Undead | Running the Game

Episode 45: RISE!
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[@RighBread]

Zombies also make for excellent templates that can be effected by their environment. Zombies found in the frigid north? The layers of ice and frost caked on their bodies gives them extra AC. Zombies found in hellish jungles? Monstrous wasps have built nests onto their bodies that explode into stinging swarms as soon as they take damage.

[@lanxreedalenlum3706]

i will totally use this, thank you

[@Chocolate83Bunny]

^for even higher level, there are blood wasps that turn victims into vampire spawn. hullathoin from FF 3.5

[@minnion2871]

Then there is also what is being made into a Zombie that can mix up what a Zombie can do.... For example Zombie T-Rex and it's disgorge zombies ability... (Which would transfer quite well to other apex predators like giant sharks and crocodiles...) I also think that Zombie Kobolds would be cool too. (Bonus points if they keep pack tactics on top of being zombies... because lets be honest, swarms of small undead that get advantage on attacks against anything that is being swarmed by them.... well that would feel very much like a zombie thing right?)

[@theendicott2838]

I love that. Planning an adventure in a town known for its bees and honey. The inciting incident is that a zombie wanders into the tavern. The adventure is finding out where it came from, and stopping more from showing up. I’m seeing a few skeletons in the graveyard that have beehives in their rib cages.

[@gustavakerman2566]

Oh, so you are pulling a Minecraft

[@The_Squirrel_Samurai]

I ran a game a few weeks ago where the party fought a Vampire. This vampire was the Duke of the province they were in, so one of the ways he concealed his true nature the vampire used a shadow as his shadow. The players had a suspicion that he was a vampire, but a few rounds after the battle started the shadow sprung out and took a fighter from a 15str to a 10str. The party be like...shit!

[@johnmarkarth2249]

That’s genius

[@Jedirow1]

His hair is so bouncy! It's hypnotic.

[@nickhendriks7531]

17:14 - Spoiler alert to everyone from 2017: it did astronomically well

[@zacharyharwell351]

Lady Sariel waves her hand over the field around you all and, as the ground begins to rumble and roil, the grass giving way to freshly turned earth, a few of you recall something of import: back when your stronghold was used actively, by some lord whose name you cannot recall at the moment, there was a battle that raged here. The Battle of Castle Ironvein led to the deaths of nearly two thousand souls, you recall... and as you look around the field, you can't help but feel like that estimate was.. probably about right.

[@fletcherdevery2891]

Really liked the video. It got me thinking about a villain that has bound a Shadow to himself. That Villain is Peter Pan

[@ObsessedGames]

I... may have to borrow this

[@fletcherdevery2333]

ObsessedGames by all means.

[@isitnotwrittenthat1680]

Good idea

[@lord_wyran]

pathfinder shadowdancer if you want a template for that

[@Jacob-qr8pl]

I thought about my bad guy being a Wraith. Cool idea!

[@johndavis9674]

I really liked 4th Ed's rules for Zombies - that a crit always took them out no matter how many HP it might of had. It gives them a real feel of being taken out with a lucky headshot. (Headshot's the true stopper Barry...) Team that up with Undead Fortitude, and it makes Zombies a fairly unique and memorable enemy.

[@tylerh2548]

John Davis i never paid much attention to the monsters in 4e but zombies (and only zombies) in Shadow of the Demon Lord have the same feature, actually named "Headshot" in their stat block where a roll of 20+ deals damage equal to their health. It really tempts me to throw way too many zombies at a low level party and see if they get lucky with the rolls, or if they turn the scene into a fighting retreat while they seek a haven (like a conveniently isolated prison...)

[@4saken404]

I really like that one! And as Matt himself has pointed out 4e is a veritable goldmine of ideas that have potential in 5e.

[@dirus3142]

That's a good idea. I want to find a better solution to the DR vs damage type when it comes to things like undead. It's a ham fisted and feels to arbitrary. By having a critical hit take out a zombie or skeleton it gives piercing and slashing weapons a chance to work. I take away the slam attack and replace it with a bite with grapple instead. After all the default zombie is the Romero version that is just an animated corps that wants to grab and chew.

[@hooj4808]

Yeah I may bring that back in for 5e and improve their undead fortitude a bit.

[@johndavis9674]

I was thinking the same. As my party increases in level, and their damage output increases, Undead Fortitude becomes less relevant. A higher DC on the save makes for very tough Zombies. The other option is to borrow from another 4E source - one of the Essentials versions of Zombies, where they stand back up at the start of each of their turns, it they aren't taken out while down or by a crit or by Radiant damage. In 5E, that could simply be only a Crit takes them out, given the rules for Crits on downed opponents. I'm sure my players will love facing something like that. :-)

[@singinghobbit1219]

Honestly the most helpful part of the video for me was the idea of introducing shadows as silhouettes on the walls. Unlike bones animating into skeletons, it's not part of a long gaming tradition so it could therefore both spook the players and catch them by surprise. I LOVE the idea and I'm definitely going to steal it for my game.

[@TheAgamemnon911]

Yeah! That is a fresh idea in a genre that is quite literally done to death. I mean undead are cliché, everyone knows how they work or assumes to. I would really like to hear some more original concepts of undead creation in part 2!

[@Chaosmancer7]

Yeah, I'm also stealing that one. Super memorable.

[@demonickilla32]

I thought that was the whole point of Shadows? They are literally shadows that can reach up from the ground or walls .

