Undead Origins

Wayfinder 9

Wayfinder 9
Pathfinder 1e
Kryskith Vilbyss Zombie Lord Noble Drow Magus 2/Cleric 2: Haagenti, demon lord of alchemy and transformation, chose to raise Kryskith as a zombie lord.
Fellclaw Fleshwarped Elven Zombie Lord: ?
Ghoul Bloated Devourer: In rare circumstances, a newly arisen ghoul gorges itself on tainted flesh, especially the corpses of other ghouls, resulting in a terrible transformation. The alchemist-necromancers of the ghoul kingdom of Nemret Noktoria studied this phenomenon and, with experimentation and practice, learned how to feed ghouls necrotic flesh and alchemical concoctions, forcing them to mutate into a stronger but dumber breed of ghoul to serve as workers, soldiers, and walking reservoirs of negative energy.
Ghoul Gaunt Ascetic: Few ghouls can resist the urge to feed. Even fewer are capable of deliberate fasting. But among those rare few, some choose to delve into the depths of deathless hunger. There they find dark enlightenment, an answer to the very nature of the consuming darkness that animates all undead beings.
Skinshroud: A skinshroud with a sharp instrument can spend four hours flaying a dead body and use its own black blood as a necromantic catalyst to create another skinshroud.
The drow experiment with black blood at a location, deep in Orv, called Bloodforge. One of their grisly experiments became the first skinshroud, but they are now self-replicating.

Ghoul: A humanoid who dies of a devourer ghoul's ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight. A humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast.
Ghoul Ghast: A humanoid who dies of a devourer ghoul's ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight. A humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast.
 
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Wayfinder 10

Wayfinder 10
Pathfinder 1e
Desert Fury: At the heart of a desert fury is the animated remains of the last poor soul of a doomed caravan.
Mummy Pesh: Learning the arts of mummification and reanimation from an Osirioni necromancer compatriot, the leader of the cult of Hastur in Katapesh created these odd variants to guard the cult’s properties and sow chaos and woe among the populace at the appointed time to herald the arrival of the King in Yellow.
Pesh mummies are created through a long, complicated procedure during which all the body’s internal organs are removed and the internal cavities lined with pesh. The body is then wrapped with linens soaked in pesh whey, and smoked with burning pesh to preserve the body. The creator then finishes the ritual with a create undead spell.
 
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Wayfinder 11

Wayfinder 11
Pathfinder 1e
Coin Wraith: Coin wraiths are the unquiet spirits of individuals whose hearts were consumed by avarice. Those who covet personal wealth or attempt to steal it—bandits, bankers, grasping nobles, misers, profiteers, thieves and despots—all have the potential to become coin wraiths following their deaths. Followers of Abadar, Besmara, Gyronna, Shax, and Mammon are often cursed with this existence for failure to show proper devotion.
Contra-Legem Devourer: ?
Contra-Legem Creature: A Contra-Legem creature is an intelligent undead who in life made a deal with the powers of hell for its soul but, by accident or design, became an undead and escaped. Hell doesn’t let go of its prizes easily, instead infusing the new undead with power and a sense of loyalty. It serves Hell on the material plane, gaining more infernal powers but losing some of its free will.
“Contra-Legem Creature” is an acquired template that can be added to any intelligent undead.
Segruchen, the Fallen King: Segruchen the Iron Gargoyle was called the King of the Barrowood. His reign of cruelty inspired fear in the hearts of those who dared live near the wood’s dreaded boughs. But one day, an upstart paladin named Iomedae dismembered Segruchen’s wings, during an amazing aerial battle, leaving a crater where he fell. Iomedae finished off the maimed Segruchen, and his lifeblood spilled into the earth.
Centuries later, evil stirred within that crater. His hatred and the last of his lifeblood infused his undying vengeance into the earth, and the stone twisted itself into a crumbling statue of his former self, oozing gouts of blood from the stumps of his wings.
Thespis: When a dedicated performing artist is unable to complete his masterpiece due to an untimely demise, his soul sometimes becomes so frustrated by the unfulfilled ambition that it manifests as a malevolent spirit known as a thespis.
Thespis Haunt: Thespi that dwell in the same theater for over 5 years can bond with the stage, becoming a thespis haunt.
 
