Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 1

Undead in Pathfinder and D&D seem completely wrong. Strict categorization steels the mystery of the undead, at least of ghosts. And despite the strict categorization there is zero consistency behind any of it. Lastly some undead are created by such unlikely combinations events it would seem unlikely that more than one such undead would ever appear. So many undead in Pathfinders long list of Undead are entirely pointless and stupid and I'd be surprised if anybody every used them. Having said that, here are my thoughts on different Undead in the Pathfinder.

One thing Pathfinder does have is a wonderful variety of feats for the undead. In time I'll peace through them and put together tables for Ghosts to provide a nice unpredictable variety of effects that occur. I think the unpredictability is a big part of making Ghosts scary.

Undead

Undead are spirits in the mundane world. They may be free floating ghosts or animated flesh of some sort. A spirit that animates other things (statues for example) are known as constructs. As spirits they are effected by a Cleric's Banish ability. The intelligence of the undead depends upon the spirit  but the older undead should become a bit more insane as far as mortals judge such things.

The idea of undead is to create truly scarey areas in tombs, with guardians that can defend a location forever without food or even air.

Ghosts

Ghosts are spirits of the dead. They linger back and forth between the spirit world and the mundane world unable to move on to their final destination. There are two main types but these are each defined by a number of tables.

• Haunt - An incorporeal spirit.
• Remainer - A spirit given physical form (made of ectoplasm although that doesn't matter) so that the Remainer can touch and interact with things as if they were alive although they can't be killed like a normal mortal. Clint Eastwood's unnamed character in High Plains Drifter would be an example

Table 1: Cause of Death

1d6	Cause
01	Accident
02	Drowning
03	Hanging
04	Murder
05	Neglect
06	Suicide

Table 2: Can't Move On

1d6	Until
01	Forgiveness
02	Buried Properly
03	Debt Repaid
04	Expose Truth
05	Return Item
06	Vengeance

Table 3: Haunt Type

1d6	Until
01	Human, Former Identity Clear
02	Human, Former Identity Unclear
03	Humanish
04	Spirit, Ectoplasmic human form
05	Spirit, Ectoplasmic non-human form
06	Spirit, Insubstantial

Table 4: Other Details (roll twice)

1d6	Until
01	Covered in Gore/Worms
02	Floats above ground/Lacks legs/feet
03	Headless/Faceless
04	Insatiably Hungry
05	White Clothes, Hair, or skin
06	Screaming

Note - The art above is copyright Don Kenn who is one of the only people to draw truly creepy looking ghosts. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.