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When I had my party encounter a revenant, I had it point at them and say, “You there! You appear able-bodied. I need assistance avenging my own murder.” And they took up a sidequest which culminated in their setting up a meeting with the local baron and baroness, where said revenant strangled them and then turned to dust.
My party encountered a revenant of a Red Wizard that they killed before. When they encountered the revenant the second time and determined that just defeating it was insufficient, they used feign death on the party member targeted so that the revenant would end their quest for revenge.
@@franksaffen I feel that wouldn't have worked. Revenants got supernatural awareness of the condition of their targets in dnd. I suppose killing the target then raising them later once the revenant has passed on would work but faking death I would think wouldn't work. Not even magically faking death.
Zombies are awesome as add-ons to a boss fight. Had an undead mage fight where I had him summon 5 zombies. One zombie was burned, frozen, electrocuted, melted with acid, and burned again, and the dude was still alive lol That sorcerer feared for his life when that single flanking zombie made his like, fifth con save to stay alive. Also, on the revenant note, I saw a homebrew revenant that was excellently done, that would "level up" with the players. Basically, every time the revenant's revenge objective (the party as a whole) kills him, he gets stronger. The homebrew statblock that I saw gave you a number of points at every death that you could spend on abilities. Besides a free HP boost, you could give him better weapons, multiattack, more AC, ASIs, different types of attacks, bonus actions, reactions, resistances/immunities, legendary resistances, legendary actions, spellcasting. It's a very good way to make a revenant a reoccurring villain without it getting stale or too easy. Each time it upgrades, it's CR goes up. It has the potential to be a relevant villain throughout the entire campaign. In fact, it could even be THE villain of the campaign. A main villain that you face multiple times and keeps coming back stronger and better, with only one goal: to destroy the party.
I made a revenant that was simply a PC that would not stay dead, half zealot barbarian half phantom rogue. Each time the party leveled up, it would also level up, and have more monsters nearby. It was particularly vicious and intelligent, but it was after an NPC that kept hiring the party to defeat it, getting more and more upset at the party each time it came back, demanding they do a better job. They haven't caught on yet, but the NPC is actually in possession of a family heirloom sword that killed the revenant's family in the past, a lot of NPC's and the city's library know of it and it's history, and it can be used in a ritual to get rid of the revenant. However the heirloom's owner - the NPC that hired the party - does NOT want to part with it.
With the goal of catching a meal, a ghoul or ghast that manages to paralyze its target will leave the fight, carrying off their victim to begin feasting upon them.
@@aqacefan Paralyzed is not the same as dropping to 0 hit points. Also, since they are carrying another body, their movement is halved. Unless the rest of the party is just completely oblivious (which, ooc, that player is likely asking for help) they should be able to.prevent that from happening. I've had it happened in my own game. In fact, I had the ghoul in question use the dash action on its turn to compensate for the movement penalty (the'yre trying to get away from the conflict where they can e joy their meal without interruption). So even though it was still making a full 30 feet per round, it couldn't do any further harm to its target. The goal wasn't to kill my players, the goal was to make them feel threatened. And even if they did continue to make bite attacks, they still have to drop that character to 0 before it becomes a serious threat, plus they get a save against the condition every turn, so it probably would never get to that point.
@@Mr_GoR_ Good point... for some reason I mistook Luke's description as the PC being dropped to 0 HP, not having the Paralyzed condition. Thanks for the correction.
I liked a different version of that where, upon snagging a meal, the ghoul begins eating right then and there without regard to any remaining combatants, only dragging away their victim if they get attacked. They're compelled to eat flesh and ghouls lack the willpower to resist that compulsion long enough to be concerned about safety. Ghasts, on the other hand, might not only drag their victims away, but also command their ghouls to do the same. Basically, alter ghoul behavior to change depending on whether or not a ghast is present to keep them in line.
Most predators in my games will attempt to snatch a hireling or squishy player, attempting to dash away carrying their meal The players need to stop this from happening or give up a party member to escape the combat
My favourite tactic with zombies is they lunge at someone, tripping them and the others join the fun with pinning the victim to the ground (grapple) and beating the poor sod to a pulp (as seen in countless zombie medias).
trying to make creatures appear 'as you'd imagine' is one of the best ways to create an encounter in my opinion. My personal favourite is the kobold/goblin den.
Another interesting behavior you could have zombies do is ignore any PC who drops to the ground and doesn't move. I see D&D zombies as being no better than a simple construct rather than a full undead. They lack the mental statistics to be able to tell the difference between someone who is dead and someone who is simply unconscious. This means that a PC could theoretically drop prone to "play dead" and be ignored by zombies. This, however, changes should the zombies be under active control and the controller tells the zombies to strike downed combatants as well.
0:26 Finally, somebody brings up the Intelligence score's importance in running monsters/NPCs. 1:12 🎼Spooky scary skeletons🎶 11:10 "Undead cockatrices..." Beat you to it. They are not much more dangerous than the base creature, though.
I have a Wight bounty hunter NPC/boss that takes, as it's fee, the target of the bounty as a new Zombie. Aethellar the Wight Blade. Former regional warlord turned undead problem. This is what happens when you try to build a castle over a forgotten barrow.
One of my favorite undead creations I ever created for my party were the dreaded Vampire Goblins... Apply named "Hemo-goblins".. Name pun got a pretty good laugh and fright out of the party heheh.
I once gave a Revenant amnesia, had him work with the party to avenge his killer, but in a turn of events, the killer was one of the party members, I gave him a foggy recollection of the character, but not enough to remember her fully. So when he finally got his memories back, he got really sad because he truthfully enjoyed adventuring with the party and his killer. In the end he ended up forgiving her and was finally able to rest.
Really hope to see more videos like this 😮this has been my favorite of yours in a while. I’ll make sure not to miss a single one of any videos that are similar! Knowing monster tactics is great as a DM! Great tips Luke!
Great video and yes I do look forward to those templates. In my current campaign, I had some revenants come back stronger and stronger was the rage warps their souls.