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Wayfinder 12

Wayfinder 12
Pathfinder 1e
Hapuseneb Ghoul Cleric 6: Hapuseneb perished near an outcropping of magical lazurite and rose as a wretched ghoul.
Ravening Jackal: Life is harsh in the desert, even for scavengers and opportunistic hunters like jackals. Though they feast on the remains of creatures killed by other predators or the environment, sometimes these pickings are scarce and starvation ensues.
Occasionally, the jackal-headed god Set takes note of these deaths and takes pleasure in using the bodies of his rival Anubis’ sacred animals for his own ends. The god infuses them with the souls of lowly cultists who disappointed him in life, giving them another chance to serve him in the forms of ravening jackals.
Sphinx Reborn: They derive from particularly cruel gynosphinxes that spend a lifetime asking fiendishly difficult riddles and devouring all those that they deem too witless. As a gynosphinx’s lair becomes littered with the bones of travelers, so too does it fill with the misery of 1,000 riddles that had no answer. When the sphinx at last meets its end, this misery manifests itself in a wave of negative energy that reanimates its corpse.
 
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Wayfinder 13

Wayfinder 13
Pathfinder 1e
Infested Ghoul: A creature killed by Constitution damage from an infested ghoul’s spore cloud rises as an infested ghoul over a period of 24 hours.
Zeldana Locnave Changeling Ghost Witch 8: Zeldana returned to find only corpses and a terrible curse devouring Henric’s soul. Being a powerful witch, she called on her patron to slow the artifact’s evil influence. She then created a locket to preserve his spirit, a life echo amulet, but she was too late. His soul retreated into the inn’s stone walls. In a fit of despair, Zeldana donned the amulet herself then took her own life to be with her husband in death.
Alchemical Dreadnought: The first alchemical dreadnoughts were accidentally created from mass graves on battlefields where horrific alchemical weapons were used.
Aridnyk: When a healer of considerable power and selflessness dies from exposure to negative energy, there is a minute chance the healer’s soul will cling to this world as an aridnyk. Born from the spirit’s regrets and unfinished duties, aridnyks crave above all else to heal the injured, cure the sick, and bolster the weak.
Nachzehrer: Legend states they arise from the bodies of those who die from an accident or sickness with great regrets in their hearts.
 
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Wayfinder 14

Wayfinder 14
Pathfinder 1e
Disemboweled Prophet: Troll soothsayers practice a grisly form of divination: reading their own constantly regenerating entrails. Trollish regeneration is powerful, but it is no guarantee against death. Still, the trolls who conduct such auguries sometimes possess a strength of will that animates them even after they have fallen prey to accident, illness, old age, starvation, magical backlash, or a competitor’s curse.
The augur’s thirst for information that’s drawn from the hidden forces of the world transforms them into undead abominations.
Grim Harvester: Grim harvesters are the degenerate successors of a long-forgotten order dedicated to the preservation of knowledge in ancient Azlant. Turning to foul necromantic rituals, these abominable creatures not only managed to survive the extinction of their own civilization, but also found a way to preserve the memories of exceptional individuals by turning them into undead.
 
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Wayfinder 15

Wayfinder 15
Pathfinder 1e
Ferrywight: When a humanoid drowns while desperately trying to cross a body of water, it might rise again as a ferrywight.
Hearth Wraith: Hearth wraiths are born from the souls of dying travelers longing for home who have felt the touch of unholy fire.
River Wraith: Regardless of the reason, some sacrifices to Hanspur are not consumed in the ritual. They are instead transformed into river wraiths. Through a mysterious process known only to Hanspur, they are bound to become the Sellen River’s protectors and sworn avengers against those who seek to block its flow.
“River wraith” is an acquired template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature.
Foambristles River Wraith Boar: ?

