Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

This is it. The final entry in the Monster Manual, the only Z monster, and the penultimate post in this particular Let’s Read. Zombies have of course been in the game since the very beginning. Here they are present both in the Monster Manual and the Monster Vault.

The Lore

You know what they’re like: rotting corpses who slowly shamble around and attack the living. They’re one of those monsters who made it into D&D from popular culture and are extremely popular outside of the game (like vampires, or dragons). There’s a whole lot of different zombie versions out there, and it seems the game has made an effort to incorporate most of them.

Like skeletons, zombies are often created through a necromantic ritual that creates an animus and nails it to a dead body. They might also be spontaneously created when an area is bathed in necrotic emanations, or when some sort of divine curse falls over it, which is more common with zombies than with skeletons.

The main difference, of course, is that zombies are still fleshy. That flesh remembers, however poorly, what it’s like to be alive. A zombie’s dead heart still pumps its rotten blood. Its lungs still wheeze, and its guts still hunger. Left to their own devices, zombies will seek the warmth of the living and try to eat their flesh, moving on to new victims when the current one gets cold. Zombies who have a master will follow that master’s orders, but they’re not smart enough to do anything complex.

Though the typical image of a zombie is that of an animated human corpse, that’s not necessarily true! Anything that had a pulse in life can be animated as a zombie, by ritual or accident.

D&D zombies are not “contagious”, but you can still have a zombie apocalypse when a sudden influx of necrotic energy into a region causes every corpse within to rise as a zombie. And if the infusion is constant, then people killed by these zombies would rise as well.

The Numbers

Zombies are Natural Animates with the Undead keyword. Their size is the same as the original creature, usually Medium or Large. Monster Manual zombies have necrotic resistance and radiant vulnerability like all other undead, but the Vault ones aren’t so fancy and have neither. Most are fairly slow, with a Speed of 4, but there are exceptions. They all have Darkvision.

The two signature traits for Monster Vault zombies are Zombie Weakness and Deathless Hunger. The first one causes any critical hit to reduce the zombie to 0 HP instantly (“Boom! Headshot!”). The other triggers when they’re reduced to 0 HP: roll a d20, and if the result is 15 or more, the zombie remains at 1 HP instead. This means they’re both unusually fragile and unusually tough. Several MM zombies have similar traits, but they’re less universal.

Grasping Zombie (Monster Vault)

This Medium Level 1 Brute has 33 HP and all the standard traits. It attacks with Slams that do extra damage against grabbed targets and can instead try to grab someone with Zombie Grasp (melee 1 vs. Reflex) which does no damage but grabs the creature (escape DC 12).

They naturally lend themselves to classic zombie horde tactics, surrounding victims, grabbing and beating them up/biting them into chunks.

Zombie (Monster Manual)

This is basically a Level 2 version of the Grasping Zombie, with 40 HP. Its defenses are actually a bit lower, but the escape DC for the grab is higher because victims have a -5 penalty to escape it.

Zombie Rotter (Monster Manual)

A level 3 minion brute with a single slam attack, Speed 4, and none of the special traits listed above. Pretty simple. Make sure to use literal hordes of them.

The monster Vault instead has Zombie Shamblers, which are level 5 minions and have Deathless Hunger, making them tougher than usual.

Gravehound (Monster Manual)

A zombie dog! It’s Medium and unlike its humanoid counterparts it can run at Speed 8. Its bite also deals ongoing necrotic damage (save ends), and knocks Medium or smaller targets prone. It has Zombie Weakness, and when it hits 0 HP it makes one last bite attack as a free action.

Corruption Corpse (Monster Manual)

A regenerating Medium zombie who uses this fact to rip out chunks of itself and throw them at victims. It’s Level 4 Artillery with 46 HP. Its Grave Stench acts as an aura (1) that inflicts a -5 penalty to all attacks, discouraging enemies from getting into melee range. Its regeneration turns off for a turn if the zombie takes radiant damage.

Though the corpse’s slams are weak, its thrown motes of corruption (ranged 10 vs. reflex) do decent necrotic damage and weaken (save ends). When killed, it explodes in a close burst 1 vs. Fortitude, dealing necrotic damage to all in the area.

Hulking Zombie (Monster Vault)

This Large Level 4 Brute with 70 HP was clearly an ogre in life. Its slams are Reach 2 and do extra damage to prone or grabbed targets. Its Zombie Rush allows it to charge (with its speed of 4) and make an attack against Fortitude that does the same damage as a slam and knocks prone.

Zombie Hulk (Monster Manual)

Pretty much the same monster, only this one is Level 8 with 88 HP because MM ogres are level 8. In place of Zombie Rush it has Zombie Smash, a recharge 6 melee attack that does a lot of damage and knocks prone. Zombie Hulk Smash, get it?

Instead of Deathless Hunger it has the much more dangerous Rise Again, which triggers automatically when the zombie hits 0 HP and makes it get back up with 44 HP at the start of its next turn.

Rotwing Zombie (Monster Manual)

A flying zombie, either because it was a flying creature in life or because some maniac stitched wings to it. It’s still speed 4 both in the ground and in the air, so don’t expect fancy maneuvers here.

Still, it does have a little trick: its slams do extra damage when used as part of a flying charge.

Flesh-Crazed Zombie (Monster Vault)

AKA a “Romero Zombie”, which kinda steps in the ghoul’s toes. This one is a Level 4 Skirmisher with 55 HP and all standard zombie traits. Its speed is 6, or 8 when charging. Flesh-Crazed Charge ensures its charges don’t provoke opportunity attacks.

These zombies fight with clubs, which do extra damage on a charge. If they can’t charge, they’ll bite, which actually does more damage and dazes for a turn.

Chillborn Zombie (Monster Manual)

The corpse of someone who died in the cold. It’s a Level 6 Soldier with 71 HP, and exudes a Chillborn Aura (2) which does 5 cold damage per turn to those caught inside. Multiple chillborn auras stack. This zombie also has Resist Cold 10.

Hey, given enough of these they might end up damaging each other with their auras! I don’t think this was the intention, so you can just say they’re immune to each other’s auras.

Their slams immobilize for a turn and inflict ongoing cold damage (save ends). When they die, Death Burst causes them to explode and deal cold damage in a Close Burst 1 (vs. Fortitude). Ice Reaper makes either of these attacks deal extra cold damage to immobilized targets.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

I consider zombies to be an important part of the dungeon fantasy genre, which includes D&D. They’re not an exclusive monster or anything, but they’re inevitably one of the first undead any party is going to face. The variety shown here is interesting: though the MV stat blocks are a little better mechanically, they’re also a lot more conventional in appearance and concept. “Normal zombie”, “big zombie”, “fast zombie”. You should absolutely make an effort to spring the more exotic varieties on your players if possible.

What about possible encounters? Any two-bit necromancer can animate a zombie or ten, so they’re a good fit for any encounter or adventure that might include one of those. Surprisingly they also work well with other non-sapient creatures, as long as neither would eat the other and the living critters aren’t bothered by the smell. The sample MM encounters bear this out:

  • Level 4: 3 standard zombies, 4 rotters, 4 kruthik hatchlings, and 2 wererats.

  • Level 8: 2 hulks, 2 rot scarab swarms, 1 oni night haunter.

Both encounters clearly include monsters who could be considered necromancers, but I suppose the kruthiks and the scarabs could be found alongside zombies even without a sapient to handle them. And of course, other undead work fine as zombie buddies.