Tinkering
Rechan said:
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!