this is for those of us who know and love the undead

[Sanackranib]

Which undead creature have you been able to use to the best effect in your game.

1) skeletons
2) zombies
3) wraiths
4) shadows
5) hecuva
6) spectors
7) vampires
8) litches
9) banshees
10) revenants
11) other

 

[Sanackranib]

undead

In my last game my necromancer was able to create stone zombies. I never lost a single one.

 

[Tonguez]

You forgot ghoul - Ghouls are Intelligent undead that noone expects to turn around and talk to you, let alone start casting spells MWAHAHAHAHA!

Oh yeah and I have good Spectre NPCs

and how do you get a Zombi stoned?

 

[Deadguy]

Vampires doing well, I see. I certainly have gotten plenty of mileage out of Vampires so far in my Shattered World campaign.

I've had a vampiric spy mistress who completely baffled the PCs with her behaviour (she slew a great many of the spies already in residence, since she didn't trust them, and used vargouille as a weapon against the city). She went on to cut a deal with an ancient mind flayer Elder Brain, and sold out her old master. Gotta love that immunity to mind control!

I also have a wonderful Neutral Vampire who runs an inn for the more unusual visitors to the city. Aranea and werewolves have been seen there, along with another vampire (a travelling bard), a couple of spectres and even a resident ghost (who just seems to sit there and nod at guests). Through him I fashioned a tale of the terrible Vampiric Lords of the Mountains of Twilight, who hold an entire country in their vampiric thrall. The innkeeper, Sigfalde, is a renegade from those lands. He has implied that there is a 'compact' between many vampires, that prevents them acting directly against each other, but he wouldn't say anything more about it. He just offered advice on how to off the spy mistress and her vampire lackeys!

Yep, all told I have had a lot of fun with vampires. On the other hand, it's the liches that the PCs will really hace to look out for, But they've only just begun to realise this...

 

[Sanackranib]

undead

You forgot ghoul - Ghouls are Intelligent undead that noone expects to turn around and talk to you, let alone start casting spells MWAHAHAHAHA!

Oh yeah and I have good Spectre NPCs

and how do you get a Zombi stoned?

It's a process used in the scarred lands. They are in the creature catalog if you want to know more about them.

I guess I should have added both ghouls and ghasts to the list.

 

[wighair]

Don't you think ghouls really should be a template?

 

[Kamard]

I think any intelligent undead should be a template.

 

[Piratecat]

Ghouls! Definitely ghouls. No question about it.

Monte has a ghoul template on his site, incidentally.

 

[National Acrobat]

Vampires, Vampires and more Vampires!

For me it has always been vampires. At the lower levels they can atagonize characters and the characters have to bide their time. At the higher levels they are nasty opponents. Even moreso than other monsters because they blend in with the standard PC-races, and in the good old days of 2E, the Scion Powers allowed them to Day Walk and do other things. It was very easy to 'blend' them in with other bad guys and the players wouldn't even know they were there until things started to go bad. Plus, they are just cool.

 

[HellHound]

Ghouls and Ghasts.

Love these bad boys. I like the flavor a lot (cannibals who die come back as ghouls, as do the truly depraved) and their powers are scary... I've seen several characters die because they were paralyzed and then coup-de-graced by a ghoul or ghast.