101 Creative Uses for Undead


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Grand Lodge

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Another one of these folks, this time for all the potential uses for creating undead and using them for something other than trying to bash in an enemy's skull.

1) Impromptu pack mule to carry heavy, situational gear.

2) Clearing out a public space quickly when you're expecting a showdown.

3) Finding traps, simply send them thirty feet ahead.

4) Block enemy charge lanes.

5) Disguise a group of them as the party and send them out to distract the guards/thugs looking for you all while you make your escape.


6) As a troupe of dancers to accompany the bard's music.

7) To give someone the screaming willies.

8) To give the half-orc barbarian something to rampage on when he discovers that you are out of fudge ripple.


Edit- Pretty much ninja'd. :(

Liberty's Edge

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9) Infinite Power: Build a crank powered generator and command the zombie/Skeleton to turn the crack forever. Stop by every week or so to cast mending on the generator to fix general wear and tear.

10) Coat Rack: Have a skeleton stand by the door with his arms out to the sides. Bonus points for animating a multi armed critter such as a Marilith for extra coats.

8) Beast of Burden Animate the farm animal when it dies, most tasks these animals do (other than food related ones) can be done. A horse can pull a plow or a dog can (maybe?) herd sheep.

11) Remove rats: Animate a dead rat or twenty as skeletons, send them into a rat plagues areas to kill off fellow rats. The undead ones are immune to the basic rats attacks (1D3-4 is 1 point of non lethal) Turn them into burning skeletons to deal with swarms with the aura or Bloody skeletons to never die (Last i checked Dire rats could not cast cleric spells)

Grand Lodge

12) Send your undead through an area and use divination spells to see what they encounter.

Scarab Sages

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13) Station skeletons at street intersections throughout the city, each with one arm painted red, the other arm painted green, and their heads painted yellow. Command them to stand there and alternate between extending their red arm or their green arm every three minutes, and to spin their yellow heads in the thirty seconds at the end of each shift.


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14) Materials testing. Animate a bunch of skeletons and have them walk back and forth on various materials to see which wears out first.

Silver Crusade

15) Baby sitters
16) Goblin baby sitters, an alternative to the 'what to do when you discover goblin babies'


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17. Salvaging a sunken ship. They don't need to breathe and don't get tired, even if they only move an inch per hour, they'll eventually push the wreck to shore.


18. Dredging a waterway. They only need a rake or shovel.

Silver Crusade

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19) Use Speak with Dead first to find out their names and the names of 1 or 2 of their surviving relatives; proceed to create little signs they hang around the neck bearing that creatures name, then Animate the corpses and send them home to be reunited with loved ones.


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20) skeletons ice cutters, both to cut ice for food preservation and to cut open passageways in harbors for ships. works well since skeletons are immune to cold damage and don't need to breath.

21) burning skeleton fire fighters. not so good with rescuing kittens from trees but they do a bang-up job at the end of the bucket brigade, they drop sand or water right on the flames.


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22) Turning an undead whale skeleton into a boat.

Scarab Sages

23. Disposable training dummies that offer a more interesting challenge than your typical scarecrow.

24. The best set of crutches ever.

25. Piggyback rides for as long as you want 'em!

26. Waitstaff. I dare not joke about fast food service.

27. A lavatory attendant who [redacted] for you.


28: Slay baddies, animate the corpses, make said undead carry the loot for you as you clear out the dungeon.


29) magic fingers massage bed, they never get tired.

30) prison guards, no sick days, no worried about bribes.

31) inspector number 4

Scarab Sages

32. Ladies and gentlemen, the perpetual butter-churning machine!

33. Shoeshine boy.

34. Bowling pin resetter.

35. Put it on a busy street corner and command it to do a short dance whenever it is given a coin.


36. Scarecrows.
37. Rickshaw taxi services.

The Exchange

38. Lumberjacking
39. Mining
40. Farming


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41. Self-repairing architecture!


42. Rescue workers in blizzards- send them out with a small set of supplies (fire wood, food, warm clothing, maybe a potion or two) and tell them to patrol the mountains and give the supplies to humanoids in need.


43. Copyists, if your land hasn't yet invented the printing press.

44. Terrorism. Few people would be happy about killing zombie babies. Fewer still would be happy about being killed by them.

45. Target dummies for training exercises.


43. Giant hamster wheel turner. Put a couple in a giant hamster wheel and have them walk, instant drive wheel for your mill.

44. Yarn holder.

45. Call center operator.


46. Decoys. Disguise them as your PCs. Then either a) let them go out and wreak havok, getting the PCs in trouble, or b) use them to bait out enemies trying to get you.


46) Their antics make for good entertainment for those with a bit of imagination. Undead circus, anyone?


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47) animate food for it to walk to and entertain your guests while they tear them apart and eat them. You can animate cooked carcasses, right?


