Slayer's Guide to Undead A D20 System supplement from Mongoose Publishing Rating: (4 ot of 5 hearts)

This is a very interesting book. It starts by giving us a little historical background about Orcus, the Demon Lord of the Undead, and presents a myth of undeath as a creation of Orcus himself.

As is usual with Mongoose's products, a story unfolds throughout the book; this one is about a prostitute who comes across the Book of Dis, a tome describing necromancy.

All the undead creatures from the Monster Manual I (allip, bodak, devourer, ghast, ghost, ghoul, lich, mohrg, mummy, nightshades, shadow, skeletons, specter, vampire, wight, wraith and zombie) are described in detail, such details including physiology, habitat, society, method of warfare and roleplaying. Methods of warfare expands on combat strategies that can be used by each undead type. Roleplaying is mostly for the benefit of the DM, suggesting ways that such creatures can be incorporated and encountered in a campaign, and what their behavior could be. The book suggests ways to take advantage of the horror factor generally associated with the undead to create memorable gaming events.

The book divides undead creatures in four categories: unwilled living dead (skelletons, zombies), free-willed living dead (ghouls, bodaks and such), spirits of evil (incorporeal undead such as ghosts, shadows, specters) and lords of the living dead (liches, nighshades and vampires). The book also includes new undead creatures and Demon-Gods of the undead, as well as adventure seedlings for each undead type.

Liches and vampires are given longer descriptions to depict their power and potential as major villains. Their psychology, reasons for existence and outlooks to unlife are discussed in a refreshing and concise way.

The highlight of this book, which makes it really precious and worth it for me is the fact that each undead type has been formulated as a template that can be applied to any base creature. Hence you can easily make mind-flayer mummies, owlbear ghosts, zombie cows, 20th level sorcerer specters; you get the idea. A bestiary includes numerous examples of such creatures like an Allip Treant, a Devourer Ethereal Marauder, a Ghoulish Dryad and many more. Guidelines are given to amalgamate multiple undead templates that will let you create hybrid undead such as, for example, a ghoul-wight or a wraith-nightwing. The possibilities are enormous and will surely keep the players on their toes.

A little dungeon crawl adventure for characters level 9-11 is also included, throwing the PCs in the middle of a fight between a group of necromancers and a vampire.