D&D 5E Zombies: Sink or Swim?

[rgoodbb]

Zombies and Water

do they have air in their lungs? Does this make a difference? Are we going Pirates of the Caribbean walking on the floor bed? or walking dead floating mindlessly wherever the tide takes them.

This is all important for prepping on an island for your zombie-plan.

 

[MGibster]

I go for sinking zombies because a normal corpse will bloat up a bit and float for a little while but eventually it sinks. Imagine taking a nice swim across Crystal Lake when suddenly you feel a hand grasp you leg and pull you under. Max Brooks' World War Z had some researchers in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse tagging zombies on the ocean floor to track where the currents sent them. There were a lot of zombies in the sea, and they were trying to track them to predict where they might crawl back on land from.

 

[iserith]

They sink or swim depending on what I need to make the specific encounter fun and challenging.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

They sink or swim depending on what I need to make the specific encounter fun and challenging.

This is the correct answer. If one need an explanation, there are way too few coastal or ocean themed necromancers in the game. Why have a black tower when you can have a black galley. Aaarrr matey!

 

[Tonguez]

Both - skeletons sink and walk on the bottom but fresher corpses will float and bobble around, others get tangled into meandering tidally driven corpse rafts and flesh gyres

 

[Vaalingrade]

Zombies float, but can't control it and just bob away.

 

[aco175]

The new box set has them crawling out of the ocean- if that matters. I would think they sink myself, but what causes them to move foreword? Are they drawn to sights and noise or do they have some sort of thinking and can figure out that they need to crawl on the bottom of the lake.

 

[aco175]

Zombies float, but can't control it and just bob away.

Reminds me of those no arms and no legs jokes.

 

[overgeeked]

 

[Stormonu]

With the existance of Lacedons, they clearly can do either - walk along the sea floor or float to the top. And there are fish/whale/shark zombies as well that can clearly swim.

"They all float down here"