Author Topic: Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies  (Read 1319 times)

Garryl

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Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies
« on: June 20, 2017, 09:32:11 PM »
Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies

The main intent behind this guide is to evaluate which monsters are good options for animating as skeletons and/or zombies. So first, a quick summary of how those templates work and what makes good minions with them.

Both skeleton and zombie are acquired templates that can be applied to any non-undead corporeal creature with a skeletal system. With the animate dead spell, skeletons can only be created from a mostly intact skeleton or a mostly intact corpse with bones. Likewise, animate dead can only create zombies from a mostly intact corpse with a true anatomy. Animate dead also can't turn creatures that are too powerful (more than 20 HD for skeletons, or more than 10 HD for zombies) into undead. Since this is the most common way of creating skeletons and zombies, animate dead is how this guide will evaluate the viability of creatures to be animated. For the most part, anyways.

When a creature is animated as a skeleton or a zombie, a number of things are the same regardless of which template is used. the table below summarizes the similarities and differences.

SkeletonsZombies
TypeType changes to undead (d12 for HD, +1/2 BAB, poor base Fort, poor base Reflex, good base Will). It does not gain the augmented subtype.
SubtypesSubtypes indicating alignment (chaotic, evil, good, lawful) or kind (angel, demon, devil, goblinoid, reptilian, etc.) are lost. Subtypes of other sorts are retained.
Hit DiceHD from class are dropped (min. 1 HD), what's left is set to d12.HD from class are dropped (min. 1 HD), what's left is doubled and set to d12.
Speed and Movement ModesMovement modes retained except for winged flight.Movement modes retained. Flight maneuverability decreased to clumsy.
Natural ArmorNatural armor bonus is dropped and replaced by a fixed value based on size (up to +10 for Colossal).Natural armor bonus is retained and further increased based on size (up to +11 for Colossal).
AttacksLoses natural weapons and weapon usage that requires flesh. Gains one claw per hand, base damage is based on size or creature's original claw damage (if it had one), whichever is better.Natural weapons and weapon usage are retained. Gain a single slam attack, base damage is based on size or creature's original slam damage (if it had one), whichever is better.
Weapon ProficienciesRetained. Additionally, all undead are proficient with simple weapons and with any weapon mentioned in their entries.
Armor ProficienciesNot mentioned, so presumably retained. Additionally, undead are proficient with any type of armor they are mentioned as wearing, and shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
Special AttacksLost.
Special QualitiesLost, for the most part. Extraordinary special qualities that improve a skeleton or zombie's melee or ranged attacks are retained.
Damage ReductionDR 5/bludgeoning.DR 5/slashing.
ImmunitiesSkeletons are immune to cold. Additionally, they gain a large number of immunities as a result of the undead type.Zombies gain a large number of immunities as a result of the undead type.
SensesBoth skeletons and zombies have darkvision 60 ft. as a result of the undead type.
ActionsNormal.Single actions only. A zombie can perform only a single move or standard action per round, like a staggered creature. It can charge up to its speed (rather than double) as a standard action.
Base SavesFort +1/3 HD, Ref +1/3 HD, and Will +1/2 HD + 2.
Ability ScoresStr +0, Dex +2, Con --, Int --, Wis 10, Cha 1.Str +2, Dex -2, Con --, Int --, Wis 10, Cha 1.
SkillsMindless, so no skill points.
FeatsMindless, so no normal feats. Gains Improved Initiative as a bonus feat.Mindless, so no normal feats. Gains Toughness as a bonus feat.
AlignmentAlways neutral evil.
Challenge RatingBased on HD (roughly 1/2 HD).Based on HD (roughly 1/3 HD).

