Undead | Running the Game

[@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

[@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!

[@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.

[@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!

[@nickhendriks7531]

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

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@quinn3203]

At long last, the fated video arrives.

[@thefridgefreezer]

It has been foretold

[@Meeko1010100112]

Koil Colville is a river to his people.

[@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...

[@ethanbarnacles]

Hi Matt! I just wanted to say thank you so so so much for the content you have been creating on KZbin. I've been a subscriber for probably a year? I've lost track. Anyways, that you for inspiring me as both player, and as a dungeon master.

[@mcolville]

Hey Ethan! Thanks for watching! Keep being awesome!

[@Jonsoner]

Oh man speaking about undead reminded me of two of my favorite D&D stories: i.imgur.com/iUroaPj.png i.imgur.com/mBDtmQm.png Doesn't it sound super fun? A culture in D&D that denounces and reject the gods; instead they use necromancy on their dead aswell as those about to die, so they work for them and protect them? Imagine the peasants having the security that when they die, they will become part of the town and provide for their families when their bodies stop them from doing so. Just picture the culture shock. The party finds a couple undead on a field with sickles just hitting the hay. They would, of course, attack them since that's what adventurers do right? After the skeletons lay crumbled on the ground, a group of villagers come running with tears in their eyes accusing them of killing their family. Would they purge that culture? Would the gods even label that purge as "evil"? Would they accept or atleast ignore the towns culture as long as they don't expand? If they accept them, what would happen if the nearest kingdom gets the news? D&D is just so much fun.

[@Shaldowstalker]

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

[@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.

[@fhuber7507]

Undead can be the PC party's best friends... A PC necromancer can raise skeletons and zombies to send in front to trigger all of the traps. The undead can act as bone-shields for the party while the live party members stay safely back casting spells and using ranged weapons for a couple of rounds. A 5e level 20 necromancer can command an army of 98 undead... recasting all of the spells to maintain control every day. (they do not need concentration)

[@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!

[@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.

[@danboud8135]

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

[@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 :)

[@Hellectika]

As someone who has a few scattered years of D&D and many years in rpg's in general, it was very nice to see different undead described concisely.

[@AnEnemySpy456]

It's easy to tell the difference. Wraiths are giant mortar tanks, Ghosts are fast moving hovercraft, Banshees are flyers, Phantoms and Spirits are both dropships but they look different, Revenants are like a cross between the Ghost and Wraith, Shades are immobile turrets, Spectres have room for a few passengers and a plasma cannon, and Shadows are hovering troop carriers.

[@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 😁

[@WholeRPGs]

As an old-time player/DM returning to the game after about 25 years, I really appreciated this! The middling level undead were confusing back then as well and your tricks for remembering the names/abilities are great :-) Been going through your older videos as I can and they have been terrific, thank you!

[@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!

[@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!

[@CatJuggling1]

Great video, as always. Definitely feel that this style of video is useful, especially how you tie the ideas behind why you're doing it back into other discussions/videos.

[@ajutantable]

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

[@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!

[@ChristopherBiasbas]

Wohooo finally caught up with ALL of Matt's videos! THANK YOU Matt Collville, you've inspired me to reconnect with some old friends and DM a 5E campaign for them. It's been a blast so far! It's doing wonders for my depression. You have no idea. Now, what to watch/listen to on my 1.5-hour commute...

[@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.

[@gothpunk79]

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

[@tomharris8650]

11:12 as a brand new DM who's just planning his second session of a home brew campaign featuring a necromancer, I had just thought of that idea before you saved me from creating predictable encounters. Love ya!

[@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

[@RobKinneySouthpaw]

Shadows are one if the few that are actually vulnerable to radiant. So they are at once a terror for a low level party, and a chance for your level 3 light cleric to go "Watch this, fellas"

[@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.

[@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.

