D&D: Five Great Undead For a Haunting Horror Adventure
While spooky season boils to a fever pitch, these undead are sure to chill the spines of all who behold them. Or, you know, be cool to fight.
When it comes to D&D monsters, undead are in a category are all their own. They occupy a role at basically every tier of a fantasy story. From the humblest of cannon fodder skeletons, tot he most arch of archliches, there’s an undead for basically any occasion, in D&D. And yet, with so many to choose from, which ones are the best?
Well, while you can’t go wrong with any of them, not really, these five just happen to be some of our favorites.
Lich
When you want a terrifying undead in D&D? There is nothing else quite like a lich. These are the ultimate undead bad guys. They’re often ancient, and go through arcane rituals to shed their humanity in pursuit of ultimate power with a side of immortality. With the ability to scheme in centuries and millennia, liches represent some of the height of power for undead. Their mastery of magic is second to none. In addition to casting the highest level spells in the book, they can also paralyze foes, drain their life force, and just do all sorts of creepy things. If you want an ancient enemy that can set your whole campaign in motion, just reach for a lich, friend.
Banshee
If you want to give your players a mournful, haunting experience, the dread banshee is a great option. Taken straight from Celtic mythology, these undead are just dripping with atmosphere. They are often only heard at night and are bound by their sorrow to dwell in the place where they were slain, and driven by regret and a refusal to accept their responsibility, these forlorn undead cry out and scream as they hoard remnants of beauty to try and forget their present torment.
Plus they’re surprisingly effective combatants for their challenge rating (4), making them a perfect capstone encounter to the right kind of low level adventure. Though beware, a banshee can kill an unlucky party all on its own – their terrifying wail can instantly drop any creature to 0 hit points.
Dullahan
Well well well, if it isn’t another monster whose name and sort of general idea comes from Celtic mythology. A dullahan is your typical headless horseman. Only they’ve been given the “undead in D&D” treatment, making for a surprisingly powerful fighter. Dullahans in D&D were once fighters or commanders. And even in undeath, their twisted codes of chivalry spur them on.
Even reducing one to zero hit points doesn’t kill it – it merely changes the fight as the dullahan summons three additional undead, death’s heads, to the fight. But that’s assuming you can manage it before it decapitates you with its vorpal battleaxe or incinerates you with a fiery skull. Even if you do drop it to 0 hit points, it just becomes more mythic. A perfect tier 2 or 3 boss, dullahans are excellent leaders of undead as well.
Flameskull
Of all the undead in all of D&D, the Flameskull might just be a personal favorite. They’re very much the gift that keeps on giving. Simple and straightforward, these floating, flaming skulls were once powerful wizards who have been slain and had their skulls transfigured into these ghastly, fiery creatures. They are often guardians, but they dimly recall their former life and may well act upon their old desires if they can escape the directives given to them which they follow to the very letter of the directive.
Either way, they cast fireball and magic missile. Plus, killing one just means it’ll come back in a little bit. They only stay permanently dead if you bury them in holy water or dispel magic or remove curse upon them.
Skeleton
This guy’s a classic for a reason. Every D&D adventurer everywhere has at some point in their career come across a room left long barren and empty. Save for a few skeletons that seem to lay slain where they stood. But everyone. And I do mean everyone, whether they’re a fan of D&D or fantasy or whatever knows instinctively what’s going to happen.
You’re exploring the dungeon one minute, then you get too close or pick up the wrong thing and those bones come back to “life” and try to kill you. It’s why they’re perfect. The humble skeleton is an iconic foe and one that is absolutely just a blast to fight. They have a specific weakness, so a party armed with bludgeoning weapons makes even shorter work of them, but you just can’t go wrong with skeletons, Whether you use the powerful new variants, like Skeletal Knights on Skeletal Warhorses, or you just use the regular guy, everyone loves it when a skeleton shows up.
What are your favorite undead monsters for spooky season?