Some important things to take away from this, and a few other useful tidbits:
  • Some useful subtypes are retained. In particular, the fire subtype, which grants fire immunity (its cold vulnerability is negated by the cold immunity both templates grant). Unfortunately, the reverse is true with the cold subtype, which induces fire vulnerability (the cold immunity being redundant).
  • Since undead have no Constitution score, hit points from Hit Dice (avg. 6.5 hp/HD) are normally all that skeletons and zombies get (+3 from toughness doesn't count for enough). The desecrate spell can add an additional +1 or +2 hp/HD to undead animated within its area (among other benefits). This is very important, as it increases a skeleton or zombies hit points by up to 31%.
  • Skeletons can only fly with magical flight (like a Lantern Archon or a Will o' Wisp, if they were allowed to be skeletons).
  • Zombies can keep winged flight. This makes undead flying mounts somewhat viable for transport at lower levels. However, zombies can take only a single action per round and always have clumsy maneuverability. With a minimum forward speed of 1/2, zombies cannot effectively fight in midair without either charging to attack or having a very low movement speed (to move far enough with only 5-foot steps). Even then, the terrible turning means that anything not stuck in place can just get out of the way. Thus, flying zombies are decent transports, lousy combat mounts, and useless aerial combatants.
  • Skeletons lose their natural armor bonus, replacing it with a very unimpressive value. Great for armor-wearing creatures that didn't have much, or any, natural armor to begin with, but creatures that relied on very high natural armor as a defense become much easier to hit.
  • Zombies get to keep their natural armor bonus and increase it further. On a good base creature, they can get really hard to hit, especially if given armor, too.
  • Light armor and barding with an ACP of -0 has no penalty even when you're non-proficient. Even if your skeletons and zombies aren't proficient, give them leather armor or masterwork studded leather for an extra +2/+3 AC.
  • Skeletons with lots of hands get a lot of claw attacks. No, a skeleton millipede does not get 1000 claw attacks, only hands count.
  • Keeping proficiencies means that creatures with class levels (even though they lose them) and of types that grant proficiencies (such as outsiders) add an extra, if minor, benefit.
  • Extraordinary special qualities that improve a skeleton or zombie's melee or ranged attacks are retained. That's a very specific and rare subset of abilities, but it includes some very useful ones like a Cloud Giant's oversized weapon and a Goliath's powerful build.
  • A skeleton with a good Strength score and a good weapon can deal good damage. The difference between a one-handed and a two-handed weapon is less important for a skeleton, as a one-handed weapon opens up an extra secondary claw attack to offset the lost damage, although a two-handed weapon will usually deal more damage.
  • Zombies make poor damage dealers at higher levels. Single actions only means no full attacks ever, so only one attack per round even with BAB +6 or higher. At low levels, however, that's not a meaningful restriction. Zombies can still make attacks of opportunity, so a larger zombie or one armed with a reach weapon can put out more hurt than you'd expect. Hydra zombies are a special case, as their capacity to attack with each head isn't even an ability (neither a special attack nor a special quality), so it isn't lost to the template.
  • Even simple weapons usually deal more damage than a skeleton's claw or a zombie's slam. Consider giving morningstars and longspears to any of your undead minions with the hands to wield weapons.
  • Properly optimized base creature selection can make skeletons and zombies that are much stronger than their CR would imply. For your average creature, though, they're in the right ballpark.



Creating and Controlling Undead
The two most common ways of getting undead minions are commanding undead (for evil Clerics) and creating them with animate dead. Commanding undead requires a lot of investment to take control of anything useful, but has a very wide range of options (virtually any undead creature at all). A Cleric's control pool thus tends more often to be used for more interesting undead with varied abilities. Animate dead however, is simple and powerful. It only makes skeletons and zombies (plus variations on that for some categories of creatures, and a couple of specific creatures in non-core splatbooks that are beyond the scope of this guide). It makes up to 2 HD/level of undead per casting (4 HD/level in an area of desecrate) and allows you to control up to 4 HD/level of undead with it. Clerics get it as a 3rd-level spell, while Sorcerers and Wizards get it as a 4th-level spell. The only real downside is that it costs 25 gp per HD of undead you animate to cast animate dead. Since both of these methods are limited by the total HD of undead controlled, you generally want your undead soldiers to be efficient in herms of HD. If you are evaluating minions that do the same thing about as effectively but that have different HD totals, the one that does it with fewer HD is generally more valuable.

Sorcerers and Wizards also have command undead (not to be confused with the higher-level and much more temporary control undead), which lets them order about nonintelligent undead with no saving throw for 1 day/level. They're cheating cheaters. For the cost of a single 2nd-level spell slot per day, they can control 1 mindless undead creature per level, regardless of HD or other factors. It gets even worse if they use more than one spell slot per day, or make use of Extend Spell (or a lesser metamagic rod of it). The only downside is spell resistance applies (not really an issue, since skeletons and zombies never keep it) and the fact that the spell itself can be dispelled. Obviously, these guys only care about making and controlling the biggest and nastiest skeletons and zombies they can get their hands on.



