Any seasoned necromancer knows that skeletons aren't the only tools at their disposal. When it comes down to it, sometimes a more freshly-dead corpse is more convenient or desirable for the task at hand; thus, a zombie is born. Anyone making the dead rise again that's worth their salt knows that the same subtle infusions of magic that can personalize skeletons is also used to create very unique and useful zombies.

The following skeleton variants can be raised by players by sacrificing a spell slot or prepared spell detailed in the variant along with a casting of animate dead. (For example, the "Fleshnaught" zombie variant requires a spell with the force descriptor. A wizard casts animate dead and sacrifices a prepared wall of force, and creates a Fleshnaught zombie that has a +5 bonus to CMB checks.) (continued after the jump)




Warpwalkers (Chaos): These types of zombies are infused with the fractal energies of the abyss, and their flesh seems to shift and seethe with every step. Created by spells with the chaos descriptor, Warpwalkers receive a +1 inherent bonus to attack rolls and a -1 penalty to AC for every two spell levels of the spell sacrificed. Additionally, once a day, a Warpwalker can teleport a player it has just hit with a natural attack up to 20 feet in a random direction (as per dimension door). A will save (DC equal to the spell sacrificed) negates this effect.

Rot Guards (Law): This type of zombie is fortified by the axiomatic truths of order and law. Although still in most respects a rotting, mindless corpse, the Rot Guard is capable of understanding and following more complicated rules as long as they have well-defined variables the zombie is capable of perceiving. Rot Guards are created by spells with the Law descriptor, receive a +1 bonus on will saves to resist attempts to control them per spell level of the spell sacrificed, and gain the sturdy trait (as per the dwarf racial feature).

Slush Bombs (Water): These zombies are heavily morphed by the aqueous energies used to create them, and their bloated forms betray this with little subtlety. They trundle slowly and slosh, their huge masses providing some additional protection. Slush Bombs are created by spells with the water descriptor, and gain 1 extra hit point per spell level sacrificed to create them. In addition to this, when Slush Bombs are reduced to 0 hit points or fewer they explode in a 10' burst. The resulting spray of gore and fluids creates difficult terrain in this area for an hour.

Fleshnaughts (Force): This type of zombie has been enhanced and reinforced with pure force, greatly increasing its structural capability and mass without increasing its size. Fleshnaughts, created by spells with the force descriptor, are extremely hard to stop and gain a bonus on CMB checks per spell level of the spell sacrificed. Furthermore, one a day Fleshnaughts can remove the action restriction of a zombie for a minute, but must move every round they are capable of doing so.

Body Beacons (Light): This type of zombie is lit up like a lantern, infused with the very essence of light itself. The light created by these zombies is strangely comfortable for other undead creatures and they never take any penalties from being exposed to it. Body Beacons are created by spells with the Light descriptor, and shed light out to a distance of 15' per spell level sacrificed to create them. Furthermore, this light automatically dispels any darkness effect with a level lower than the spell used to create it, and if suppressed by a higher-level darkness effect this light instantly winks back on a minute later if not still within the area of a higher-level darkness effect.

(Side Note: It was brought to our attention that the comment section of our new layout was not properly functioning, so I fixed it. There you go!)