Zombies! New Dungeoncraft article up

[Tewligan]

Nice article. The only improvement I'd have liked to see was zombie art.

Here ya go...

 

[Aust Diamondew]

They sound pretty cool, except for 'em not being a template, probably wouldn't be turn hard to come up with one, but I shouldn't have to.

 

[Tewligan]

As someone who's seen Shaun of the Dead about 5 times and have been (re)playing the Resident Evil remake on Nintendo DS for the past days, I find this article awesome!

What? Resident Evil is on the DS?! I must have it!

 

[Rechan]

I certainly dig this. Also, with the publishers habit of cramming the books full of every single type of undead imaginable, I expect us to see a dozen different type of zombies.

I agree that a wolf zombie should differ from a human zombie, and that a dragon zombie should differ from an ogre zombie.

But maybe that just requires a little tinkering. Convert the zombie slam to a bite that can trip. Give the dragon zombie flight and the ogre zombie some more str or reach or whathaveyou.

 

[The Little Raven]

I agree that a wolf zombie should differ from a human zombie, and that a dragon zombie should differ from an ogre zombie.

But maybe that just requires a little tinkering. Convert the zombie slam to a bite that can trip. Give the dragon zombie flight and the ogre zombie some more str or reach or whathaveyou.

Well, the whole about zombies is that they aren't just fully reanimated creatures. They're the stupidest and slowest of undead, the shambling mindless hordes (kinda like Christmas shoppers). They probably don't have the brain power to recall their tactics from life (like the wolf's trip), and rely on the most basic of attacks (fist go into face).

Plus, that Ogre Zombie would be Large, not Medium, so he'd probably have reach and higher strength anyhow.

 

[Reaper Steve]

Diggin' it.

The article also proves that there will be grappling of some sort.
I've always liked the idea of a horde of zombies* dragging a dude down, and this article makes it seem like that will certainly happen!

*Actually, I tried to make a encounter where a horde of goblins used their weight of number to overbear the PCs, but it didn't work out. Here's hoping that this feature of the 4E zombie horde means I may be able to make this a reality. (Although zombies are way better than goblins.)

 

[Knight Otu]

I agree that a wolf zombie should differ from a human zombie, and that a dragon zombie should differ from an ogre zombie.

But maybe that just requires a little tinkering.

Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Plus, that Ogre Zombie would be Large, not Medium, so he'd probably have reach and higher strength anyhow.

I deliberately did try to compare creatures of the same (3.5) size for that reason. I kind of goofed in the dragon and giant comparison, though, I wanted a storm giant rather than a hill giant.

 

[Merova]

Tinkering

But maybe that just requires a little tinkering. Convert the zombie slam to a bite that can trip. Give the dragon zombie flight and the ogre zombie some more str or reach or whathaveyou.

Yeah, I agree. However, the purpose of a "monster manual" is to provide a comprehensive collection of creatures ready made for ease of implementation. I can certainly fabricate my own variations of zombies, but I'd like to see the basics covered. IMO, zombie animals ought to be included as a core undead. How could I run a 4E conversion of Castles Forlorn without them?

In sum, I want a decent variety of zombies ready to go in the MMI. Yes, the 3.x zombie had many problems as written and it looks like these changes will address them. However, I never had any problems running compelling zombie encounters in 3.x because I tinkered with them. There are many sourcebooks available for the enterprising "Zombie Master." My favorites were the Ravenloft supplement Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead, Lord's of the Night: Zombies by Bottled Imp Games, and the Legends & Lairs sourcebook Monster's Handbook written by Mike Mearls. Of course, All Flesh Must Be Eaten has many good ideas that can be easily ported into the d20 system.

So, I'm cool with tinkering and doing the mods myself. But I really hope that the MMI doesn't just contain bland "Small," "Medium," "Large," etc. zombie types. Yes, that would be easiest for novice DMs to implement and there is the trouble of redundant monster types, which ought to be addressed, but I feel that "animal" zombies can be meaningfully distinguished from "humanoid" types in a mechanically significant manner and that such a distinction will improve the game for all. YMMV.

Good Gaming!

 

[Elemmakil]

Annoying - it's not letting me log in for some reason. How odd.

They recently changed their account structure, probably just to confuse us. You can migrate over your old account: pretend like you want to create an account, and it should give you a link to do so.

If you already have migrated your account, sign in under your email rather than account name.

-Elemmakil

 

[Kobold Avenger]

This is a change I like, unlike some of the other changes.

To me, D&D zombies were always pushovers. This makes them more like zombies in a Romero movie, though there's no mention of zombism being contagious. In my opinion zombies should be something that all PCs under at least level 10 should fear.