Undead (Dungeons & Dragons)

The word "undead" was first popularized by Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, referring to the vampire, and "over time its attendant meaning has broadened to encompass all manner of creatures seen to be conceptually related, such as zombies or ghosts". The vampire, introduced in the same set, were described simply as powerful undead. Vampires were further detailed in Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975). Other undead monsters from that set include the ghoul, described as being able to paralyze anyone they touch, and the wraith, described as high-class wights with more mobility. The ghost first appeared in a 1975 issue of the official newsletter of TSR Games, The Strategic Review. In the game's third edition, "Undead" became a "creature type". All undead in this edition have darkvision out to sixty feet. Undead have a wide array of immunities, including being immune to: all mind-affecting effects, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, and death effects. They are also not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Most Dungeons & Dragons undead can be "turned" (driven away) or destroyed by a good cleric, and rebuked (forced to cower) or bolstered by an evil cleric. In the game's fourth edition, "Undead" is a keyword, rather than a creature type. Later editions of the game introduced the ability of players to play as necromancers, able to create their own undead forces for support in battle. ==Functionality==

Undead creatures are an embodiment of the presence of death in the game. The primary counter to the undead is the Cleric, a character class that is able to use divine magic to "turn" or take control of the undead. While zombies in particular are generally portrayed as supernatural creations, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition game, however, also incorporated a creature called the yellow musk creeper, a creeping plant that drains the intelligence of its victims, possibly turning them into "zombies" under the plant's control. Ben Woodard found this to be an expression of the "seemingly endless morphology of fungal creep and toxicological capacity" within the game. ==Influence==

Undead have been considered among "D&D's most classic monsters". The game mechanics of undead creatures in Dungeons & Dragons have influenced the representation of such creatures in other later culture depictions, particularly in video games and other role-playing games. Philosophers have discussed the morality of necromancy and raising the dead for ostensibly heroic purposes within the context of the game. ==Types==

• Alhoon: Undead mind flayer. Even more powerful than other illithids because it has developed "powerful sorcery to augment their already fearsome psionic powers". • Death knight: A "powerful undead warrior" which was first introduced in the original Fiend Folio (1981). Shannon Appelcline considered this creature created by Charles Stross one of the game's especially notable monsters. • Dracolich: A dragon made even more powerful by transforming into an undead version of itself, which can only be destroyed if "its phylactery is taken to another dimension". Ranked among the strongest monsters in the game by Scott Baird from Screen Rant. It was also one of the first new creatures introduced for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. • Ghost: Inspired by Gothic fiction, a typical denizen of the Ravenloft setting. • Ghoul: Undead with "terrible claws". • Lich: Emaciated undead spellcaster, a "classic" monster of the game. Tyler Linn of Cracked.com identified the demi-lich as one of "15 Idiotic Dungeons and Dragons Monsters" in 2009, stating: "Besides looking like a Pirates of the Caribbean alarm clock, the Demi-lich seems to possess no tactical advantages of any kind. It just kind of floats around, waiting for a party of heroes to smack it out of the air like a pinata. We suppose it could try to bite you, but the illustration above kind of makes it look like the jaw is fused in place. Man, now we just feel sorry for it." Ranked among the strongest in Screen Rant's "10 Most Powerful (And 10 Weakest) Monsters, Ranked", saying "You might think that a floating skull would be easy to smash to pieces, but you would be wrong, as demiliches are some of the most resilient creatures in the game." In his review of the Monster Manual in the British magazine White Dwarf #8 (August/September 1978), Don Turnbull noted that the mummy was revised from its previous statistics, and could now cause paralysis on sight (as a result of fear). • Shadow: In his review of the Monster Manual in the British magazine White Dwarf #8 (August/September 1978), Don Turnbull noted his disappointment that the shadow is of the undead class and thus subject to a cleric's turn undead ability. Turnbull commented, "I used to enjoy seeing clerics vainly trying to turn what wouldn't turn, when Shadows were first met". • Skeleton: Skeleton of a deceased creature animated as an undead. The skeleton was ranked second among the ten best low-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies: "introduces players to the special advantages and weaknesses of undead monsters". They also thank Ray Harryhausen for people knowing what fighting skeletons ought to look like. Screen Rant ranked the tiny skeleton one of the weakest D&D creatures, saying "[skeletons] go all the way down to Tiny-sized creatures, which means that it is possible for your party of adventurers to fight a group of skeletons that are the same size as action figures." • Spectre: Inspired by Gothic fiction, a typical denizen of the Ravenloft setting. as well as folklore and "classic" monster of the game. Directly adapted from the barrow-wight in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Rob Bricken of io9 identified the wight as one of "The 12 Most Obnoxious Dungeons & Dragons Monsters". as well as by Gothic fiction, a typical denizen of the Ravenloft setting. • Zombie: Based on the zombie from folklore as well as more contemporary entertainment. ==See also==