Quote from: Svenhelgrim on November 01, 2021, 08:16:34 PM
There are so many things you can do with zombies, and their skinnier cousins: skeletons. 

With zombies, you can scoop out their innards and fill them with clay jars of alchemist's fire, or acid, or some noxious gas producing liquid, and wait for that fighter with the greatsword to trigger his own doom. 

Infest a zombie with Rot Grubs and you have a nice one-two punch.

Dress up a zombie in rusty Splint Mail (the armor that everyone bypasses) and improve its armor class.  Tell those armored zombies to lie down in 18 inches of muddy water and you have a nice ambush.  If you don't want to give the players a suit of splint mail as a prize, just bolt some metal plates onto the zombie.  Fashion some old scythe blades onto their arms while you're at it.  Might as well smear some poison on them too. 

Buff your zombies with barkskin, stoneskin, fire shield, haste, and lett them go to town.

Zombies are the ultimate power source.  Make them walk on a treadmill to power a mad wizard's engine of destruction, make them reload and fire seige engines ceaselessly.  Need a crew for a submarine that won't deplete the air?  That's right...ZOMBIES.

Great ideas. The idea of stuffing zombies also makes me think: if a delicate treasure is stored inside the zombies, a conundrum is created, as the players will need to find a way to slay a zombie without hacking it to pieces if they want the loot.

Quote from: Zalman on November 02, 2021, 10:22:09 AM

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on November 01, 2021, 08:16:34 PM
There are so many things you can do with zombies, and their skinnier cousins: skeletons. 

With zombies, you can scoop out their innards and fill them with clay jars of alchemist's fire, or acid, or some noxious gas producing liquid, and wait for that fighter with the greatsword to trigger his own doom. 

Infest a zombie with Rot Grubs and you have a nice one-two punch.

Dress up a zombie in rusty Splint Mail (the armor that everyone bypasses) and improve its armor class.  Tell those armored zombies to lie down in 18 inches of muddy water and you have a nice ambush.  If you don't want to give the players a suit of splint mail as a prize, just bolt some metal plates onto the zombie.  Fashion some old scythe blades onto their arms while you're at it.  Might as well smear some poison on them too. 

Buff your zombies with barkskin, stoneskin, fire shield, haste, and lett them go to town.

Zombies are the ultimate power source.  Make them walk on a treadmill to power a mad wizard's engine of destruction, make them reload and fire seige engines ceaselessly.  Need a crew for a submarine that won't deplete the air?  That's right...ZOMBIES.

Great ideas. The idea of stuffing zombies also makes me think: if a delicate treasure is stored inside the zombies, a conundrum is created, as the players will need to find a way to slay a zombie without hacking it to pieces if they want the loot.

Disrupt Undead was always a really useful cantrip, since firing it into melee had almost no drawbacks (since it only damaged undead, no worries if you nailed your fighter by mistake). Channeled energy effects also worked wonders.

Had another character death in our 5e party.
We were in a Duergar clan lair, kicking ass, but unable to take Long Rests (we could sneak in a Short one).  And leaving was not a great option, because they would have time to barricade the place up to keep us out.

Final Battle against the Little-Big Bad Evil Guy
Druid, Monk, Cleric, Fighter and "Sorcerer?" NPC ally
We go in at varying levels of "Mostly healed" and low on spell slots.
The Monk and the Fighter get knocked down to 4HP. The Druid gets injured, the Sorcerer is killed and the Cleric is taken to 0HP by a Duergar with multi-attack.  The Duergar needed both attacks to drop the Cleric, or would have caused Failed Death Saves on his 2nd attack (1 normally, but 2 if it Crit, which is easier since the attack on a prone creature is at Advantage) . The Druid's 2 healing spells are Counter-spelled. Death Saves are a 1 (meaning 2 fails), 12 (1 success) and a 1 (2 fails). (No one is near enough to attempt Medicine checks to stabilize.)
Since you only need "First 3 out of 5" to determine life or death, it's over for Father Sam. We kill all the Duergar and divide Sam's gear.

DM had a spare (Fighter) character ready.
We're now 2 Fighters, a Monk and a Druid.

  Sounds exciting and memorable, DM_Curt.

It also reminds me why I always carried a Healing Kit ASAP and tried to teach its wisdom to other tables. 5 gp, 10 uses, one use Stabilizes without a WIS Medicine check. When you can throw money at things to a) universalize success and b) remove the element of chance, it's a bargain!