D&D: Five Monsters That Make Up The Perfect Undead Campaign Starter Pack
D&D players love themes, whether they know it or not. These undead monsters are a perfect “campaign starter pack.”
Humans love connecting dots. There’s a reason that you instantly know exactly what’s happening whenever you see a bunch of strings radiating out across a map or a picture. Even if you don’t know what the mystery is, you understand exactly what’s up when you see a murder wall.
And this is extra true for D&D players. Whether you run a player character or are the DM, we love a theme. There’s something very satisfying about it. I think it has something do to with feeling the craft and care given to a part of the world—it makes it feel put together. Otherwise, it feels like your DM just flipped to the monster manual at random and sort of ran with it until the session ended.
So here’s a campaign/adventure starter pack, if you will, for anything centering around undead monsters. And with the new Monster Manual it’s easier to build a sort of campaign ladder because they have a lot of lower and mid level versions of popular monsters. You’re not locked into a Lich as the ultimate undead big bad. In fact, for this starter pack, we’re going to go with a Death Knight leading an evil army/organization. You can of course, change this up as you like!
Skeleton
The secret to having a campaign theme is that it’s a promise you make to the group: this is what you can expect. The trick is to then deliver on those expectations in a way that feels cool and interesting to you. A lot of times, that’s just figuring out details.
But every undead army’s gotta have fodder. And one of those expectations we’re setting up is running into skeletons clad in armor. At the beginning of the campaign, they might seem threatening. And then later in the campaign, when they fight Minotaur Skeletons and undead riding War Horse Skeletons by the handful, it’s a sign of progress.
Wraith
Every campaign needs a good first mini boss type of situation. This is a lower-level but still potent threat that is a big hurdle. Maybe they’re the villain of the first few adventures. Or maybe they’re an agent of the main antagonist (a death knight in this case)—or they’re the one sent to mop up the meddlesome party.
Either way, you might want something a little scary to throw around. And in an undead campaign, a wraith is a great enemy to start with. For one, they are incorporeal, so they can move through solid terrain and show up in all sorts of places. For two, they hit hard and the damage they do is a lingering threat in the form of reduced hit point maximums. And for three, they turn recently dead corpses into Specters, meaning they can grow their own little spectral army.
They make amazing minibosses. And can even be a great “first BBEG” if that’s your style of campaign.
Bone Naga and Mage
Of course, you don’t want to just have a campaign full of undead. Thematic enemies often play to each other’s strengths. So why not grab something like a Necromancer, which you could represent with the Mage (or Archmage) stat block and a cool undead construct like a Bone Naga.
With a pair of enemies that complement each other, you can build more dynamic encounters. Maybe the PCs look for a way to deal with them separately. Or they think they’re just fighting a mage, when suddenly a bone naga uncurls. Combos like that make for interesting, memorable moments.
Vampire
It is a testament to the variety of vampires in the Monster Manual that you could use a vampire or one of the variants at basically any point in an undead campaign. Lower level characters might fight with vampire spawn who are out serving as special agents of the Death Knight.
Higher level characters might face down one of the Death Knight’s undead lieutenants, like a vanilla vampire, or a vampire nightstalker as a specialized assassin that hunts the player characters for a while. Perhaps there’s one of the Death Knight’s right hand generals in the form of a vampire umbral lord. The pastabilities are endless, just like at the Olive Garden. But only during lunch.
Death Knight and Aspirants
Cap it all off with a memorable villain. A Death Knight is a great “final boss” both because of the combat prowess they pack, but also for cool factor. A powerful undead knight who has more than just “is a skeleton” going for them, is the stuff of fantasy legend.
Especially since, if this Death Knight is the head of an evil organization or undead army, there are plenty of places to put lower level but still powerful foes, like the new Death Knight Aspirant.
These are CR 11 monsters who make for an excellent “boss you have to kill before you move on to the next part of the campaign”—it would be easy to envision a campaign where like some Aspirants and a Vampire make up some of the more powerful generals in the army and the PCs have to stop them before they even stand a chance of taking down the Death Knight.
But there are many, many ways to mix and match these things. Hope you enjoyed this starter pack!
Happy adventuring!
