List of Undead

Avatar of Death

DMG p 164

Challenge -

The avatar of death is esentially a grim reaper that can be summoned by drawing from the Deck of Many Things. Its power scales with that of its summoner, challenging them to single combat. If anyone intervenes, another avatar of death will manifest. It will fight its summoner until either the summoner dies or it is reduced to 0 HP. Any creature slain by an avatar of death cannot be restored to life.  

Bodak

VGtM p 127

Challenge 6

A bodak is the undead remains of someone who revered Orcus. Devoid of life and soul, it exists only to cause death.

Marked by Orcus. A worshiper of Orcus can take ritual vows while carving the demon lord's symbol on its chest over the heart. Orcus's power flays body, mind, and soul, leaving behind a sentient husk that sucks in all life energy near it. Most bodaks come into being in this way, then unleashed to spread death in Orcus's name.

Orcus created the first bodaks in the Abyss from seven devotees, called the Hierophants of Annihilation. These figures, as mighty as balors, have free will but serve the Prince of Undeath directly. Any one of these bodaks can turn a slain mortal into a bodak with its gaze. Like each Hierophant of Annihilation, every bodak bears the mark of Orcus as a chest wound, an opening where a mortal humanoid's heart would be.

Orcus can recall anything a bodak sees or hears. If he so chooses, he can speak through a bodak to address his enemies and followers directly. Bodaks are extensions of Orcus's will outside the Abyss, serving the demon prince's aims and other minions.

Even nature despises bodaks. The sun burns away a bodak's tainted flesh. The creature's gaze lays waste to the living. Anyone a bodak slays with its gaze withers, its face frozen in a mask of terror. The monster's mere presence is so unnatural that it chills the soul. Animals untrained for war instinctively flee just before a bodak arrives.

Unhallowed Fragments. A bodak retains vague impressions of its past life. It seeks out both its former allies and its former enemies to destroy them, as its warped soul seeks to erase anything connected to its former life. Minions of Orcus are the one exception to this compulsion; a bodak recognizes them as kindred souls and spares them from its wrath. Anyone who knew the individual before its transformation into a bodak can recognize mannerisms or other subtle clues to its original identity.

Ravaged Soul. The soul of a creature that becomes a bodak is so damaged that it is unfit for most forms of magical resurrection. Only a wish spell or similar magic can return a bodak to its former life.  

Death Knight

MM p 47

Challenge 17

When a paladin that falls from grace dies without seeking atonement, dark powers can transform the one-mortal knight into a hateful undead creature. A death knight is a skeletal warrior clad in plate armor. Beneath its helmet, one can see the knight's skull with malevolent pinpoints of light burning in its eye sockets.

Eldritch Power. The death knight retains the ability to cast divine spells. However, no death knight can use its magic to heal. A death knight also attracts and commands lesser undead, although death knights that serve powerful fiends might have fiendish followers instead. Death knights often use warhorse skeletons and nightmares as mounts.

Immortal Until Redeemed. A death knight can arise anew even after it has been destroyed. Only when it atones for a life of wickedness or finds redemption can it finally escape its undead purgatory and truly perish.  

Death's Head

VRGtR p 232

Challenge 1/2

A death's head is a disembodied, flying head. The type of creature one of these grotesque undead originated from determines how it terrorizes its prey. A death's head that arises from a person or animal swoops down to rip apart victims with its gnashing teeth. One with the head of monsters like a nothic or medusa, though, retains a measure of the power it had in life and can befuddle the minds or petrify the bodies of its victims.

Death's Head Tree

VRGtR p 232

Challenge 4 (3-5)

In cursed wilds grow death's head trees, awakened trees from which 7 (2d6) death's heads dangle like foul fruit. The heads detach to protect the tree if it's threatened. Should the tree be destroyed, the heads scatter and plant themselves in unholy ground. A new death's head tree emerges from each planted head 6 (1d12) months later.  

Deathlock

MToF p 128-129

Challenge 4

The forging of a pact between a warlock and a patron is no minor occasion - at least not for the warlock. The consequences of breaking that pact can be dire and, in some cases, lethal. A warlock who fails to live up to a bargain with an evil patron runs the risk of rising from the dead as a deathlock, a foul undead driven to serve its otherworldly patron from beyond the grave.

An extraordinarily powerful necromancer might also discover the dark methods of creating a deathlock and then bind it to service, acting in this respect as the deathlock's patron.

Obedient and Obsessed. An overpowering urge to serve consumes the mind of a newly awakened deathlock. All goals and ambitions it had in life that don't please its patron fall away as its master's desires become the purpose that drives the deathlock. The creature immediately resumes work on its patron's behalf. Accomplishing a difficult goal might mean the deathlock is forced to serve another powerful creature or might entail in gathering servants of its own.

Whatever the goal, it always reflects the patron's interests, ranging from small-scale concerns to matters of cosmic scope. A deathlock in the thrall of a fiend might work to destroy a specific temple dedicated to a good god, while one that serves a Great Old One could be charged with hunting for the materials needed to call forth a horrifying entity into the world.

Deathlock Mastermind

MToF p 129

Challenge 8

Though deathlocks exist to serve their patrons, they retain some freedom when it comes to devising particular tactics and carrying out their plans. Powerful deathlocks recruit lesser creatures to help them carry out their missions and, in this capacity, become the masterminds behind vast conspiracies and intrigues that culminate in the accomplishment of great acts of evil.

Deathlock Wight

MToF p 129

Challenge 3

Bereft of much of its magic, a deathlock wight lingers between the warlock it was and the deathly existence of a wight - a special punishment meted out by certain patrons and necromancers.  

Dullahan

VRGtR p 233

Challenge 10

Dullahans are headless undead warriors - the remains of villains who let vengeance consume them. These decapitated hunters haunt the areas where they were slain, butchering innocents in search of their severed heads or to quench their thirst for revenge.

Wicked knights or commanders in life, dullahans adhere to twised codes of chilvalry or soldiership. These fallen champions consider a specific location their battlefield. This gives rise to stories of haunted battlegrounds, ruins, roads, river crossings, and other strategic locations where a dullahan a terrifying campaign against the living. In death, dullahans are often rejoined by those who followed them in life, either in the form of lesser undead, like skeletons or wights, or terrifying mounts, like warhorse skeletons or nightmares.  

Eidolon

MToF p 193-194

Challenge 12

The gods have many methods for protecting sites they deem holy. One servant they rely on often to do so is the eidolon, a ghostly spirit bound by a sacred oath to safeguard a place of import to the divine. Forged from the souls of those who had proven their unwavering devotion, eidolons stalk temples and vaults, places where miracles have been witnessed and relics enshrined, to ensure that no enemy can gain a foothold against the gods' cause through defilement or violence within these sites. If an enemy with such intent sets foot inside a warded location, the eidolon plunges into a graven vessel, a statue specially prepared to house the souls of these protectors. The eidolon then animates the effigy and uses the borrowed body to drive out the intruders bent on plundering the relics it is charged with guarding.

Sacred Guardians. Creating an eidolon requires a spirit of fanatical devotion—that of an individual who, in life, served with unwavering faithfulness. Upon death, a god might reward such a follower with everlasting service in the protection of a holy site. An eidolon has no purpose beyond guarding the place it was assigned to and never leaves.

Animated Statues. An eidolon has few methods for protecting itself beyond its ability to awaken its sacred vessels. When a foe enters, the eidolon leaps into action by merging its body with one of several statues at the site. After doing so, the eidolon controls the construct as if it was its own body and uses its fists to drive back intruders, smashing and crushing anything it can reach.  

Ethereal Undead

This subcategory contains the undead that while living had a material body, but now continue to exist in the Material World without said physical form.

Allip

MToF p 116

Challenge 5

When a mind uncovers a secret that a powerful being has protected with a mighty curse, the result is often the emergence of an allip. Secrets protected in this manner range in scope from a demon lord's true name to the hidden truths of the cosmic order. The allip acquires the secret, but the curse annihilates its body and leaves behid a spectral creature composed of fragments from the victim's psyche and overwhelming psychic agony.

Blasphemous Secrets. Every allip is wracked with a horrifying insight that torments what remains of its mind. In the presence of other creatures, an allip seeks to relieve this burden by sharing its secret. The creature can impart only a shard of the knowledge that doomed it, but that piece is enough to wrack the recipient with temporary madness.

The survivors of an allip's attack are sometimes left with a compulsion to learn more about what spawned this monstrosity. Strange phrases echo through their minds, and weird visions occupy their dreams. The sense that some colossal truth sits just outside their recall plagues them for days, months, and sometimes years after their fateful encounter.

