Undead (Class)

Undead are a monster class in Dungeon Fantasy and the DFRPG representing cursed souls and the restless dead. While plants and animals may have entirely simple origins, undead often come from some amount of tragedy. The sacrifices of a mad sorcerer, or a battlefield of dead left to rot, may be the main source of a particular area's wandering undead.

Examples

Name	Description
Draug	Undead warriors driven by a great anger at their funeral arrangements. Even with rusted gear, they're very strong, and are quite at home in the dark, silent cairns.
Flaming Skull	Floating skulls wreathed in supernatural fire, often protecting necromancers and their lairs. They can be scary or accidentally comedic, depending on how quickly they can be fought.
Frozen Dead	Said to be created by those who died to supernatural cold, and are coated with a layer of ablative ice "armor". They're oddly stealthy compared to other zombies. Sometimes they serve a Snaw Wiht.
Horrid Skull	A psychically shrieking skull. Not really a monster in and of itself. Perhaps it needs something more to do.
Lich	One of the most powerful types of undead entity. There are some magics that propel a wizard beyond mortal limitations, buying them enough time, at last, to master their magic...
Reskinned	Hand-crafted undead, made from flesh, clay, and a lot of dark magic. They're more muscular and "complete" than regular zombies, and have a sort of "deliberate horror" to their appearance, like a horror movie monster.
Skeleton	The perfect combination of spooky and silly. They can be a bit nasty when modified, but baseline skeletons are fairly fragile, making for good mooks.
Specter	Terrible echoes of the once-living, like cold shadows cast by moonlight. They are single-minded, incurious, and have a habit of appearing from invisibility, jump-scaring interlopers.
Snāw Wiht	An undead created when someone is left to die in the bitter cold. They are more ghostlike than zombie-like, and are completely immune to the cold. They usually want revenge on whomever left them for dead, but--as with most undead--their worst habits can become routine over the years.
Vampire	Dramatic, powerful undead who feed on blood. They tend to be powerful individuals, well-equipped and well-connected, and they have a long history of coming back from (seemingly) being dead.
Zombie	Common but nasty undead warriors, usually of varying quality. Not as clever (or as reasonable) as a regular bandit, but durable and steadfast.

It's A Dead Man's Party

There are two main categories for undead: Corporeal Undead (often simply just "Undead", which this page shall endeavor to explain), and the incorporeal spirits, Undead Spirits.

Note that Spirits are not Undead by default--some are spirits of place or nature spirits that weren't alive in the traditional sense in the first place. Non-Undead Spirits aren't quite Elemental, but are too intangible to be Faerie.

Who Could Ask For More?

The undead class can typically be added onto almost any other creature class, so long as that creature was some type of living--Animals, Faeries (possibly), Mundanes, Plants, Hybrids, and Slimes. Creatures who are already made from primal magic (such as Demons and Divine Servitors) aren't usually capable of becoming undead.

Unlife Insurance

Most Undead have the benefit of Unliving (taking less damage from stabs), and are sometimes gifted additional HP to model their resistance to physical trauma. While there are countless examples of undead fodder (such as fragile skeletons and lethargic zombies), there's always room to improve on the classics.

Twas a Dark and Stormy Night

The undead do their best work in awful weather and dark environments. They are seldom worn down by cold, inclement weather, and are undaunted by inconvenient terrain. Some undead, like draugr, have Dark Vision, and can be particularly dangerous on a moonless night.

See Also

• Corpse Golem -- this creature looks undead, but is actually an unholy construct!
• Grand Unified Zombie Theory