Undead and that pesky Con stat

[Chris Parker]

It seems to me that the higher in level you get the less powerful Undead are (no matter the challenge rating). At 30 hit dice, (a reasonable number for Epic) a 12 con Barbarian is the same thing as a dracolich that took epic toughness, as far as HP goes.

The fact that you can get +17 (+12 enhancement, +5 inherant) Con easy at Epic (with the cash, of course...) means that youll be stacking on the equivalent of 8 or 9 epic toughnesses at level 30.

Doesnt seem to me like Golems (constructs of all sorts) and Undead cant keep up in the HP department (epic levels just exaggerate the problem).

Does anyone have any ideas for house rules to give them extra HP per hit die? (or just more HP?)

Maybe if its a template, it keeps the natural Con mod it had in life for purposes of HP...

Dunno, but 430am is a bit late/early for even me, and I seem to be loosing coherency, so Ill sign off now, and thanks for your feedback!

~Chris.

 

[CalrinAlshaw]

Undead and contructs get compensation in the fact that they can in no way be critted, affect by mind affecting spells or spell-like abilities, sneak attacked, poisoned etc. Where as the guys with a con bonus CAN be critted, usually.

Calrin Alshaw

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Although undead and constructs are immune to critical hits and sneak attacks many characters by level 20 have armor of heavy fortification (thus they are immune to critical hits and sneak attacks as well) and I'm sure most do by level 30.

If you just want to make them tougher I recomend giving them some DR x/-, very high fasthealing or maxing out HP (thus a 30 HD undead would have 360 hit points).

 

[dren]

What I do is give undead (and golems as a side point) maximum hit points every HD. Solves this problem very simply.

 

[aurance]

A different take on what dren does...

I give them maximum constitution of whatever race the undead was a member of before it died. For instance, all human undead have Con 18 equivalent for hit points, Fort saves, etc. But for most other effects they are still considered not to have a Con score.

 

[Chris Parker]

A different take on what dren does...

I give them maximum constitution of whatever race the undead was a member of before it died. For instance, all human undead have Con 18 equivalent for hit points, Fort saves, etc. But for most other effects they are still considered not to have a Con score.

Im mean, so Ill go with that. And give them max HP atop of it. My players powergame so its okay...

Boy are they gonna be surprised when the upcoming skeletal dragon doesnt drop like a ragdoll in melee.