Insidious Lore. An allip might attempt to share its lore to escape its curse and enter the afterlife. It can transfer knowledge from its mind by guiding another creature to write down what it knows. This process takes days or possibly weeks. An allip can accomplish this task by lurking in the study or workplace of a scholar. If the allip remains hidden, its victim is gradually overcome by manic energy. A scholar, driven by sudden insights to work night and day, produces reams of text with little memory of exactly what the documents contain. If the allip succeeds, it passes from the world—and its terrible secret hides somewhere in the scholar's text, waiting to be discovered by its next victim.

Banshee

MM p 23

Challenge 4

When night falls, unlucky travelers hear the faint cries of the forlorn dead. This woeful spirit is a banshee, a spiteful creature formed from the spirit of a female elf. Banshees appear as luminous, wispy forms that vaguely recall their mortal features. A banshee's face is wreathed in a wild tangle of hair, its body clad in wispy rags that flutter and stream around it.

Divine Wrath. Banshees are the undead remnants of elves who, blessed with great beauty, failed to use their gift to bring joy to the world. Instead, they used their beauty to corrupt and control others. Elves afflicted by the banshee's curse experience no gladness, feeling only distress in the presence of the living. As the curse takes its toll, their minds and bodies decay, until death completes their transformation into undead monsters.

Sorrow Bound. A banshee becomes forever bound to the place of its demise, unable to venture more than five miles from there. It is forced to relive every moment of its life with perfect recall, yet always refuses to accept responsibility for its doom.

Beauty Hoarders. The vanity that inspired the banshee's cursed creation persists in undeath. These creatures covet beautiful objects: fine jewelery, paintings, statues, and other objects of art. At the same time, a banshee abhors any mirrored surface, for it can't bear to see the horror of its own existence. A single glimpse of itself is enough to send a banshee into a rage.

Patrina Velikovna

CoS p 89-90

In life, Patrina was a dusk elf who, having learned a great deal about the black arts, was nearly a match for Strahd's powers. She felt a great bond with him and asked to solemnize that bond in a dark marriage. Drawn to her knowledge and power, Strahd consented, but before he could drain all life from Patrina, her own people stoned her to death in an act of mercy to spare her from Strahd's plans. Strahd demanded, and got, Patrina's body. She then became the banshee trapped in the catacombs of Castle Ravenloft.

Gallows Speaker

VRGtR p 234

Challenge 6

Gallow speakers arise from places of mass death or sites where creatures regularly meet their doom. Over time, pain wracked phantoms and lingering souls combine into an entity that knows death in myriad forms. Such amalgamated spirits are tormented by their collective pain, endlessly moaning disjointed final thought as they lash out at the living. Having known untold deaths, gallows speakers can predict suffering, forseeing dooms leveled against them and overwhelming their foes with visions of innumerable violent deaths...

Ghost

MM p 147

Challenge 4

A ghost is the soul of a once-living creature, bound to haunt a specific location, creature, or object that held significance to it in its life.

Unfinished Business. A ghost yearns to complete some unresolved task from its life. It might seek to avenge its own death, fulfill an oath, or relay a message to a loved one. A ghost might not realize that it has died and continue the everyday routine of its life. Others are driven by wickedness or spite, as with a ghost that refuses to rest until every member of a certain family or organization is dead.

The surest way to rid an area of a ghost is to resolve its unfinished business. A ghost can be destroyed more easily by invoking a weakness tied to its former life. The ghost of a person tortured to death might be killed again by the implements of that torture. The ghost of a gardener might become more vulnerable when exposed to a potent floral fragrance.

Ghostly Manifestations. Sensations of profound sadness, loneliness, and unfulfilled yearning emanate from places where ghostly hauntings occur. Strange sounds or unnatural silences create an unsettling atmosphere. Cold spots settle in rooms that have roaring fires. A choking stench might seep into the area, inanimate objects might move of their own accord, and corpses might rise from the grave. The ghost has no control over these manifestations; they simply occur.

Rosavalda "Rose" & Thornboldt "Thorn" Durst

CoS p 211-212, 217-218

Challenge 3

• Size Small and Lawful Good alignment

• 35 (10d6) HP each

• They lack the Horrifying Visage action.

• They speak Common.

Rose and Thorn were the children of Gustav and Elisabeth Durst, whose obsession with their cult resulted in their children's deaths by neglect & starvation. Centuries later the Durst House became known as the Death House, possessed by the cult's desire to offer sacrifices in the name of Strahd. To this end the house would manifest apparitions of the children to lure adventurers to their doom. Thus the party was lured into the haunted edifice shortly after arriving in the Village of Barovia.

The party eventually found the true ghosts of the children locked in the attic. When they tried to leave, Rose possessed their scout, Quarion, and Thorn possessed their bladesinger, Melody. They eventually put the spirits of the children to rest by placing their skeletal remains within their crypts in the basement below.

Phantom Warrior

CoS p 235

Challenge 3

A phantom warrior is the spectral remnant of a willful soldier or knight who perished on the battlefield or died performing its sworn duty. It appears like a translucent version of its living self.

Task Driven. Although one is often mistaken for a ghost, a phantom warrior isn't bound by a yearning to complete some unresolved goal. It can choose to end its undead existence at any time. Its spirit lingers willingly, either out of loyalty to its former master or because it believes it must perform a task to satisfy its honor or sense of duty. For example, a guard who dies defending a wall might return as a phantom warrior and continue guarding the wall, then disappear forever once a new guard assumes its post or the wall is destroyed. The period between the time it died and the time it rises as a phantom warrior is usually 24 hours.

Faded Memories. A phantom warrior retains the alignment and personality it had before it died, and it remembers how it died. Memories of its life from shortly before it died are hazy, and older memories are forgotten. A phantom warrior can usually remember the last 1d10 + 10 days of its life; everything that happened before that is an impenetrable fog.

Forceful Presence. Although they are incorporeal, phantom warriors can harness the energy around them to deflect incoming attacks and strike with great force. An invisible sheath of energy surrounds a phantom warrior's ghostly armor, shields, and weapons, which become as hard as steel yet don't impede the warrior's ability to move through walls and other solid objects.

Sir Klutz Tripalotsky

CoS p 91

"Sir Klutz Tripalotsky: He fell on his own sword." Sir Klutz was a knight that died years prior to Strahd becoming a vampire. His spirit still lingers, trapped within the catacombs of Castle Ravenloft.

Specter

MM 279

Challenge 1

A specter is the angry, unfettered spirit of a humanoid that has been prevented from passing to the afterlife. Specters no longer possess connections to who or what they were, yet are condemned to walk the world forever. Some are spawned when dark magic or the touch of a wraith rips a soul from a living body.

Beyond Redemption. When a ghost's unfinished business is completed, it can rest at last. No such rest or redemption awaits a specter. It is doomed to the Material Plane, its only end the oblivion that comes with the destruction of its soul. Until then, it bears out its lonely life in forlorn places, carrying on forgotten through the ages of the world.

Undying Hatred. Living creatures remind the specter that life is beyond its grasp. The mere sight of the living overwhelms a specter with sorrow and wrath, which can be abated only by destroying said life. A specter kills quickly and mercilessly, for only by depriving others of life can it gain the slightest satisfaction. However, no matter how many lives it extinguishes, a specter always succumbs to its hatred and sorrow.

Dwellers in Darkness. Sunlight represents a source of life that no specter can ever hope to douse, and it pains them. When night falls, they leave their final resting places in search of living creatures to slay, knowing that few weapons can harm them in return.

At the first light of dawn, they retreat back into the darkness, where they remain until night falls again.

Poltergeist

Challenge 2

A poltergeist is a different kind of specter - the confused, invisible spirit of an individual with no sense of how it died. A poltergeist expresses its rage by hurling creatures and objects using the power of its shattered psyche.

• Invisibility. The poltergeist is invisible.

• It does not have the Life Drain attack, instead having the Forceful Slam and Telekinetic Thrust actions.

• Forceful Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5', one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) force damage.

• Telekinetic Thrust. The poltergeist targets a creature or unattended object within 30' of it. A creature must me Medium or smaller to be affected by this magic, and an object can weigh up to 150lbs...

Snow Maiden

CoS p 159

Snow maidens are a spectral phenomena that haunt portions of the Tsolenka Pass. Some folktales describe them as the spirits of women that died through accident or violence that now seek vengeance on the living. Others claim that they are creations of Strahd to guard hidden treasure troves or secrets he desires to keep hidden from his subjects.