[@fhuber7507]

Could have the shadows "hiding" by making themselves just darken portraits on the wall, not quite perfectly matching the picture's outline. (making them detectable as... "something looks a bit off about the portrait" Like a green screen with the weatherman wearing a green tie and the map showing through. (There was a long running commercial for a car dealer that did exactly that)

[@Zeuseus6609]

I'm picturing a bluff situation where you have skeletal corpses in the room with blurred silhouettes on the walls. Trick your players into expecting skeletons, then surprise them with shadows. Maybe make it a passive perception check to notice that the silhouettes are all above a corpse but don't otherwise remark on it. E.g. "as you enter the room you see signs that a battle must have been fought here long ago, as the floor is littered with bones bleached yellow by age. The walls are littered with black smudges, remains of spellfire perhaps? I'm sure there's a way to phrase it a little more misleadingly but this'll do for a youtube comment

[@Varatho]

Some thoughts: Skeletons: they can use weapons and items, that's interesting enough really. Just give them a bomb, or have them man siege engines. Zombies: They are dumb, but are a deceptively dangerous enemy to use against low level players due to the fact they can ignore killing blows that do not come from critical hits or radiant damage. I can remember one encounter that lasted well past the point we had "solved" it (the zombies were no longer in any position to threaten anyone), and the dice wouldn't let the zombies die. It was just unfun after such tedium.

[@IronfireXIII]

Varatho should've just let them die after a time

[@THEPELADOMASTER]

I had a similar situation and I basically had to make it so that zombie ability only worked once, or it would've resulted in a TPK.

[@agp11001]

17:13 - "Well if that Kickstarter does, like, astronomically well..." And here we stand, over 1.000.000$ for a 40.000$ Kickstarter after less than a week.

[@ShepWinsAgain]

Have I got some interesting news for you!

[@johnmarkarth2249]

@@ShepWinsAgain have I got some more interesting news for you.

[@Nirrith]

@@johnmarkarth2249 have I got some even more interesting news for you

[@kereminde]

Hmm... ...now I'm pondering what would happen if Colville and Mercer collaborated on a Kickstarter project together. I mean, we've seen what's happened each time MCDM's gone to the well.

[@nextlevel8822]

No. No, Mr. Colville. I'm going to bed. This will wait until tomorrow. It's 3 in morning here and- well, maybe just a few minutes, but that's- ha! Ghostbusters!

[@quinn3203]

At long last, the fated video arrives.

[@thefridgefreezer]

It has been foretold

[@Meeko1010100112]

Koil Colville is a river to his people.

[@Humorless_Wokescold]

Undead are great. You can weave any kind of campaign around them. Large war like campaigns (just give them shields, weapons, and armor and put them into organized formations), Bram Stroker like chases across the continent (pick an intelligent undead with good spellcasting), creepy horror where your pcs are just trying to survive or solve a major mystery. You can do anything with undead.

[@SmokeytheBeer]

Matt Colville's vocabulary makes me smarter every-time I watch his videos.

[@ohek9976]

I'm just here for the Doobly-Do.

[@MonarchsFactory]

A wright is a master craftsperson, so someone named cartwright would be descended from a person who built carts. I know it's totally inconsequential to the video since wight DOES mean 'person' or 'man' but apparently this is exactly how pedantic I am as a human being.

[@MonarchsFactory]

I regret posting this comment coz I hate getting comments like these, but I don't know whether youtube still sends you the notification for it regardless of whether I delete it, so for safety I'm just gonna leave it here with an apology attached and own it. Soz Matt.

[@DerLamer]

Nothing wrong with pointing out mistakes. "Wright" and "wight" have different meanings and etymologies, and nobody's served by perpetuating false ones, especially when they are basically still in use (who associates "wrought iron" with "people iron"?) I for one am always glad to correct my mistakes, and I'm sure Matt is as well.

[@awmperry]

Even a year later I was glad to see your comment - because it meant I didn't need to say the same. :-D

[@bl1398]

Sometimes wright can refer to the act of authoring a book

[@frocat5163]

Don't you mean how pedantic you are as a wight? I'll see myself out, now...

[@Skorix96]

Made me smile when my party walked into an old abandoned (or so they thought) ruin in the pitch black and discovered the room was full of bones, thinking at first they were going to animate and proclaiming it pretty loudly, only for the bones to be the remnants of the previous meals of the ogre couple that made the room their home.

[@Pelusteriano]

00:00 Introduction 03:42 General Overview on the Undead 07:46 Skeletons and Zombies 11:35 Shadows, Spectres, and Wraiths 16:45 Conclusion

[@Slashnsnipe]

In my best friend's most recent campaign (he gm-ed, me and some friends at the FLGS played), a deluded necromancer who thought he was a miracle worker for a good god of healing went around patching up the ragged and crippled in the countryside. One of his "blessed" was a NPC brawler Hireling my halfling bard hired on named Bhorm. Bhorm had an unfortunate incident with rabid dogs while working with us, and (in our GM's attempt to branch out and use a new critical injury table) lost both his hands (over a fight, not from the same hit). We barely saved his life, but when we dragged him back to town, the miracle worker was waiting. He regenerated Bhorms hands while we found a new job, but unbeknownst to us, anyone he used his holy touch upon was actually marked by Orcus. After returning from another job, we find the township bedieged by every last person the priest of Orcus touched. The greater the injury healed, the greater the power of the undead. So things were pure chaos. We needed to find the local high priest who was last seen boarding up in the mayor's house. We had an encounter trying to cross a congested street of CR1/4 zombies. Being only 4th level we didn't have too much to work with in terms of simple solutions, so we had to keep moving or we'd become quickly surrounded. It was here we learned how brutal undead fortitude can be in large packs when you dont have AoE blasters. Finally at the mayors house, we find a dead mayor and a hulked out ghast, with two especially twisted, bloody hands. That was all it took to realize my beloved retired hireling had somehow found a far, far worse fate than double amputation. I tried to use some pacifying magic i'd just learned at lv5, and IT WORKED. Until our meathead fighter took the opportunity to decapitate Bhorm. Rest in peace, brave brawler.

