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Why D&D zombies SUCK (and how to fix them)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ส.ค. 2024
- D&D Zombies suck! But here's a solution: a brand new statblock and TWENTY variants to spice up Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. Follow this guide to elevate your experience with the 2022 Starter Set.
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▶ Better Zombies PDF: www.patreon.co...
▶ Better Zombies PDF written by Randall Right: / randallright
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This is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.co.... The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommon....
▼▼ Timestamps ▼▼
0:00 Introduction
0:15 What's wrong with the 5E zombie
2:27 How we're fixing the 5E zombie
5:59 Examples of zombie variants
8:28 How zombies should be used in the Starter Set
#dnd #5e #dosi
I forgot something in this video: HARD MODE for zombies! If you want to challenge your players during ANY zombie encounter, set a countdown dice timer or a threat dice timer, and tell youer players, "When this timer hits zero, these zombies are going to mutate." That mutation is when you roll for each zombie on the D20 Zombie trait table for their SECOND attribute, so they become something like, "Rushing, Dread-Lit Zombie" or "Empowered, Pulsing Zombie".
Also! This zombie PDF is available on Patreon RIGHT NOW and was written by our mate Randall RIght
1⃣ Better Zombies PDF: www.patreon.com/posts/75409669
2⃣ DOSI Prologue Quests PDF written by Randall Right: twitter.com/RandallRight
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This is truly great improvements for zombies! I looked for more on your site and was disappointed there were no more videos of this type. I strongly urge you to please make more videos like this, where you add real improvements to monsters. I’ve seen others try this type of approach but what you did is definitely the best, so again please consider making more of these.
Hey, thank you! This one was super fun to make :) I'm not sure whether another thing like this will come around though, just because zombies were a particular frustration of mine, and I'm not actually good at mechanical design. I'm passionate about zombies though!
While my party of four lvl 3 players were exploring a shipwreck, I attacked them with 24 zombies spawning only a few at a time so that the players got the sense of zombies gradually building up into a horde.
It was surprisingly easy to run despite the number of monsters because they all had identical statblocks. I gave all the zombies two attacks, a standard grapple attempt (contested athletics/acrobatics check) and a bite attack. I also gave them pack tactics that apply to both the bite and the grapple.
I'm glad both our changes address similar things! It means we adjusted the zombie in an intuitive direction
With zombies I have a homebrew where the players can choose to attack at disadvantage, but if they hit it ignores undead fortitude. I flavour it as going for the head.
Yeah that's good!
My next campaign will be heavily horror-inspired, so the ideas in this video are going to be very useful! Also I love that you've started adding stylized captions to your videos!
OKAY! YOU HAVE OFFICIALLY CONVINCED ME! I'M GIVING YOU THE $5 YOU RIGHTFULLY DESERVE! XD
Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
@@heyitsMattyP Lol!
I think your kill-stealing concern is overblown. It helps create that classic movie moment where the hero thinks the opponent is dead and it rises one more time. And in an encounter with several zombies, it can ramp up the tension. Also, the classic use of zombies to help teach new players the ropes with easy combats or to use them as a meat shield for casters are both OK, but your players will become familiar with this fast. Monsters become dull if they get used the same way, so thinking about new traits and motivations for zombies is welcome. The last time I used them I took the ash zombie from Lost Mine and reskinned them so they spewed a disgusting toxic spray instead of a cloud of ash. And I forgot (literally forgot, because DMs have lots to think about) to use the zero hit point trait, so there was no kill-stealing.
At my table, that moment is usually met with frustration from the players, especially if it happens more than once in a fight.
@@heyitsMattyP I have to ask, how little damage is your party dishing out? because they should be be doing enough to out pace undead fortitude pretty often especially spell casters since the lowest average damage for someone between the levels 1-4 is like ten which on average a zombie is gonna have to contest with a DC 15 or just die and for spell casters where talking an average of at least 26 so that zombie ain't getting back up unless they roll a natural 20 but even then by raw they would still die.
Also this feature does specify it doesn't work if the attack causes radiant damage so either a Cleric comes around and uses the good ole Radiant flare cantrip which works like a charm on the undead OR if they didn't take that cantrip a cleric and or paladin can make 1 pint of holy water every hour or so that does 2d6 radiant damage AND if it's smashed into some zombies face it does 1 damage to every zombie or fiend 5 feet away so that delicious holy water can fix that issue. if that's to much then that should be a clear incentive for the party to find proper weaponry that can kill the undead if it becomes that big of an issue otherwise in retrospect it's their own fault.
My level one characters usually dish out single-digit damage and run up against undead fortitude pretty often. But even if it proc'd less often, I'd still be frustrated when it did.