Despite the shadow's low CR, they are the best low CR undead that can cause an unstoppable apocolypse all on their own. If left alone for too long, they can easily overrun a city transforming it from a place once full of life to a cold lifeless city.
Excellent video. I am actually used about half of these monsters in my upcoming homebrew campaign. Thank you for making the video and keep up the great work.
I recently did a spectral two headed greater basilisk that was the undead version of an insane / tormented Couatl. One head had a Petrifying gaze the other a poisonous breath weapon. Party had to recover its egg and place it in a holy circle within the temple it resided to release its soul. That was a dicey combat as pure combat and even spells + channeling energy could not prevail against it alone.
I had a lot of fun letting shadows loose on a party stuck in a train carriage. Shadows hid between seats, under tables, and in between luggage. It ended up with the fighter dismantling some seats to get to the shadows and the bard and the artificer spending the rest of the journey using Mending on the furniture.
On floor 1 of Undermountain there's a revenant the party can negotiate with and help. My group made the deal and gave him the Brass Mask and a longsword....after that he was renamed Jay S'on.
Such a great resource, picking up as soon as I finish. I'm 5 sessions in to Empire of the Ghouls and the ghoul tactic will definitely be seen regularly.
I use Shadows as 2D literal undead shadows. They attack the target’s shadow, and will hide in grass or snow, but actively *avoid* firelight or sunlight.
The Fingers of Death 10 Wights Find the Guild Spells from the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and associate them into a specialized funerary mask for each wight. (Using Charisma as their Spell Cast Mod, treating each Wight as a 9th level caster.) You now have a specialized hit squad for the BBEG that ranges in difficulty based on the number of Fingers present. Using the ideologies of each associated Guild, you also have enemies with interesting personalities, ideals, bonds, and flaws.
I do like having undead lurking in shallow pools , ponds, reaching up from the murky depths as your party wades through the slime. Often intermix ghasts and ghouls so you get the stench and the paralysis to work over a party. Maybe lead with zombies so the cleric uses up their turning ability on the foot soldiers and then the ghouls and ghasts attack. The Old school wights used to reduce levels and create half strength wights once they drained a person to O level.
I've been thinking about making an interesting undead encounter and when you were talking about the specter's incorporeal movement and resistance it made me think of giving the necromancer spellcaster the incorporeal trait.
I ran a very fun encounter with a Bone Knight (eberron) and his hoard of zombies. I changed Commander of Bones feature so the Bone Knight could use his bonus action to Revive a fallen zombie at 30ft. The zombie starts prone at 1 hp, but is back in the fight. Players were level 5.
I have an encounter set up that deals with my worlds equivalent of roman centurions getting reanimated. They form up like they would have in life. The back row are archers with short bows. The middle row are using spears with reach (using pike stats) The front row have short sword and shields (So 15 AC) and I am giving that front row the Protection fighting style from PHB, so each front row skele can use a reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack against the one next to it. They will be holding a choke point.
Aside from pure tactics, it also helps to look up just how many variants of undead there are besides your standard graveyard monster mash. Been studying creatures like skull lords, sword wraiths and coldlight walkers. Besides having the tactics, the mere creation of undead can give players a very uneasy sensation of what's to come, especially when you know a necromancer is deeper down the dungeons. One of my favorite stories from when I used to be the DJ for a few groups was the siege of a necromancer called Thourend of the South. He created Coldlight Walkers by imprisoning his victims in cells that were effectively magical refrigerators. Once the victim froze to death they'd be reanimated and set to guard the dungeon. Thourend was also quite talented in pyromancies, the DM having a mutually sadistic mechanic called the Antipode effect, or more commonly known as thermal shock. Freeze something? Fire damage is going to do a lot of damage to it next. Some one made insufferably hot? Cold damage effect saves have disadvantage. The party AND Thourend had to carefully balance their fire and ice in the fights. It took that party four sessions just to get to Thourend, then another three to finally kill him.
In my current campaign getting random encounters with undead/demons are the most common. But as I am running low on inspiration, this is really appreciated. I don't think my casters will like the rabid ghoul pack lead by a ghast however.
3:50 That's what my bad guys would do. Edit: 7:07 I managed to figure the Skeleton template out myself long before you made it, and they're pretty much identical. Edit2: I don't usually do 2 Edits on one comment, but 7:10 the way you converted Zombies is genius
Thank you for this. My current campaign is all about a lich and her exploits. Ill be inplementing several of these tactics. I especially liked the shadow hit and run tactics, so i think those will be going in her lair.
My players were completely dumbfounded. When these the skeletons didn’t want to attack, but did so reluctantly, and then fled. It was worse the next time they came there in the skeletons, didn’t even attack them. They moved out of their way, and continued the duties that they were assigned as clerks and bureaucrats over their cubbies of clay-stamp paperwork. I actually had to stop and explain to them that they still retain portions of who they were in order to continue the duties they were tasked with in exchange for an eternal undeath -rather than dying of starvation in their hostile, native desert environment. The one thing these skeletons didn’t want was to be slain in battle. They just wanted a cake job and a long life. It’s the adventurers who stormed into their office-building, killed their manager and stole some furniture. They tried to stop them but nobody was gonna get “shattered” getting physical after the last time they’d fought the party and lost way more staff than expected
@@goliathcleric thanks for looking out. The offer in the giveaway is tempting, but obviously false. You don’t giveaway a pro MacBook, a PS5, and two other controllers, and a free game
Isn't it funny how most of these tips revolve around the concept of undead being smart, which is the complete opposite of what we think of when we picture hoards of the undead!!!
I have a homebrew Tiger Revenant which automatically fears the person its tracking and comes back slightly quicker than the normal revenant but isn't smart enough to plan or scheme or even so much as try and attack anything that isn't its target so every now and again that one, and only that one, member of the party just gets randomly mauled by a tiger and no one knows why. Expect if they remembered that one time that they killed a tiger, threw out her meat, bones, and claws; all while her cubs were watching and now wears its pelt as a trophy. They would know exactly why. My players never watch any of the videos I send them from this channel so they will never know that, that, is the reason behind why 'Haywood Jablome' spends 400 gold on healing potions every time they are in any large city.