[@Demonrifts]

One of the more unique and memorable sounding D&D scenarios I've heard of. Quite interesting.

[@lilcwa]

You are the man. This was an absolutely outstanding summary of the typical undead encounters in D&D. I also appreciate that you were able to capture videographic evidence of the paranormal hairstylist who fixed your bangs at 15:45... ;) Keep up the very fine work.

[@Shaldowstalker]

Damnit, was just about to go to sleep. Thanks for the nice surprise

[@sasjhwa]

My group plays 4e and have been on a 2 year (real time) campaign to stop a necromancer who is raising up and controlling many forms of undead. While tracking they stumbled across an ancient battlefield and suddenly both armies began springing from the ground. I used minions only. I had several different kinds and they attacked in waves. At the start the heroes easily defeated most of the undead but then the waves began to add up and characters got separated from the group and eventually they were overwhelmed. One 6th level monk was killed and the heroes were only able to win because they destroyed the ancient magic catapult stone that the necromancer had tapped into to raise the army. In the end they defeated over 60 monsters in one game session. They laughed at how easy it was until those 1 HP monsters ramped up the tension and characters started falling. They took cover in a cave above the battlefield only to find it already occupied by the dracolich that had been causing trouble throughout the land for over 100 years. They were forced to flee but not before seeing the McGuffin they had been questing for during the last year of games sitting in the back of the cave, just out of reach. It has been one of our most memorable games yet. They are now level 8, have killed the necromancer and claimed the dracolich's phylactery and are finally returning to the cave to claim the item and defeat the dracolich. They are bringing an army of minion retainers because they fear the valley of the undead 1 HP army just as much as they do the dracolich.

[@johnkennedy3403]

Awesome work!

[@Treebohr]

I just realized a couple days ago that since Bhaltair's master, Lady Sariel, was destroyed, Bhaltair is now free-willed! Assuming of course that he wasn't destroyed off screen.

[@TubaHorse]

14:30 I was running the Death House as a one shot for some friends. We had an air genasi monk that floated up to the second floor with their racial ability and walked into the room with the nurse spectre. She was attacked and it lowered her max HP to 1. The group managed to scramble and get the spectre killed before it could finish the monk. However, when they triggered the fight with the animated broom, it randomly selected the monk, and then whacked her for more than 2 damage. Since it went past her negative max HP, she died instantly - neck broken by a broom. I felt so cruel with that one but it's been a funny memory for the players.

[@leebaigaming]

I love the bones in the floor cus it makes my players all nervous and hesitant and I usually don't even animate them it just gives me a little chuckle

[@SamCieroLIVE]

"Zombies grabbing you while skeletal archers shoot at you - now you're having a bad day. Skeletal archers with flaming arrows that do an extra d4 damage - that's a Matt Colville encounter." *smirk* Thanks for making me inhale my coffee, Matt lol.

[@timothyruigrok6842]

Matt! 1/ 5e D&D has 'swarms'. If you really like minions, you could construct a 'skeleton swarm' or 'zombie swarm' which appears to be group of quasi-intact bodies that function as a (surprisingly stupid) team. Each minion requires a dedicated attack to bring them down, swarms can die 'en masse'. If you want you can give the number of body part 'clumps' (and how they look / are dressed / with armour / jewellery-treasure / carry diseases / have parts of broken weapons / etc.). Would this assuage your deep and seething minion-needs? 2/ Someone MUST have told you even a 1 h.p. zombie has 'Undead Fortitude' (which is not for ANY other undead - silly nomenclature!) - this means they bounce back for many attacks. Hence a second reason to put them into an Undead Swarm, you only have to kill the FleshSwarm® ONCE, and that is a bargain. 3/ Minions would have the same stats, thus, the nifty suits of armour (and A.C.) that goes with that base stat-bloc original has. This makes hitting every.. single... minion quite HARD! Hence a third reason why i strongly recommend an undead swarm for your 'minions'! 4/ No one else has thought of this before. And i do not have 400k subscribers yet! Actually, i have... um... zero. So YOU, yes YOU can be the one to think of this! A fourth reason! You will be known for the Matt Colville BoneSwarm® - and the FleshSwarm® too? This could be YOURS! Imagine the prestige... the profits... the power! Or just imagine a rotting flesh swarm. Or both. Look, it is your imagination here. You're the DM. Do what works? 5/ I have no fifth reason for an undead swarm. Sorry. 6/ A sixth reason - you could show your readers (like myself) that you check the comments on videos you made many, many, many years ago. This would cause genuine genuflection on the part of partial perusers such as myself. 7/ We could form a conspiracy and get Lord & Master Crawford (& Bros) to make this Official D&D content! Imagine the fun-crazy girls, the swift sports cars and waterfront mansions! We won't see any of these things / people in person... so please... just imagine them. Also, send this idea to your D&D contacts and get them to print. Or Tweet. Or E mail. Something. This is all. If you read this, i would be durn impressed.

[@danboud8135]

15:10 I really like that mnemonic for remembering the difference. Nice!

[@Sw-nn6le]

Your hair floomphs about with the utmost magnificence

[@alexhunt7810]

Clarification: A cartwright is not someone who drove a cart around (a carter or cartman, both of which are common surnames too). A cartwright was, like a shipwright, a specialist woodworker who built carts: specifically, with particular skill involved in the highly specialised round wheels and spokes that.

[@abdullakhayami8672]

You can still surprise your players by describing human bones scattered across the room. Your players' first thought will be to attack the skeletons, which never animate. Instead, their spirits rise from the shadows and start attacking.

[@Ultimus31]

In regards to having the 'skeleton surprise fun room' where the bones of humanoids are scattered around, it's actually pretty funny to do the opposite. No skeletons animate when the party walks through, but any experienced players will be incredibly on edge about it.