• The snow maidens have immunity to cold damage.

• The snow maidens' Life Drain attack deals cold damage instead of necrotic damage.

Spectral Nursemaid

CoS p 215

The nursemaid formerly served the Durst family before be began an affair with Gustav Durst. She became pregnant, but the child, Walter, was stillborn. Shortly afterwards she was killed by the cult and her spirit continued to haunt the manor, until the party managed to defeat her and escape the house. Whether or not she will return when the manor rebuilds itself remains to be seen.

• Poltergeist stats, with the exception of not possessing the Invisibility trait.

Sword Wraith

MToF p 241

When a glory-obsessed warrior dies in battle without earning the honor it desperately sought, its valor-hungry spirit might haunt the battlefield as a sword wraith.

Brooding Spirits. The most likely spots for encountering sword wraiths are scenes of ancient ambushes, battlefields where soldiers were felled by magic with no chance to fight back, and sites where enemies were hemmed in and slaughtered without quarter.

Honor Above All. Sword wraiths fly into a rage if anyone questions their valor. Conversely, they are easily appeased by praise. Little pleases them more than hearing a ballad performed in their honor. Towns located near ancient battlefields hold annual festivals of remembrance to keep sword wraiths there placated.

Sword Wraith Commander

Challenge 8

Sword Wraith Warrior

Challenge 3

Wraith

MM p 302

Challenge 5

A wraith is malice incarnate, concentrated into an incorporeal form that seeks to quench all life. The creature is suffused with negative energy, and its mere passage through the world leaves nearby plants blackened and withered. Animals flee from its presence. Even small fires can be extinguished by the sucking oblivion of the wraith's horrifying existence.

Vile Oblivion. When a mortal humanoid lives a debased life or enters into a fiendish pact, it consigns its soul to eternal damnation in the Lower Planes. However, sometimes the soul becomes so suffused with negative energy that it collapses in on itself and ceases to exist the instant before it can shuffle off to some horrible afterlife. When this occurs, the spirit becomes a soulless wraith-a malevolent void trapped on the plane where it died. Almost nothing of the wraith's former existence is preserved; in this new form, it exists only to annihilate other life.

Bereft of Body. A wraith can move through solid creatures and objects as easily as a mortal creature moves through fog.

A wraith might retain a few memories of its mortal life as shadowy echoes. However, even the strongest events and emotions become little more than faint impressions, fleeting as half-remembered dreams. A wraith might pause to stare at something that fascinated it in life, or it might curb its wrath in acknowledgment of a past friendship. Such moments come rarely, however, because most wraiths despise what they were as a reminder of what they have become.

Undead Commanders. A wraith can make an undead servant from the spirit of a humanoid creature that has recently suffered a violent death. Such a fragment of woe becomes a specter, spiteful of all that lives.

Wraiths sometimes rule the legions of the dead, plotting the doom of living creatures. When they emerge from their tombs to do battle, life and hope shrivel before them. Even if a wraith's armies are forced to retreat, the lands its forces occupied are so blasted and withered that those who live there often starve and die.

Mormesk the Wraith

LMoP p 47, 59

Challenge 3

Mormesk was a powerful mage until he met his end in the spell battle at the climax of the orc attack. Centuries of anger have poisoned his soul, transforming him into a hate-filled apparition.  

Fiendish Undead

This subcategory refers to undead that are raised through the direct possession of demonic or diabolic entities.

Ajattara

Homebrew

Challenge 4, 8

Ajattara (ah-jaht-tarah) are notorious as demons that possess the corpses of young women and giving them the semblance of life in order to engage in a campaign of slaughter.

In their true form, ajattara appear as incorporeal worms or serpents, traveling in a large swarm but having a single conciousness. They rarely travel in this fashion, preferring to find and possess the corpse of a young woman. Once in control, the demon has access to the corpse's memories and uses them to target those that knew the deceased in life.

The ajattara uses its powers to spread disease and blight, terrorizing the community while harrasing the family and friends of the deceased. Once it has claimed enough victims, the corpse begins a horrendous transformation, the legs fusing into a long serpent body.

Dybbuk

MToF p 132

Challenge 4

Dybbuks terrorize mortals on the Material Plane by possessing corpses and giving them the semblance of life, after which the demons use them to engage in a range of sorid activities.

Puppet Masters. In their natural form, dybbuks appear as translucent flying jellyfish, trailing long tendrils as they move through the air. They rarely travel in this fashion, however. Instead, a dybbuk possesses the first suitable corpse it finds, rousing the body from death so it can then indulge its hideous vices.

Dark Masquerade. By plundering a corpse's memories and accessing its capabilities, a dybbuk can impersonate the creature as it was in life. But the truth of the matter quickly becomes apparent to those around it, because a dybbuk can't resist pursuing its vices with a maniacal single-mindedness that betrays its true nature. Dybbuks delight in terrorizing other creatures by making their host bodies behave in horrifying ways—throwing up gouts of blood, excreting piles of squirming maggots, and contorting their limbs in impossible ways as they scuttle across the ground.  

Ghoul

MM p 148

Challenge 1

Ghouls roam the night in packs, driven by an insatiable hunger for humanoid flesh.

Devourers of Flesh. Like maggots or carrion beetles, ghouls thrive in places rank with decay and death. A ghoul haunts a place where it can gorge on dead flesh and decomposing organs. When it can't feed on the dead, it pursues living creatures and attempts to make corpses of them. Though they gain no nourishment from the corpses they devour, ghouls are driven by an unending hunger that compels them to consume. A ghoul's undead flesh never rots, and this monster can persist in a crypt or tomb for untold ages without feeding.

Abyssal Origins. Ghouls trace their origins to the Abyss. Doresain, the first of their kind, was an elf worshiper of Orcus. Turning against his own people, he feasted on humanoid flesh to honor the Demon Prince of Undeath. As a reward for his service, Orcus transformed Doresain into the first ghoul. Doresain served Orcus faithfully in the Abyss, creating ghouls from the demon lord's other servants until an incursion by Yeenoghu, the demonic Gnoll Lord, robbed Doresain of his abyssal domain. When Orcus would not intervene on his behalf, Doresain turned to the elf gods for salvation, and they took pity on him and helped him escape certain destruction. Since then, elves have been immune to the ghouls' paralytic touch.

Ghast

MM p 148

Challenge 2

Orcus sometimes infuses a ghoul with a stronger dose of abyssal energy, making a ghast. Whereas ghouls are little more than savage beasts, a ghast is cunning and can inspire a pack of ghouls to follow its commands.  

Left Hand of Manshoon

 

Liches & Similar Undead

This subcategory features undead that have forsaken life in pursuit of obtaining considerable power. Whether or not the ritual or process had the desired outcome is beside the point, however.

Alhoon

VGtM p 171-172

Challenge 10

Mind flayers that pursue arcane magic are exiled as deviants, and for them no eternal communion with an elder brain is possible. The road to lichdom offers a way to escape the permanency of death, but that path is long and solitary. Alhoons are mindflayers that use a shortcut.

Arcane Temptation. Elder brains forbid mind flayers from pursuing magic power aside from psionics, but it isn't an interdiction they must often enforce. Illithids brook no masters but members of their own kind, so it isn't in their nature to bow to any god or otherworldly patron. However, wizardry remains a rare temptation.

In the pages of a spellbook, an illithid sees a system to acquire authority. Through the writings of the wizard who penned it, the illithid perceives the workings of a highly intelligent mind. Most mind flayers who find a spellbook react with abhorrence or indifference, but for some a spellbook is a gateway to a new way of thinking.

For a time, the study of such forbidden texts can be hidden from other illithids and even from an elder brain. Understanding of wizardry eludes the mind like a living thing. Yet eventually, understanding comes, and a mind flayer arcanist must accept itself as deviant and flee the colony if it is to live.

Confronting this awful reality, a group of nine mind flayer deviants used their arcane magic and psionics to weave a new truth. These nine called themselves the alhoon, and ever afterward, all those who follow in their footsteps have been referred to by the same name.

Initially, an alhoon can be difficult to distinguish from a normal mind flayer. The most obvious difference is the lack of the mind flayer's ever-present mucus coating. Without that protection, an alhoon's skin becomes dry and cracked. Its eyes might appear shriveled and sunken. Both of these clues are easily missed by someone who hasn't seen a mind flayer. However, in short order, an alhoon's flesh withers away and its empty eye sockets gleam with cold pinpricks of light like other liches.