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48) Necromantic Mecha/Heavy armor: Take an (unusually) large skeleton (like a mammoth). Cover it with metal plates. Fill it with soldiers & a controling necromancer, and voila: Necromantic AT-AT!

(Note: I've been working on a "Necrotech" setting idea, and a bunch of these things are going in the catalogue of "Necrotech Industries")


avr wrote:
44. Terrorism. Few people would be happy about killing zombie babies. Fewer still would be happy about being killed by them.

53 (lot of people doubling up). Cover a skeleton or zombie in explosive runed papers, and then put a cloak on it. Have it run into the middle of a crowd and remove the cloak. Especially if enemies are trying to take it down.

Even if it is killed before then, you might still catch guards/adventurers afterwards as they investigate and clean up the body.

Certainly a flavorful way of making the antagonists hated, no? I am somewhat adapting this from a previous discussion where the runes were dropped as fliers over the city.

54. Donate some clay based statues around the city. They are actually bloody skeletons baked into the ceramic. Have them break out at a set signal (there are plenty of spells that can cause far ranging noise) and attack anyone nearby.

With dozens running around, they will cause a lot of damage before they can get enough clerics adn holy water spread across the city.


55: Good for starting threads about whether undead use or technology is purely, unremittingly and unrepentantly evil.

56: Any underwater activity is good for skeletons and to a lesser extent zombies if you don't mind a bit of flesh detritus. Hull scrubbing, harbour dredging, treasure hunting etc etc etc...

57: Shadow-puppets without the puppets.

58: Player Characters.

59: THIS


williamoak wrote:

48) Necromantic Mecha/Heavy armor: Take an (unusually) large skeleton (like a mammoth). Cover it with metal plates. Fill it with soldiers & a controling necromancer, and voila: Necromantic AT-AT!

(Note: I've been working on a "Necrotech" setting idea, and a bunch of these things are going in the catalogue of "Necrotech Industries")

Please tell me you have a link to your work somewhere.


60. Portable escalators.


61) have a zombie follow you, pin paperwork to it so you don't need to carry an attache case.

62) train a skeleton to be a player xylophone using it's ribcage.

63) coat a zombie in pitch to use it as flypaper.

Silver Crusade

64) Bodyguards...in case you get jumped by those blasted pink elephants that keep following you after a long night at the local pub.


Norgrim Malgus wrote:
64) Bodyguards...in case you get jumped by those blasted pink elephants that keep following you after a long night at the local pub.

Darn variant cerus. You cheat one leprechaun alchemist and you never see the end of it.

Silver Crusade

lemeres wrote:
Norgrim Malgus wrote:
64) Bodyguards...in case you get jumped by those blasted pink elephants that keep following you after a long night at the local pub.
Darn variant cerus. You cheat one leprechaun alchemist and you never see the end of it.

I'm telling you, man, this is the kind of situation that scars you for life ;)


65 Infinite electrical power.
Just have a skeleton crew (pun intended) constantly rotate turbines to operate generators. Inexhaustible, and don't have to break for sleep or meals means constant power, without any messy emissions.

For bonus fun, you can make the turbine big hamster wheels.

Silver Crusade

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66) ACME Skeleton bomb dud detector, complete with hammer and safety goggles.


67) sculpture zombies which stand on platforms in public parks recreating famous scenes, like the overthrow of the Galtcreed Pact.


68. Gardeners. Back in 3.5 I had a ruined abbey of the goddess Wee Jas (Magic, Death) with a cemetery and instead of caretakers they had a shed full of zombies who could wield tools to keep the grass mowed, the graves clean, etc.

69. Animated tables. Take a Small sized skeleton, use its hands to grasp a shield over its head and voila(SP?)!

70. Alchemical Bomb Delivery Service: presumably skeletons have a cavity where their organs should go. Fill these with splash weapons or bombs. To detonate either hit them from a distance with a bludgeoning weapon/attack, target a wick in one of the bombs with a Spark spell or simply enjoy your enemy smashing the skeleton themselves.


71. Disposable Mythbusters.


SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:
71. Disposable Mythbusters.

You mean Buster, the crash test zombie.


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72. Interactive anatomy lessons.


73. An unlife-sized chess set


74. Automatic garage (dungeon) door opener

Grand Lodge

lemeres wrote:
SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:
71. Disposable Mythbusters.
You mean Buster, the crash test zombie.

"Moan, damn you."


75- line them up around your house, mortar in there feet. Now you have a fence.

76- Automatic door openers.


77 Dishwasher

78 Laundromat

Scarab Sages

79. Hug dispenser


80: cast Skeleton Crew and order them all to pick up a weapon, lead them into a small town and demand to see the mayor, to discuss the terms of their surrender.


81 : hoast a tea party for your 8 year old neice.

82 : automatic door openers for shops.

83 : underwater salvege teams.

84: throw tomatoes at bad performers

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