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Quick Guide To Fantasy Role-Playing Undead

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Banshee by Felipe Gaona
Banshee by Felipe Gaona

Need a quick run-down of what makes a specter a specter instead of a wraith? Why does something become a wight vs. a ghoul?  These are based on the descriptions in the D&D 5e Monster Manual. Here they are:

  • Banshee (CR 4, incorporeal): Remnants of elves who failed to use their gift of beauty to bring joy to the world.
  • Beholder, Death Tyrant (CR 14): Beholder who transforms beyond death via dreams of madness.
  • Crawling Claw (CR 0): Severed hands of murderers animated by dark magic.
  • Death Knight (CR 17): A fallen from grace paladin who dies before seeking atonement and is transformed by dark powers.
  • Demilich (CR 18): A lich that has failed to feed mortal souls to its phylactery. Its bones have crumbled to dust, but if its life force is disturbed its remains rise to form a skull and wraith-form.
  • Dracolich (CR 17): A dragon transformed into a lich via necromancy.
  • Flameskull (CR 4): Dead wizards transformed by dark spellcasters.
  • Ghost (CR 4, incorporeal): Soul of a once-living creature bound to haunt a location or object that was significant to it before death.
  • Ghoul (CR 1): The demon prince Orcus transformed Dorsain into the first ghoul who created more from the demon lord’s other servants.
  • Ghoul, Ghast (CR 2): A ghoul infused with extra abyssal energy.
  • Lich (CR 21): Great wizards who research dark rituals to remain alive–in a way.
  • Mummy (CR3): Dark funerary rituals including necrotic magic by a priest of a death god or other dark deity.
  • Mummy Lord (CR 15): The potency of the ritual to create a mummy is increased by very powerful priests. (Its heart and viscera are removed and preserved.  As long as the heart is in tact, the mummy lord can’t be permanently destroyed.
  • Bone Naga (CR 4): When a naga’s immortal spirit reforms in a new body (if it was struck down) a necromantic ritual can transform it into a bone naga.
  • Revenant (CR 5): Formed from the soul of a mortal seeking revenge because it met a cruel & undeserving fate.
  • Shadow (CR 1/2, amorphous): If a non-evil humanoid is slain by a shadow, a new shadow rises from the corpse a few hours later.
  • Skeleton (CR 1/4): Animated by dark magic.
  • Specter (CR 1, incorporeal): Spawned when dark magic or a wraith’s touch pull a soul from a living body. It is an angry spirit prevented from passing to the afterlife.
  • Vampire (CR 13): A humanoid killed by a vampire’s bite and then buried in the ground rises as a vampire spawn the following night under the vampire’s control.  If the original vampire dies or allows the spawn to drink the original vampire’s blood, it becomes a vampire.
  • Wight (CR 3): Mortals obsessed by dark desire and great vanity. When it dies, it calls out to the dark gods and exchanges undeath and eternal war against the living so it can pursue its own malevolent agenda.
  • Will-o’-wisp (CR 2, incorporeal): They are the souls of evil beings that perished in misery while wandering forsaken lands permeated with dark magic.
  • Wraith (CR 5, incorporeal): The soul of a humanoid that lived a debased life or made a pack with a demon, if it is filled with negative energy it can rarely collapse upon itself before entering the afterlife. Then the spirit becomes a wraith.
  • Zombie (CR 1/4): Necromantic magic animates a zombie, usually from spells but sometimes spontaneously if dark magic is concentrated enough.