The undeath conferred by a periapt of mind trapping lasts only so long as the life of the living victim selected. Thus an alhoon who brought a 200-year-old elf to be sacrificed looks forward to a much longer existence than one that sacrifices a 35-year-old person. Alhoons can extend their existence by repeating the ritual with new victims, effectively resetting the clocks for themselves.

Destruction of a periapt of mind trapping consigns those trapped within it to oblivion, and thus alhoons often work together to create elaborate protections about the periapt and their preferred ritual site. Sometimes a single alhoon is entrusted with the periapt of mind trapping, but this is a dangerous proposition. Anyone who holds the periapt of mind trapping gains advantage on attacks, saves, and check against the alhoons associated with its creation, and those alhoons in turn suffer disadvantage on attacks, saves, and check against the holder.

In addition, the holder of the periapt can telepathically communicate with any sacrificed soul trapped within, and alhoons within the periapt can speak telepathically with the holder. A creature carrying the periapt can't prevent communication from alhoons but can silence trapped souls.

Existential Fear. Arcanist deviants that taste freedom from the colony react in a variety of ways. Some prize their privacy, others seek to commune with similar minds, and still others seek to dominate a colony, elevating themselves to the position of leadership normally held by an elder brain. Regardless of the arcanist's personal inclinations, it faces the same stark fact: When it dies, it will not join the host of minds in the elder brain. Deviant minds are never accepted as part of the collective. For it, death means oblivion.

Dreadful Deliverance. Lichdom offers salvation and the prospect of being able to pursue knowledge indefinitely. Having feasted on the brains of people when alive, a mind flayer has no compunction about feeding souls to a phylactery. The only hindrance to a mind flayer becoming a lich is the means, which is a secret some mind flayer arcanists stop at nothing to discover. Yet lichdom requires an arcane spellcaster to be at the apex of power, something many mind flayers find is far from their grasps.

A Psionic Secret. Alhoons can cooperate in the creation of a periapt of mind trapping, a fist-sized container made of silver, emerald, and amethyst. The process requires at least three mind flayer arcanists and the sacrifice of an equal number of souls from living victims in a three-day-long ritual of spellcasting and psionic communion. Upon its completion, free-willed undeath is conferred on the mind flayers, turning them into alhoons.

Precarious Immortality. Unlike with true lichdom, the periapt of mind trapping doesn't restore the alhoons to undeath if they are destroyed. Instead, a destroyed alhoon's mind is transferred to the periapt where it remains in communion with any other trapped alhoon minds, as well as the souls of those sacrificed.

Boneclaw

MToF p 121

Challenge 12

A wizard who tries to become a lich but fails might become a boneclaw instead. These hideous, cackling undead share a few of the lich's attributes - but where liches are immortal masters of the arcane, boneclaws are laves to darkness, hatred, & pain.

The most important part of the transformation ritual occurs when the soul of the aspiring lich migrates to a prepared phylactery. If the spellcaster is too physically or magically weak to compel the soul into its prison, the soul instead seeks out a new master—a humanoid within a few miles who has an unusually hate-filled heart. The soul bonds itself to the foul essence it finds in that person, and the boneclaw becomes forever enslaved to its new master's wishes and subconscious whims. It forms near its master, sometimes appearing before that individual to receive orders and other times simply setting about the fulfillment of its master's desires.

Limited Immortality. A boneclaw can't be destroyed while its master lives. No matter what happens to a boneclaw's body, it re-forms within hours and returns to whatever duty its master assigned.

The boneclaw can serve only evil. If its master finds redemption or sincerely turns away from the path of evil, the boneclaw is permanently destroyed.

Cackling Slayers. Boneclaws delight in murder, and nothing pleases them more than causing horrific pain. They lurk like spiders in shadowy recesses, waiting for victims to approach within reach of their long, bony limbs. Once speared, a creature is pulled into the darkness to be sliced apart or teleported elsewhere to be tortured to death.

Dark Reflections. A boneclaw's master might not want such a servant or even know it has one. Boneclaws bind to petty criminals, bullies, and even particularly cruel children. Even if the master is unaware of its new, horrid bodyguard, its local area will be plagued by disappearances and grisly murders, tied together by the common thread of the master's envy or hunger for revenge.

Brain in a Jar

VRGtR p 229

Challenge 3

Through rituals combining alchemy, necromancy, and grim surgical precision, the brain of a mortal being is encased in a glass jar filled with preserving fluids and the liquified goop of their body's flesh. The transformation renders the brain ageless and imbues it with psionic power, so that it can spend eternity plotting and executing its desires...

Death Tyrant

MM p 27, 29

Challenge 14

On rare occasions, a beholder's sleeping mind drifts to places beyond its normal madness, imagining a reality in which it exists beyond death. When such dreams take hold, a beholder can transform, its flesh sloughing away to leave a death tyrant behind. This monster possesses the cunning and much of the magic it had in life, but it is fueld by the power of undeath.

Deathly Despot. As they did when they were beholders, death tyrants lord their power over other creatures. Moreover, a beholder's ability to quash magical energy with its central eye gives way to a more sinister power in a death tyrant, which can transform former slaves and enemies into undead servants.

Zombies created by a death tyrant are used and discarded as needed. They stand guard at the entrances to the death tyrant's lair or guard its treasure vaults. Acting as bait for traps or as combat fodder, zombies keep powerful enemies distracted while the death tyrant moves into position and prepares to destroy them.

Armies of the Dead. A death tyrant that embraces undeath becomes an engine of destruction. Driven by a hunger for power and security, it advances against humanoid settlements, using its eye rays to destroy every creature it encounters, then building an army of undead. If left unchecked, a death tyrant might wipe out the population of a city in weeks, then set its undead eye on wider conquest. As each settlement falls, the death tyrant's zombie forces build to overwhelming numbers.

Demilich

MM p 48

Challenge 18

The immortality granted to a lich lasts only as long as it feeds mortal souls to its phylactery. If it falters or fails in that task, its bones turn to dust until only its skull remains. This "demilich" contains only a fragment of the lich's malevolent life force - just enough so that if it is disturbed, these remains rise into the air and assume a wraithlike form. The skull then emits a terrifying howl that can slay the weak-hearted and leave others trembling with fear. Left alone, it sinks back down and returns to the empty peace of its experience.

Few liches seek to become demiliches, for it means an end to the existence they hoped to preserve by becoming undead. However, time can erode the lich's reason and memory, causing it to retreat into its ancient tomb and forget to feed on souls. The spells it once knew fade from its mind, and it no longer channels the arcane energy it wielded as a lich. However, even as a mere skull it remains a deadly and vexing enemy.

Enduring Existence. Even after a lich is reduced to a demilich state, its phylactery survives. As long as its phylactery is intact, the demilich can't be permanently destroyed. Its skull reforms after 1d10 days, restoring the creature to its wretched state. If it has the presence of mind to do so, a demilich can reclaim its former power by feeding just one soul to its phylactery. Doing so restores the demilich to lich form, reconstituting its undead body.

Dracolich

MM p 83

Challenge Varies

Even as long-lived as they are, all dragons must eventually die. This thought doesn't sit well with many dragons, some of which allow themselves to be transformed by necromantic energy and ancient rituals into powerful undead dracoliches. Only the most narcissistic dragons choose this path, knowing that by doing so, they sever all ties to their kin and the dragon gods.

Beyond Death. A dracolich retains its shape and size upon transforming, its skin and scales drawing tight to its bones or sloughing away to leave a skeletal form behind. Its eyes appear as glowing points of light floating in shadowy sockets, hinting at the malevolence of its undead mind.

Though many dragons pursue vain goals of destruction and dominance, dracoliches are more nefarious than the most evil dragons, driven to rule over all. A dracolich is a fiendishly intelligent tyrant that crafts complex webs of foul schemes, attracting servants motivated by greed and a lust for power. Acting from the shadows and actively plotting to keep its existence a secret, a dracolich is a cunning and challenging foe.

Dracolich Phylacteries. Creating a dracolich requires the cooperation of the dragon and a group of mages or cultists that can perform the proper ritual. During the ritual, the dragon consumes a toxic brew that slays it instantly. The attendant spellcasters then ensnare its spirit and transfer it to a special gemstone that functions like a lich's phylactery. As the dragon's flesh rots away, the spirit inside the gem returns to animate the dragon's bones.

If a dracolich's physical form is ever destroyed, its spirit returns to the gem as long as the two are on the same plane. If the gem comes into contact with another dragon's corpse, the dracolich's spirit can take possession of that corpse to become a new dracolich. If the dracolich's spirit gem is taken to another plane, the dracolich's spirit has nowhere to go when its undead body is destroyed and simply passes into the afterlife.

