Undead

>>50260496
If they don't eat flesh, what makes them a threat?

>>50260509
Them eating brains.

>>50260509
They eat sundry articles, ravenously.

Makes it quite difficult to survive out in the wastes without dying of exposure with these pricks making off with your clothes, hygienic supplies, fishing line, texts and diaries...... and bullets......

>>50260509
You're aware that the some of the most dangerous animals are herbivorous?

>muscle zombie apocalypse
>go to gym
>zombies groan gains while hoarding everything that can be used to exercise
>the living are left with no gains as the zombies keep getting fitter and fitter

>>50260509
They can vote

>>50260561
Would non-flesh-eating zombies still go for eggs and protein powder?

>>50260509
They are like locusts, destroy all the crops and cause mass starvation.

>>50260496
I made a setting like that once. Magic was essentially "life energy." It powered all living things and our metabolisms functioned by converting chemical energy into magical energy (not that anyone in-universe would put it in these terms since it's still the equivalent of the late Renaissance). That meant that if you pumped enough magic into a corpse you could get it going again, almost like jumpstarting a car, and as long as it was reasonably fresh it would even be able to understand simple commands. There are also people analogous to liches who do the same thing before/immediately after they die

>>50260509
They really weren't. Just a cheap labor source for unscrupulous mages/a way for obsessive academics to continue their pursuits

>>50260509
Maybe they're controlled by a dark sorcerer, or they're just insensibly belligerent.

>>50260509
>If they don't eat flesh, what makes them a threat?

They take up space.

Graaains.... Graaaaains...

>>50261140

This. Did you guys miss a little film called 28 Days Later? It's got a sequel, but idk if you've heard of that either.

>>50260509
>If they don't eat flesh, what makes them a threat?
They don't tire, they don't sleep and they don't eat and they are good at following orders.

Which makes you unnecessary and unable to get a job, meaning no money, which makes you starve and die on the streets and consequently turn into a zombie.

tl;dr everyone in the world is being converted into zombies via insidious plan of job market domination

>>50260509
They spook people going on evening walks

>>50260496
"...I think you'll find that we prefer to be referred to as the undead..."

>>50262431
"...Shut up, zombie, get off my hearse!"

>>50260553

We already have those, they're called goats.

>>50260723
No, something that makes them much more dangerous: creatine.

>>50260496
I don't really have an official setting. Or people to play with. Or friends for that matter. However, I have been toying with one idea.

Zombie fetuses, raised by a necromancer in a specified ritual. Since they were denied the warmth of the womb, they instead feast on the life essence and vitality of the living, draining them until death. The closer the fetus was to birth before death, the faster it drains the life essence.

There is more fluff, but I'll leave you with this.

>>50263320
topkek m8

>>50263586

Maybe I wouldn't use the same thing you're going for, but I see a glimmer of a great idea in there.

An otherwise mortal creature of familiar type that's been grown and raised in such an inhuman manner that now it's only an empty semblance of what it's supposed to be. Could be a neat monster, or even a sympathetic antagonist. Make a deal with some life or nature god or goddess to stuff life back in them and return them to the cycle for a redemptive story, or get help from all the natural cycle elementals and gods to purge them and their creator out of existence.

>>50263586
MOAR!

Have you ever encountered skeleton PCs that weren't endgame-level liches? I'd love to play a skeleton mage from the start of a campaign and not have to max a sorcerer to become one.

File: Ghoul.jpg (49KB, 383x485px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 383x485px

>>50260496
Zombies eat brains, ghouls eat flesh. (Or do whatever their controlling necromancer tells them to do)

in my setting

My favorite zombie of all time is Emperor Zombie from Mike Mignola's The Amazing Screw-On Head.

Here, you can watch the whole thing, it's just one episode because the heretics running Syfy never picked it up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbsDvGtTRWU

>>50264958
Sorry for the wait, wifi was crap where I was at the time.

Most of the remaining fluff I have is focused on a setting where such a thing is know. Clearly, if a necromancer can raise up a fetus into a life draining abomination towards all of creation, abortion would be seen as a corrupt act. As such, The practice would be outlawed and practitioners would be pursued by local anti necromancers (priests, paladins, etc.).

The ritual used is not the same for summoning regular zombies or ghouls, and is a bit more difficult to perform. It requires the complete body of the fetus (stitched together if necessary). There is some risk in the zombie fetus rising up against it's master, but otherwise the creature is under the mage's control.

As for the creature itself, as stated before it's draining capabilities depend on how long it was in the womb before death; the longer, the faster. In addition, since the fetus develops in the womb, higher level ones gain other traits as well, such as slightly greater strength and voice mimicry. In the case of those who died VERY close to birth, a clever necromancer could have them impersonate actual babies and blend in with society for a while.

Just as a reminder, the ritual can only be used on a fetus, not a baby. If used on a zygote or an embryo, it doesn't work that well (if at all).