Zombie Zoo
Hello everyone. As you may be aware, we here at Necromancers of the Northwest take some small amount of pride in our chosen school of magic. If you weren’t aware, don’t feel bad: you’re not alone. In fact, if you take a quick look at what we’ve been churning out of our workshop, you’ll probably come to the conclusion that we’re alchemists, or transmuters, or maybe just fighting instructors. In order to remedy this, and provide some support for budding necromancers out there, this article is devoted to creating some variant zombies.
Zombie Brute
Zombie brutes are treated with chemicals to make their skin tougher and more resistant, and infused with greater levels of magic, making them stronger and more durable than a standard zombie.
Challenge Rating: As a standard zombie of the creature’s hit dice, plus 1.
Armor Class: As a standard zombie of the creature’s size, plus 2.
Special Attacks: As a standard zombie, plus a zombie brute gains the following special attack:
Powerful Slam (Ex): Whenever the zombie brute scores a critical hit with its slam attack, he may make a CMB check against the target’s CMD. If he succeeds, the target is pushed 5 feet away from the zombie brute and knocked prone.
Abilities: As a standard zombie, but the bonus to Strength is +4, rather than +2, and its Charisma score becomes 14, not 10.
Skills: As a standard zombie, but the zombie brute suffers a -2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks besides Intimidate.
Feats: As a standard zombie, but a zombie brute also gains Power Attack as a bonus feat.
Creation
To create a zombie brute, a character must cast animate dead or a similar spell, with a few slight alterations. First, special reagents must be applied to the corpse to be animated. This costs an additional 25 gp per hit dice the corpse possessed, and requires an hour of preparation. Additionally, as the animate dead spell is cast, a bull’s strength, enlarge person, or false life spell must be expended. Create undead, and spells of equal or greater power, can create a zombie brute without any extra work on the caster’s part.
Undying Zombie
Undying zombies are enchanted with powerful and dark magic that makes them much harder to kill than most zombies, making them ideal servants for necromancers who hate having to replace zombies who’ve lost limbs or been hacked apart by adventurers.
Challenge Rating: As a standard zombie of the creature’s hit dice, plus 2.
Defensive Abilities: In addition to the defensive abilities of a standard zombie, undying zombies gain the following ability:
Undying (Su): An undying zombie that is reduced to 0 hit points or below is not destroyed. It collapses lifelessly for 1d4 minutes, and then is immediately restored to full hit points and becomes active once more. If one or more of the zombie’s limbs or other body parts are severed, they become animated and move to reconnect to the zombie (they have a movement speed of 5, an AC of 14, are incapable of making attacks, and possess the undying ability themselves).
If the zombie’s body is completely destroyed (such as with the disintegrate spell) or if it is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by a good-aligned weapon, it is destroyed utterly and cannot recover in this way.
Creation
To create an undying zombie, a character must cast animate dead or a similar spell, with a few slight alterations. First, a specially-engraved piece of obsidian must be implanted where the corpse’s heart (or similar organ) would be. This obsidian costs 200 gp per hit dice the corpse possessed. Second, as the animate dead spell is cast, the caster must also expend an enervation spell in a special ritual. As part of this ritual, the caster gains one temporary negative level per undying zombie to be created. Create undead, and spells of equal or greater power, can create an undying zombie without the negative level or the expenditure of an enervation spell, though the obsidian is still required.
Hellfire Zombie
Hellfire zombies are constantly wreathed in a magical, infernal flame, which serves not only as an endless torment to the zombie, but also as a danger to those who do battle with it.
Challenge Rating: As a standard zombie, plus 3.
Defensive Abilities: In addition to the defensive abilities of a standard zombie, hellfire zombies are immune to fire damage.
Attacks: Any natural attacks the hellfire zombie possesses, including those attacks of the base creature, deal an additional 1d8 points of fire damage with each successful hit.
Special Attacks: As a standard zombie, plus a hellfire zombie gains the following special attack:
Ignite (Ex): Any creature or object that the zombie touches must succeed on a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 the hellfire zombie’s hit dice + the hellfire zombie’s Charisma modifier) or become engulfed in hellish flames. A creature that catches fire in this way takes 1d8 points of fire damage at the beginning of its round, and an object burning in this way takes 1d8 points of fire damage at the end of each round. This damage ignores an object’s hardness, but not any fire resistance that an object or creature might possess.
This fire is supernatural, and cannot be doused by normal means. A dose of holy water can be used to put out the fire as a full-round action, and the flames can also be doused by a remove curse spell. A creature who is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by this ability rises as a hellfire zombie in 1d4 rounds.
Creation
To create a hellfire zombie, a character must cast animate dead or a similar spell, with a few slight alterations. First, a series of specially-engraved runes must be carved on the corpse and then inlaid with ruby, a process which costs 100 gp per hit dice the corpse possessed, and takes two hours per corpse. Second, as the animate dead spell is cast, the caster must also expend a continual flame and a pyrotechnics spell.
That’s all for this week. Happy animating.