While undead are often the villains in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, some of them have the potential to make for compelling player characters instead.
Undead in Dungeons & Dragons are usually monsters for player characters to slay. But the strange and tragic natures of many D&D undead offer unique opportunities for role-playing. Some D&D characters may strive to complete an unfinished task from their mortal life. Others may embrace their undeath and work to hone their powers.
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Some undead D&D characters may be open with their companions about what they are. Others may hide their nature with disguises and illusions. The entire party could even consist of undead characters with their own motives. Learning to navigate the living world could be a major component of the undead character’s story.
Ghouls and ghasts have an insatiable craving for rotting flesh. While the former aren't much more intelligent than beasts, the latter have keen intellects and are able to organize packs of their kin. Both creatures inhabit crypts and graveyards where they have a ready supply of corpses.
Though their habits may seem disgusting to the living, ghasts can actually serve a useful purpose by consuming rotting bodies that carry diseases, much like hyenas, vultures, and other scavengers. A player character ghast might offer their body-disposal services to mortal morticians who are struggling with a large build-up of corpses from recent battles or other tragic events. Most mortals will not respond positively to a ghast, so the player may need to go to gangsters, necromancers, and other underworld criminals to negotiate on their behalf.
Crawling claws are severed hands that have been reanimated through necromantic magic. Most crawling claws lack intelligence, being only simple servants for their creators. But a player who chooses to be one of these odd undead could decide that the mind of the hand's original owner still exists within it.
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The crawling claw's focus on touch, coupled with its heightened Dexterity, might lead to the creature becoming highly skilled at lock-picking, disabling traps, and other tactile abilities, and a crawling claw player could join a D&D group as a rogue. Though it would have little use for treasure, it may find satisfaction and fulfillment by honing its skills and adapting to its unusual undead state.
A wight was once a living being driven by strong ambition and vanity. When they died, their spirit begged the underworld gods to allow them to return to the mortal plane in return for devoted service. Though wights are fully autonomous, they have sworn an oath to claim living souls for their evil masters.
A wight could become part of a mercenary band of player characters, offering their services to warlords in order to slay as many mortals as possible on the battlefield. The evil gods that a wight serves could even grant them the magical powers of a warlock, adding dark magic on top of their formidable battle prowess and life-draining ability.
Mind flayers are forbidden from studying magic by decree of the elder brains that control their communities, and any individual caught practicing the arcane arts is banished. These outcast mind flayers can turn themselves into undead, known as alhoon, by capturing the souls of other living beings in a device known as a Periapt of Mind Trapping.
An alhoon's undeath lasts as long as the life of the being sacrificed to its Periapt. However, the mind flayer can extend its existence by sacrificing more souls, adding the years of their lifespans to its own. An alhoon player character might join an adventuring group to find more souls to replenish their Periapt. Perhaps its ultimate goal is to slay a powerful, long-lived creature such as a dragon to add their immense lifespan to its own and to acquire ancient spellbooks and arcane items in the beast's horde.
Vampires are driven by a desire to recapture some of the life essence they lost in undeath. Though they can satiate their physical needs by drinking blood, vampires must also satisfy strong emotional attachments that are twisted reflections of the passions they had in life. They may become collectors of rare books, art, or trophies, or they may become obsessed with living beings who remind them of those they knew in life.
A vampire player may become an adventurer to acquire the magic items they have fixated upon, either by earning money to purchase them or by outright theft.
Ghosts are bound to the mortal world by tasks left incomplete in their former life such as avenging their own murder or revealing the location of a treasure that they hid. Though they are incorporeal, a ghost can take possession of a living body and use it to further their goals. RELATED 10 Doctor Who Monsters To Use In Your Next D&D Campaign
A ghost player can be introduced to an adventuring party when they possess the body of another character. While the victim's companions will initially be hostile to the spirit, they might eventually come to sympathize with them and agree to help them finish their task. The ghost could use their possession ability to aid the party in many ways, such as inhabiting the body of an enemy leader and persuading their troops to not attack the characters, or possessing the head administrator of a library so that the party can gain access to a rare book.
Will-o'-wisps are floating balls of light formed from the souls of being who died in misery while lost in remote places. Driven by despair, these undead lead lost travelers astray in order to feed on their suffering. They may work together with other malevolent creatures such as hags or dragons in order to draw victims into traps.
A will-o'-wisp player character might try to alleviate its lonely existence by joining an adventuring group. Their glowing body can act as a permanent torch- an especially useful advantage in a dungeon or dark swamp. Additionally, a will-o'-wisps ability to become invisible and pass through solid objects makes it a particularly effective spy.
Death knights were paladins who committed heinous crimes and died before they could be redeemed. Rejected by the powers of good, death knights are instead brought back by evil gods. They still retain their special fighting styles and ability to cast divine spells, but cannot heal others or use any abilities associated with good.
A death knight player might set up their own fiefdom, calling other undead and unscrupulous living beings to serve them. Alternatively, a death knight player may seek a way to atone for the grievous sin that turned them into undead, using their powers to aid innocents or counsel other paladins against falling into evil as they did.
Poltergeists are invisible spirits that have lost all memories of who they were. Angered and confused, these undead lash out by using telekinesis to hurl objects and creatures. RELATED: 10 Weirdest Bits Of Lore From D&D's Spelljammer Setting
A player character poltergeist might develop enough awareness and self-control to curb its violent outbursts and turn its telekinetic powers to more useful tasks such as opening barred doors or retrieving items that are out of their companions' reach. With enough training, a poltergeist could even learn to wield a weapon, making it a particularly effective fighter since it lacks a corporeal body and thus cannot be struck by nonmagical attacks.
More intelligent and powerful than most mummies, mummy lords are ancient rulers or priests who underwent complex death and preservation rituals that allow them to rise as undead centuries later.
As a player character, a mummy lord may awaken to find that, while they still possess many potent abilities, they are no longer as powerful as they were centuries ago. Time has worn away the magical artifacts they relied on, and their powers are not as effective against the magic and technology of the modern age. A mummy lord player could gather companions to help them navigate this new world and aid them in tracking down spells and artifacts that they can use to regain their lost glory.
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