[@ChesireWaltz]

I love listening to Matt while I clean the house on speaker and my mom often hears. It was awesome that this video started a whole discussion on types on undead in popular media when she heard it :)

[@adamdavidson5446]

I know I’m 2 years late to the party but I appreciate this video so much! I’ve just started playing D&D as a DM and I’m making my way through your videos. I’m about half way through and I am grateful to you Matt for being a river 😁

[@johnrossman6679]

I have a similar style of creative uses of undead as Matt has. I had exploding zombies that had explosives or bags of poison or sleep gas sewn into them. I think I described them as somewhat different from zombies they fought in the past. Also I think I had this land effect of undeath across the world. Creatures that die a violent death come back in a little while. The players came across this after clearing a dungeon and coming back out they come across risen undead kobolds and such.

[@sword7166]

If you're a rules stickler who wants the dramatic "RISE!" thing, consider a spellcaster who unburies the bodies, turns them undead, then *reburies* them to catch adventurers off-guard. This is made even easier by the mold earth cantrip in xanathar's

[@aronroberts5813]

"...the players are going to assume they're going to animate into skeletons..." Matt, I don't think you know my players :D Thanks for the video, and thanks for all your Running the Game videos! I've watched almost the entire series, except for just a few, and I've watched several of them several times. You are, by a long shot, my #1 favorite, most inspiring and informative, online / KZbin DM. If you keep making the content, I'll keep showing up.

[@lockwoan01]

Of course, the Undead are interesting to use in other forms of fiction, or if you somehow make them friendly/neutral NPC. As it is, I'm working on writing a Magnificent Seven Samurai type of story which involves at least a few undead (a female lich, a skeletal archer, and a reverant knight) who are part of a party that is trying to help defend a group of farmers from a guy who was once a Captain in the Dark Lord's forces. One of the issues that the lich and skeletal archer, among certain other forms of undead, have is the fact that the Living can't hear them when they try to speak, (presumably due to the lack of functioning vocal cords and such) and thus have to use gestures, sign language, body language, or writing, to communicate with the living. As it is, I have a draconian Priest of the Light working with a vampire Necromancer in an attempt to combine Light and Dark Magic in order to enchant amulets that should allow those "lesser" undead to communicate with the Living more effectively.

[@wislinv8089]

Such a useful video. I'm a newer DM designing a town built on top of a dungeon where insane abominations were created, so the way shadows and undead rise is so genius thank you. I think the easiest way to do something that PCs can't do is via magic item. A magic crystal that causes some extremely beefy undead knight to rise, then need to charge, makes sense as to how my BBEG can make minibosses to hold off the party haha

[@harjutapa]

I just started watching Matt's videos about 8 days ago... I'm all caught up now. Yup. My friends are wondering where I went. So are my players. My players, at least, will be appreciative. Thank you, Matt. You've said this channel is for encouraging and helping new GM's, but I've been GMing for over a decade now, and every single one of your video I've watched has made me a better GM, and revived my love of doing this weird hobby of making shit up for a bunch of friends. Also, I will *forevermore* think of the caption on KZbin as the "doobly-doo"

[@DougCoughler]

"That's a Matt Colville encounter!" - Love it!

[@MattLockie]

After all this time, not enough love in the comments for the sudden appearance of Ruby Rhod! Great reference :)

[@chrisw4801]

You are a river to your people I just finished reading both your books and loved them. I found this video very useful as I do with all your videos. Thank you Matt for giving me the knowledge to be better DM for my players.

[@EdwardHowton]

A simple enough topic but a surprising amount of insights. The third enemy I made my players fight was a specter. I had populated an ancient, forgotten keep carved into the side of a mountain with what I unofficially call memories or echoes of the original inhabitants quietly living out their days at the time, like a holographic playback (maybe a little bit inspired by System Shock 2) and the specter fit ideally into that setup. As you say, the players never questioned these transparent ghost things being there or the fact that one of them got angry and attacked. They also dealt with the ghosts beautifully, gathering the long-withered corpses together and having the bard say some prayers over them, something I simply hadn't considered. Low level incorporeal undead are a good challenge for people with no magic. Later I built the City of the Dead into a desert. The threatening name and ominous dark cloud turned out to be nothing more than an Ever-smoking bottle accidentally left uncorked during some cataclysm which left the inhabitants endlessly repeating their daily lives as unaware zombies in a town that would resemble Pleasantville if it wasn't for the whole long-ruined buildings and walking corpses. Protip: if they have a cleric with Call Lightning it doesn't really matter if they make it into the center of town and are surrounded before threatening behaviour turns them all hostile at once. Those poor zombies. My players didn't question that, either; clearly something had happened and somehow all those people were zombified, including the priest who got trapped under a chunk of his church. Undead are great. I'm trying to come up with a good reason to use more later on. I'm thinking I might go for the standard 'village ruled by a benevolent-ish vampire who only asks for willing blood donations in exchange' type of deal next. Thanks for the idea with the Shadows, though. That's... such a great idea! My players are still reeling from the time I threw a blood ooze and forsaken shells at them and I've been wanting to up that particular ante. Oh, and in case you read these, thank you for convincing me to use the Deck of Many Things, Mr. Colville. My players just used it to murder my favorite NPC. Skull card is a bitch to failed wizard NPCs with no attack spells but _Heat Metal._

[@newjlc]

Hey Matt! The two ways a shadow can be created is by another shadow, and also by a Shadow Dragon's Breath Weapon. Shadow Dragons in turn have a written out origin to them.

[@SkeeterArvizu]

It's 11:56pm, I have work in the morning... Of course I'm going to watch this.

[@thenovicedm7966]

I wholeheartedly support the DM's choice to explore and create versions of "their" NPCs and Monsters. I call it "dramatic license" and my players have learned that "the typical" zombie is not necessarily what they've come to expect or read in the latest version of the Monster Manual. In general I tend to follow statblocks of the "baddies"....but I applaud a player/DM that thinks out of the box from time to time. Good video....as always.