@@heyitsMattyP If your players aren't having fun, well, will you look at that -- these zombies can't make a saving throw. ;)
@@heyitsMattyP The zombies have a +3 CON mod and UF has a +5 modifier to the damage as a DC so it should proc frequently but not all the time, very rarely succeeding more than once. Effectively it's damage +2 on the DC if you were to run a flat d20 roll, and with average level 1 damage being a d8+mod you're pretty close to a 50/50 chance of it proccing. Of course, if your party has a way of dealing consistent radiant damage (sacred flame at level 1 comes to mind as the most common source) then this is rarely going to show up at all.
Amazing, thoughtful work! Thanks again for the awesome captions! So great for the hard-of-hearing (like me!).
Glad to help!
There is a book called the big book of zombies which has a lot of interesting concepts and also has stat blocks for zombies from the basic handbook of playable races and some other races from other books... And then it has templates of special zombies types you can add on top of those stat blocks which is pretty sick.
great vid. very very cool new mechanics
Thanks for the feedback on the PDF!
This makes zombies so much better and makes them seem like a more interesting encounter for players!
Or I was thinking maybe the first beach encounter can be with the more original zombies and the ship wreck could have the more complex zombies.
Even in that first encounter, I was bored by the stat block. Remember: that's going to be many players' first experience of combat, so I'd want to make it interesting.
@@heyitsMattyP yeah, I suppose that’s a good point. Otherwise the second combat could also be way confusing. Either way the grapple/ bite Combo for attacks is pretty great.
@@heyitsMattyPjust ran session one of this starter set with a group of friends who are all new players last weekend. Excited to see how the first combat goes. They ran away from the zombies with the captain when they crashed so we shall see if they will be able to save the Kobolds that are going to get attacked.
Cant believe this video hits this design upgrade SO FAR OUT OF THE PARK
🧟♂️💥🏏
Haha thank you! I wanted to have a go at putting 100% effort into editing and see where my skills are at now. It's not gonna be worth it performance-wise, but it's been ages since I benchmarked this kind of thing.
Well it was a great presentation of a SUPER useful table, of course now I’m imagining a d20 table of customizations for all the basic ol dnd critters. Goblins? Kobolds? Giant Vermin? Anything a new dm could easily use to make the basic enemies a bit more personalized is a win
Does the PDF comes with anything regarding the Animate dead spell and the Necromancer?
It does not. Just beautiful zombies!
Hey Matty, this will be a shock, I know, but I disagree with some of this.
But I also love most of it and wholeheartedly agree.
That's the bit that is probably the shock.
And if you care, the wording of the undead regeneration as written would imply it only regenerates after it has once hit 0 hp. So if you take a zombie to 1hp and leave it, it doesn't regen.
Haha, glad we're finally circling some common ground :D
I'll adjust that wording this week - thank you! Holler if you want me to send you any of these PDFs my guy
Do you have DOSI bundle available on your Patreon? I browsed it and I didn’t see one. 😅
Hey mate! You can sort and filter all the Patreon posts on my website.
Try filtering by Dragons of Stormwreck Isle and each item it finds will link directly to the corresponding Patreon post :) heyitsmattyp.com/store
@@heyitsMattyP thank you! I joined your Patreon and got all the tagged material. It’s been so helpful! I can’t wait to run DOSI in a few weeks. Thanks again!!
im building up a zombie themed campaign, and ive been researching all sorts of zombie versions, and these one are some of the scariest and most practical ones so far.
Oh great! It's not perfect, but it's much closer to how I reckon zombies should feel.
When you mention having to attempt an escape for every zombie latched do you suggest the player has to spend a full action per zombie? That sounds like it would burn too much economy. You pdfs are great, just got Silver thanks for the videos.
Cheers! The player spends one action, and that attempt is made against every zombie simultaneously.
What does the zombie roll to succeed on the latch on ability? (New DM here.)
Grapple checks are contested Athletics vs Athletics or Acrobatics
Alright, as promised - Here's the story of my first time running this module with a new group and your suggestions.
*WARNING - AGONIZINGLY LONG READ INCOMING - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK*
*ALSO POSSIBLY SOME INCORRECT GRAMMAR*
So I want to start by saying that this isn't a _completely_ new group. I have three friends around my age (12, 14, and 14) who seemed interested in playing D&D, so I decided to buy Stormwreck Isle in a manner so timely that I found this video series as I was about to run it. My brother has played D&D before, and he's friends with the three friends as well, so I decided to have him join because I figured it may be nice to have an experienced player. So I have a party of four. I spent a very long time preparing for the first session, as I wanted it to be as cool as possible. I used many of the mechanics featured in the videos, although there was one I completely disregarded: A detailed prologue quest. I suspected that the new players would prefer to get to the action (this is why I decided to use the pregenerated characters for them as well), so I designed a very brief and very open adventure hook that wasn't necessarily a prologue "quest." Basically, Lord Aidron is the prince of the land, and recently he has gone on a classified mission in which he has been gone for quite a time. The only information they have is that he flew due west - straight towards Stormwreck Isle. The nobles that Aidron put in charge fear that political turmoil is about to stir, so they asked some adventurers by trade to go investigate - and it wasn't really the kind of question where "no" is an answer. So they sailed on the Compass Rose to Stormwreck Isle.