Dracolich Template

Only an ancient or adult true dragon can be transformed into a dracolich. Younger dragons that attempt to undergo the transformation die, as do other creatures that aren't true dragons but possess the dragon type, such as pseudodragons and wyverns. A shadow dragon can't be transformed into a dracolich, for it has already lost too much of its physical form.

When a dragon becomes a dracolich, it retains its statistics except as described below. The dragon loses any trait, such as Amphibious, that assumes a living physiology. The dracolich might retain or lose any or all of its lair actions or inherit new ones, as the DM sees fit.

• Type. The dracolich's type changes from dragon to undead, and it no longer requires air, food, drink, or sleep.

• Damage Resistance. The dracolich has resistance to necrotic damage.

• Damage Immunities. The dracolich has immunity to poison. It also retains any immunities it had prior to becoming a dracolich.

• Condition Immunities. The dracolich can't be charmed, frightened, paralyzed, or poisoned. It also doesn't suffer from exhaustion.

• Magic Resistance. The dracolich has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Lich

MM p 202-203

Challenge 21

Liches are the remains of great wizards who embrace undeath as a means of preserving themselves. They further their own power at any cost, having no interest in the affairs of the living except where those affairs interfere with their own. Scheming and insane, they hunger for long-forgotten knowledge and the most terrible secrets. Because the shadow of death doesn't hang over them, they can conceive plans that take years, decades, or centuries to come to fruition.

A lich is a gaunt and skeletal humanoid with withered flesh stretched tight across its bones. Its eyes succumbed to decay long ago, but points of light burn in its empty sockets. It is often garbed in the moldering remains of fine clothing and jewelry worn and dulled by the passage of time.

Secrets of Undeath. No wizard takes up the path to lichdom on a whim, and the process of becoming a lich is a well-guarded secret. Wizards that seek lichdom must make bargains with fiends, evil gods, or other foul entities. Many turn to Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath, whose power has created countless liches. However, those that control the power of lichdom always demand fealty and service for their knowledge.

A lich is created by an arcane ritual that traps the wizard's soul within a phylactery. Doing so binds the soul to the mortal world, preventing it from traveling to the Outer Planes after death. A phylactery is traditionally an amulet in the shape of a small box, but it can take the form of any item possessing an interior space into which arcane sigils of naming, binding, immortality, and dark magic are scribed in silver.

With its phylactery prepared, the future lich drinks a potion of transformation-a vile concoction of poison mixed with the blood of a sentient creature whose soul is sacrificed to the phylactery. The wizard falls dead, then rises as a lich as its soul is drawn into the phylactery, where it forever remains.

Soul Sacrifices. A lich must periodically feed souls to its phylactery to sustain the magic preserving its body and consciousness. It does this using the imprisonment spell. Instead of choosing one of the normal options of the spell, the lich uses the spell to magically trap the target's body and soul inside its phylactery. The phylactery must be on the same plane as the lich for the spell to work. A lich's phylactery can hold only one creature at a time, and a dispel magic cast as a 9th-level spell upon the phylactery releases any creature imprisoned within it. A creature imprisoned in the phylactery for 24 hours is consumed and destroyed utterly, whereupon nothing short of divine intervention can restore it to life.

A lich that fails or forgets to maintain its body with sacrificed souls begins to physically fall apart, and might eventually become a demilich.

Death and Restoration. When a lich's body is broken by accident or assault, the will and mind of the lich drains from it, leaving only a lifeless corpse behind. Within days, a new body reforms next to the lich's phylactery, coalescing out of glowing smoke that issues from the device. Because the destruction of its phylactery means the possibility of eternal death, a lich usually keeps its phylactery in a hidden, well-guarded location.

Destroying a lich's phylactery is no easy task and often requires a special ritual, item, or weapon. Every phylactery is unique, and discovering the key to its destruction can be a quest in and of itself.

Lonely Existence. From time to time, a lich might be stirred from its single-minded pursuit of power to take an interest in the world around it, most often when some great event reminds it of the life it once led. It otherwise lives in isolation, engaging only with those creatures whose service helps secure its lair.

Few liches call themselves by their former names, instead adopting monikers such as the Black Hand or the Forgotten King.

Magic Collectors. Liches collect spells and magic items. In addition to its spell repertoire, a lich has ready access to potions, scrolls, libraries of spellbooks, one or more wands, and perhaps a staff or two. It has no qualms about putting these treasures to use whenever its lair comes under attack.

Arcturia

W:DotMM p 286, 296

Challenge 21

Arcturia is a lich and a master of transmutation magic. She has altered her form dramatically over the years, now appearing more alive than undead. Gossamer wings sprout from her shoulders, and bone spurs jut from her forearms and elbows.

• In addition to her walking speed, Arcturia has a flying speed of 60' and can hover.

• She can cast the Alter Self spell at will and uses the following list of prepared spells:
  • Cantrips (at will): Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, & Ray of Frost.
  • 1st Level (4 slots): Detect Magic, Magic Missile, Shield, & Thunderwave.
  • 2nd Level (3 slots): Detect Thoughts, Enlarge/Reduce, Melf's Acid Arrow, & Mirror Image.
  • 3rd Level (3 slots): Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fireball, & Slow.
  • 4th Level (3 slots): Blight & Polymorph
  • 5th Level (3 slots): Animate Objects & Telekinesis
  • 6th Level (1 slot): Disintegrate & Flesh to Stone
  • 7th Level (1 slot): Reverse Gravity & Teleport
  • 8th Level (1 slot): Feeblemind & Maze
  • 9th Level (1 slot): True Polymorph

Exethanter

CoS p 188-189

Challenge 10

Exethanter resides in the Amber Temple, having diminished in memory and power during his long isolation studying the amber sarcophagi.

Ezzat

W:DotMM p 11, 253, 262-264

Challenge 21

An irksome lich named Ezzat has taken refuge on level 20, and Halaster wants adventurers to destroy the lich and its phylactery...

Mind Flayer Lich (Illithilich)

VGtM p 172

Challenge 22

The path to true lichdom is something only the most powerful of mindflayer mages can pursue, since it requires the ability to craft a phylactery. A mind flayer lich uses the lich stat block with the following subsitutions:

• Proficient with Deep Speech & Undercommon, and has a 120' telepathic range.

• It has the Magic Resistance & Innate Spellcasting (Psionics) traits.

• It has the additional following actions: Tentacles, Extract Brain, & Mind Blast.

• It has the following Legendary Actions instead of those standard for a lich: Tentacles, Extract Brain, Mind Blast, & Cast Spell.

Nester

W:DotMM p 131, 300

Challenge 12

Nester's efforts to transform into a lich met with limited success. Rather than follow the prescribed method, he devised his own technique and botched the ritual spells. Consquently, his phylactery was shattered, and his body and mind have slowly crumbled away. The floating skull and hanging skeletal arms are all that remain of him; they move like they're attached to an invisible body. Nester is an archmage (MM p 342), with these changes:

• Nester is undead, chaotic evil, and proficient in Auran, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, and Terran, but can't speak (he uses Rary's Telepathic Bond to communicate).

• He doesn't need material components to cast any of his prepared spells and has the following spell list substitutions:
  • Animate Dead instead of Fly, Blight instead of Banishment, and Rary's Telepathic Bond instead of Scrying.

• 60' Darkvision

 

Mummy

MM p 227-228

Challenge 3

Raised by dark funerary rituals, a mummy shambles from the shrouded stillness of a time-lost temple or tomb. Having been awoken from its rest, it punishes transgressors with the power of its unholy curse.

Preserved Wrath. The long burial rituals that accompany a mummy's entombment help protect its body from rot. In the embalming process, the newly dead creature's organs are removed and placed in special jars, and its corpse is treated with preserving oils, herbs, and wrappings. After the body has been prepared, the corpse is typically wrapped in linen bandages.

The Will of Dark Gods. An undead mummy is created when the priest of a death god or other dark deity ritually imbues a prepared corpse with necromantic magic. The mummy's linen wrappings are inscribed with necromantic markings before the burial ritual concludes with an invocation to darkness. As a mummy endures in undeath, it animates in response to conditions specified by the ritual. Most commonly, a transgression against its tomb, treasures, lands, or former loved ones will cause a mummy to rise.

The Punished. Once deceased, an individual has no say in whether or not its body is made into a mummy. Some mummies were powerful individuals who displeased a high priest or pharaoh, or who committed crimes of treason, adultery, or murder. As punishment, they were cursed with eternal undeath, embalmed, mummified, and sealed away. Other times, mummies acting as tomb guardians are created from slaves put to death specifically to serve a greater purpose.

