Lesser Undead Dragon

A dragon that died before becoming a dracolich, or whose transformation failed, need not go to waste. Its body can be cut up for magic item components, or, for a dragon-worshiping cult wanting a terrifying undead guard without the bother, raised as a zombie or skeleton dragon. The cult's mad founder developed these lesser draconic undead as stepping stones on his way to the dracolich and described them in his own dragon tome. They were his first such creations and are still the easiest for the cult's wizards to reproduce. Cult necromancers hint at mightier kinds, but none has ever been confirmed.

A zombie dragon looks at first like a dracolich, its decaying flesh hanging in strips and its wings shredded, but its eyes hold none of a dracolich's malevolent fire. They are dull and lifeless, and often rotted out altogether. A skeleton dragon is simply a dragon's animated bones, likewise mistaken for a dracolich until someone notices the dark, empty sockets. Both kinds are mindless and mute and can carry out only simple orders.

The zombie is sluggish, always acting last in a round at half its living speed, and cannot fly. It gains one Hit Die over its living total, though this does not alter its age-based abilities, and keeps its old Armor Class. The skeleton keeps its living Hit Dice and ground speed but is also flightless; its Armor Class improves by one, it takes half damage from piercing and edged weapons, and cold cannot harm it.

Either kind attacks as often and for as much damage as it did in life and can split attacks among several foes, but grounded, it cannot snatch or stall. It has no fear aura and no breath weapon. Every immunity it had alive remains: one that died old or older still shrugs off normal missiles, and a red dragon's remains still ignore fire. It keeps its old magic resistance, gains the usual undead immunity to charm, hold and sleep, and cannot be poisoned or paralyzed. It still detects invisible things and hears clairaudiently within its lair. It saves as a priest whose level equals its living Hit Dice.

Clerical magic and other spells aimed at undead affect it normally. It is turned as 'Special' undead, and holy water burns it for 2d4. Innate spell-like powers still function, because for a dragon they are instinct, as natural as clawing. True spellcasting is impossible for these mindless shells unless someone casts imbue undead with spell ability on them; sages guess that brighter undead dragons, if any exist, might cast as in life. Since these undead are neutral, protection from evil does not ward them off, though other protections against dragons or undead may.

These guardians stand wherever their makers or appointed handlers post them.

Creating one takes animate dead and the body of an evil dragon of young age or older; only evil dragons of adequate age will rise, as the founder discovered to his annoyance. A zombie needs a mostly whole corpse with no missing limbs and at least 75% of its tissue. A skeleton needs the skull, spine and claws plus around 60% of the remaining bones, and gaps may be patched with bones taken from other large beasts. Preparing the body takes 1 day for a zombie or 3 for a skeleton. A scrap of zombie flesh or a splinter of skeleton bone must go into an arcane elixir (ingredients left to the DM) with a minimum value of 500 gp (zombie) or 1,000 gp (skeleton), and the mixture is poured over the remains before the spell.

Next the remains roll a save vs. spell exactly as the living dragon would, at -4 and ignoring magic resistance. Success means nothing happens and the elixir and preparation are wasted, though the whole process may be tried again with fresh materials. Failure means the dragon rises. The power animating it is not the dragon's own spirit, which passed into the afterlife at death.

They eat nothing and attack only what they are told to. Common duties include guarding cult meeting halls or hidden treasure and keeping endless watch at the doors of cult dragons or dracoliches. They own no treasure, though some are posted near their former hoards. Without a fear aura they still unsettle animals, which avoid them, except carrion eaters that may follow a zombie dragon to snatch the scraps of flesh it sheds.