Wight: Any humanoid creature that is slain by a ferrywight becomes a wight in 1d4 rounds.
 
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100% Crunch Liches

100% Crunch Liches
Pathfinder 1e
Atrophied Lich: A lich that remains immobile and insensible for extended periods of time can grow atrophied.
Forsaken Lich: The means of attaining lichdom are extremely personal for mortal spellcasters, fraught with misinformation and peril. The smallest miscalculation in the potion of lichdom’s formula or most minute flaw in one’s phylactery can interrupt the process that infuses one’s mortal soul with overwhelming arcane and negative energies. Other times, an inexperienced wizard attempts the transformation, or erroneously consumes a formula produced for another spellcaster, instantly dying from the backlash of potent forces or condemning himself to a terminal but far more terrible end.
In these sorrowful cases, the process traps the soul of the would‐be lich outside a phylactery that will not accept it and a body that has rejected it. The potent arcane forces tampered with by the lich’s failed creation also find themselves unleashed but uncontrolled, surrounding the newly formed abomination, empowering it but also slowly consuming its essence.
“Forsaken lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature, provided it can create the required phylactery. Rarely, a creature unable to create a phylactery stumbles upon this state through tragic ambition.
Awakened Demilich: Under exceptional conditions, a lich’s full consciousness survives its transformation into a demilich, or a lich’s wandering intellect manages to return to its jewelled skull.
Elf Lich Magus 11: ?
Halfling Lich Cleric 11: ?
Human Lich Wizard 11: ?
Human Lich Druid 11: ?
Human Forsaken Lich Cleric 11: ?
Dwarf Lich Oracle 12: ?
Half-Elf Lich Wizard 12: ?
Pugwampi Lich Druid 12: ?
Sylph Lich Sorcerer 12: ?
Demilich: ?
Dhampir Forsaken Lich Wizard 13: ?
Green Hag Lich Wizard 12: ?
Human Lich Cleric 13: ?
Human Lich Magus 13: ?
Serpentfolk Lich Wizard 11: ?
Drider Lich Bard 11: ?
Ghaele Lich: ?
Halfling Lich Bard 14: ?
Half-Orc Lich Oracle 14: ?
Drow Noble Lich Leric 14: ?
Drow Noble Lich Wizard 14: ?
Human Lich Sorcerer 5/Dragon Disciple 10: ?
Human Forsaken Lich Ranger 15: ?
Advanced Serpentfolk Lich Cleric 13: ?
Elf Lich Magus 16: ?
Venerable Half-Orc Lich Druid 16: ?
Human Lich Oracle 16: ?
Puckwudgie Lich Druid 13: ?
Advanced Demilich: ?
Drider Lich Sorcerer 9: ?
Dwarf Lich Cleric 17: ?
Human Lich Wizard 17: ?
Advanced Serpentfolk Lich Wizard 15: ?
Ancient Green Dragon Lich: ?
Elf Lich Wizard 18: ?
Human Lich Bard 18: ?
Human Lich Ranger 18: ?
Nymph Lich Druid 11: ?
Awakened Demilich Oracle 16: ?
Old Red Dragon Lich Sorcerer 2: ?
Serpentfolk Lich Cleric 17: ?
Succubus Lich Sorcerer 15: ?

