Zombie Questions

[Felnar]

a zombie has no Intellegence rating, no fear, and decayed body.... so...

Can a zombie physically climb a ladder?
would an uncontrolled zombie use a ladder as part of "problem solving"?
what about a sense of survival?
what hazards would they avoid? what hazards wouldnt they avoid?
do they notice or care if they see their zombie brethren being slaughtered?

and could someone explain their slam attack, and why it does more damage than a punch/kick.

 

[Thanee]

Zombies don't solve problems. They do what their controller tells them, that's it.

Other than that, they will certainly attack any living things that dare to come close to them.

Hazards? So what, they have no sense of survival at all.
You can send them down a cliff, and they will gladly jump.

As for the slam attack... best explanation I can give you is, that it might be more damage, because they don't care to hurt themselves (which doesn't matter to them, anyways).

Natural weapon damage is pretty arbitrary.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Jeff Wilder]

a zombie has no Intellegence rating, no fear, and decayed body.... so...

Not necessarily the latter. My necrotheurge uses gentle repose on his zombie servants.

Can a zombie physically climb a ladder?

Sure.

would an uncontrolled zombie use a ladder as part of "problem solving"?

By RAW, an uncontrolled zombie does nothing at all. Assuming you decide otherwise, I would not allow a zombie to move a ladder to reach targets.

what about a sense of survival?

None.

what hazards would they avoid?

None, if controlled. If uncontrolled, and you're allowing them to act, I'd think they'd avoid falling and maybe fire.

do they notice or care if they see their zombie brethren being slaughtered?

Of course not, they're like [censored] in that respect.

and could someone explain their slam attack, and why it does more damage than a punch/kick.

Logically? Because they can hit without worrying about broken bones and sliced tendons and the like. That's one reason it's a "slam" and not an "unarmed strike." Game-wise? They're more of a challenge that way.

 

[dcollins]

and could someone explain their slam attack, and why it does more damage than a punch/kick.

Supernatural evil might.

 

[Felnar]

Not necessarily the latter. My necrotheurge uses gentle repose on his zombie servants.

I only mentioned "decayed" because the MM says they are. I would think that Animate Dead would include some sort of preservative that limits decay, or else zombie flesh would soon decay and fall off (transforming the zombie in to a skeleton?). And, casting animate dead on a fresh corpse shouldnt cause instant decay.
--
where in RAW is uncontrolled discussed?
how does a lack of self preservation work with reflex saves?
do zombies try to parry/deflect attacks?
can a zombie swim? do zombies float?
can a zombie climb?

how would a zombie deal with a big pile of furniture (makeshift barricade of chairs/tables)?
-stumble into it and get tangled? (sounds like no intellegence)
-pick up and move debris in its way so it could advance? (sounds intellegent)

I've always thought of them[zombie humans] as just walking slowly in the most direct route to their prey. Basically complete idiots, stepping in front of buses, getting caught in clothlines. Oddly, i've always thought of skeletons as semi-intellegent; solving simple problems, some version of group cooperation, but not fleeing from obviously superior opponents. A group of skeletons could sack a village systematically, while a group of zombies would stumble around until they saw something living/moving. I guess your view depends on which movies/books you've read. Skeleton pirates and vikings seem to be recurring themes.

 

[Darth Malakh]

can a zombie climb?

how would a zombie deal with a big pile of furniture (makeshift barricade of chairs/tables)?


Well, Juju-Zombies from Unapprochable East have a climb-speed.

I'd assume regular zombies to always "take ten" on most (physical) checks. If the result is below the DC they just can't pull the stunt.

We're all lucky D&D doen'st use "Dawn of the Dead"-type Zombies. Way too fast...they scare the hell outta me


Malakh

 

[Infiniti2000]

Not necessarily the latter. My necrotheurge uses gentle repose on his zombie servants.

I don't think a zombie is a valid target for gentle repose. It is not a dead creature. It is an undead creature. That said, I would allow a similar spell that functions like gentle repose, but without the "extending the time limit" part of gentle repose (which is why it doesn't work on zombies). Maybe there's a similar spell in Libris Mortis? Wash Zombie or something like that? Wash Zombie, Mass?

 

[frankthedm]

Enbalm don't remember the full effects, It used to prevent rotting and added 2hp hit die to a zombie in 2E D&D.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I would think that Animate Dead would include some sort of preservative that limits decay, or else zombie flesh would soon decay and fall off (transforming the zombie in to a skeleton?).

Xanth zombies have the special property that they can continually drop little bits of decaying flesh everywhere they go, without ever actually losing mass...

-Hyp.

 

[glass]

We're all lucky D&D doen'st use "Dawn of the Dead"-type Zombies. Way too fast...they scare the hell outta me

They are a variant in LM, IIRC.


glass.