[@DougCoughler]

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

[@michaeldlevins6608]

11:18 One of my favourite encounters as a DM began with the Party entering a room strewn with the bones of humanoids. The players made the obvious assumption of a skeleton ambush, and moved into the room in a tactical formation. As they reached the centre of the room, the bones began to twitch and rattle. Everyone readied their spells and weapons, and then… The Boneswarm spun into action. A swirling tornado of bone shards turned the room into a blender. The Party were high enough level to dispatch the swarm without TOO much effort, but the panic that initial round induced set the tone for the rest of the necromancers keep.

[@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!!

[@chillinnstuff7538]

INCREDIBLY useful video! Please keep up with this style, it's so helpful to hear descriptions and scenarios of monsters discussed!

[@SkeeterArvizu]

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

[@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.

[@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"

[@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.

[@jaimyyelvingtonmusic]

You are by far my favorite KZbin channel. Keep up the amazing work sir.

[@abdullakhayami8672]

Matt, great video as always! Two ideas I had while watching this: 1- You definitely won't surprise players with a room full of humanoid bones on the ground, but one can also argue that you can add suspense to an encounter by telegraphing what's going to happen. Maybe give the players an extra round as the skeletons' limbs start to twitch, as they frantically search for an exit, try to stop the summoning ritual, or reorganize into a more tactical position as they brace for the inevitable. Something that's helped me as a new DM is realizing my players are smart and it'll be hard work to surprise them, but sometimes building suspense can lead to a more satisfying narrative. 2- There's a variant specter in the Monster Manual called a poltergeist, which trades life drain for invisibility and less deadly physical attacks. Apparently, invisibility is enough to raise a poltergeist's CR higher than a specter's, but if I were a low-level character, I'd take that over something that can one-hit KO me with life drain.

[@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"

[@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.

[@steveharrison76]

Heh. My players first encounter with a spectre resulted in a paladin with -2d10 hit dice. He’s fine now.

[@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.

[@r0rixr0rix]

Love all your videos Matt. Its a big highlight to my week when i see you created another video because you always have great ideas and advice, and easy ways to implement them in to any game.

[@MattLockie]

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

[@Mynameismurfey]

Been waiting for this video for such a long time! Been running an undead campaign for my group for the past 6 months and just about to start the end game. Thanks for such a great video!

[@cosmic-fortytwo]

This was a great video, thanks for doing it. It really helps to have this material explained, and also to hear about your experience DM-ing and explaining what happens when you throw these monsters at a party. Cheers!

[@Sw-nn6le]

Your hair floomphs about with the utmost magnificence

[@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

[@listofromantics]

Great video! Immunities and Resistances in 5e: Which is why I love anything that does, or adds, Force, Radiant, or Psychic damage during attacks, as they are the least resisted / immune damage types in the MM.

[@Arjunnair13]

These monster type videos are really useful! It helps me design encounters without worrying too much about CR.I like to see more! It seems to me if you're not really familiar with a lot of monsters, you don't have too much choice but to design by CR or make up your own creatures. But these videos help, because they give good tips that even CR won't really account for.

[@Necrikus]

Man, undead are pretty much my bread and butter. I loved this and can't wait for the next part of this. But please make sure to make a video about the big bad undead as well, they practically deserve to be discussed any time you bring up undead in DnD and the like.

[@michaeljarvis4332]

Great video! Each time I watch one of your videos the wheels start turning in my mind. I'm feeling less bummed about our group postponing the campaign for a week or two because I get to draw inspiration from your channel to prepare a better adventure. Keep up the awesome videos!

[@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.

[@SteveSwannJr]

Love the clarity of the camera! Your content was great, but I also appreciate your tech!

[@Darkfrost-fd8gy]

Bout to have a little snack With some warm milk to go to sleep and what do I get outta nowhere, a Matt collville video to watch with it!

[@Disjointedimages]

Great video - I especially loved some of the flavor ideas (like the runes on the skellies). Thanks as always, you continue to help make my games better.

[@elisabethfields2047]

Loved the video (Always do), but I think you will find that wright means maker/shaper as in shipwright or wheelwright, so a cartwright would be someone who made carts and a cartman could be someone who owned/drove/made carts (sorry to be an English pedant). Keep up the good work.