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Garryl

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(Continued) Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2017, 09:32:20 PM »
I'm in the process of evaluating all of the Monster Manual creatures regarding their viability as undead minions. I have the raw statistics below, but I also have them in a Google sheet, which has them together in a single sortable table.

I've started with preliminary ratings. As of Friday, July 15th, I've covered all creatures up to and including 4 HD, with about 60% of the rest rated, albeit spottily.

This guide is primarily designed for evaluating creatures to animate and control with animate dead. As such, the evaluations are (at least supposed to be) prioritizing fewer HD for the same effect. For example, if two creatures do essentially the same thing with essentially the same statistics, the one with fewer HD would be rated higher.

One red star (*): Among the worst choices. Little to no value, frequently outshadowed by many creatures with fewer HD.
Two orange stars (**): Subpar choices. Can be somewhat effective, but bring little to nothing that other creatures don't.
Thee black stars (***): Average choices. Decent, but unimpressive. Can hold their own and have their strengths, but nothing excessive.
Four green stars (****): Good choices. Generally good at what they do, usually excelling significantly in some way.
Five blue stars (*****): Optimal choices. The best, or close to it, in some way, and no glaring weaknesses, and may have some unique advantages. These creatures frequently outshadow others with more HD.



1/4 HD
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1/2 HD
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1 HD
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2 HD
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« Last Edit: June 28, 2017, 10:15:44 AM by Garryl »
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(Continued) Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2017, 09:35:01 PM »
3 HD
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4 HD
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« Last Edit: June 27, 2017, 09:38:33 PM by Garryl »
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(Continued) Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2017, 09:37:17 PM »
Special Cases
There are a few types of creatures that require a special degree of analysis and discussion.

Creatures With Class Levels
While most effects of classes are lost, proficiencies and special qualities that enhance melee and ranged attacks remain. Movement modes and ability score adjustments will usually be lost due to being special qualities, as will any natural attacks due to being special attacks.

Creatures with class levels will frequently have higher than normal Strength and Dexterity scores due to using the basic or elite arrays.

True Dragons
Dragons come in way too many varieties to cover, most of which make really good skeletons and zombies. They universally have 10 Dex, though, so skeletons always have AC 12 or 13, depending on size. Lots of natural armor, so zombies get high AC despite that. Universally great movement modes and natural attacks, although oddly they have only moderate Strength scores for their HD. Also, dragons have their own special way of being animated (see Draconomicon's Skeletal Dragon and Zombie Dragon templates) that make them even more powerful.

Hydras
Amazing skeletons and the undisputed king of zombies. Short version is that whenever they'd get one attack, they get to bite with all of their heads. As far as straight up combat goes, this completely negates the biggest downside of zombies' limited actions, the lack of full attacks.

The nature of a hydra's heads is a natural ability. It's neither a special attack nor a special quality. It's simply part of the monster. Hydras can attack with all their heads at no penalty, even if they move or charge during the round. More so than that, all of the heads' attacks are listed in the attack entry (separate from the full attack entry), which indicates what the hydra can do when it's given an opportunity to make a single attack (such as a standard action, at the end of a charge, on an attack of opportunity, etc.). There's also a bit about hydras using all of their heads for attacks of opportunity with the Combat Reflexes feat, which confuses the matter since they lose the feat, but they're still totally awesome even if they only get one attack on AoOs (they probably still get one attack per head, though).

A hydra's heads can also be attacked independently, they regrow, and they can be sealed with fire or acid (or cold, for pyrohydras). Heads regrowing seems like exactly the sort of thing that would be lost when a hydra is animated as an undead creature, having lost both fast healing and, due to being mindless undead, natural healing as well. Technically, it still keeps that thing, despite all that, which is a bit weird. Since almost nobody ever uses sundering, it's really not something worth the effort to get into or worry about.

Also worth mentioning are pyro- and cryohydras. Pyrohydras have the fire subtype, while cryohydras have the cold subtype. Otherwise, as skeletons and zombies, they're identical to regular hydras. If you're making skeletons, pyrohydras are obviously superior, having fire and cold immunity. Hydras are still so damn good for skeletons and zombies that cryohydras, which add fire vulnerability for no gain, are still at the top end of the top tier for skeletons.

