Rethinking the Undead

Recently I read an article about simplifying the plethora of types of undead, and it got me thinking… How can we combine undead monsters and make them more dramatic at the same time? Here are some ideas for a few of them.

Why Combine Undead?

I have always wondered about the sheer number of undead monsters that were available to fantasy gaming. Most of it comes from the roots in D&D, but even the original TFT had a number of undead creatures, too. I get that many of them are rooted in mythology and cultural legends, but how many do we really need?

Recently I read an article about condensing the number of undead, and it really struck home. The author was asking about an array of undead, but then drilled into skeletons, zombies and ghouls. The question still applies, though–how many different types of undead do we really need?

Skeletons, Zombies and Ghouls–Oh My!

Circling back to skeletons, zombies and ghouls–what if they were all really the same monster?

Think about it… As the article above mentions, maybe the beginning stage of a ghoul is a skeleton. When a sorcerer summons a spirit to animate the bones of a dead person, that creature starts as a skeleton, with no flesh (or very little). Maybe that creature is hungry–maybe for flesh, maybe for blood. No matter what, as it kills, it tries to eat the flesh of its victim. As it eats… it gains flesh back…

Eventually, what was a skeleton is now what we would call a zombie… not quite a living creature, but not a jumble of bones, either. And it is still hungry…

Finally, the creature may have killed and eaten enough victims that now it has the semblance of real life–a ghoul. It still wants to eat flesh, and smells of the rotten death that it has eaten–and is still hungry.

Now what you have is 3 classic monsters that are really one single creature, just different stages. (I actually got the visualization for this ghoul in my mind from watching the move Hellraiser again–definitely worth doing!)

To see the stats for this combined "ghoul," check it out in the Bestiary.

Anything Else?

What other undead creatures could you combine like that? The classic AD&D wights and wraiths are ripe for that–one is just a more powerful version of the other. Call them wraiths and be done with it.

Even then, maybe the concept of a lich could be bound within a wraith. Say the "wraith" is a spirit of an evil sorcerer that refuses to cross over to the afterlife… Maybe that sorcerer died a natural death, or maybe the sorcerer used blasphemous rites to preserve his life. Just maybe–as the bones and physical remnants of the sorcerer turned to dust or were destroyed, the spirit remained behind. Maybe that spirit is also what we would call a wraith?

Like all of the creatures mentioned above, maybe there are other things that can be combined in strange ways–ways that can surprise your players, and even fit better in with the story of your setting. The key is to open up your imagination and look for possibilities that can make your gaming more fun.

If you think of anything, let me know!

Marko ∞

(Originally published on middle-lands.com, on 8/7/2020.)