Creature of Ritual. A mummy obeys the conditions and parameters laid down by the rituals that created it, driven only to punish transgressors. The overwhelming terror that foreshadows a mummy's attack can leave the intended victim paralyzed with fright. In the days following a mummy's touch, a victim's body rots from the outside in, until nothing but dust remains.

Ending a Mummy's Curse. Rare magic can undo or dispel the ritual that gave rise to a mummy, allowing it to truly die. More commonly, a mummy can be sent back to its endless rest by undoing the transgression that caused it to rise. A sacred idol might be replaced in its niche, a stolen treasure could be returned to its tomb, or a temple might be purified of despoiling bloodshed.

More ephemeral or permanent offenses, such as revealing a secret the mummy wished kept or killing an individual the mummy loved, can't be so easily remedied. In such cases, a mummy might slaughter all the creatures responsible and still not sate its wrath.

Undead Archives. Though they seldom bother to do so, mummies can speak. As a result, some serve as undead repositories of lost lore, and can be consulted by the descendants of those who created them. Powerful individuals sometimes intentionally sequester mummies away for occasional consultation.

Mummy Lord

MM p 228-229

Challenge 15

In tombs of the ancients, tyrannical monarchs and the high priests of dark gods lie in dreamless rest, waiting for the time when they might reclaim their thrones and reforge their ancient empires. The regalia of their terrible rule still adorns their linen-wrapped bodies, their moldering robes stiched with evil symbols and bronze armor etched with devices of dynasties that fell a thousand years before.

Under the direction of the most powerful priests, the ritual that creates a mummy can be increased in potency. The mummy lord that rises from such a ritual retains the memories and personality of its former life, and is gifted with supernatural resilience. Dead emperors wield the same infamous rune-marked blades that they did in legend. Sorcerer lords work the forbidden magic that once controlled a terrified populace, and the dark gods reward dead priest-kings' prayers by imparting divine spells.

Heart of the Mummy Lord. As part of the ritual that creates a mummy lord, the creature's heart and viscera are removed from the corpse and placed in canopic jars. These jars are usually carved from limestone or made of pottery, etched or painted with religious hieroglyphs.

As long as its shriveled heart remains intact, a mummy lord can't be permanently destroyed. When it drops to 0 hit points, the mummy lord turns to dust and re-forms at full strength 24 hours later, rising out of dust in close proximity to the canopic jar containing its heart. A mummy lord can be destroyed or prevented from re-forming by burning its heart to ashes. For this reason, a mummy lord usually keeps its heart and viscera in a hidden tomb or vault.

The mummy lord's heart has AC 5, 25 hit points, and immunity to all damage except fire.

Gorka Tharn

W:DotMM p 256-257

Gorka Tharn was a duergar priest of Laduguer, now transformed into a mummy lord, with these changes:

• The mummy lord speaks Dwarvish and Undercommon

• It has the Stone Shape spell prepared instead of Divination.

• It has the Enlarge & Invisibility action options described below.
  • Enlarge (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). For 1 minute, the mummy lord magically increases in size, along with anything it is wearing or carrying. While enlarged, the mummy lord is Large, doubles its damage dice with its Rotting Fist attack, and makes Strength checks and Strength saving throws with advantage. If the mummy lord lacks the room to become Large, it attains the maximum size possible in the space available.
  • Invisibility (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). The mummy lord magically turns invisible for up to 1 hour or until it attacks, it casts a spell, it uses its Enlarge, or its concentration is broken (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment the mummy lord wears or carries is invisible with it.

 

Nechrichor

VRGtR p 238

Challenge 7

A nechrichor is a being of living blood, formed from the ichor of evil gods or the sludge of crypts of failed liches. Despite the loss of a solid physical form, these foul creatures retain their terrible intellects and aspire to megalomaniacal goals - the first of wich involves regaining a body. To do this, they seek servants to exact their will, coercing even the most stubborn potential minions by turning their own blood against them.  

Nightwalker

MToF p 216

Challenge 20

The Negative Plane is a place of darkness and death, anathema to all living things. Yet there are those who would tap into its fell power, to use its energy for sinister ends. Most often, when such individuals approach the midnight realm, they find they are unequal to the task. Those not destroyed outright are sometimes drawn inside the plane and replaced by nightwalkers, terrifying undead creatures that devour all life they encounter.

Mighty Spawn. One can reach the Negative Plane from the Shadowfell, much in the same way that it is possible to step from the Material Plane into the Shadowfell in a place where the barrier between the planes is thin.

Stepping into the Negative Plane is tantamount to suicide, since the plane sucks the life and soul from such audacious creatures and annihilates them at once. Those few who survive the effort do so by sheer luck or by harnessing some rare form of magic that protects them against the hostile atmosphere. They soon discover, however, that they can't leave as easily as they arrived. For each creature that enters the plane, a nightwalker is released to take its place. In order for a trapped creature to escape, the released nightwalker must be lured back to the Negative Plane by offerings of life for it to devour. If the nightwalker is destroyed, the trapped creature has no hope of escape.

Beings of Anti-Life. One can discern the nature of creatures trapped in the Negative Plane from the sites that nightwalkers frequent. Generally, a nightwalker on the Material Plane is attracted to elements of the world associated with the creature responsible for its creation. Such interest doesn't indicate a willingness to engage with the world; nightwalkers exist to make life extinct and never to serve living things.  

Priests of Osybus

VRGtR p 240-241 Necromancers of deep evil, the priests of Osybus steal the souls of others to fuel the priests' malevolent magic. Using this soul power, each priest can defy death and become an undead creature, potentially cheating the grave over and over...

Priest of Osybus (Living)

Challenge 6

Covered in magical tattoos made from the souls of their victims, they can release these souls as skeletal shadows that do the priest's bidding. They also have a tattoo binding them to Osybus' service that allows the priest to return to life as an undead (see below).

Blazing Priest of Osybus

Challenge 6

The priest's flesh sloughs off and the skeleton crumbles away, leaving only its levitating skull wreathed in necrotic fire.

Deathly Priest of Osybus

Challenge 7

The priest's visage becomes bone white, gaining the ability to raise other undead and generate a wide blast of necrotic energy.

Dread Priest of Osybus

Challenge 6

Eerie whispers can now be heard around the priest, frightening its enemies.

Ectoplasmic Priest of Osybus

Challenge 6

An otherworldly slime drips off the priest and fades away moments later, leaving a greenish stain. It can use this ectoplasm to both disguise itself and slow enemies during combat.

Spectral Priest of Osybus

Challenge 7

The priest now appears wraithlike, becoming incorporeal and resistant to most forms of damage.

Vampiric Priest of Osybus

Challenge 6

When the priest deals necrotic damage to any creature, it regains some health and vigor.  

Revenant

MM p 259

Challenge 5

A revenant forms from the soul of a mortal who met a cruel and undeserving fate. It claws its way back into the world to seek revenge against the one who wronged it. The revenant reclaims its mortal body and superficially resembles a zombie. However, instead of lifeless eyes, a revenants eyes burn with resolve and flare in the presence of its adversary. If the revenant's original body was destroyed or is otherwise unavailable, the spirit of the revenant enters another humanoid corpse. Regardless of the body the revenant uses as a vessel, its adversary always recognizes the revenant for what it truly is.

Hunger for Revenge. A revenant has only one year to exact revenge. When its adversary dies, or if the revenant fails to kill its adversary before its time runs out, it crumbles to dust and its soul fades into the afterlife. If its foe is too powerful for the revenant to destroy on its own, it seeks worthy allies to help it fulfill its quest.

Divine Justice. No magic can hide a creature pursued by a revenant, which always knows the direction and distance between it and the target of its vengeance. In cases where the revenant seeks revenge against more than one adversary, it pursues them one at a time, starting with the creature that dealt it the killing blow. If the revenant's body is destroyed, its soul flies forth to seek out a new corpse in which to resume its hunt.

Revenants of Argynvostholt

CoS p 134

• AC 13 (Tattered Chain Mail)

• As an action, a revenant can attack twice with a longsword, weilding the weapon with both hands.

• Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, 5' reach, one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing/slashing damage.

Sir Godfrey Gwilym

CoSp 139

Challenge 6

• 16th level spellcaster, spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 15)

• 1st Level (4 slots): Command, Detect Magic, Divine Favor, & Thunderous Smite.