[@skullheadisland]

Personally I prefer and enjoy when you give interesting twist to monsters. Like the exploding skeletons, or the shadows burned into the walls, or the vampire queen who just pulls undead from the ground. Those are the items I love most from your channel

[@MidianNiles]

Hello Mr Colville, I'm a DM since 1982; I'm a DM who absolutely LOVES to run campaigns based on Undead Antagonists. Though this video is pretty much review for me, I do believe it to be a great video for new DM's. I'm looking forward to both your upcoming Part 2 for an Undead video; however I'm also very interested in your upcoming video for Demons. Great stuff!

[@joelong3701]

I’m not gonna lie to you Matt, i’ve had d&d at the back of my mind for quite a while now, guess it was just sort of losing its magic to me. However, you always put things into a very logical perspective and I find it very inspiring. You are a fantastic human being, never change

[@GrayGriffonKnight]

I would LOVE a video or series of videos about Demons, Devils, and how they've changed throughout the years.

[@icedrakesr]

I'll throw a free idea out there for my fellow DMS. Colville made a great point about the shadows burned into the walls which later come back to attack the PCs. If you want to throw a curve ball at your players, and they happen to be investigating an evil temple of some sort, consider having detailed necromantic motifs carved into the walls. Images of dancing skeletons carved in such detail that they almost look like they might walk out of the wall at any moment... The PCs will be unsurprised later when they do, in fact, tear themselves free of the wall and attack. They'll be super surprised, however, then the cleric's Turn Undead ability has no effect. Because those bleached white bones are actually painted stone and the "undead" are actually constructs.

[@PerformanceCheck]

This might very well be the beginning of the best definitive guide to undead on the internet! Concise, entertaining and full of inspiration! Thank you!

[@Sammo212]

+1 for the (original) Ghostbusters reference at the beginning. Super useful video! Being a fan of real world lore it can make playing tabletop confusing too since mythologies change, people use them differently in fiction, and then its also different in tabletop.

[@1234kalmar]

A DM I played with once described a mage's workroom and laboratory as "Havig a pile of bones in the corner" Sooo we promptly burnt it down. Along with the mission clues. aaand our way back down from the tower.

[@Kevin-us4gj]

Shadows in a dark room are a full party encounter for levels 1 to 3 in a dimly lit and dark are. I can confirm from experience.

[@PackRatTheArtist]

Super nice to have you break it down. Thanks!

[@huntersimuav]

The best part of waking up is Matt Colville in your cup.

[@Demon-.]

Yeah, that part around 7:30 reminded me about how a party of four (one Ranger, a Paladin, a Bard, and a custom class called an "Inventor" or something. I was the Paladin) almost died from like 3 or 4 incorporeal undead and this being, I never asked what it was but we know that the thing was the reason the incorporeal undead were there because as soon as that thing died, the incorporeals disappeared.

[@thethirdsicily4802]

on my new campaign, at one point the main antagonist (a necrophilia- I mean necromancer.) is going to raise an entire battlefield's worth of dwarves and elves, summoning around 14,000 minions (they won't fight them as they will if everything goes right and they aren't stupid be on a nearby ridge overlooking the entire field.) the whole point of this is mainly just to show the power this guy has, but also as a way to utilize skeletons to (in my opinion) their most fun potential, where all these minions assault the nearest city.

[@fhuber7507]

In my world. A pure necromancer NPC can summon any form of undead. That means there is a necromancer with the spells: Summon Lich, Summon Dracolich, Summon Vampire and so forth.... The party doesn't want to meet him too early.... He has all these "friends" that he summoned.

[@hotsoup134]

Whenever I'm having trouble working on a home brew story, I watch these videos and go back to my word doc feeling creative and inspired. Thanks for the great content, keep it up!

[@ajutantable]

I like that you give us a critical look at the application of the creatures, and not just aggregating information about them.

[@MrCharlieSB]

Every time my current group encounters bones scattered around the room (or lying peacefully on top of sarcophogi), someone immediately puts everyone in danger, so that when the skeletons attack, the whole team is at a disadvantage and almost dies. Every time. I cannot make these rooms any more obvious.

[@hbjngf]

Perfect timing. I'm running my first proper campaign and two games in I was worrying that I was running out of interesting undead encounters.

[@sevenseven9496]

