Thursday, October 13, 2011

Warrior Zombie

WOG20 Zombie & Skeleton Infantry. Image from the Lost Minis Wiki


Another source of "lost" monsters by Gygax is in the module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. The irony here is that B2 perhaps had the largest print run of any TSR module. However, while B2 was written specifically for Holmes Basic, it has some non-standard monsters that are not found in the Blue Book Monster List. Unlike most other TSR modules, these monsters were not presented in a special section in the back of the module and thus tend to be forgotten. One of these is the zombie guards who were "once 3rd level fighters", found in the anteroom to the Chambers of the Evil Priest in the Caves of Chaos.

Here is a standardized adaptation for Holmes Basic or OD&D:

Warrior Zombie 

Move: 120 feet/turn
Hit Dice: 2+1 hit point or more
Armor Class: variable
Treasure Type: nil
Alignment: neutral
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1-8 hit points

The animated corpses of fighting men, often commanded by an evil priest. Hit dice is equal to the former fighter level plus 1 hit point, with a minimum of 2+1. Their armor class depends on the type worn. Thus a warrior zombie created from the corpse of a third level fighter and wearing plate mail and shield would have a hit dice of 3+1 and an armor class of 2. Being stronger and faster than regular zombies, they get one attack per round and strike  for 1-8 points of damage, generally with a weapon.

They can be turned by clerics in a manner dependent on hit dice. A warrior zombie with 2+1 hit dice is turned as a regular zombie, one with 3+1 hit dice is turned as a ghoul, one with 4+1 hit dice is turned as a wight, and so forth. They otherwise conform to standard zombies.

Image from the Lost Minis Wiki

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