• 2nd Level (3 slots): Aid, Branding Smite, & Magic Weapon

• 3rd Level (3 slots): Blinding Smite, Dispel Magic, & Remove Curse

• 4th Level (2 slots): Aura of Purity & Staggering Smite

Sir Godfrey is a revenant and formerly a paladin of the Order of the Silver Dragon. He was slain when Strahd conquered the lands of Barovia, but returned alongside his fellow knights when Strahd's curse and vampiric resurrection prevented them from gaining peace. Sir Godfrey knows that the spirit of their leader, Argynvost, isn't at rest due to the direction Vladimir Horngaard has taken the Order. He is relatively friendly to outsiders and willing to give them information, but is unable to provide much else due to his oaths to Vladimir.

Vladimir Horngaard

CoSp 138-139, 241-242

Challenge 7

• Lawful Evil alignment

• AC 17 (Half Plate)

• 192 HP

• Proficient with Common and Draconic

• Vladimir weilds a +2 greatsword with a hilt sculpted to resemble a silver dragon's head clutching a black opal between its teeth. As an action, he can make two attacks with the sword.

• Greatsword (+2). Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5', one target. Hit: 20 (4d6 + 6) piercing/slashing damage. Against Strahd, Vladimir deals an extra 14 (4d6) slashing damage.

Vladimir Horngaard is a revenant and was formerly the captain of Argynvost's Order of the Silver Dragon. The Order was destroyed by Strahd, whose transformation into a vampire and Barovia becoming a Domain of Dread cause the souls of the knight to become trapped. Vladimir rose from the dead, but upon discovering that Strahd is effectively a prisoner he refused to intervene. Instead, the knights haunt their former headquarters while Vladimir takes perverse delight when ever Strahd's plans go awry.  

Shadow

MM p 269

Challenge 1/2

Shadows are undead that resemble dark exaggerations of humanoid shadows.

Dark Disposition. From the darkness, the shadow reaches out to feed on living creatures' vitality. They can consume any living creature, but they are especially drawn to creatures untainted by evil. A creature that lives a life of goodness and piety consigns its basest impulses and strongest temptations to the darkness where the shadows hunger. As a shadow drains its victim's strength and physical form, the victim's shadow darkens and begins to move of its own volition. In death, the creature's shadow breaks free, becoming a new undead shadow hungry for more life to consume.

If a creature from which a shadow has been created somehow returns to life, its undead shadow senses the return. The shadow might seek its "parent" to vex or slay. Whether the shadow pursues its living counterpart, the creature that birthed the shadow no longer casts one until the monster is destroyed.

Shadow Assassin

W:DotMM p316

Challenge 9

A shadow assassin looks like an undead shadow that wields shortswords also made of shadow. It exists only to slay the living.  

Skeletal Undead

This subcategory refers to subservient undead brought back to life with a (near) complete absence of flesh.

Bone Naga

MM p 233

Challenge 4

In response to the long history of conflict between the yuan-ti and the nagas, yuan-ti created a necromantic ritual that could halt a naga's resurrection by transforming the living naga into a skeletal undead servitor. A bone naga retains only a few of the spells it knew in life.

Flameskull

MM p 134

Challenge 4

Blazing green flames and mad, echoing laughter follow a disembodied skull as it patrols its demensne. When the undead flameskull discovers tresspassers, it blasts the intruders with fiery rays from its eyes and dreadful spells called up from the dark recesses of its memory.

Trenzia

W:DotMM p 32

After she was driven mad by her scientific and necromantic esperiments, Trenzia convinced Halaster to transform her into a flameskull, with these changes:

• The skull has resistance to fire damage and immunity to lightning damage.

• It has the Lightning Bolt spell prepared instead of Fireball.

• Replace its Fire Ray attack option with a Lightning Ray that deals lightning damage instead of fire damage.

Gnoll Witherling

VGtM p 155

Challenge 1/4

Sometimes gnolls turn against each other, perhaps to determine who rules a war band or because of extreme starvation. Even under ordinary circumstances, gnolls that are deprived of victims for too long can't control their hunger and violent urges. Eventually, they fight among themselves.

The survivors devour the flesh of their slain comrades but preserve the bones. Then, by invoking rituals to Yeenoghu, they bring the remains back to a semblance of life in the form of a gnoll witherling.

Skeleton (Humanoid)

MM p 272

Challenge 1/4

Skeletons arise when animated by dark magic. They heed the summons of spellcasters who call them from their stony tombs and ancient battlefields, or rise of their own accord in places saturated with death and loss, awakened by stirrings of necromantic energy or the presence of corrupting evil.

Minotaur Skeleton

MM p 273

Challenge 2

Warhorse Skeleton

MM p 273

Challenge 1/2

Undead Shambling Mound

W:DotMM p 142

Challenge 5

A large pile of humanoid bones that form into a single massive creature.

• The shambling mound (MM p 270) is undead.

• Instead of immunity to lightning damage, they have immunity to necrotic and poison damage. They are also immune to the poisoned condition.

• They have Necrotic Absorption instead of Lightning Absorbstion. The new trait is fuctionally identical to the old one, except that it affects necrotic damage.

 

Skull Lord

MToF p 230

Challenge 15

The skull lords have claimed vast regions of the Shadowfell as their domain. From these blighted lands, they wage war against their rivals, commanding hordes of undead in a bid to establish dominance. Yet skull lords always prove to be their own worst enemies; as a combined being born from three hateful individuals, they constantly plot against themselves.  

Vampiric Undead

This subcategory refers to undead that continue to exist almost entirely by preying on the living for sustenance.

Jiangshi

VRGtR p 236

Challenge 9

When a soul becomes trapped within its corpse, its bitterness can reanimate its body, creating a jiangshi. These vengeful dead stalk their descendents and the communities they knew in life, sowing terror and taking retribution for the slights or neglected burial rites that led to their cursed resurrections. Rigor mortis notoriously afflicts the limbs of jiangshi, causing them to hold their arms rigidly and to walk with a stiff gait. This, along with their flight, lead many to call them hopping vampires...

Nosferatu

VRGtR p 239

Challenge 8

Vicious, undead hunters, nosferatu possess the endless thirst of vampires but none of their grace. For them, existence is nothing more than an everlasting string of cold, desperate nights punctuated by crimson splashes of momentary warmth and lucidity...

Strahd von Zarovich

CoS p 9-10, 239-240

Challenge 15

With his mind sharp and his heart dark, Strahd von Zarovich is a formidable foe. Courage and lives beyond measure have been lost to him...

Vampire

MM p 295-297

Challenge 13

Awakened to an endless night, vampires hunger for the life they have lost and sate that hunger by drinking the blood of the living. Vampires abhor sunlight, for its touch burns them. They never cast shadows or reflections, and any vampire wishing to move unnoticed among the living keeps to the darkness and far from reflective surfaces...

Zorak Lightdrinker

W:DotMM p 203-204

Challenge 14

Zorak lightdrinker is a shield dwarf vampire and these additional changes:

• Zorak has these racial traits: He speaks Common & Dwarven. He has resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws against poison.

• He has AC 18 (Plate Armor), wields a Dwarven Thrower, and gains the action options described below:
  • Multiattack. Zorak makes two attacks with his dwarven thrower, only one of which can be a ranged attack.
  • Dwarven Thrower. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5' or range 20/60', one target. Hit: 11 (1d8 + 7) bludgeoning damage, or 12 (1d10 + 7) bludgeoning damage when used with two hands to make a melee attack. On a ranged attack that hits, the hammer deals an extra 1d8 bludgeoning damage (2d8 if the target is a giant). Hit or Miss: If thrown, the weapon flies back to Zorak's hand after the attack.

Vampire Spawn

MM p 295, 298

Challenge 5

Most of a vampire's victims become vampire spawn - ravenous creatures with a vampire's hunger for blood, but under the control of the vampire that created them. If a true vampire allows a spawn to draw blood from its own body, the spawn transforms into a true vampire no longer under its master's control. Few vampires are willing to relinquish their control in this manner. Vampire spawn become free-willed when their creator dies.

Alana

Alana was formerly a servant in the Wachter household, present on the evening that Lady Fiona Wachter invited the party to dine with her after they fought off a group of vampire spawn. Unfortunately, she was slain by Strahd and her corpse dumped outside of Vallaki. However, rumors are spreading of a vampire haunting the woods around Lake Zarovich.