I know I'm a rookie dm, but if you want to have ghouls try to get a paralyzed or downed character, but don't wanna be a jerk, make them fight each other (contested checks) to get to the downed character, or try to jostle past PC's and their allies. Let them absorb a few hits or waste their turns trying to grab that character just out of their range. It'll be scarier as the others will know their ally is done fore if they don't stop them, but at the same time the mechanics should give the character some protection. If I need to pad out an encounter with DMPC's or other allied characters, I do similar things. For instance, during the last session, the npc ranger charged across a river past enemies to rescue someone important to him. He could have gone down with a critical, and it forced the players to decide if it was more important to bring down their enemies or cross the river and give the only healer cover.
3:39 The perfect counter to the "It's what my character would do" players; "Why are they all teaming up on this one player, that's unfair!" "It's what my monsters would do"
What I love most is the shadow tactics. Especially as both my parties have fought them before, now they are level 5 I think these hit and fade can come out to play. Next to kobolds and goblins these guys are a favourite 😍
As a DM, my favorite undead encounter was a vampire troll who was buried in a pile of decomposing bodies, letting it get the jump on the party's paladin and using him as a weapon for the first round. The players won the fight because of numbers, including two clerics. The second cleric's turn undead was not resisted, and the vampire troll fell. It did get some mighty hits in before doing so, and the paladin was humiliated. So not a total waste - As a player, the best undead encounter we've had so far was a swarm of shadows. We were warned because they first attacked our horses corralled outside of the farmhouse we were sleeping in, but the fact that they kept passing through gaps in the structure and hitting us with strength drain made the fight vicious. We won, but lost over half of our (borrowed) horses. It is going to be expensive...
Zombies are scary in a horde, and are also pretty good meatshields to block a path. I'd buff the STR and use them with mob combat rules at higher levels, tho. Ghosts and the lile should ALWAYS use their incorporeal movement to go through cielings, walls, floors, and ground. Taking an opportinity attack and even 1d10 force damage is much better than 3 turns of Extra Attack and 2 third level spells. Revenants are just awesome, I've had one h(a)unt the party for like half the campaign now. They get to learn their quary's tactics and come up with counters, and when they get allies, they can share this information. They have plenty of times to try all sorts of diffefent ways go attack, or set traps if brute force doesnt work. The paralysis is also brutal, especially if it has allies, so many crits could happen. Even tanky characters would wince. They dont need to attack every day, they can take some time to prepare. My players are levels 10-11, and still dread his next attempt.
Like he says, you can always beef up an enemy! Easy way to make spectres scarier is to just... give them disengage as a bonus action. Pop out of the wall, hit someone, disengage and slide back through the wall again, or even the wall on the other side.
We thought it was a simple ambush when the skeletons emerged from the lake. Then they grappled one of us and began to drag them deeper into the dark water.
Some of these tactics would work really nicely as a method of introducing the group to the dangers of the monster - by having them witness said tactics being used on npc's. For intance, the pack of ghouls dragging someone off that the party needs for their quest, or the Wraith commanding an assault on the local populace in which the party can witness the devastating potential (looking at you, D3: Reaper of Souls) while also not being blind-sided by the perceived difficuly if they aren't used to such tactics. That way, they can build dread and engage with the world building by trying to find secret tricks that work against ethereal undead, and have the satisfaction of fearing what's coming when it's finally THEIR turn to face down that same wraith.
My players once fought a zombie that kept making its Undead Fortitude check, over and over. At first, I described how they chopped its arm off, then its other arm, then its legs... I ran out of limbs, but this bugger just wouldn't die! Eventually, the whole party was standing over this zombie, dogpiling it, and nothing was left but the upper half of a skull, rolling around and trying to scrape their feet with its upper teeth! Legend has it, that zombie halfskull is still out there, biting people's ankles off.
A few years ago I had my players take on an order of necromancers. And we played with the rule that like fire would do extra damage to undead. We've been playing that rule for like 10 years. So they all were prepping fire spells what they didn't know is the bad guy had hollowed out a few of the random Undead and put tankards of oil inside of them. And then sealed them back up. So I think I rolled percentage and there was a 15% chance they would blow up if they were hit with fire in a 10 ft radius. Dealing 2d6 fire damage and making a save to be knocked back or knocked prone. They became very terrified it was awesome
Speaking of Revenants - My party is going to have a nightmare situation soon in Mad Mage..They killed it once, some PCs died, but it's coming for the remaining PCs. If the 'new' PCs interfere in it's revenge, they're added to the list the next time it rises..*evil grin* ..It's like a constant recurring big bad that comes around every 4 or 5 levels (Since Undermountain - there's body fodder EVERYWHERE) It's levelling up with bodies from NPCs that are also adventuring underground. Their first (second?) encounter - an 11th level Oathbreaker Paladin. Your tips are going to make him MUCH deadlier - Thank you!
8:30 Yep, happened to our babarian that (like i discribet in another vid of yours (short sum : His something "gets hit does fire damage counter" destroyed a magical item wich was UNDER the shadow or rather that the shadow was inside of when attacking, was hilarious XD) was hit TWICE and lost 5 Strength because of it and MOST of his HP leaving him with 7 left at the end of the battle. We learned that invisible foes exist and my blindsight PLUS Alert feat might counter such things in the future (Thou our DM is cunning, she knows me better than i know myself as she is my GF XD).
The tactic I use typically is strength in numbers, like I’ll cut their health down to 12 but keep their ac and increase the amount. Because five zombies are eh to a level 10 party hut 20 make them way more cautious not to get overwhelmed
I’m sure someone can convert a pf2e skeleton, they can throw their heads for a ranged bite attack. Their body flail attacks or stumbles about as if blind until reunited with the head.
Great movies to use to RP undead. Skeletons: Generally Jason And The Argonauts. Zombies, Ghouls, and Ghasts: Any of the Living Dead or Of The Dead movies. Ghasts make for cool "Bud" zombies (if you get the refrence). Ghosts, Shadows: Ringu/The Ring movies. 7 days... Revevents: Friday the 13th (especially Part 6 and beyond). Any movie slasher.