I love these videos, Matthew, thank you so much! This got TL;DR real fast! But, as far as monsters with resistances to non-magical weapons go, I just wanted to mention some things that I do, with a very few extra-special monsters, to make them extra nasty: Resistance to magical weapons. This is in addition to resistance to non-magical weapons, which is a separate thing--although, typically (but not always!), most monsters that have resistance to magical weapons will also have resistance to non-magical ones. I will also often do other things, like change or remove the effectiveness of certain spells, for instance, depending on a particular monster's theme, and "character", but that's much more of a case-by-case decision, and here, I just want to explain the basic idea of what I do with magical weapons, to make them--and the monsters that they are used to fight--stand out a little more, from each-other. Firstly: In my games, I divide all magical weapons up into six different "power" categories, for this purpose: minor, lesser, major, greater, prime, and artifact. Monsters can be resistant to anything from minor weapons, up to prime weapons. Artifacts are artifacts, though; and nothing can resist an artifact's singular power. Typically, these categories directly reflect the power of the magical weapon, itself, but there's no reason, as DM, that you couldn't create a "simple" +1 long sword, that just happened to be a Prime or Artifact-level weapon, who's only true purpose is to defeat the "Big Bad"--at which point, perhaps it will melt and evaporate away, like the sword that slew Grendel's mother: Easy come, easy go. Artifacts don't HAVE to be complicated. The reverse is also true: There's no reason that a +5 Hammer of Thunderbolts has to act like anything more than a minor magical weapon, or, it may only act like a Prime weapon against some monsters, but not others--It's not always a case of absolute power. Sometimes, it's a case of thematical rarity, and what your story needs. You may decide that most magical weapons in your campaign, no matter how mighty they happen to be, just might not be in the right category to topple the Ghost-Dragon, or what have you; and instead, you need sacred jade weapons from the Dragon Isles, two continents to the East. Having these different categories also allows you, as DM, to have some options and better ways of playing the "magical arms-race" with your PCs, and to blunt some of the worst effects, if you happen to go overboard with giving your players too much power, too quickly. It also does away with the idea of a PC ever having one single "ultimate" weapon--giving you more reason to put different magical versions of the same basic kind of weapon into your campaign. These categories are a bit more complex than just "resistant" or "non-resistant", but they let me have fun with the divisions, and also to apply and adjust the different effects to different monsters, in different circumstances (Also--not always, but as a rule--The most powerful and dangerous--and, often, whichever ones happen to be the most FUN--monsters with these kinds of resistances, can't be PERMANENTLY killed, by any less-than-sufficiently-powerful weapon. In fact, I may not even allow other magics, like spells, to permanently put them down. Instead, they may rise again, in a day, or in a year; to plague the heroes and the nations of the world, once more. To take this idea even further: I might have a unique monster, who can only ever be ended under very special and singular circumstances; and, learning how to put them down, for good, might become the main focus of the entire campaign. I call these "Artifact-Monsters", since destroying them is often reminiscent of doing away with an artifact that the world has to be rid of. It's not my original idea--Aside from the Tarrasque, of course, it's been around for a long long time, starting in mythology; but it can be a neat challenge for the players, to figure out the necessary circumstances, and then to create them, in the middle of an epic battle.) When a monster is resistant to a one of these magical categories (which also means that they are resistant to anything below that category), then, instead of making the weapons do half damage, I instead have ruled that, a successful hit will ONLY do that weapon's damage, period. What that means is, the attack will not do strength damage, barbarian rage damage, weapon specialization damage, back-stabbing damage, or any other form of "bonus" damage, from any other source than that weapon, itself. A monster that is resistant to minor magical weapons, for instance, that is hit by a 5th level half-orc fighter with 20 strength and a specialization in long swords, wielding a +1 long sword (a minor magical weapon), will ONLY be hit for 1d8+1 damage, period. Critical hits still apply, but will again only do just double that weapon's normal damage (so 1d8+2, period). The exception is if the PC rolls a natural 20--natural 20's are always special, and in the case of a natural 20, I allow all bonuses to apply, and double all of the damage that would normally apply, as well. Actually, I personally make it a house-rule that natural 20's always do double the MAXIMUM possible damage, so rolling a 20 is a pretty big deal, but in the case of magical weapon resistances, I make an exception to my house- rule, and drop that double damage. Because, here, it's these monsters that are the big deal. They are rare and special--there might only be one in a campaign, and only a handful in a setting; and defeating one is intended to be a truly heroic and dangerous task, and bringing the right weapon for the job--which, by itself, will often require questing--is a part of that task. And, as the levels of resistance go up, insufficiently-powerful magical weapons become even less effective. A monster with resistance to LESSER magical weapons, will take one less point of damage from a MINOR magical weapon. So, that 1d8+1 long sword now only does 1d8 damage. The next level of difference--Prime to Greater, Greater to Major, Major to Lesser, Lesser to Minor--not only does 1 less point of damage, but the weapon also drops down a die. So now, at resistance to Major magical weapons, the +1 long sword now only does 1d6 damage, and also, criticals now only do the full normal damage of the weapon--1d8+1. Natural 20's retain their full (non-house-rules) effect, though. At two steps distance, damage caps at 1d4. Example: at the resistance to Greater magical weapons level, Minor magical weapons can never do more than 1d4 damage--even if they're two-handed great axes. And, finally, at Resistance to Prime magical weapons, Minor magical weapons can only ever do 1 point of damage, period. At this level, Lesser magical weapons are capped at 1d4, Major magical weapons do 1 point less, and drop down a die (so, a Major-level +3 heavy mace would only do 1d6+2, instead of 1d8+3), and Greater magical weapons lose a point of damage from their normal total (A +4 dagger now only does 1d4+3 damage). Keeping in mind that this is IN ADDITION to losing all of the PC's other normal damage bonuses--from stats, class abilities, etc. I do sometimes make some case-by-case exceptions to this, for things like, say, strength bonuses that are magically gained, or ranger natural enemy bonuses, or bonus damage from certain spells. But, only if those bonuses feel like they would be thematically appropriate for the encounter--like, for instance, the bonus damage of a lawful-good paladin, battling against the undead corpse of a reanimated demi-god. Magical strength, versus a demonically-possessed porcelain doll that preys on children. Or, maybe for a ranger, that ranger's natural enemy bonus ONLY applies if this particular monster happens to be an old and well-known enemy of that particular ranger--In this case, it would have to be a personal enemy that the ranger knew well, and had a special enmity toward: The vampire-king who personally slew that PC's entire family, for instance. The idea being, to inject into these monsters as much personality and depth as possible, and to hopefully make them very memorable, and interesting.

[@yassinmoufeed3679]

Seven Seven I commend you for writing this in such a informative and comprehensive way. I am definitely going to use this in my new campaign and many more to come.

[@Drekromancer]

I'm impressed with your work! That sounds awesome. But I can scarcely imagine having that many brain cells to spare for nonessential calculations. The normal dice math is enough of a headache.

