Have you ever wanted to roleplay your own post-apocalypse? Or maybe just have some horror in your campaign, with walking dead roaming across the lands, and perhaps a necromancer BBEG behind it all. Regardless of how you wish to implement it,Dungeons & Dragonshas got you covered, with a nasty selection of zombies — or undead, as it’s their type — to add to your campaign.
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From basic, soulless undead minions to powerful death-cheaters capable of casting terrifying spells, you can choose many options here, depending on your setting, your party’s overall level, and how evil you wish to be to them.
10Zombie
Default zombies are quite weak, but that only makes them available right at level one. Plus, a group of zombies can be quite deadly, so they’re the perfect minions for a horror story.
Their AC is a joke, and they don’t cause a lot of damage, but the trick here is how difficult it can be to ’re-kill' them. Their average health is 22 (around three times more than a Goblin), and they have the feature Undead Fortitude, where they can resist a killing blow and stay with one health point — if you succeed on your saving throw. They can be quite annoying to get rid of. You can also use an Ogre Zombie, which functions the same way, but with stronger stats, being a CR 2 monster.
9Mummy
The Mummy is like a zombie, but it’s all wrapped up. It’s also far deadlier, with damage resistances, as well as damage and condition immunities. It is weaker to fire, though, so keep your players from finding that out because a few Fireballs will get things over quickly. However, the nasty parts about mummies are their actions.
They can attempt to frighten everyone around it, and they can curse people with their attack. This curse will make the target lose some of their maximum health every 24 hours, and if their maximum health reaches zero, they die. No saving throws nor anything, just death. And you need somewhat good spells to get rid of this, such as Remove Curse, which, for a level-three party, can be a bit of trouble. NPCs can help here, though. you’re able to use a far more deadly version, the Mummy Lord, for high-level adventures. Its CR is 15, with spells and better stats to use.
8Allip
As a body-less undead, ghosts are compelling enemies for ignoring objects and taking over people’s bodies. If you want to be even more dangerous, however, look no further than the Allip. They can also move through objects, and cause lots of psychic damage and other effects.
They can attempt to stun their target, canceling their actions altogether and making them easy prey to the Allip’s allies. Alternatively, you’re able to force a target to attack someone of your choice with their reaction, using your players' attacks against one another.
7Wraith
If you mix an Allip and a Mummy, you get a Wraith. They’re ghostly enemies, too, with attacks that reduce the target’s maximum health — though this time, a decrease comes with every basic strike (and they recover their health fully with a long rest).
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If you have bodies on the battlefield, a wraith can raise them as a specter, a CR 1 ghostly creature who’s essentially a tuned-down version of this wraith, also capable of decreasing health. Still, they’re both deadly by themselves and even more together, so be careful not to cause a TPK on a low-level party.
6Beholder Zombie
In case you want to play around with Beholders, but your players' levels aren’t that high yet, the zombie version can scratch that itch for you. They have lower stats, lack the intelligence Beholders are known for, and use a single eye rain per turn.
Still, their rays can still be pretty dangerous, especially disintegration rays, and they have the Undead Fortitude feature from the default zombie. They’re good practice for facing the real,living Beholderslater on. you may also go for the Death Tyrant, who has a CR of 14, being deadlier than the default Beholder.
5Vampires
Vampires are the stylish undead, with their own set of rules — though it won’t necessarily apply to all. Some regenerate health every turn, can shape-shift, and killing players with bites can cause them to return as enemies, as the story goes.
Some also come with the need to ask permission to enter locations and can take damage from holy water, among other things, just as you’d expect from them. They’re perfect for gothic horror scenarios, and you even have characterssuch as Strahdthat you can use for a pre-made campaign or use as a reference for your own vampire.
4Dracolich
All cards on the table? Dracolich aren’t that different from regular dragons of the same color. They are essentially the same thing, plus a few resistances and immunities in both damage types and conditions and slightly better saving throws.
Still, as small as these changes are, they do make adult dragons a bit stronger, and a skeleton dragon is just a frightening monstrosity to fight against, anyway. They come in red and blue colors, but picking a dragon with a different color and adding the Dracolich changes is pretty straightforward.
3Demilich
With a one on their strength, the Demilich may be physically the weakest, but they’re a fun and annoying challenge due to their powers, health recovery, and being a pain to hit properly. They’re immune to a lot of conditions and damages, take no damage when succeeding in saving throws (and half in case they fail), and can hit multiple targets at once, healing with these attacks if they fail a saving throw.
They also have Legendary Actions, such as cursing enemies with disadvantage on saving throw (so you can make your basic attack more effective), blinding them, or decreasing their maximum health, similar to mummies. However, you need something as strong as Greater Restoration (a fifth-level spell) to recover the lost health.
2Lich
You were probably expecting this one. Liches are notorious as some of the most powerful enemies from D&D, turning themselves undead to prolong their existence. They’re extremely intelligent and have a powerful arsenal of spells to use on their victims, as well as strikes that can paralyze people.
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Between Fireball, Counterspell, Disintegrate, and even Power Word Kill, their spell options are the main reason they’re difficult to deal with, and they possess an item, the phylactery that, as long as it is not broken, they can come back after being obliterated by the party. If you want something even more challenging, consider notorious Liches with their own stats, such as Acererak or Vecna.
1Illithilich
Take theMind Flayer,one of the most terrifying enemies in D&D, and kill it. Now, make it a zombie as powerful as the Lich. This is the Illithilich.
They combine powers from both sources, having a devastating spell list (along with innate extras to control minds, courtesy of the flayer), the phylactery, the power to stun targets, take their brain if they lose all their health (instantly killing them), and even the ability to cast spells out of your turn through Legendary Action.
One of these guys with a zombie army would be perfect for a high-level encounter and overall campaign. If your party is not there yet, you can use the Alhoon, a CR 10 undead mind flayer, but without the Lich counterpart.
It’s not difficult to create your own zombie in D&D. You can take any creature stat block and add standard features, such as poison immunity, necrotic resistance, or things such as Undead Fortitude. Or you can go the Vampire route and add their unique traits.
Just don’t forget to mix that with traits the creature typically has; an undead Dragonborn would still have their breath weapon, for example. Or a zombie Displacer Beast, with all these features plus their illusion abilities.