What actually happened is Lord Aidron answered a summons by trusted friend Runara, who asked him to come to speak about eradicating Sparkrender. He brought guards with him, but strangely, despite the fact that they are his most elite, he found them dead one night after he woke up - but for some reason he wasn't dead himself. In his impulsiveness and aggression, he immediately assumes (correctly) that Sparkrender killed the guards, and without a second thought turns his focus to destroying Sparkrender as quickly as possible - which means that he doesn't have the foresight to consider that he should probably go back to his kingdom and gather forces. So as the characters arrive, he is at war with Sparkrender, each of them attempting to thwart each other's plans.
Now for the session: I warned them that the first scene was going to be tense and fast-paced, so I explained the very basic rules (abiliity checks, attack rolls, and saving throws) before starting. They seemed to endure the brief explanation well, then I presented the character options. As expected, we ended up with characters that consisted of just names and no depth - which is perfectly fine for a four-session first adventure, alongside the fact that I knew the price I had to pay if I wanted to use pregens. I'll make up fake names to represent the players for the sake of anonymity: 12-year-old Bob playing Mr. Tiny Tiggy Flakes, Halfling Rogue, 14-year-old Lee playing Master Sergeant Coward Standstrong, Human Paladin, 14-year-old Steve playing Gary Holdman, Elf Fighter, and 15-year-old John (experienced brother) playing Brother Chadwick, Dwarf Cleric.
Honestly, the introductory scene is what I spent so much time on. I wanted the hook to be a HOOK. And I kind of got my wish. I began the adventure with a modified version of the example intro, slipping in more information such as the fact that the storm was caused by the battling dragons and the fact that there is no light except lightning and a few faltering torches held to the wall. I used a trick to cause tension that had worked in other games - a literal, in-real-life timer. This is why I explained the basic rules to them earlier, not as we played. At the end of the intro, I would say, "Players, you have.... ten minutes -" *holds up timer, showing it to the players, and presses it* "-and this ship will sink. What do you do?" I loved this part especially because it created immediate tension. However, the problem with this is that they might not get the skill challenge done in time, so I would just let each player do an epic thing until the timer ran out and I would count the successes/failures. This left a lot of flexibility, so I wasn't stressed at all. Whenever they all did the same thing or they ran out of stuff to do, I would roll on the table and be like, "well now there's a fire! and... the harpy comes back!" - stuff like that.
What I ended up with was the single scene that I DMd that I am most proud of. Seriously, I worked for so long on the opening. At that D&D table, we told the story of a newly and hastily formed group of adventurers scrambling against the clock to fight threats as they go down with their ship, while all the while there was Assassins Creed: Black Flag music on loop in the background. It was so fun. The players themselves liked it too - although I want to add a side note here to say that Bob was a bit pessimistic by personality, so he wasn't as enthusiastic as Lee and Steve were, but I could tell he enjoyed it because after the session he asked me on Discord when we were going to play again.
Anyway, a couple of highlights from the shipwreck scene. Once, Tiggy Flakes critically hit the octopus in the eye with a shortbow. Then Standstrong and Chadwick worked together to light a torch and throw it down with a gunpowder barrel to make the octopus slink away. Gary (who has the archery fighting style) absolutely sniped the harpy with his longbow. Other stuff happened that I'm too lazy to write, then the timer went off. They explained that their plan was to slash the sails and try to use the winds that pulled them towards the isle to their advantage. I valued this creativity, so I let it happen - but not until Tiggy Flakes suffered an agonizing wound from a harpy's claw to his already small leg, Chadwick dropped a broken dagger that had been a personal souvenir from an earlier battle, Holdman got mometarily snatched and breathed upon by the octopus, who had seen fresh meat as their eyes were turned, and Standstrong stood in the way of Alethia's prayer and became Necrotized. The party barely escaped, their hang-glider of sorts carried by the winds for a small but crucial amount of seconds as they splashed into the water, grabbed debris, and passed out.
They woke up with twelve kobolds and three humans standing over them. Cue roleplay scene. I'm pretty sure you know what happens here, so I won't give a full-on play-by-play. The people at Draogon's Rest don't fully trust the party, so they present the side quests as a way to help the cloister, look for Aidron on the way, and possibly cure the trauma stuff. Runara gives a short history lesson about the island as it comes up in the conversation. When asked about Aidron, Runara wisely uses words that aren't technically lying but still avoid the question. After concluding the matter, they decide that it would be wise to go on the quest as soon as possible because although it is 2 A.M. the characters are fully rested. As they turn away, Tarak whispers to them, "you know, I _might_ know something about Aidron... if you are going to do what I asked in the Myconid caves." That really got the players hooked.