Anastrasya "the Crimson Bride" Karelova

CoS p 93-94 & Homebrew

Human Variant with Noble Background

• +1 Dex, +1 Wis, & +1 Cha

• Proficient with Chess, History, Insight, & Persuasion

• Piercer Feat (TCoE p 80)

Anastrasya was the descendant of minor nobles brought in by the Burgomasters to help manage the peasant farmers. After the Mists claimed Barovia, her family became cruel landlords that oppressed the commoners. Her father sought an alliance with Strahd, offering his daughter in marriage to the vampire. She became his second bride, adorned in a red gown with a black and crimson silk head scarf adorned with jewels and a necklace of platinum with a black opal pendant. She has outlasted her family, who eventually went extinct due to a combination of internal conspiracies and peasant revolts.

Escher

CoS p 70 & Homebrew

Human Variant with Courtier Background

• +1 Dex & +1 Cha

• Proficient with Any two languages, Insight, Performance, & Persuasion

• Mobile Feat

Escher was formerly a courtier whose noble patron was lured into Barovia and ultimately slain by Strahd. Escher survived by using his charm and wit, eventually becoming one of Strahd's vampiric consorts. His primary concern now is that Strahd's recent interest in Ireena Kolyana will push him out of favor and into the crypts. He is a coward and will run rather than fight if challenged.

Helga "Maid in Hell" Ruvak

CoS p 64 & Homebrew

Human Variant with Charlatan Background

• +1 Intelligence & +2 Cha

• Proficient with Deception, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit, Insight, Performance, & Sleight of Hand

• Actor Feat

Helga was the daughter of the village bootmaker, but decided on a life of evil in service of Strahd. When encountering strangers within the castle, she pretends to be a human maid kidnapped and forced into service at Ravenloft. She even goes so far as to plead on her hands and knees to be rescued by the adventurers. She will eagerly accompany the party, sabotaging them and attempting to kill them if the opportunity arises. Otherwise, she avoids conflict and will flee if her true nature is discovered.

Ludmilla "the Pallid Bride" Vilisevic

CoS p 93-94 & Homebrew

Human Variant with Guild Artisan Background

• +1 Dex, +1 Wis, & +1 Cha

• Proficient with Insight, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, & Weaver's Tools

• Slasher Feat (TCoE p 81)

Ludmilla was the daughter of a prominent merchant that came to Barovia prior to the Mists. His sense of being trapped continued to grow despite settling down with a family and business. He eventually went insane, selling his daughter to Strahd under the promise of being allowed to leave Barovia. Whether or not he was ultimately successful in unknown. Ludmilla became the first bride of Strahd, wearing a white wedding dress, a gold tiara, and ten gold bracelets.

Sasha Ivliskova

CoS p 89

Sasha is an old wife of Strahd's. She was abandoned by her husband to rot away in the catacombs of Castle Ravenloft.

Volenta "the Gilded Bride" Popofsky

CoS p 93-94 & Homebrew

Human Variant with Acolyte Background

• +1 Wis & +1 Cha

• Proficient with

• Magic Initiate Feat: Warlock (PHB p 168)

• Cantrips: Eldritch Blast & Friends

• 1st Level: Witchbolt

Volenta was the adopted daughter of a coven of witches that worshipped Hala. They were attempting to find a way to defeat Strahd, but Volenta was captured by Baba Lysaga. She betrayed her coven to save herself, leading to their annihilation. She eventually caught Strahd's eye, and agreed to become his third bride in the hopes of learning more powerful magic. She wears a golden dress with a platinum mask shaped like a skull and ten platinum rings set with various gemstones.

Vampire Spellcaster

MM p 298

Challenge 15

Some vampires are practioners of the arcane arts.

• The vampire is a 9th level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). It has the following wizard spells prepared:

• Cantrips (at will): Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, & Ray of Frost

• 1st Level (4 slots): Comprehend Languages, Fog Cloud, & Sleep

• 2nd Level (3 slots): Detect Thoughts, Gust of Wind, & Mirror Image

• 3rd Level (3 slots): Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, & Nondetection

• 4th Level (3 slots): Blight & Greater Invisibility

• 5th Level (1 slots): Dominate Person

Vampire Warrior

MM p 298

Challenge 15

Some vampires have martial training and battlefield experience.

• Multiattack. The vampire makes two greatsword attacks.

• Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5', one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing/slashing damage.

Vampiric Mind Flayer

VRGtR p 252

Challenge 5

...Vampiric mindflayers are physically and mentally unstable beings. Ghoulish creatures, they let nothing stand between them and their existential imperatives. Although they possess the telepathic abilities of mind flayers, their brains aren't equipped to emply them. Instead, they bombard nearby creatures with a mental static of visceral visions. While these ravenous creatures are horrifying to behold, they unsettle nome more than other mindflayers, which consider them abominations.  

Wight

MM p 300

Challenge 3

The word "wight" meant "person" in days of yore, but the name now refers to evil undead who were once mortals driven by dark desire and great vanity. When death stills such a creature's heart and snuffs its living breath, its spirit cries out to the demon lord Orcus or some vile god of the underworld for a reprieve: undeath in return for eternal war on the living. If a dark power answers the call, the spirit is granted undeath so that it can pursue its own malevolent agenda...  

Will-o'-Wisp

MM p 301

Challenge 2

Will-o'-wisps are malevolent, wispy balls of light that haunt lonely places and battlefields, bound by dark fate or dark magic to feed on fear and despair.  

Zalthar Shadowdusk

 

Zombies

This subcategory refers to subservient undead that are brought back to life as shambling corpses.

Beholder Zombie

MM p 316

Challenge 5

Nerozar the Defeated

W:DotMM p 52

Challenge 5

Nerozar has the statistics of a beholder zombie, but its Disintegration Ray is replaced with the following:

• Telekinetic Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw, or the zombie moves it up to 30' in any direction. It is restrained by the ray's telekinetic grip until the start of the zombie's next turn or until the zombie is incapacitated. If the target is an object weighing 300lbs or less that isn't being worn or carried, it is moved up to 30' in any direction. The zombie can also exert fine control on objects with this ray, such as manipulating a simple tool or opening a door or container.

Boneless

VRGtR p 228

Challenge 1

Not all animate corspes shamble from their graves. Boneless are undead remains devoid of skeletons. Most rise from the bodies of those who have suffered brutal ends, such as deliberate skinning or crushing. Deathless malice infuses what remains, their husks flopping and slithering in pursuit of vengeance or at the whims of sinister masters. Slipping through cracks and under doors, these stealthy undead seek to adorn living frames once more, wrapping themselves around victims and wringing them to death in a full body grip.

Crawling Claw

MM p 44

Challenge 0

Crawling Claws are the severed hands of murderers animated by dark magic so that they can go on killing. Wizards and warlocks of a dark bent use crawling claws as extra hands in their labors.

Ogre Zombie

MM p 316

Challenge 2

Strahd Zombie

CoS p 241

Challenge 1

Strahd zombies are undead that serve the vampire Strahd von Zarovich. Created from the long-dead guards of Castle Ravenloft, they were called into being through dark magic of Strahd himself.

Spawn of Kyuss

VGtM p 192

Challenge 5

Kyuss was a high priest of Orcus who plundered corpses from necropolises to create the first spawn of Kyuss. Even centuries after Kyuss' death, his mad disciples continue performing the horrific rites he perfected.

From a distance or in poor light, a spawn of Kyuss looks like an ordinary zombie. As it comes into clearer view, one can see scores of little green worms crawling in and out of it. These worms jump onto nearby humanoids and burrow into their flesh...

Swarm of Zombie Limbs

VRGtR p 254

Challenge 1

The result of when a horde of zombies becomes a mass of disembodied limbs and dismembered corpses.

Undead Bulette

W:DotMM p 90

Challenge 5

This creature is a bulette (MM p 34), with these changes:

• It is undead and has 125 HP.

• It has vulnerability to radiant damage, resistance to necrotic damage, and immunity to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

Zombie (Humanoid)

MM p 315-316

Challenge 1/4

From somewhere in the darkness, a gurgling moan is heard. A form lurches into view, dragging one foot as it raises bloated arms and broken hands. The zombie advances, driven to kill anyone too slow to escape its grasp.

Ash Zombie

LMoP p 31

These zombies were created by the magical devastation when Mount Hotenow erupted thirty years ago.

• Ash Puff. The first time the ash zombie takes damage, any living creature within 5' of the zombie must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, or saving throws for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on it early with a successful save.

Zombie Clot

VRGtR p 255

Challenge 6

The result of an entire zombie horde fusing into a single, rotting titan.

Zombie Plague Spreader

VRGtR p 255

Challenge 4

A zombie that has become a carrier of terrible, infectious diseases.