Lich: The pinnacle of necromantic art, the lich is a spellcaster who has chosen to shed his life as a method to cheat death by becoming undead. While many who reach such heights of power stop at nothing to achieve immortality, the idea of becoming a lich is abhorrent to most creatures. The process involves the extraction of the spellcaster’s life‐force and its imprisonment in a specially prepared phylactery—the spellcaster gives up life, but in trapping life he also traps his death.
The quest to become a lich is a lengthy one. While construction of the magical phylactery to contain the spellcaster’s soul is a critical component, a prospective lich must also learn the secrets of transferring his soul into the receptacle and of preparing his body for the transformation into undeath, neither of which are simple tasks. Further complicating the ritual is the fact that no two bodies or souls are exactly alike—a ritual that works for one spellcaster might simply kill another or drive him insane. The exact methods for each spellcaster’s transformation are left to the GM’s discretion, but should involve expenditures of hundreds of thousands of gold pieces, numerous deadly adventures, and a large number of difficult skill checks over the course of months, years, or decades.
An integral part of becoming a lich is the creation of the phylactery in which the character stores his soul.
Each lich must create its own phylactery by using the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 120,000 gp to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.
“Lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature, provided it can create the required phylactery.
Demilich: In their endless years of unlife, some liches lose themselves in introspection, and can no longer rouse themselves to face the endless march of days. Still others cast their consciousness far from their bodies, wandering planes and realities far beyond mortal ken. Absent the vitality of the soul, such a lich’s physical form succumbs to decay over the centuries. In time, only the lich’s skull remains intact. Yet the bonds of undeath keep the lich’s remains from final dissolution. Vestiges of the lich’s intellect remain within the skull, and wake to terrible wrath should it be disturbed. Traces of the lich’s will to live strengthen the skull, rendering it harder than any steel. The lich’s greed and lust for power manifest in the growth of gems in its skull. Lastly, though only the barest remnants of the lich’s eldritch might survive, a demilich aroused to anger still retains enough power to flense the very soul from any defiling its final rest.
Most demiliches achieved their state through apathy, not volition. For each decade that a demilich fails to stir itself to meaningful action, there is a 1% cumulative chance that its corporeal body decays into dust, save for the skull. Any return to activity resets the chance of transformation to 0%. Once the lich’s body decays, the lich’s intellect returns to its phylactery as normal. However, the skull rejects the return of the lich’s consciousness, keeping the lich trapped in its deteriorating phylactery for 1d10 years. If during that time the lich’s remains are destroyed or scattered (for example, by wandering adventurers), the lich’s phylactery forms a new body and the intellect leaves the phylactery as normal, returning the lich to life. But if the lich’s remains survive unperturbed, the phylactery’s magic fails catastrophically, releasing the lich’s soul and causing 5d10 points of damage to the phylactery. Regardless of whether or not the phylactery physically survives, the energies released by its failure channel into the lifeless skull of the lich, allowing the last remnants of the lich’s soul to transform it into a demilich.
For wandering liches, the process is similar, but based on the number of decades the lich spends without its intellect returning to its body. While the lich’s body still decays, its mind remains at large, only becoming trapped in the phylactery if the lich tries to return during the period in which its body has failed, but it has not yet become a demilich. Should the lich’s phylactery fail before the wandering lich returns, the skull becomes a demilich, and the lich’s mind is doomed to wander until the end of days.
 
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100% Crunch Skeletal Champions