Your Wight scenario is actually an adventure I'd set up I went back to the Haitian roots of the zombie. A necromancer sugar baroness Scarlett Dubois had zombies working her plantation. She didn't control the zombies directly her minions she herself raised were her five wight overseers.
I as a DM would play the Zombies as the equivalent lvl of Intelligence as original "Night of the Living Dead" types, all other Undead (except Lichs/Arch-Lichs)as equivalent Intelligence of your average 4th grader, while Arch-Lichs and Lichs I play them as Intelligent as an average college student (unless the Arch-Lich happens to be a crucial boss then bump it up accordingly but 95% of the time weaker then the party, still the other 5% of the time only as Intelligent as the party).
dwights, zombies and one red dragon that got killed by them and is now a zombie dragon as undead boss encounter the dragon has slightly lower stats due to being a zombie, but with support from the fellow zombies and some of the pre-zombie instincts the dragon had should be enough for a tricky encounter
Need advice for modules making good use of darkness and close quarters to help the zombies. These monsters are legendary examples of monsters that are especially weak for their CR
"It's what the monsters would do" sounds like a karmic, if perhaps a touch petty, way of responding to players who try to excuse their own bad behavior with "it's what my character would do". That portion on Wights gave me an absolutely terrible thought. Decayed flesh normally darkens, hence what zombies normally look like. Wights seem to be pale white. Wight farmers creating zombie servants to work a farm sounds like it could be a really weird undead filtered view of southern slavery. Even without that potentially uncomfortable comparison, seeing zombies used as dumb, hard labor is something that seems surprisingly under-utilized. Honestly, I would love to see a scenario where upon meeting a zombie "hoard's" creator, finds that the zombie are in truth all former bandits or other types of killers, and the person who raised them argued that adventurer's like them would have killed them or they would have been otherwise executed or forced into hard labor, so what's so wrong with him/her doing both to them? This all assuming there aren't too many hardline alignment rules being adhered to.
Back in 3.5 I had a Chaotic Evil Sorceress/Necromancer and she slaughtered a whole small farming village (sparing the children and animals) she wiped the children and animals minds of her attack and previous family then raised them as her own. She reanimated the dead adults and had a walled estate/mansion built on the site. The adults then continued farming and guarding her estate. She joined an adventuring party to see about achieving Immortality for herself and favored children, she continues killing and reanimating some people but only bandits and people she deemed as simpletons unworthy of living.
Here’s something I want us to ponder on. What happens if 2 revenants have a hate for each other so badly that they can’t rest because they know the other can come back? I was watching a pointy hat video where he proposed a Phantasm class where a deceased person continues living as a ghost (more or less) because they have unfinished business among the living. What if one of these factors is a revenant spirit who will never stop? I like the idea for NPC characters, maybe not so much a player, but to think there are just two mfs out there endlessly feuding with each other even beyond the grave, is kind of a fun idea to play around with. Like how Skull Knight in Berserk seems to be relentlessly pursuing the Godhand. How are these things supposed to resolve??
Not sure what devious tactics you mentioned like burying them in sand, water, or nearby barrels. The higher level undead don't even have magic spells to amplify their surprise or attacks. Wearing black clothing or being painted black will ruin a night wandering party.
When thinking about a creatures ability for battle tactic I do consider wisdom over intelligence. Barb may ne dumb as a box of rock but still has the experience of how to fight.
Since my campaing is based on undead armies and a Adventure Time style Lich, this is helpful. We have once the undead fortitude of a single undead last for 6 rounds, it was hilarious, i just imagine the bar scene on Shaun of the dead, where they keep dealing so low damage that the undead keep fighting but cant hurt the players 😂🤣😂🤣👌👌👌 Also, use hole traps or rooms full of zombies, is a really mean trap but it make sense, just put a pitt trap with a couple or more zombies or ghouls in there, difficult fight indeed Or my favorite: the giant horde/the giant ball of undead. Using the dmg rules for mob attacks, a horde can still damage players, grant that every undead die instantly on each succesful hit or every X damage dealt to the horde creature is 1 less undead. Put some other hordes nearby attracted by noise and you have a oneshot for halloween
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Hey, @theDMlair, can you confirm the giveaway please? It's too good to be true :D
@@SirPonchooo I got one too.
@@SirPonchooo Thanks.
When I had my party encounter a revenant, I had it point at them and say, “You there! You appear able-bodied. I need assistance avenging my own murder.” And they took up a sidequest which culminated in their setting up a meeting with the local baron and baroness, where said revenant strangled them and then turned to dust.
My party encountered a revenant of a Red Wizard that they killed before. When they encountered the revenant the second time and determined that just defeating it was insufficient, they used feign death on the party member targeted so that the revenant would end their quest for revenge.
@@franksaffen I feel that wouldn't have worked. Revenants got supernatural awareness of the condition of their targets in dnd. I suppose killing the target then raising them later once the revenant has passed on would work but faking death I would think wouldn't work. Not even magically faking death.
Zombies are awesome as add-ons to a boss fight. Had an undead mage fight where I had him summon 5 zombies. One zombie was burned, frozen, electrocuted, melted with acid, and burned again, and the dude was still alive lol
That sorcerer feared for his life when that single flanking zombie made his like, fifth con save to stay alive.
Also, on the revenant note, I saw a homebrew revenant that was excellently done, that would "level up" with the players. Basically, every time the revenant's revenge objective (the party as a whole) kills him, he gets stronger. The homebrew statblock that I saw gave you a number of points at every death that you could spend on abilities. Besides a free HP boost, you could give him better weapons, multiattack, more AC, ASIs, different types of attacks, bonus actions, reactions, resistances/immunities, legendary resistances, legendary actions, spellcasting.
It's a very good way to make a revenant a reoccurring villain without it getting stale or too easy. Each time it upgrades, it's CR goes up. It has the potential to be a relevant villain throughout the entire campaign. In fact, it could even be THE villain of the campaign. A main villain that you face multiple times and keeps coming back stronger and better, with only one goal: to destroy the party.
