ZombieLegacy Content
Source Book of the Dead pg. 60You are a
zombie, a rotting corpse animated by necromantic magic. Although most zombies are mindless brutes, you're a
husk zombie, preserved through necromantic rites and alchemical reagents. The process worked especially well on you, and you retained your intelligence and identity to a far greater degree than other husk zombies.
It's not easy being a corpse. Your body continues to rot and putrefy, and the stench is ever present. Your old self keeps slipping away, more and more as the weeks pass by. Your reflexes have slowed, you're beginning to lose your sense of touch, and your emotions are dulling. As your body continues to decay, so too, does your mind. Your memory's not perfect, and although you haven't noticed any huge gaps or flaws yet, you have a feeling they're there somewhere.
Unlike your other senses, your hunger has intensified. You ceaselessly crave the raw flesh and brains of the living—the smarter the better—and satisfying this hunger is the only thing that makes you feel alive. When you eat, you're reinvigorated; feeling returns and the constant mental torpor you live under vanishes. You feel like yourself again... for a time.
One day you might be nothing more than a walking corpse, but for now, you retain your personality and your free will. Feeding your hunger might allow you to remain that way.
Additional Feats
Source Advanced Player's Guide pg. 149 2.0Some archetypes allow other feats beyond those in their entry. These are typically class feats, such as fighter feats that represent certain combat styles. The list of additional feats includes the feat's name, its level, and the page number where it appears. You can take the feat as an archetype feat of that level, meaning it counts toward the number of feats required by the archetype's dedication feat. When selected this way, a feat that normally has a class trait doesn't have that class trait.
Click here for the full rules on Additional Feats.
Legacy Content
Rare Archetype Dedication Source Book of the Dead pg. 60Archetype ZombiePrerequisites You died and were animated as a
husk zombie.
Despite your death and subsequent reanimation as a rotting corpse, you retain most of your mind and identity. Yet, it's always there: the hunger for the flesh and organs of the living. You gain the
undead and
zombie traits, and the
basic undead benefits. Unlike a typical zombie, you're not mindless. Reduce all your Speeds by 5 feet. Your fist loses the nonlethal trait.
Because of its progressing state of decay, your body requires continual maintenance to remain at its best. Each day after your rest period, your body is deteriorated due to natural decay. Additionally, some zombie abilities allow you to push for a greater effect in exchange for a chance of deteriorating your body.
While your body is deteriorated, you're
slowed 1. You can spend 10 minutes checking and repairing your joints and other weak parts of your body to recover from deterioration. You can perform these repairs as part of your daily preparations. Because it's a natural result of your body's functions, you can't remove the slowed condition from deterioration through any other means.
You crave the flesh of the living. You gain a jaws unarmed attack that deals 1d8 piercing damage. Your jaws are in the
brawling group and have the
unarmed trait. You can use your jaws Strike only against a creature that's
grabbed or
restrained by you.
Special You can't select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the zombie archetype.
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 60Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie Dedication
You fight just as well on the ground as you do standing up. While you are
prone, you are always
Taking Cover against ranged attacks, you ignore the status penalty on your attack rolls from being prone, and you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to
Athletics checks to
Trip.
You can choose to move up to half your Speed when you Crawl. You can instead move up to your full Speed when you Crawl, but if you do, you must succeed at a DC 6 flat check or your body deteriorates.
Legacy Content
Barbarian Flourish Source Advanced Player's Guide pg. 108 2.0Archetype ZombiePrerequisites trained in
Athletics* This version of the Bashing Charge feat is intended for use with an Archetype and has a different level for access than the
original feat.
You smash, bust, and charge through solid obstacles without hesitation. Stride twice. Once during your movement, if your movement passes through or ends adjacent to a door, window, fence, wall, or similar obstacle, you can attempt an
Athletics check to
Force Open the obstacle with a +1 circumstance bonus to the roll; on a failure, your movement ends at that obstacle.
Legacy Content
Fighter Press Source Core Rulebook pg. 146 4.0Archetypes Wrestler,
ZombieRequirements You have one hand free, and your target is within reach of that hand.
* This version of the Combat Grab feat is intended for use with an Archetype and has a different level for access than the
original feat.
You swipe at your opponent and grab at them. Make a melee Strike while keeping one hand free. If the Strike hits, you grab the target using your free hand. The creature remains
grabbed until the end of your next turn or until it
Escapes, whichever comes first.
Legacy Content
Monk Source Core Rulebook pg. 160 4.0Archetypes Wrestler,
Zombie* This version of the Crushing Grab feat is intended for use with an Archetype and has a different level for access than the
original feat.
Like a powerful constrictor, you crush targets in your unyielding grasp. When you successfully Grapple a creature, you can deal bludgeoning damage to that creature equal to your Strength modifier. You can make this attack nonlethal with no penalty.
Feast [two-actions] Feat 4
Legacy Content
Archetype Manipulate Source Book of the Dead pg. 60Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie DedicationRequirements You are adjacent to a
restrained or
unconscious creature, or a deceased creature that died in the past hour.