100% Crunch Skeletal Champions
Pathfinder 1e
Skeletal Champion Dwarf Warrior 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Elf Warrior 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Archer Goblin Warrior 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Goblin Warrior 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Archer Human Warrior 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Human Warrior 1: ?
Exploding Skeletal Champion Kobold Warrior 2: ?
Skeletal Champion Elf Fighter 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Archer Human Ranger1: ?
Skeletal Champion Hobgoblin Fighter 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Orc Barbarian 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Archer Urdefhan: ?
Skeletal Champion Centaur: ?
Skeletal Champion Drow Fighter 2: ?
Skeletal Champion Archer Elf Rogue 3: ?
Skeletal Champion Gnoll Warrior 2: ?
Magus Skeleton Goblin Bard 3: ?
Magus Skeleton Drow Noble Cleric 3: ?
Magus Skeleton Bloody Skeleton Dwarf Cleric 3: ?
Archer Magus Skeleton Elf Wizard 4: ?
Magus Skeleton Human Sorcerer 4: ?
Skeletal Champion Annis Hag: ?
Archer Skeletal Champion Janni Rogue 2: ?
Skeletal Champion Orc 4: ?
Magus Skeleton Archer Urdefhan Wizard 6: ?
Burning Mudra Skeletal Champion Human Rogue 4/Ranger 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Redcap: ?
Skeletal Champion Archer Urdefhan Fighter 4: ?
Skeletal Champion Very Young Blue Dragon: ?
Acid Burning Electric Skeletal Champion Doppelganger Ranger 1: ?
Archer Skeletal Champion Green Hag Rogue 4: ?
Archer Magus Skeleton Urdefhan Cleric 8: ?
Magus Skeleton Centaur Druid 8: ?
Magus Skeleton Human Bard 8: ?
Archer Skeletal Champion Ogre Mage Fighter 1: ?
Skeletal Champion Redcap Ranger 2: ?
Skeletal Champion Doppelganger Rogue 2/Warrior 6: ?
Bloody Magus Skeleton Dwarf Cleric 8: ?
Archer Skeletal Champion Erinyes Fighter 1: ?
Magus Skeleton Rakshasa: ?
Burning Electric Magus Skeleton Doppelganger Ranger 5: ?
Magus Skeleton Green Hag Sorcerer 10: ?
Skeletal Champion Orc Barbarian 9: ?

Skeletal Champion: While most skeletons are mindless automatons, some skeletons retain their intelligence and cunning, making them formidable warriors.
“Skeletal Champion” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system and a minimum Intelligence of 3.
Skeleton: Skeletons are the animated bones of the dead, brought to unlife through foul magic.
Acid Skeleton: ?
Electric Skeleton: ?
Frost Skeleton: ?
Archer Skeleton: ?
Armoured Skeleton: Armoured skeletons are normal skeletons given heavier varieties of armour and weapons to serve as elite troops in undead armies.
Cursed Skeleton: Created as the result of a powerful curse rather than through necromantic spells.
Exploding Skeleton: ?
Magus Skeleton: ?
Mudra Skeleton: ?
Six-Armed Skeleton: ?
Multiplying Skeleton: ?
Under-Equipped Skeleton: Under‐equipped skeletons are normal skeletons with armour and weapons that have the broken quality.
Bloody Skeleton: These variant skeletons can be created using animate dead, but they count as twice their normal number of Hit Dice per casting.
Burning Skeleton: These variant skeletons can be created using animate dead, but they count as twice their normal number of Hit Dice per casting.
 
