The "Zombie Problem"

[Squire James]

The way I look at it, most zombies don't really need to be controlled by anyone most of the time. Take control of a zombie, tell it to "shuffle around randomly and kill any living thing you encounter", and release control. It is not unreasonable to say the zombie continues following its last order (especially since it's very much within a zombie's "natural" inclinations), even without counting toward the HD limit.

The zombies the necromancer will maintain control of are the 1 or 2 "big sack of HP" zombies targeted by the necromancer's Shield Other spell (if he's a cleric). Then start adding in intelligent undead he went out and made alliances with. Hide some wights in there among the zombies for that "negative level surprise"! In other words, the zombies are stupid, and will fall in droves. Just expect that, and make the true difficulty something else!

Remember those Resident Evil games? As scary as they were, the zombies weren't the real threat...

 

[Shieldhaven]

A couple of notes:

1. Don't give undead characters regeneration unless you're really, really sure you know what you're doing. We learned this in 3.0 with revenants in Monsters of Faerun. Undead are immune to subdual damage, so they're just flat immune to all attacks other than the designated forms of damage that ignore their regeneration.

2. My solution to this problem has been twofold. First, I handwave things like counting HD under control by an NPC. (When I'm designing an encounter, there are some rules that really aren't worth my time.) Second, instead of using the stats that the MM designates for zombies made from humans, I find that going up to bugbear zombie stats gives them enough hit points to be an interesting fight, as well as a better AC and more damage.

Haven

 

[rossik]

sorry, i dont read all the posts, but thats what i do:

as you have a lot of zombies attacking at same time, i give them bonus to attack, as they "pile up".
even if the fighter can kill one per hit, he still have to hit 200 times! then, the bbeg can came up with another spell, or minion, or whatever

 

[KrazyHades]

I just stat up my own, tougher zombies. Same speed, but with 2d10 HD/base creature HD, rend, and the ability to fight packed together (up to 3 in one square, all fighting without penalties, because they don't really use the full 5 by 5 feet of space anyways, they just crush forwards with claws). This makes them something to REALLY be feared in packs, because in one round you can be criticalled or rended several times if you are surrounded.

 

[Celebrim]

I don't think you really need to do alot of handwaving.

9th level Evil Cleric - controls 18 animated warrior zombies (has 9 prepared corpses in reserve)

zombie, as commoner zombie

+ equipped with bardiche (great axe 1d12/x3), rusted chain shirt (+4 armor)
+ coprsecrafter feat (+4 STR, +4 hp)
+ hardened flesh (+2 natural armor)
+ decescrate (-6 penalty on turning checks, +2 profane bonus to hit, +4 hp)
+ unhallow wt bane (-4 penalty on turning checks +
- as magic circle against good (+2 deflection, +2 saves)
- as bane (-1 penalty to opponents attacks and saves)

Warrior Zombie (medium undead); AC: 17; HD 2d12+11 (24 hp); Init: -1; Speed: 30 ft; Great Axe +6 melee (1d12+4/x3); SQ: -10 penalty to turn, dr 5/slashing, darkvision 60ft, undead traits; Fort: +0, Reflex: -1, Will: +3

Together with protection from good and bane, that's not too bad, and with the right environment, some uncontrolled zombies in out of the way areas of the complex, and some backup from a couple ghast allies ought to be a reasonable challenge for 5th-7th level (depending on how hard you want this to be). I might throw in 'tetnus' on the axes, a below zero environment, patches of uncanny mist (as obscuring mist), and some 10' pools of water. I don't think you really want the zombies to be anything but mooks. The real fight is with the evil cleric, and the zombies are really just an extension of that encounter.

For higher level PC's, just pile on the Liber Mortis feats, and bump up the size of the zombie in question.

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

Just give your villain as many zombies as you see fit. An 18th level BBEG could have a bunch of CR 10 Zombies with him. No need to worry about the control undead rules. I doubt your players would complain about more exp.

That's actually an excellent point. My players wouldn't complain about extra XP. They would, however, complain if they lost. They do that all the time.
I also like the advice that zombies aren't the real threat. Something nobody mentioned which I've also just thought of is that every pack of zombies the PCs encounter exhausts resources. My campaign has an all-spellcaster party. If I give them 20 packs of zombies before they reach the BBEG, that's 20 less spells they've got for when they need them.

 

[Drowbane]

Ghouls

1 BBEG (plus Minions/lackeys)
1 controled Ghoul with numerous spawn
X number of Commanded zombies
Full set of controlled Animated Zombies (Pretty sure that Animated pool and Commanded/rebuked pools are seperate).
Tons of uncontrolled Zombies through out the complex.

Good times.

edit: make sure your ghouls know to act like zombies until they're right on top of somebody. Undead Leadership is helpful for bolstering the number of "controlled" undead as well.