[@Notashortmidget]

looooooonnnnnnnggggggggggggggg ccccccccoooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeennnnnnntttttttttt

[@dixbyfloppin6979]

I'm running a mega dungeon game and the second room they entered had 4 zombies, they were a party of 5 each being level 3 and it took them 2 hours to kill them. The party was made of a rogue (who nearly died), a bard, a cleric, a monk, and a paladin. Mainly from the deathly fortitude ability or whatever it's called where they roll a constitution check to see if it can return to 1 hp instead of dying

[@callumgoulden96]

It is a lovely Suprise, Thank MR Colville :) Awesome video

[@dannym2359]

In my first adventure, I put 2 shadows in a room with an open bottle of smoking . It wasn't until I attack them with one that I realized they stole strength. It could have gone extremely bad, but I gave them a small amount of info in that the shadows would fall back as soon as they went into the hallway where light was illuminating the mansion. And then I used a ghoul and reskinned it into a failed lich. The shadows were probably 10x more effective than the ghoul, simply b/c of the damage reduction and strength sapping

[@charlesreed5839]

If that necromancer in town had a cover identity as the local baker, he would go undiscovered until he had both an army of zombies AND a ton of sourdough loaves.

[@last2nkow]

i love levelling up my zombie minions with the players. i give them 3HP x the players proficiency bonus, or 2 hits, whichever happens first. it means that usually they are killed in 1 regular hit, but survive if the dice really turn against a player, and if the players expend a resource its almost guaranteed they are 1 hit minions. ive had players make the assumption that my zombies were 1 hit minions, then panic at a higher level when a massive horde attacked and the first zombie hit survived

[@andrewdavid1278]

I found your channel while getting ready for my first DMing experience, and your advice has been unimaginably helpful. I ran my first session last week to great success! I chose undead as the main enemies because they're simple for first-time players to wrap their heads around, and there's so many well-explored tropes you can play with. I'm glad you dropped this video before I jump into planning my next session! Thank.you Matt!

[@BlizzJaster]

The great thing about undead is you can take any monster (or any creature idea, really) and undeadify it and make it grosser and nastier. A myconid from a swamp polluted by necrotic ooze might be undead (or partially corrupted into an undead) and instead of blowing poison spores, now it sprays necro-ooze from collapsing pustules in it's head. Or a living monster that has eaten a zombie and is thus now turning undead itself is also a lot of fun, especially because the eaten zombies can rip out of it when it is wounded.

[@saveronshadow]

I remember back in AD&D land where my 6th level fighter would end up at 2nd level because Wights would cause -1 level per hit, Spectres were -2 levels per hit, which was permanent (no save, no way to return the levels according to the rules). The death spiral was real back in AD&D.

[@diReLoCke]

Love me some shadows. Used them recently as a reality check for a group of lvl 9 adventurers. They almost TPKd and ended up having to leave most of their gear as they were far too weak by the end of the ambush to carry it out of that cave/mass grave.

[@loki3275]

I used a wraith in place of what my players thought was a pitch, it killed one of them and brought them back, made for an epic introduction of 2 new characters when one walked in and one shot the near death wraith. After that they had to fight a horde in a dungeon where they nearly all died. It was fun.

[@Chaosmancer7]

Zombies are deceptive, that Undead fortitude can keep them around for a loooong time if your dice are hot. I had a necromancer PC and a Monk PC working at cross-purposes (they both took jobs from a different Drow house as a downtime thing) and the 6th level monk vs Zombie fight almost ended with the monk dying. The zombie only needed to make a DC 15 save for most of the monks hits to survive, and with a +5 con save it had the numbers to keep going and going and going. It was really memorable to see this powerful character struggling so much to take out a single unstoppable enemy. This is also why I'm very cautious about using undead in general. Skeletons are great, but a large group of zombie might just not go down during a fight if there are no clerics or paladins to take care of them and shadows or ghouls can wreck a group fast if they get the drop on the players.

[@mikegould6590]

Matt, Read the "starting adventure" for Curse of Strahd. "Death House" had a series of encounters in a house (that you're not allowed to escape). For a level ONE party they had a Spectre that attacked when you "touched X item". Also, the party can't get to the other levels that they need to (to finish the house and unlock it) without "touching X items" here and there. It's set-up. Then, below, they are ambushed at different times by either 5 Shadows, 4-5 Ghouls, or 2 Ghasts. At level 2. Do the math. I haven't even mentioned the CR:5 Shambling Mound yet. Or the fact that they expect your player characters to sacrifice one of their own on an altar. If I ran that adventure as-is, my table would quit. The Ghosts, Shadows and Spectre in the house would not be stopped by locked doors, and the Ghoul/Ghast contingent were spawned from the house. Heck, the Ghasts were the former owners, so they know where all the secret doors are. It's a shit show. And, for ease of memory, here's the skinny on making undead. (what makes what) Wraith -> Spectre Wight -> Zombie Shadow -> Shadow Vampire -> Vampire Spawn Animate Dead -> Skeleton or Zombie Finger of Death -> Zombie Create Undead -> Ghoul , Ghast, Wight or Mummy (so really, casting this can also yield Zombies if the Wights have their way)

[@deathfox7079]

This reminds me of a time in AL where we were underwater i can't remember the party exactly but there was me and my dad's characters, 3rd level moon druid and divine sorcerer respectively, as well as a 2nd level paladin. We encountered a ghost. I ran up as a wolf and missed both up my attacks, the paladin swam up and smacked it with divine smite, and the sorcerer had a wand of magic missile, so he burnt 6 charges of the 7 finishing of the ghost before it had a chance to do anything.

[@Zirkalaritz]

Came for undead knowledge, got my mind blown by the Cartman/Cartwright thing. Etymology is so cool.

[@andredmcampos]

Your videos always come up around 4 am where I live... And I still manage to always be online when they show up... Something's wrong with my life...

