Special Conversion Thread: Moldvay's Undead

[Shade]

Excellent. Tailoring those abilities to Le Grande Zombi...

Consume Brain (Ex) Le Grande Zombi can consume a pinned opponent’s brain as a standard action. The pinned foe must make a DC x Fortitude save or have its brain removed and devoured; on a successful save, the victim still takes 1d4 points of Intelligence drain from the trauma. A creature whose brain is removed is effectively dead, unless it does not require a brain (such as an undead) or has multiple heads. Le Grande Zombi gains x temporary hit points for each brain it consumes. The save DC is Strength based.

Does that look OK? We can drop the temporary hp bit if you think that's too much.

 

[demiurge1138]

This is Le Grande Zombi! There's not much that's too much.

5 temporary hp per ability points lost is standard, but this is a whole brain in one go - how many hp should it grant?

Demiurge out.

 

[Shade]

25 temporary hit points? And/or grant it increased speed and maybe a dodge bonus to AC for 1 minute?

 

[freyar]

Sounds like a good amount, as it's more than is possible if the victim makes a save (we should remind people of the 5 temp hp per point of Int drain on a successful save). I'd also give him +10ft base speed. Don't know if he also needs the dodge bonus, but it's ok with me.

 

[demiurge1138]

I say give him 25 hp and the speed, but the dodge bonus I'm iffy on.

Demiurge out.

 

[Shade]

Updated.

How about adding an aura that is essentially a permanent unhallow effect? Or maybe one that causes fallen zombies within the radius to rise again?

 

[freyar]

How about a create spawn aura? Any corpse rises as a zombie if it spends a full round within 30 ft of Le Grande Zombi?

We should write up summon zombie. Here's a start, but I'm not terribly happy with it:

Summon Zombie (Su): Three? times per day, Le Grande Zombi can summon 20? HD of zombies or skeletons as a summon monster spell. This ability is the equivalent of a 7th level spell.

 

[Shade]

We might be able to model the aura off this epic feat:

Zone of Animation [Divine][Epic]
You can channel negative energy to animate undead.
Prerequisites: Cha 25, Undead Mastery, ability to rebuke or command undead.
Benefit: You can use a rebuke or command undead attempt to animate corpses within range of your rebuke or command attempt. You animate a total number of HD of undead equal to the number of undead that would be commanded by your result (though you can't animate more undead than there are available corpses within range). You can't animate more undead with any single attempt than the maximum number you can command (including any undead already under your command). These undead are automatically under your command, though your normal limit of commanded undead still applies.
If the corpses are relatively fresh, the animated undead are zombies. Otherwise, they are skeletons.
Source: Complete Divine, p. 90, and Epic Level Handbook, p. 69.

Let's no limit the summon to just skeletons and zombies, as it was able to summon a wide variety of variant creatures originally. At the very least, we'll need to expand it to include the other types of zombies.

 

[freyar]

Should we just call the ability "Summon Undead" and give a list of appropriate monsters as if it's summon monster 7? We can even pull this from the summon undead list if we go look it up, I suppose.

That feat looks good, let's do that. Do we want him to burn a command attempt or just make it a continuous aura?

 

[demiurge1138]

Continuous aura of animation... good! Combine it with a desecrate aura for more fun (and along the vein of Shade's suggestion for unhallow).

Demiurge out.