You feast upon an adjacent restrained or unconscious creature, or a deceased creature that died in the past hour. If the creature is alive, you deal damage equal to your jaws damage. Whether it's alive or not, you gain a number of temporary Hit Points equal to half your level that last for 1 minute.
You can instead choose to gain temporary Hit Points equal to double your level, but if you do, you must succeed at a DC 6 flat check or your body deteriorates.
Legacy Content
Archetype Open Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie Dedication
Hungry for the flesh of the living, you hurl yourself into the fray, teeth gnashing. You Stride. If you end your movement within melee reach of a living creature, you can make an
Athletics check to
Grapple that creature. If you succeed, you then make a jaws Strike against that creature.
Brains! [free-action] Feat 6
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombiePrerequisites FeastTrigger You Feast upon a
humanoid's brain. The humanoid can't be
mindless (or, if you're Feasting on a corpse, can't have been mindless while alive).
You consume the brains of your foe, causing synapses long rotten to fire and enabling you to shake off your mental torpor. You gain a +1 status bonus on skill checks to
Recall Knowledge for 1 hour. If the humanoid had a higher modifier to the skill check you're using to Recall Knowledge than you do, the status bonus increases to +2.
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie Dedication
As your body continues to rot and putrefy, your senses deaden and your undead powers grow. You gain the
advanced undead benefits, as well as a +1 circumstance bonus on saving throws against
emotion and pain effects. While your body is deteriorated, your numbness amplifies in two ways: the circumstance bonus from this feat increases to +2, and if you roll a success on a saving throw against an emotion or pain effect, you get a critical success instead.
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie Dedication
Even when your limbs are severed, they remain a part of you. When an arm is severed from your body, it gains the
minion trait. While severed, your limb has the statistics of a
familiar without any familiar or master abilities, except its Speed is 5 feet, it can't move further than 100 feet from you, it can Interact with things, and it can still make any
unarmed Strikes it could have made while attached to you (usually a fist Strike). Any Strikes it makes share your multiple attack penalty and use your attack bonus and damage. If your arm is reduced to 0 HP or is ever more than 100 feet from you, it becomes inert until reattached. The GM might allow you to detach other limbs that have unarmed attacks using the below action (for example, if you're a tiefling with
Form of the Fiend, giving you a tail unarmed attack).
You gain the Lay Down Arms action.
Lay Down Arms [one-action] You pull your arm off, harmlessly severing it from your body and dropping it in an adjacent square. You can also use this action to reattach your severed arm if it's adjacent to you; it immediately functions normally. If the detached limb was at 0 Hit Points, it takes 10 minutes to reattach it instead of a single action.
Shamble [two-actions] or [three-actions] Feat 8
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie Dedication
You may be slower than you were in life, but your pace is unfaltering. Stride twice, or three times if you spent 3 actions to Shamble. During this movement, you ignore difficult terrain and greater difficult terrain.
You can choose to ignore all circumstance and status penalties to your Speed when you Shamble. If you do, you must succeed at a DC 6 flat check when you finish Shambling or your body deteriorates.
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombieFrequency once per hour
Prerequisites Zombie DedicationTrigger You would be reduced to 0 HP.
You're relentless and nigh unkillable, shrugging off blows that should destroy you, though they might make your body start to fall apart. You are reduced to 1 HP instead of 0 HP. You must succeed at a DC 6 flat check or your body deteriorates.
Legacy Content
Archetype Disease Divine Necromancy Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie Dedication
Wounds you inflict with your
unarmed attacks fester and rot, becoming infected and difficult to heal. The DC to
Treat these Wounds using
Medicine increases by 5, and magically or alchemically healing these wounds requires a
counteract check against your class DC or spell DC, whichever is higher. Succeeding at any of these removes the disease. The effect also ends if the creature is healed to full Hit Points by any means.
Legacy Content
Archetype Aura Olfactory Source Book of the Dead pg. 49Archetypes Ghoul,
ZombiePrerequisites Ghoul Dedication* This version of the Corpse Stench feat is intended for use with an Archetype and has a different level for access than the
original feat.
Your body exudes an overwhelming scent of decay in a 10-foot emanation, so putrid that it nauseates creates within that range. Any creature that starts its turn in the aura must succeed at a Fortitude save against your class DC or spell DC, whichever is higher, or be
sickened 1 (plus slowed 1 on a critical failure). While within the aura, the creature takes a –2 circumstance penalty to saves against disease and to recover from the sickened condition. A creature that succeeds at its save is temporarily immune to Corpse Stench for 1 minute.
Seize [one-action] Feat 14
Legacy Content
Archetype Flourish Source Book of the Dead pg. 61Archetype ZombiePrerequisites Zombie DedicationRequirements Your last action was a successful fist Strike against a creature no more than one size larger than you.
You seize your foe and pull it close. The foe you hit is
grabbed as if you succeeded at an
Athletics check to
Grapple the foe.