombie template from the base creature and apply the skeleton template. If you want to know why skeletons function differently from zombies, it's because the agile and crafty skeleton inside the zombie has to struggle under all that stiff, dead flesh.

Well, that and it likes brains.

 

[Rel]

If you want to know why skeletons function differently from zombies, it's because the agile and crafty skeleton inside the zombie has to struggle under all that stiff, dead flesh.

Well, that and it likes brains.

That's how I would explain the difference. A zombie is a skeleton trapped inside a mans body and struggling to get free.

The dead flesh gives it "extra padding", which explains why zombies have more hit points than a skeleton of the same size.