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100% Crunch Skeletons

100% Crunch Skeletons
Pathfinder 1e
Dire Rat Skeleton: ?
Dog Skeleton: ?
Drow Skeleton: ?
Dwarf Skeleton: ?
Dwarf Crossbowman Skeleton: ?
Elf Skeleton: ?
Elf Archer Skeleton: ?
Gnome Skeleton: ?
Goblin Skeleton: ?
Half-Orc Skeleton: ?
Halfling Skeleton: ?
Hobgoblin Skeleton: ?
Human Skeleton: ?
Human Archer Skeleton: ?
Kobold Skeleton: ?
Merfolk Crossbowman Skeleton: ?
Merfolk Skeleton: ?
Orc Javelin Thrower Skeleton: ?
Orc Skeleton: ?
Advanced Human Skeleton: ?
Advanced Hobgoblin Skeleton: ?
Bloody Goblin Skeleton: ?
Burning Orc Skeleton: ?
Grave Chill Skeleton: ?
Human Mudra Skeleton: ?
Under-Equipped Bugbear Skeleton: ?
Armoured Gnoll Skeleton: ?
Boggard Skeleton: ?
Bugbear Skeleton: ?
Crocodile Skeleton: ?
Dolphin Skeleton: ?
Hippogriff Skeleton: ?
Sahuagin Skeleton: ?
Troglodyte Skeleton: ?
Warhorse Skeleton: ?
Wolf Skeleton: ?
Advanced Troglodyte Skeleton: ?
Bunyip Skeleton: ?
Deinonychus Skeleton: ?
Dire Ape Skeleton: ?
Dire Wolf Skeleton: ?
Grizzly Bear Skeleton: ?
Lion Skeleton: ?
Ogre Skeleton: ?
Sea Hag Skeleton: ?
Shark Skeleton: ?
Annis Hag Skeleton: ?
Bearded Devil Skeleton: ?
Exploding Mudra Ogre Skeleton: ?
Giant Frilled Lizard Skeleton: ?
Girallon Skeleton: ?
Salt Water Merrow Skeleton: ?
Tiger Skeleton: ?
Troll Skeleton: ?
Vodyanoi Skeleton: ?
Acid Girallon Skeleton: ?
Burning Armoured Troll Skeleton: ?
Cave Giant Skeleton: ?
Chimera Skeleton: ?
Dire Lion Skeleton: ?
Green Hag Skeleton: ?
Medusa Skeleton: ?
Ogre Mage Skeleton: ?
Water Naga Skeleton: ?
Bloody Ogre Mage Skeleton: ?
Criosphinx Skeleton: ?
Dire Bear Skeleton: ?
Elasmosaurus Skeleton: ?
Elephant Skeleton: ?
Ettin Skeleton: ?
Giant Snapping Turtle Skeleton: ?
Grave Chill Dire Lion Skeleton: ?
Hill Giant Skeleton: ?
Androsphinx Skeleton: ?
Bloody Cursed Green Hag Skeleton: ?
Dire Crocodile Skeleton: ?
Dire Tiger Skeleton: ?
Dragon Turtle Skeleton: ?
Frost Giant Skeleton: ?
Ghaele Skeleton: ?
Siyokoy Skeleton: ?
Young Adult Bronze Dragon Skeleton: ?
Cetaceal Skeleton: ?
Cloud Giant Skeleton: ?
Fire Giant Skeleton: ?
Fjord Linnorm Skeleton: ?
Great Cyclops Skeleton: ?
Horned Devil Skeleton: ?
Marilith Skeleton: ?
Planetar Skeleton: ?
Sea Serpent Skeleton: ?
Great White Whale Skeleton: ?
Ice Linnorm Skeleton: ?
Mature Adult Red Dragon Skeleton: ?
Old Bronze Dragon Skeleton: ?
Pit Fiend Skeleton: ?
Storm Giant Skeleton: ?
Tyrannosaurus Skeleton: ?
Very Old Black Dragon Skeleton: ?

Skeleton: Skeletons are the animated bones of the dead, brought to unlife through foul magic.
“Skeleton” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature that has a skeletal system.
Skeletons are normally created with animate dead. Of course, wizards and priests both have access to the animate dead spell, and depending on their power may animate any kind of creature (assuming they have its skeleton). Devourers (Bestiary 1), night hag covens (Bestiary 1), sepids (div) (Bestiary 3) and thanadaemons (Bestiary 2) are extraplanar creatures with animate dead as a spell‐like ability. Such creatures could easily scour the sites of battles on the fiendish planes, and animate the dead bodies of celestials and fiends. Material Plane creatures with the animate dead spell‐like ability include hag covens (Bestiary 1), pukwudgies (Bestiary 3), tzitzimitl (Bestiary 3) and zuvembies (Bestiary 3).
Acid Skeleton: ?
Electric Skeleton: ?
Frost Skeleton: ?
Archer Skeleton: ?
Armored Skeleton: ?
Cursed Skeleton: Created as the result of a powerful curse rather than through necromantic spells.
Exploding Skeleton: ?
Mudra Skeleton: ?
Six-Armed Mudra Skeleton: ?
Multiplying Skeleton: ?
Under-Equipped Skeleton: ?
Bloody Skeleton: These variant skeletons can be created using animate dead, but they count as twice their normal number of Hit Dice per casting.
Burning Skeleton: These variant skeletons can be created using animate dead, but they count as twice their normal number of Hit Dice per casting.
 
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