[@cristotheranger4263]

Andre Campos 3 am for me. But likewise. Why do I subject myself to graveyard shifts?

[@orboflighter6085]

You too lol

[@JoeR-cd9jg]

Andre Campos He's the only KZbinr who releases at a normal time for me :)

[@douglasbaiense]

Brasilzão?

[@cryoshakespeare4465]

No, if you're listening to Matt Colville, something is definitely right with your life :P

[@GrimBrotherIV]

I saw 18 minutes and got worries that this video got cut down a ton, glad to hear we are getting 2!

[@gracesprocket7340]

Cartwright is a maker of carts (as with shipwright, a maker of ships - wright being a specialist craftsman, usually in this period in wood). Carter, cartman et al are the porters or waggoners of the world. Wight is indeed "living being or creature", usually used for men, but isn't identical to a worker in wood.

[@MntlMajorkozmo]

I've been awaiting the undead series for a while as I'm in the process of writing a dying world in which undead are prevalent. Thankyou Matt, keep the great videos coming.

[@TwilitbeingReboot]

11:12 _Orrery of the Wanderer_ has a wonderful encounter in a room full of scattered humanoid bones, which begin rattling ominously when a fight breaks out... because they've been wired to the mimic that's disguised as a coffin.

[@TheAgamemnon911]

That shadow imprint idea... Man thats dark. I like it!

[@fbiceman]

I really appreciated you providing examples of when and how you would use some of the monsters. They were cool scenarios and they helped jump-start my own imagination. Would 100% watch if you did a series on... any major monster type, honestly, but I feel like plants are pretty underutilized.

[@digdude64]

Cool. For incorporeal undead @3:57 Matt uses the picture of Obzedat, Ghost Council from Magic the Gathering. I started playing MTG in 2013 when Gatecrash was new and now I'm just getting into D&D. Neat WOTC easter egg.

[@masalanicholoff3593]

The statement about having plants as your favorite enemy made me think of a ranger who is from the desert and has an irrational fear of all plants aside from cacti (They're so weird and leafy! Where are the spikes???). He protects the desert from invasive species, and has a panic attack whenever he's separated from the party in a forest.

[@restoredtuna8264]

Something I like to do with particularly dangerous creatures, (in response to what you said about ghosts) is at earlier levels you very much should incorporate very dangerous enemies. But these higher level ghosts are either outnumbered greatly by the party or aren’t willing to fight to the death and flee, giving them a taste of the wider world. Or maybe it’s goal is just to terrorize the players. And they just jump them every once in a while until the players are strong enough to catch it off guard.

[@jamesa8619]

I went through the rigmarole of creating a variant of Animate Dead which lets you upcast to create higher level undead: Animate Dead, Higher Level Variant: “At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you animate or reassert control over two additional undead creatures for each slot level above 3rd. Each of the creatures must come from a different corpse or pile of bones. Alternatively, you can choose to animate or reassert control over any one undead creature whose hit point maximum is no greater than the combined hit points of all the skeletons or zombies you could animate at that slot level.” This means you can animate a dead creature with up to 198 hp. This would cover all but the most powerful undead, I think. I am, however, leaning towards Matt's approach in future, because it's too much faff to work out. But I do worry about my players arguing that if it is possible for an enemy, it should be potentially accessible to them.

[@sesimie]

In my two limited Adventures for N&N ( my Nephews and Nieces) it was A Spectre that scored my first ever PC kill. Also a Skeleton Horde (Random encounter so i rolled). The First TPK happened. If the new party runs the adventure again i will run Zombie versions of the TPK'ed Party. I've instilled my Players fear of Skeletal Warhorses, and Shadows. It's wonderful to see the paranoia and the feeling of accomplishment when they defeat them.

[@MahoganyDesk]

Yes, please keep making these kinds of videos! I enjoy your tips and warnings on how to use them in encounters. My biggest issue is creating encounters that won't kill off my players or become a slog fest every time.

[@robcabe7637]

Dude, great video! Been playing since 1st Ed, found some insights I hadn't thought of before. I like to mention that two parts for being undead is 1) A Trauma to the soul that caused the transformation (also, necromantic bending of the soul, which should be considered the most evil of acts), and 2) The unfinished business of the soul; that which will allow it to continue on to the afterlife. When I'm using undead, I find that 'thing' that would allow then to be at peace, and use that as an alternate option to defeating them.

[@gothpunk79]

I love that lovely creature on your head. He has his own charm. :) Waitin' for the kickstarter, also you rock!

[@jerkq]

This was very useful: I think it's also important to note that the Specter drains your characters "hit point MAXIMUM", and it's only temporary for the character. I would love to see more monster variety videos: Demons, Devils, Yuan-Ti, Slaads... go wild!

[@RJeremyHoward]

Pulling in a Fifth Element quote... I'm actually impressed.

[@jacksonparham2576]

Thank god for this video! I prepared a 4 shadow encounter for a 2nd level party some of them their second time playing. Dodged a TPK!

[@rexanaxer]

I have my first time Dungeon Master'ing next monday and finally caught up to the bottom of your advice playlist! Thank you so much for enlightening and empowering me, I hope that one day I'll have a party ask where I attained such knowledge so that I may look at each of them and whisper "Colville, speaker of truth, stirrer of imagination, and brother to us all"

[@thomast1272]

I love this series! I have been playing D&D for a couple of years now, and have recently started running my own game. This series has helped me so much in making my game enjoyable, so, Thank You!!

[@dropdeadinsanity]

I homebrewed this skeletal monster that was kind of part centipede and scorpion in form. It could grapple with its ribcage legs and had a "Tail" that was a skeleton torso on an elongated spine holding a poisoned spear. It could spider climb and had a silence aura in a 5ft radius, so it was perpetually quiet and if it grabbed a spellcaster it became a big problem