I made a revenant that was simply a PC that would not stay dead, half zealot barbarian half phantom rogue. Each time the party leveled up, it would also level up, and have more monsters nearby. It was particularly vicious and intelligent, but it was after an NPC that kept hiring the party to defeat it, getting more and more upset at the party each time it came back, demanding they do a better job. They haven't caught on yet, but the NPC is actually in possession of a family heirloom sword that killed the revenant's family in the past, a lot of NPC's and the city's library know of it and it's history, and it can be used in a ritual to get rid of the revenant. However the heirloom's owner - the NPC that hired the party - does NOT want to part with it.
With the goal of catching a meal, a ghoul or ghast that manages to paralyze its target will leave the fight, carrying off their victim to begin feasting upon them.
That PC is gonna perma-die in pretty short order, since RAW that's two failed Death Saves per melee attack once they're unconscious...
@@aqacefan Paralyzed is not the same as dropping to 0 hit points. Also, since they are carrying another body, their movement is halved. Unless the rest of the party is just completely oblivious (which, ooc, that player is likely asking for help) they should be able to.prevent that from happening. I've had it happened in my own game. In fact, I had the ghoul in question use the dash action on its turn to compensate for the movement penalty (the'yre trying to get away from the conflict where they can e joy their meal without interruption). So even though it was still making a full 30 feet per round, it couldn't do any further harm to its target. The goal wasn't to kill my players, the goal was to make them feel threatened.
And even if they did continue to make bite attacks, they still have to drop that character to 0 before it becomes a serious threat, plus they get a save against the condition every turn, so it probably would never get to that point.
@@Mr_GoR_ Good point... for some reason I mistook Luke's description as the PC being dropped to 0 HP, not having the Paralyzed condition. Thanks for the correction.
I liked a different version of that where, upon snagging a meal, the ghoul begins eating right then and there without regard to any remaining combatants, only dragging away their victim if they get attacked.
They're compelled to eat flesh and ghouls lack the willpower to resist that compulsion long enough to be concerned about safety. Ghasts, on the other hand, might not only drag their victims away, but also command their ghouls to do the same. Basically, alter ghoul behavior to change depending on whether or not a ghast is present to keep them in line.
Most predators in my games will attempt to snatch a hireling or squishy player, attempting to dash away carrying their meal
The players need to stop this from happening or give up a party member to escape the combat
My favourite tactic with zombies is they lunge at someone, tripping them and the others join the fun with pinning the victim to the ground (grapple) and beating the poor sod to a pulp (as seen in countless zombie medias).
trying to make creatures appear 'as you'd imagine' is one of the best ways to create an encounter in my opinion. My personal favourite is the kobold/goblin den.
Another interesting behavior you could have zombies do is ignore any PC who drops to the ground and doesn't move. I see D&D zombies as being no better than a simple construct rather than a full undead. They lack the mental statistics to be able to tell the difference between someone who is dead and someone who is simply unconscious. This means that a PC could theoretically drop prone to "play dead" and be ignored by zombies.
This, however, changes should the zombies be under active control and the controller tells the zombies to strike downed combatants as well.
My zombies have pack tactics and attempt to pile, drag down and rip apart victims with their bite attack against the restrained target.
0:26
Finally, somebody brings up the Intelligence score's importance in running monsters/NPCs.
1:12
🎼Spooky scary skeletons🎶
11:10
"Undead cockatrices..." Beat you to it. They are not much more dangerous than the base creature, though.
Appreciate you making a template issue for undead. Haven't seen that kind of thing since the days of 3rd, and it's greatly needed.
I have a Wight bounty hunter NPC/boss that takes, as it's fee, the target of the bounty as a new Zombie. Aethellar the Wight Blade.
Former regional warlord turned undead problem. This is what happens when you try to build a castle over a forgotten barrow.
One of my favorite undead creations I ever created for my party were the dreaded Vampire Goblins... Apply named "Hemo-goblins".. Name pun got a pretty good laugh and fright out of the party heheh.
While funny sounding, has many scary possibilities.
I miss templates from 3.5 such a good idea.
Good to see your addition 👍
I once gave a Revenant amnesia, had him work with the party to avenge his killer, but in a turn of events, the killer was one of the party members, I gave him a foggy recollection of the character, but not enough to remember her fully. So when he finally got his memories back, he got really sad because he truthfully enjoyed adventuring with the party and his killer. In the end he ended up forgiving her and was finally able to rest.
Really hope to see more videos like this 😮this has been my favorite of yours in a while. I’ll make sure not to miss a single one of any videos that are similar! Knowing monster tactics is great as a DM!
Great tips Luke!
Great video and yes I do look forward to those templates.
In my current campaign, I had some revenants come back stronger and stronger was the rage warps their souls.
Despite the shadow's low CR, they are the best low CR undead that can cause an unstoppable apocolypse all on their own. If left alone for too long, they can easily overrun a city transforming it from a place once full of life to a cold lifeless city.
A sister city to Shadar Logoth? Sounds like a strong possibility...
@@GIJoe-wu6bo f*ck yeah, love those books, great sources for inspiration
Excellent video. I am actually used about half of these monsters in my upcoming homebrew campaign. Thank you for making the video and keep up the great work.
I recently did a spectral two headed greater basilisk that was the undead version of an insane / tormented Couatl. One head had a Petrifying gaze the other a poisonous breath weapon. Party had to recover its egg and place it in a holy circle within the temple it resided to release its soul. That was a dicey combat as pure combat and even spells + channeling energy could not prevail against it alone.
Don't GM D&D, but ignore the game specifics, and this is epic advice for any game's undead. Thanks, man!
I had a lot of fun letting shadows loose on a party stuck in a train carriage. Shadows hid between seats, under tables, and in between luggage. It ended up with the fighter dismantling some seats to get to the shadows and the bard and the artificer spending the rest of the journey using Mending on the furniture.
Ghouls capture a character.
Ghast: Throw him in the basting pit!
On floor 1 of Undermountain there's a revenant the party can negotiate with and help. My group made the deal and gave him the Brass Mask and a longsword....after that he was renamed Jay S'on.
