Undead Origins

[Voadam]

Relics & Ruins
Relics & Ruins
Undead: ?
Ghoul: These are merely animated corpses, not carriers of any sort of undead contagion as ghouls are.
Raise Dead spell.
Lich: A lich is an undead sorcerer, most often turned undead of his or her own free will to ”live” forever.
Skeleton: Skeletons are animated bones of the dead and are usually under the control of some evil master.
Skeletons are not a common occurrence in the Brunkel area. These ones where created by the Ashenheims to guard the valley and they've been roaming the vale ever since.
Animate Dead spell.
Wight: Any human killed by a wight becomes a wight.
Zombie: These are merely animated corpses, not carriers of any sort of undead contagion as ghouls are.
Animate Dead spell.
Ghost: ?

Animate Dead
Spell Level: S5
Range: Near within sight
Duration: Permanent
Turns 1d6 dead bodies or skeletons into zombies/skeletons under the Sorcerers command.

Raise Dead
Spell Level: Mythical
Range: Line of sight
Duration: See below
Raise Dead allows the caster to raise a corpse from the dead, provided it has not been dead for longer than 4 days.
There is a risk that this process brings back a demon from the beyond instead of the intended soul. The dead character rolls a saving throw, if successful s/he returns to life, if not a demon returns instead. See Ghoul in the monster chapter.
If this happens the character is gone forever and cannot be brought back.

 

[Voadam]

Legends of the Legends of the Splintered Realm
Legends of the Splintered Realm
Spirit: Spirits are the phantom remains of the dead.
Shadeling: ?
Shadow Stalker: ?
Banshee: ?
Wraith: The strike of a wraith forces those suffering damage to roll LVL or lose 4 XP. A creature reduced to LVL -1 becomes a wraith.
Undead: Sustained through dark magics, the undead plot against the living.
Skull Warden: ?
Frenzied Zombie: ?
Barrows Ghoul: ?
Guardian Mummy: ?

 

[Voadam]

Splintered Realm Magazine #1
Saga of the Splintered Realm
Ghoul: ?
Lady Trask, Vampire: ?
Skeleton: ?
Undead Remains: ?
Spirit of the Former Crew: ?

 

[Voadam]

Spellcraft & Swordplay Core Rulebook
Spellcraft & Swordplay
Mummy: A mummy is an undead creature wrapped in divine bandages and urged to existence through prayer and ceremony. Mummies are bound to their tombs and are encountered in their vicinity.
The process required to create a mummy gives the creature powerful protections against physical damage.
Create Undead spell.
Skeleton: Humanoid skeletons are the animated remains of humanoid creatures. Their bodies are little more than bone and sinew held together by vile sorcery.
Animate Dead spell.
Spectre: Spectres are spiritual echoes; fragments of a learned person that died in the pursuit of knowledge.
Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.
Spectre Spawn: Spectre Spawn (Energy Drain) power.
Vampire: Formerly human, these foul creatures have become completely corrupted, lurking in a state between life and death, and requiring warm, fresh blood for sustenance.
Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.
Vampire Spawn: Vampire Spawn (Blood or Energy Drain) power.
Wight: They were once human, but are now cursed to haunt the world, living in seclusion, for some foul act of greed.
Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.
Wight Spawn: Wight Spawn (Energy Drain) power.
Wraith: Wraiths are powerful wights who have forged a more powerful bond with the negative material plane.
Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.
Wraith Spawn: Wraith Spawn (Energy Drain) power.
Zombie: Zombies are undead humanoids, reanimated corpses that stalk the earth with little purpose or reason.
At the Referee's option, those who die from Mummy Rot may rise within three days as zombies or even greater forms of undead, depending on the individual character and circumstances.
Animate Dead spell.
Undead: Spells such as Black Tentacles, Enervation, or even Inflict Light Wounds may draw on power from the Negative Energy plane that powers evil creatures and undead, and as such may not be granted by good deities.
At the Referee's option, those who die from Mummy Rot may rise within three days as zombies or even greater forms of undead, depending on the individual character and circumstances.
Non-Intelligent Undead: ?
Intelligent Undead: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Corporeal Undead: ?
Ghoul: Create Undead spell.
Ghast: Create Undead spell.

Level 5 Wizard, Level 3 Necromancer
Animate Dead: This spell raises from the dead 1d6 corpses per level of the caster above 8. These corpses function exactly as normal zombies or skeletons and follow the caster's commands. The spell is permanent until cancelled by the caster or the undead are destroyed.

Level 5 Necromancer
Create Undead: A much more potent spell than animate dead, this evil spell allows the creation of ghouls, ghasts and mummies. The type or types of undead the Necromancer can create is based on caster level: Casters of 8th level create ghouls, while casters of 9th level can create ghasts, and casters of 10th level can create mummies. The caster may create less powerful undead than her level would allow if she chooses. Created undead are not automatically under the control of their animator, and must be subdued using the Necromancer's Bane of the Dead ability. This spell must be cast at night.

