Thursday, November 21, 2019

Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 1

Undead in Pathfinder and D&D seem completely wrong. Strict categorization steels the mystery of the undead, at least of ghosts. And despite the strict categorization there is zero consistency behind any of it. Lastly some undead are created by such unlikely combinations events it would seem unlikely that more than one such undead would ever appear. So many undead in Pathfinders long list of Undead are entirely pointless and stupid and I'd be surprised if anybody every used them. Having said that, here are my thoughts on different Undead in the Pathfinder.

One thing Pathfinder does have is a wonderful variety of feats for the undead. In time I'll peace through them and put together tables for Ghosts to provide a nice unpredictable variety of effects that occur. I think the unpredictability is a big part of making Ghosts scary.

Undead

Undead are spirits in the mundane world. They may be free floating ghosts or animated flesh of some sort. A spirit that animates other things (statues for example) are known as constructs. As spirits they are effected by a Cleric's Banish ability. The intelligence of the undead depends upon the spirit  but the older undead should become a bit more insane as far as mortals judge such things.

The idea of undead is to create truly scarey areas in tombs, with guardians that can defend a location forever without food or even air.

Ghosts

Ghosts are spirits of the dead. They linger back and forth between the spirit world and the mundane world unable to move on to their final destination. There are two main types but these are each defined by a number of tables.

  • Haunt - An incorporeal spirit.
  • Remainer - A spirit given physical form (made of ectoplasm although that doesn't matter) so that the Remainer can touch and interact with things as if they were alive although they can't be killed like a normal mortal. Clint Eastwood's unnamed character in High Plains Drifter would be an example

Table 1: Cause of Death
1d6
Cause
01
Accident
02
Drowning
03
Hanging
04
Murder
05
Neglect
06
Suicide

Table 2: Can't Move On
1d6
Until
01
Forgiveness
02
Buried Properly
03
Debt Repaid
04
Expose Truth
05
Return Item
06
Vengeance
Table 3: Haunt Type

1d6
Until
01
Human, Former Identity Clear
02
Human, Former Identity Unclear
03
Humanish 
04
Spirit, Ectoplasmic human form
05
Spirit, Ectoplasmic non-human form
06
Spirit, Insubstantial
Table 4: Other Details (roll twice)
1d6
Until
01
Covered in Gore/Worms
02
Floats above ground/Lacks legs/feet
03
Headless/Faceless
04
Insatiably Hungry
05
White Clothes, Hair, or skin
06
Screaming

Note - The art above is copyright Don Kenn who is one of the only people to draw truly creepy looking ghosts. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.




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