Such a great resource, picking up as soon as I finish. I'm 5 sessions in to Empire of the Ghouls and the ghoul tactic will definitely be seen regularly.
I use Shadows as 2D literal undead shadows. They attack the target’s shadow, and will hide in grass or snow, but actively *avoid* firelight or sunlight.
The Fingers of Death
10 Wights
Find the Guild Spells from the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and associate them into a specialized funerary mask for each wight. (Using Charisma as their Spell Cast Mod, treating each Wight as a 9th level caster.)
You now have a specialized hit squad for the BBEG that ranges in difficulty based on the number of Fingers present. Using the ideologies of each associated Guild, you also have enemies with interesting personalities, ideals, bonds, and flaws.
I do like having undead lurking in shallow pools , ponds, reaching up from the murky depths as your party wades through the slime.
Often intermix ghasts and ghouls so you get the stench and the paralysis to work over a party. Maybe lead with zombies so the cleric uses up their turning ability on the foot soldiers and then the ghouls and ghasts attack.
The Old school wights used to reduce levels and create half strength wights once they drained a person to O level.
I've been thinking about making an interesting undead encounter and when you were talking about the specter's incorporeal movement and resistance it made me think of giving the necromancer spellcaster the incorporeal trait.
I ran a very fun encounter with a Bone Knight (eberron) and his hoard of zombies.
I changed Commander of Bones feature so the Bone Knight could use his bonus action to Revive a fallen zombie at 30ft. The zombie starts prone at 1 hp, but is back in the fight. Players were level 5.
For the algorithm this video,among others of yours,is helping me create my first dnd game for my friends that have never played before!
I have an encounter set up that deals with my worlds equivalent of roman centurions getting reanimated.
They form up like they would have in life.
The back row are archers with short bows.
The middle row are using spears with reach (using pike stats)
The front row have short sword and shields (So 15 AC) and I am giving that front row the Protection fighting style from PHB, so each front row skele can use a reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack against the one next to it.
They will be holding a choke point.
Aside from pure tactics, it also helps to look up just how many variants of undead there are besides your standard graveyard monster mash.
Been studying creatures like skull lords, sword wraiths and coldlight walkers. Besides having the tactics, the mere creation of undead can give players a very uneasy sensation of what's to come, especially when you know a necromancer is deeper down the dungeons.
One of my favorite stories from when I used to be the DJ for a few groups was the siege of a necromancer called Thourend of the South. He created Coldlight Walkers by imprisoning his victims in cells that were effectively magical refrigerators. Once the victim froze to death they'd be reanimated and set to guard the dungeon. Thourend was also quite talented in pyromancies, the DM having a mutually sadistic mechanic called the Antipode effect, or more commonly known as thermal shock. Freeze something? Fire damage is going to do a lot of damage to it next. Some one made insufferably hot? Cold damage effect saves have disadvantage. The party AND Thourend had to carefully balance their fire and ice in the fights. It took that party four sessions just to get to Thourend, then another three to finally kill him.
Loved this video! It would be amazing to have a similar video for each creature type
Great Stuff! My party has been rolling encounters, time for some shadows and wights.
Just in time for my horror campaign. Definitely will use these tips.
In my current campaign getting random encounters with undead/demons are the most common. But as I am running low on inspiration, this is really appreciated.
I don't think my casters will like the rabid ghoul pack lead by a ghast however.
3:50 That's what my bad guys would do.
Edit: 7:07 I managed to figure the Skeleton template out myself long before you made it, and they're pretty much identical.
Edit2: I don't usually do 2 Edits on one comment, but 7:10 the way you converted Zombies is genius
Thank you for this. My current campaign is all about a lich and her exploits. Ill be inplementing several of these tactics. I especially liked the shadow hit and run tactics, so i think those will be going in her lair.
My players were completely dumbfounded. When these the skeletons didn’t want to attack, but did so reluctantly, and then fled.
It was worse the next time they came there in the skeletons, didn’t even attack them. They moved out of their way, and continued the duties that they were assigned as clerks and bureaucrats over their cubbies of clay-stamp paperwork.
I actually had to stop and explain to them that they still retain portions of who they were in order to continue the duties they were tasked with in exchange for an eternal undeath -rather than dying of starvation in their hostile, native desert environment.
The one thing these skeletons didn’t want was to be slain in battle. They just wanted a cake job and a long life.
It’s the adventurers who stormed into their office-building, killed their manager and stole some furniture.
They tried to stop them but nobody was gonna get “shattered” getting physical after the last time they’d fought the party and lost way more staff than expected
Good video. was hoping to see what combinations of undead have deadly synergies.
I think you mean… undeadly 😩
Sorry I missed Lair Con last weekend, but getting a stomach bug sucks. I hope it went well.
@@drokangel DO NOT REPLY TO THIS BOT. THIS IS A SCAM. IF THERE WAS A GIVEAWAY, LUKE WOULD HAVE ANNOUCNED IT PERSONALLY AND NOT THROUGH A COMMENT.
@@goliathcleric thanks for looking out. The offer in the giveaway is tempting, but obviously false. You don’t giveaway a pro MacBook, a PS5, and two other controllers, and a free game
I love the undead farmers idea 💚👍😎
Isn't it funny how most of these tips revolve around the concept of undead being smart, which is the complete opposite of what we think of when we picture hoards of the undead!!!
Best video in a very long time, this is DMlair I knew when I first subbed
I have a homebrew Tiger Revenant which automatically fears the person its tracking and comes back slightly quicker than the normal revenant but isn't smart enough to plan or scheme or even so much as try and attack anything that isn't its target so every now and again that one, and only that one, member of the party just gets randomly mauled by a tiger and no one knows why. Expect if they remembered that one time that they killed a tiger, threw out her meat, bones, and claws; all while her cubs were watching and now wears its pelt as a trophy. They would know exactly why. My players never watch any of the videos I send them from this channel so they will never know that, that, is the reason behind why 'Haywood Jablome' spends 400 gold on healing potions every time they are in any large city.