Spawn: Those killed by this creature (usually by its level drain attack) raise as new creatures of the type that killed them within 2d10 hours, though all hit dice and powers are at half the effectiveness of the original creature. Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.

 

[Voadam]

Spellcraft & Swordplay Basic Game
Spellcraft & Swordplay
Skeleton: Humanoid skeletons are the animated remains of humanoid creatures. Their bodies are little more than bone and sinew held together by vile sorcery.
Spectre: Spectres are spiritual echoes; fragments of a learned person that died in the pursuit of knowledge.
Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.
Spectre Spawn: ?
Wight: They were once human, but are now cursed to haunt the world, living in seclusion, for some foul act of greed.
Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.
Wight Spawn: Wight Spawn power.
Vampire: ?
Wraith: Wraiths are powerful wights who have forged a more powerful bond with the negative material plane.
Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.
Wraith Spawn: Wraith Spawn (Energy Drain) power.
Zombie: Zombies are undead humanoids, reanimated corpses that stalk the earth with little purpose or reason.
Undead: ?
Non-Intelligent Undead: ?
Intelligent Undead: ?

Spawn: Those killed by this creature (usually by its level drain attack) raise as new creatures of the type that killed them within 2d10 hours, though all hit dice and powers are at half the effectiveness of the original creature. Spawned creatures are always utterly subservient to the creature that made them; upon their master's death, the spawn become full-fledged, full-powered members of their species.

 

[Voadam]

Spellcraft & Swordplay: Eldritch Witchery
Spellcraft & Swordplay
Vampire: ?
Banshee, Bean Shi: ?
Spectre: ?
Strigoi: The much feared strigoi is an undead form of a particularly evil Witch. They are most common among the Witches of the Gypsy traditions. The ways to become a strigoi are varied, but it is believed to be part of a curse.
A type of Witch known as a strigoaică or a strigoi viu is a type of living strigoi. They appear as a normal human Witch with red hair and blue eyes. They are immune to the attacks of other undead, but will become a strigoi on their own deaths.
Wraith: ?
Zombie: Cauldron of the Dead magic item.
Skeleton: Cauldron of the Dead magic item.
Undead: ?
Shadow: ?
Ghost: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?

Cauldron of the Dead:
This heavy cauldron of dark iron is large enough to accommodate a Medium-sized creature. When filled with a mixture of water and rare herbs, the cauldron transforms any dead body placed in it into a zombie or skeleton per the animate dead spell (the user chooses whether or not a zombie or skeleton is created from an intact corpse). Each corpse animated uses up 50 gp in materials and the cauldron can animate a corpse in one round. The user of the cauldron commands the undead so created, up to 2 HD per character level, any further undead created over this limit are under the owner’s control, but previously created undead are freed.

 

[Voadam]

Spellcraft & Swordplay: Monstrous Mayhem
Spellcraft & Swordplay
Ghast: ?
Ghast Spawn: Ghast Spawn power.
Ghoul: ?
Wight: ?
Wight Spawn: Wight Spawn power.

 

[Voadam]

Stars Without Numbers Revised Edition
Stars Without Numbers
Zombie: This menace may not take the form of shambling corpses, but some disease, alien artifact, or crazed local practice produces men and women with habits similar to those of murderous cannibal undead. These outbreaks may be regular elements in local society, either provoked by some malevolent creators or the consequence of some local condition.

 

[Voadam]

Stars Without Numbers Original Core Edition
Stars Without Numbers
Zombie: This menace may not take the form of shambling corpses, but some disease, alien artifact, or crazed local practice produces men and women with habits similar to those of murderous cannibal undead. These outbreaks may be regular elements in local society, either provoked by some malevolent creators or the consequence of some local condition.

 

[Voadam]

DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS - Survive This!! - Core Rule Book OSR RPG
Survive This!!
Lich: Powerful occultists sometimes want to live forever, even if ‘live’ is a loosely defined term for those who pursue the path to becoming a powerful undead creature. An occultist intentionally pursues the path to becoming a lich, and it is a long, arduous, and irreversible path, ending with the occultist becoming ‘blessed’ with eternal undeath. There are rumors that some of these creatures gained this state accidentally as the result of magical research gone horribly wrong.
Skeleton: The animated bones of the dead, imbued with a soulless semblance of life by the actions and spells of some dark and twisted master, who now controls their remains.
Vampire: ?
Wampyre, Lesser Vampire: The bite of a vampire drains two levels of experience from the victim. Those reduced to 0 levels in this manner become wampyre (lesser vampires) under the control of the creator vampire.
Wight: Any human killed or completely drained of levels (1 level per hit unless a successful Saving Throw is made) by a Wight becomes a Wight.
Wraith drain 1 level of experience with a touch to a victim (no saving throw allowed). Victims reduced to 0 levels or lower by the attacks of a wraith become Wights under the control of the wraith that created them.
Wraith: Powerful, older wights.
Zombie: ?