When you think of undead creatures, you may immediately conjure up ideas of zombies, skeletons, or even vampires. But there are dozens of creatures other than these regular flavors of undead baddies inDungeons & Dragons, including some who fall into these categories but with a special twist.
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From tiny creatures to colossal beasts, even the weakest sounding of them can be a real threat when roving the land of the living long after decomposition and rigor mortis should’ve set in. Below, we’ll have a vast amount of undead to play with; we’ve looked at the undead creatures offered in 5th edition and found the absolute best ones out of all the maggot-infested, putrid baddies to include in your next game.
10Shambling Mound
As a large plant that can blend with any jungle vegetation, the Shambling Mound can work in many encounters. It won’t be an easy fight; with +2 stealth and resistance to cold and fire, as well as immunity to lightning, the Shambling Mound is a formidable foe.
However, its passive perception is only 10, and while it’s also immune to being blind, deafened, or exhausted, it can be defeated with a well-rolled Inflict Wounds. Disentegration works wonders, too. It deals bludgeoning damage, so mind getting too close, and the lightning absorption means it doesn’t take any harm from lightning damage.
9Crawling Hand (Claw)
The Crawling Hand, sometimes referred to as a Crawling Claw, is usually a tiny-sized undead creature. From humanoid to a giant to even a dragon, any hand can be made into a Crawling Hand if the creator has enough skill and creativity. Just imagine a large Giant’s hand with dozens of small humanoid hands coming after a party.
Like the evil twin of Thing from the Addams family, these hands are quite memorable as they crawl around with their little fingers. A single Hand can sound the alarm to alert more enemies to a party, but a swarm can easily overwhelm adventurers. While they are immune to being blind, deafened, or poisoned, they can easily be taken out with blunt trauma.
8Skeleton Minotaur
Appearing as a large skeleton of a Minotaur, this beast has glowing red eye sockets and retains its large size and sense of impending doom. In a dungeon of plain human or elf bones, a Minotaur clambering along is a welcome change-up. Vulnerable to bludgeoning and poison, this giant skeleton can add a new spice to any encounter.
With a challenge rating of only two, don’t let this skeleton fool you — he’s immune to poison and exhaustion. However, he’s vulnerable to bludgeoning. His passive perception is only a 9, so you have a good chance to take this creature by surprise. However, with his slashing greataxe and goring, he’s not an easy fight.
Drifting through the air, these humanoid entities are draped in black cloth and leave a dark haze of despair in their wake. They’re huge, dark ethereal beings of darkness, so clearly, they’re the life of the party. More than just a typical ghost, their tormented soul is drenched in evil and gives a fun undead twist to any encounter.
They’re perfectly at home in any dungeon or deep cave, giving you options on when and where to put them. They resist acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing — just about anything normal adventurers would throw at it! However, sunlight or artificial sunlight from a Cleric or Paladin, for example, will weaken and disadvantage it.
6Tormented Stalker
At first glance, Tormented Stalkers seem to be normal zombies. However, they are only formed when a person dies in great physical or emotional pain, leaving their shaming corpse to suffer eternal torment, which they then inflicts on others. Smarter than normal zombies, they know how to use weapons well, all with the goal of revenge for their suffering. They’re fast, agile, and can think; a more memorable foe to face rather than run-of-the-mill zombies.
While resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, cold, poison, being charmed, and exhaustion, they can be killed! Fire is an easy go-to option, so if you have a Fireball-happy Wizard, now is their chance to shine!
5Spawn of Kyuss
Speaking of zombies, Spawn of Kyuss are worthy opponents for any adventurer. These worm-infested zombies pose a great threat, not just with attacks but with their worms as well. Should a worm fall on a recently killed body, it can turn them undead and into another shambling enemy. Teammates should watch out!
While only a touch smarter than regular zombies, the Spawn of Kyuss give a new fear of worms spreading the zombie disease to the party. These worms are aggressive and hungry, burrowing in and eating up anything they get a hold of. While they’re immune to poison and exhaustion, fire isn’t their friend. You can burn them up and be done with it.
A Lich can magically project speech, though they lack any lips or flesh actually to make noise. Cursed to live forever, they are bound to this world until their phylactery is destroyed. They can be a fun, exciting enemy for advanced parties to encounter, offering a devious mix of ghosts, skeletons, and zombies in a weird and deadly creature.
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While immune to poisoning, bludgeoning, piercing, slashing — and pretty much anything else thrown at them — all you have to do is destroy their phylactery. Until that is destroyed, the Lich will live on. Finding the phylactery is a puzzle itself, providing an extra challenge to overcoming this deadly foe.
Sometimes known as a groaning spirit, Banshees are female undead phantoms who enjoy bringing death to any living creature they come across. They usually appear as beautiful women, but anyone who gets within their reach can see their true form.
Horrible ghosts, they can corrupt with touch, dealing necrotic damage. They’re also immune to cold, necrotic, poison, being charmed, and exhaustion! They can post a danger in any encounter, but one that most players do enjoy finally defeating, giving them a sense of accomplishment once they’re defeated. Or are they…
A tactical “smart” zombie — usually with an entourage of dumb zombies as backup — Mohrg are no joke. They appear as severely gaunt and decomposed skeletons, easy to mistake for regular zombies. However, these creatures are more cunning and can put up a hard fight. They move quickly and use stealth to calculate surprise attacks.
While they can and do use their long tongue as a weapon, and they plan and strategize more than a normal zombie, they can of course be killed. Paladins and Clerics fare best against the Mohrg, as divine light will take them out quickest. But, any holy water will work — or if their blades are dipped in silver.
1Death Tyrant
Beholders can make for tough and fun combat encounters, but undead Beholders — with their huge naked skulls visible as they try to annihilate you — make for a deeper and more memorable challenge. While they have dark vision up to 120 feet and passive perception of 22, you’re unlikely to ever get the drop on these observant monstrosities. Holy water and the powers of a Cleric or Paladin might give players an edge, but defeating Death Tyrants is still an arduous task.
They’re number 1 on this list for a reason: they’re not easy to defeat. However, if players are creative, they can win in the end. Whether through a swarm of spiders or smashing them with a silver-dipped great axe, it can be done. Death Tyrants earned their top spot because the players have to be creative to kill it. Without careful planning and clever thinking, the party might easily be looking at a total party kill.
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