Swarms
Swarms are neat. They keep the swarm subtype, which is most of what makes a swarm awesome in the first place: nauseating distraction, swarm attacks, immunity or extreme resistance to conventional weaponry and targeted attacks, etc. Unfortunately, they're really hard to animate. Animate dead just doesn't do it for a number of reasons. First, it targets a specific number of creatures (it may not have an upper bound, but it still targets only what you designate). Second, a swarm doesn't leave a corpse behind most of the time to even animate. Reducing a swarm to 0 hp doesn't even kill it, it just makes the swarm break up. If you want it to leave a corpse, you need something like a death effect that straight up kills it without reducing it to 0 hp.

If you want a skeleton or zombie swarm, you have to get creative. You need some sort of area of effect spell or ability that kills creatures, and one that animates the dead. The Fell Animate feat applied to an AoE death effect like cloudkill or circle of death can do it.

If you can pull it off, you get a great undead minion. It's just really, really hard to do so, and by the time you can the swarm might not be worth the effort.

Skeletal Structures and Natural Attacks That Require Flesh
Not all creatures can be animated as skeletons and zombies, and even then, some natural attacks might be lost to skeletons. Aside from the obvious things like oozes, elementals, and blobs of light like Lantern Archons and Will o' Wisps, here are a few cases that I had to do some research on. And by that I mean spend 5 minutes on Wikipedia.

- Octopi, squids, and their larger and/or magical counterparts (including krakens) don't really have have skeletal structures. Squids (and by extension krakens) have some cartillage about them which might be enough. Check with your DM or your local marine biologist.
- Tentacles and cephalopod arms don't generally have any sort of skeletal structure. Therefore, skeletons will lose those attacks. This is a real shame, because krakens and giant squids have tons of natural attacks and great strength to back them up. This also affects several other creatures, such as aboleths, carrion crawlers, chokers, displacer beasts, gricks, mind flayers, and otyughs.

Anybody who actually knows anything about the relevant parts of biology, feel free to correct me. Please do, really. I feel like I'm just this side of guessing here.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2017, 09:38:40 PM by Garryl »
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(Continued) Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2017, 09:37:28 PM »
Templates
Some templates add some very nice effects to creatures, in particular those that add to Strength and Dexterity, add movement modes and natural attacks, and improve natural armor. Since templates generally don't change a creature's Hit Die total, templated creatures don't even cost more to animate and control, making them extra special bonuses.
  • Celestial Creature: No influence at all. All effects are wiped out by the skeleton and zombie templates.
  • Fiendish Creature: No influence at all. All effects are wiped out by the skeleton and zombie templates.
  • Half-Celestial: Martial weapon proficiency (from outsider type). Winged flight at 2x base speed. +1 natural armor. +4 Str, +2 Dex.
  • Half-Dragon: Winged flight at 2x base speed (max 120). +4 natural armor. Grants bite and claw attacks. +8 Str.
  • Half-Fiend: Martial weapon proficiency (from outsider type). Winged flight at base speed. +1 natural armor. Grants bite and claw attacks. +4 Str, +4 Dex.
  • Lycanthrope: +1 or more HD, depending on type. +2 natural armor. Shapechangers return to their natural form when killed, so modifiers and natural attacks of hybrid and animal form are impossible to retain.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2017, 09:38:49 PM by Garryl »
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(Continued) Unlimited Bone Works, a Guide to Skeletons and Zombies
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2017, 09:37:36 PM »
Undead Strategies
  • Max hp: A 1/4 HD creature animated as a 1/2 HD zombie with 6 hp. If you just want the most hp of controlled undead, that's your best option. A tiny viper zombie even has the best attack (slam +1 for 1d3-1 damage) if you want them to be a distraction (6 hp and DR 5/slashing means they might even take multiple attacks to destroy), although a bat or raven's 40-foot fly speed makes them better able to stick to a target.
  • Rain of Arrows: You can load up high Dexterity skeletons with ranged weapons. Undead always have simple weapon proficiency, so light crossbows are always an option, especially for low-Strength skeletons. For flight-capable creatures, zombies are also viable sometimes, allowing them to set themselves up in sniper's nests with good lines of fire, especially for creatures with martial weapon proficiency to use bows (or composite bows, if Strength is high enough with a zombie's +4 adjustment) to keep the rate of fire up. This can be particularly good with large numbers of low-HD undead.
    • A 1 HD grig zombie can shoot at +5 with a lonngbow (1d4-1) every round or with a light crossbow (1d4) every other round, using flight to get to good sniping positions (even if it can't shoot while airborne).
    • A 1/2 HD grig skeleton can shoot at +7 with a light crossbow (1d4) every round.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2017, 09:38:58 PM by Garryl »
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