[@IronfireXIII]

Elisabeth Fields he didn't say wright He was saying Wight Which does indeed mean man So a carwight is indeed synonymous with carman

[@MetaKaios]

@Tyr The Knightmare Delmirev No, he did say 'cartwright'. Seems he thinks 'wight' and 'wright' are the same thing.

[@IronfireXIII]

That, or your mishearing him they sound incredibly similar and he speaks pretty fast so it's not unbelievable that we just misheard him

[@MetaKaios]

That could be the case if not for the fact that a 'cartwright' is a real thing while a 'cartwight' is not.

[@paulcoy9060]

A cartwight could be an undead who died while driving, and now roams the countryside picking up hitchhikers and killing them.

[@Randomhiker]

As a recently new DM these videos are gold!! Thank you so much Matt!

[@seidmadr2024]

Just stumbled across this channel, instantly hooked! Great video, nice balance on education and fun. Time to go on an archive binge through the entire series!

[@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

[@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

[@disguisery]

Your discussing difficulty beyond CR is incredibly helpful! I know it will serve me well when I finally roll out my campaign.

[@nikola9610]

I need to thank you and tell you that you were one of the reasons why I started playing D&D thank you very much

[@DungeonDad]

Great video Matt!

[@TheLameFlameYT]

I already knew the different kinds of undead but I always enjoy how you explain things. Strangely enough I was building a few missions in my campaign around a serial killer that is only known by his MO: the victims' shadow stays on a wall near where the murder was committed, pretty much like the nuke thing you talked about.

[@cowdogg3085]

Wow! I just binged all your videos Matt!! And doing so has inspired me to see about starting my own games! Thank you for putting out these tips and tricks, I hope to see more!

[@Caleb_Plehn]

Loved this video. I'd love a series explaining the Planes in standard D&D cosmology. I think I've figured out most of them after a year of trying, but it was the worst part of being a new DM and worldbuilding. Perhaps during your explanation of the heavens and hells you could cover angels and demons. Additionally, a video on how to homebrew a working cosmology with your pantheon, and what level of detail is important to the story would help a ton! Building kingdoms is one thing. Building a universe is another.

[@PackRatTheArtist]

Super nice to have you break it down. Thanks!

[@NoESanity]

9:00 actually that would be cloth. cloth only lasts for like 20ish years before it mostly dries and rots away. being made of plant fibers and animal hair some does remain but the majority will be eaten by moths and dry rot within a few decades. in fact most era clothes would have been made of wool or maybe cotton both of which decompose in a number of months when left in the elements. leather on the other hand lasts about 50 years.

[@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.

[@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.

[@1234kalmar]

The way your hair moves Matt. Just awesome! No joke, it's so cool!

[@Zirkalaritz]

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

[@gotourobsessions1]

This has actually been incredibly helpful - I would love to see the second half of this plus the same sort of thing for other types of monsters! :)

[@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.

[@alexgourdie]

Thanks for this! I'm prepping an adventure for my players for our Monday game and needed a bunch of undead to throw at them. Looking forward to the next vid in this series!

[@MichaelGhelfiStudios]

Great video, interesting approach. Will definitely be useful :)

[@bgarnreiter89]

Such a great video! Honestly thank you so much for your help, it makes the DMing process so much easier and I feel so much more accomplished!

[@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

[@callumgoulden96]

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

[@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.

[@TheMegacoolman5000]

Yes, you uploaded before I have to go to school which is in 1 day, but this made my last day of somer much better thank you

[@TheMegacoolman5000]

I

[@Ruakk]

Thanks Matt! Please keep up the great videos! I love using undead and this was very helpful! Looking forward to part 2!

[@madana89]

Thank you so much for doing some undead videos! They are such great monsters because they come prepackaged with narrative tension (being, presumably, alive before they were un) but they are also nasty enough to make it fun to smash em. Shadows are probably my favorite recurring nightmare through many campaigns (you might say they follow me around). Especially in 3.5, they were devastating, but I think I've seen my party get utterly screwed by shadows in every version I've played. I'm thinking about throwing them at my very clever players this week. If you don't mind, I'll rip off your aptly creepy Hiroshima intro.