That template sounds great! Thanks for the videos
Werewolves zombies are my dream, it could be so fun
I know I'm a rookie dm, but if you want to have ghouls try to get a paralyzed or downed character, but don't wanna be a jerk, make them fight each other (contested checks) to get to the downed character, or try to jostle past PC's and their allies. Let them absorb a few hits or waste their turns trying to grab that character just out of their range. It'll be scarier as the others will know their ally is done fore if they don't stop them, but at the same time the mechanics should give the character some protection.
If I need to pad out an encounter with DMPC's or other allied characters, I do similar things. For instance, during the last session, the npc ranger charged across a river past enemies to rescue someone important to him. He could have gone down with a critical, and it forced the players to decide if it was more important to bring down their enemies or cross the river and give the only healer cover.
3:39 The perfect counter to the "It's what my character would do" players;
"Why are they all teaming up on this one player, that's unfair!" "It's what my monsters would do"
Death Knight. The ultimate recurring BBEG, yet one that can be redeemed.
What I love most is the shadow tactics. Especially as both my parties have fought them before, now they are level 5 I think these hit and fade can come out to play. Next to kobolds and goblins these guys are a favourite 😍
As a DM, my favorite undead encounter was a vampire troll who was buried in a pile of decomposing bodies, letting it get the jump on the party's paladin and using him as a weapon for the first round.
The players won the fight because of numbers, including two clerics. The second cleric's turn undead was not resisted, and the vampire troll fell. It did get some mighty hits in before doing so, and the paladin was humiliated. So not a total waste
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As a player, the best undead encounter we've had so far was a swarm of shadows. We were warned because they first attacked our horses corralled outside of the farmhouse we were sleeping in, but the fact that they kept passing through gaps in the structure and hitting us with strength drain made the fight vicious.
We won, but lost over half of our (borrowed) horses. It is going to be expensive...
Zombies are scary in a horde, and are also pretty good meatshields to block a path. I'd buff the STR and use them with mob combat rules at higher levels, tho.
Ghosts and the lile should ALWAYS use their incorporeal movement to go through cielings, walls, floors, and ground. Taking an opportinity attack and even 1d10 force damage is much better than 3 turns of Extra Attack and 2 third level spells.
Revenants are just awesome, I've had one h(a)unt the party for like half the campaign now. They get to learn their quary's tactics and come up with counters, and when they get allies, they can share this information. They have plenty of times to try all sorts of diffefent ways go attack, or set traps if brute force doesnt work. The paralysis is also brutal, especially if it has allies, so many crits could happen. Even tanky characters would wince. They dont need to attack every day, they can take some time to prepare. My players are levels 10-11, and still dread his next attempt.
The idea of turning other creatures into forms of undead is brilliant. The vampire frost giants sound terrifying
Ubiquitous?! Impressive!! LOL Great stuff, as always!
Like he says, you can always beef up an enemy! Easy way to make spectres scarier is to just... give them disengage as a bonus action. Pop out of the wall, hit someone, disengage and slide back through the wall again, or even the wall on the other side.
INT 3 is the same of a dog or a lion, & those beasts can hunt quite well.
That is a very good point.
"like a barbarian that has hit his head one too many times." So, EXACTLY like a barbarian then.
We thought it was a simple ambush when the skeletons emerged from the lake. Then they grappled one of us and began to drag them deeper into the dark water.
Some of these tactics would work really nicely as a method of introducing the group to the dangers of the monster - by having them witness said tactics being used on npc's. For intance, the pack of ghouls dragging someone off that the party needs for their quest, or the Wraith commanding an assault on the local populace in which the party can witness the devastating potential (looking at you, D3: Reaper of Souls) while also not being blind-sided by the perceived difficuly if they aren't used to such tactics. That way, they can build dread and engage with the world building by trying to find secret tricks that work against ethereal undead, and have the satisfaction of fearing what's coming when it's finally THEIR turn to face down that same wraith.
My players once fought a zombie that kept making its Undead Fortitude check, over and over. At first, I described how they chopped its arm off, then its other arm, then its legs... I ran out of limbs, but this bugger just wouldn't die! Eventually, the whole party was standing over this zombie, dogpiling it, and nothing was left but the upper half of a skull, rolling around and trying to scrape their feet with its upper teeth! Legend has it, that zombie halfskull is still out there, biting people's ankles off.
perfect ! sunday my player will fight some zombies, what a perfect timing !
A few years ago I had my players take on an order of necromancers. And we played with the rule that like fire would do extra damage to undead. We've been playing that rule for like 10 years. So they all were prepping fire spells what they didn't know is the bad guy had hollowed out a few of the random Undead and put tankards of oil inside of them. And then sealed them back up. So I think I rolled percentage and there was a 15% chance they would blow up if they were hit with fire in a 10 ft radius. Dealing 2d6 fire damage and making a save to be knocked back or knocked prone. They became very terrified it was awesome
A Wight beekeeper could keep zombees 🐝
Surprised you never mentioned the Maurezhi. Hands down my favorite undead
Speaking of Revenants - My party is going to have a nightmare situation soon in Mad Mage..They killed it once, some PCs died, but it's coming for the remaining PCs. If the 'new' PCs interfere in it's revenge, they're added to the list the next time it rises..*evil grin* ..It's like a constant recurring big bad that comes around every 4 or 5 levels (Since Undermountain - there's body fodder EVERYWHERE) It's levelling up with bodies from NPCs that are also adventuring underground.
Their first (second?) encounter - an 11th level Oathbreaker Paladin.
Your tips are going to make him MUCH deadlier - Thank you!
Fighter: My family has just been killed!
Necromancer: Oh, no that's terrible! Where at?
Some great ideas here, thanks for the video
The skeleton thing
6 int
Wolfs have tactics with 2 int
8:30 Yep, happened to our babarian that (like i discribet in another vid of yours (short sum : His something "gets hit does fire damage counter" destroyed a magical item wich was UNDER the shadow or rather that the shadow was inside of when attacking, was hilarious XD) was hit TWICE and lost 5 Strength because of it and MOST of his HP leaving him with 7 left at the end of the battle. We learned that invisible foes exist and my blindsight PLUS Alert feat might counter such things in the future (Thou our DM is cunning, she knows me better than i know myself as she is my GF XD).