Then the zombies came out of the water. There were four, and two of them were special: One sludgy and one spell-stealing (he never got to use the ability). I decided to include Myla in this fight, with the alchemical flame literally being her flamethrower. This way, when the characters see that the kobold enemies had a flamethrower, they might grow a suspicious of Myla. It was a normal fight except for the fact that Standstrong got a glory kill at the end and punched the sludgy to death, and his arm got stuck and he fell into the water in the process. Then I ended the session as they were about to go to the myconid caves.
P.S. We barely ever used the time tracker in the first session. It'll come into play during later sessions.
I want to end this by saying thank you so much, MattyP, for the dedication you have to this video series and the numerous helpful things within it. It has really helped my friends learn D&D together in a fun and adventurous way.
Alright, it's 1:53 A.M., I'm tired, and It's starting to get difficult to type cohrently, so yeah, that's all.
Mate, great writeup! Thank you for sharing :) I'm glad you started strong with the ship sinking - it's way more fun than the awkward cliche of meeting in a tavern!
@@heyitsMattyP Yeah, I thought that would be the most important thing to focus on. Also, I just realized that some of the bold text in the comment got messed up - I fixed it now.
Videos good here's engagement
Love this. Have you by chance built this option at DnDB and have a sharable link?
I have not. Its all Patreon exclusive.
@@heyitsMattyP Yeah, sorry. I asked the same question on FB. I’ve got it covered. 😉
@8:24. HEH... well played... well played indeed.
Absolutely ludacris
How would you run the lost mines of phandelver at height level if you or your party doesn’t want to start at lv 1
Scaling adventures is easy enough to do. Substitute the stat blocks for tougher monsters. You might have to adjust stuff as you go to figure out the right balance :)
Why don’t you just increase the dc of the con save for fortitude. Especially after it already happens once. Start it higher as well as increase it after that so it’s way less likely. I still like Undead regeneration.
Would you replace the zombie gundam with these zombies in LMOP for the necromancer encounter, or keep the zombie gundam you created?
In LMOP, ideally that combat doesn't even happen. I'd probably lean towards the Gundam in that scenario, because it would be a shorter combat with fewer combatants and probably more likely to end in some kind of negotiation. But if I were telling a zombie-centric story, I'd use these zombies.
@@heyitsMattyP That makes sense to me. Thanks Matt!
... honestly, i kinda like the shambling, unnaturally durable version of the zombie. Don't get me wrong, having different varieties of zombies on the board is great, but I don't actually have a problem with the old version. I do like these new zombert types. Might be impactful to mix a couple enhanced zombies in with the horse, L4D style.
Also where's the exploding zombie, or the one that's full of undead rats that turns in to a swarm situation when you splat it?
Exploding zombie is in there! Rats zombie is a missed opportunity though
@@heyitsMattyP The necrosplashy ones are kind of explodey, true. Does the necrotic damage heal undead in this edition? I'm mainly familiar with Pathfinder at this point, having gotten in to there via 3 and 3.5,
I'm one of those people who changes one detail of a creature type, gives it a different description, and uses that to keep the players on their toes. For example, setting a string of gelatinous cubes on 'undead', and describing them as a huge, reeking mass of washed-up sea life. Sections of it broke up as the players blasted through the hitpoints of individual cubes.
Great video. Great ideas.
Cheers Nate!
6:44 Minecraft Moment
POGGERS
so undead fortitude is flavorful its meant to represent needing a headshot thus y it doesnt work with a crit
I'm just not satisfied with a situation where the player kills the monster, then I turn around immediately and take that away from them. If it was just flavour, I wouldn't mind, but instead it's a frustrating gameplay mechanic that has turned a few fights into slogs for me.
Love this!
Oi, Perkins! Stop picking on zombies! First it’s the zombie Gundam now it’s this? 😂
get a load of ol' zombie simp over here, always white knighting for zombies, just loves 'em
Actually these are really cool rules! I love the latching one rules - they would be great if your PCs are needing to get through a room fast and not trying to fight everything - like against the clock. And the mutations could so readily be applied to other mobs. Great additions to make combat more exciting, Matty!
Basically, 5e zombies are low-CR flesh golems lmao
"Just like that" 😂
It's a pretty ludacris joke, I know
@@heyitsMattyP 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Stop being so mean to Peter Parker.
I don't remember what I said, but sorry Spidey!
@@heyitsMattyP You act all nice in these videos, but off-screen you're all "Parker, you nincompoop!!! Get me photos of Spider-Man, public enemy number one!"
@@davidfowles haha now I have to rewatch this to check if I made any JJ jokes
You just look like him with the big moustache.