Great vid, perfect for halloween session!
The tactic I use typically is strength in numbers, like I’ll cut their health down to 12 but keep their ac and increase the amount. Because five zombies are eh to a level 10 party hut 20 make them way more cautious not to get overwhelmed
I’ve been avoiding the undead for no particular reason. A giant template would be an excellent random encounter.
I’m sure someone can convert a pf2e skeleton, they can throw their heads for a ranged bite attack. Their body flail attacks or stumbles about as if blind until reunited with the head.
I love these tactics videos!
As always, Luke, great stuff! thank you!
Great movies to use to RP undead.
Skeletons: Generally Jason And The Argonauts.
Zombies, Ghouls, and Ghasts: Any of the Living Dead or Of The Dead movies. Ghasts make for cool "Bud" zombies (if you get the refrence).
Ghosts, Shadows: Ringu/The Ring movies. 7 days...
Revevents: Friday the 13th (especially Part 6 and beyond). Any movie slasher.
Your Wight scenario is actually an adventure I'd set up I went back to the Haitian roots of the zombie. A necromancer sugar baroness Scarlett Dubois had zombies working her plantation. She didn't control the zombies directly her minions she herself raised were her five wight overseers.
I as a DM would play the Zombies as the equivalent lvl of Intelligence as original "Night of the Living Dead" types, all other Undead (except Lichs/Arch-Lichs)as equivalent Intelligence of your average 4th grader, while Arch-Lichs and Lichs I play them as Intelligent as an average college student (unless the Arch-Lich happens to be a crucial boss then bump it up accordingly but 95% of the time weaker then the party, still the other 5% of the time only as Intelligent as the party).
This was a helpful one for sure!
9:15 literally what I'm about to do with my players in the next few sessions
Good advice.
dwights, zombies and one red dragon that got killed by them and is now a zombie dragon as undead boss encounter
the dragon has slightly lower stats due to being a zombie, but with support from the fellow zombies and some of the pre-zombie instincts the dragon had should be enough for a tricky encounter
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Need advice for modules making good use of darkness and close quarters to help the zombies. These monsters are legendary examples of monsters that are especially weak for their CR
"It's what the monsters would do" sounds like a karmic, if perhaps a touch petty, way of responding to players who try to excuse their own bad behavior with "it's what my character would do".
That portion on Wights gave me an absolutely terrible thought. Decayed flesh normally darkens, hence what zombies normally look like. Wights seem to be pale white. Wight farmers creating zombie servants to work a farm sounds like it could be a really weird undead filtered view of southern slavery. Even without that potentially uncomfortable comparison, seeing zombies used as dumb, hard labor is something that seems surprisingly under-utilized. Honestly, I would love to see a scenario where upon meeting a zombie "hoard's" creator, finds that the zombie are in truth all former bandits or other types of killers, and the person who raised them argued that adventurer's like them would have killed them or they would have been otherwise executed or forced into hard labor, so what's so wrong with him/her doing both to them? This all assuming there aren't too many hardline alignment rules being adhered to.
Back in 3.5 I had a Chaotic Evil Sorceress/Necromancer and she slaughtered a whole small farming village (sparing the children and animals) she wiped the children and animals minds of her attack and previous family then raised them as her own. She reanimated the dead adults and had a walled estate/mansion built on the site. The adults then continued farming and guarding her estate. She joined an adventuring party to see about achieving Immortality for herself and favored children, she continues killing and reanimating some people but only bandits and people she deemed as simpletons unworthy of living.
Here’s something I want us to ponder on. What happens if 2 revenants have a hate for each other so badly that they can’t rest because they know the other can come back?
I was watching a pointy hat video where he proposed a Phantasm class where a deceased person continues living as a ghost (more or less) because they have unfinished business among the living. What if one of these factors is a revenant spirit who will never stop?
I like the idea for NPC characters, maybe not so much a player, but to think there are just two mfs out there endlessly feuding with each other even beyond the grave, is kind of a fun idea to play around with.
Like how Skull Knight in Berserk seems to be relentlessly pursuing the Godhand. How are these things supposed to resolve??
Feels almost like a Redmond and Blutach Mann situation.
You do see me Luke. Every year at Laircon.
Proper evil tactics, I love it.
Not sure what devious tactics you mentioned like burying them in sand, water, or nearby barrels. The higher level undead don't even have magic spells to amplify their surprise or attacks. Wearing black clothing or being painted black will ruin a night wandering party.
dancing skelletons!, ready for the 2 of Novembrer, ¡Saca el cempazuchitl vato!
Good stuff... Oh wait... Evil Stuff... Love it
7:25 A bunch of traps I can...Dragon drop into my adventure? :D
Comment for the algorythm, keep doing, you do well.
... I was PLANNING on using a doppelganger, but I think wight might make thing interesting...
The farmer wights is basically the city of geb from pathfinder which is ran by necromancers and uses zombies for farming and stuff
When thinking about a creatures ability for battle tactic I do consider wisdom over intelligence. Barb may ne dumb as a box of rock but still has the experience of how to fight.
Thanks for letting me destroy combat as a necromancer even more 🎉🎉🎉
Nice
I’m just role playing the monsters
Great Content!
Since my campaing is based on undead armies and a Adventure Time style Lich, this is helpful.
We have once the undead fortitude of a single undead last for 6 rounds, it was hilarious, i just imagine the bar scene on Shaun of the dead, where they keep dealing so low damage that the undead keep fighting but cant hurt the players 😂🤣😂🤣👌👌👌
Also, use hole traps or rooms full of zombies, is a really mean trap but it make sense, just put a pitt trap with a couple or more zombies or ghouls in there, difficult fight indeed
Or my favorite: the giant horde/the giant ball of undead. Using the dmg rules for mob attacks, a horde can still damage players, grant that every undead die instantly on each succesful hit or every X damage dealt to the horde creature is 1 less undead. Put some other hordes nearby attracted by noise and you have a oneshot for halloween
A cool hook for a Revenant is for him to wrongly accuse the PJs for his death, causing the group to try to prove to him that they are not to blame.