How To Run A Zombie Horde In DnD

There are plenty of grueling monsters for players to face in a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Sure, there are terrasques, stealthy displacer beasts, and mind flayers, but what about the humble zombie? Often overlooked, the zombie, or a group of them, can be a great fight for adventurers.

Whether you’re running Curse Of Strahd and need some fodder enemies, or you want to create a homebrew zombie apocalypse, zombies have a surprising amount of variation and nuance to them. That is, if you know how to run them, thanks to these helpful tips.

1

Understand How They’re Formed

Plenty Of Dark Options

There are multiple ways in fantasy worlds, and in D&D alone, for how zombies are formed. Necromancers, viruses, and even curses are just a few of the options, each of which can alter how you should play the zombies in question.

This adds some nuance to your zombies and informs the players how they need to approach the situation. You can also use this to draw in players depending on their backstory: paladins would probably fight harder against a necromancer or dark cleric, wizards may want to know the ins-and-outs of a curse, etc. Understand how your zombies come into being, and you can pretty easily unravel some of the tougher questions about running them.

2

Decide On Using Undead Fortitude

It’s Not Just About HP

The go-to stat block of 5e zombies gives them an ability called Undead Fortitude. The basis of this is that when any zombie runs out of HP, they have to roll to see if they really die or if they are stabilized and fight on.

You don’t have to use the 5e stat block at all, but Undead Fortitude does make the zombies feel more resilient, like they are in most media. You can modify this in a multitude of ways, but your zombies should feel like they have some sort of resilience that most mortal creatures don’t.

One other way to show this resilience is by making your players roll against tougher ACs to aim for the head, like in classic zombie media.

3

Understand The Bite Mechanics

Add Some Tension

One thing that makes zombies what they are is the threat of turning into one. The typical 5e zombie doesn’t have this option in its stat block, but it is a fun homebrew idea to help bring out some tension in even the smallest zombie encounter.

One suggested way is to have zombies have the optional bite attack that does base damage, but also has the player attacked roll a Constitution Saving Throw. This will give the players extra incentive to play smart when approaching their next undead encounter.

This can be made harder by upping the success threshold for each consecutive bite or made easier by having the zombie go through the steps of grappling before a successful bite attack.

4

Prepare The Setting

Set The Scene

Zombies can be a random encounter rather easily in any dungeon or similar setting, but it can be even more fun to set the scene and make the zombies the set piece to a horror or other grim adventure.

It doesn’t have to be a full-on zombie apocalypse scenario, but your players don’t need to know that. Some of the classic horror tropes thrown in there on top of NPCs remarking on some odd or scary occurrences is the perfect way to get your players talking.

5

Add Some Gore

They Are Zombies, After All

The setting isn’t the only way you can set the scene for your zombie encounter. It is easy to forget, but it can help a combat encounter to slow down and describe the scene in all its grisly detail.

Of course, this doesn’t work for every player or every campaign. But if the tone allows for it, then describing the combat and the gore that follows is a great way to make sure your players keep in mind just what the zombies are.

6

Modify With Non-Humanoid Zombies

Most Monsters Can Be Zombified

Not every zombie has to be a human, elf, or similar humanoid creature. There are some really fun stat blocks out there for animals and even dinosaur zombies. Depending on your encounter, throw in a special zombie every so often to keep the players guessing.

You can even take it as far as adding a draconic zombie as a boss, surrounded by its humanoid zombie cohort. This option is an ideal choice for modifying an encounter depending on the players’ level, as you can take practically any monster and zombify it.

7

Know The Horde Mechanics

Strength In Numbers

One or two zombies is an annoying fight, but a group or horde is something that can put everything else the party was planning on hold.

The easiest way to do this is by modifying a swarm stat block (i.e. Swarm Of Rats) and changing it to be a group of the undead. This can be boiled down to modifying its HP to a group of humanoids, keeping movement at 30ft or below, and updating the attack to better reflect the zombies clawing or biting at their opponents. And, of course, increasing the space they take up.

8

Understand Their Intelligence

They Aren’t Masterminds

Zombies aren’t usually the brightest creatures you can run as a DM. Compared to mind flayers and liches, they’re rather singular in their ideas. Knowing the intelligence of a zombie is a great way to make them seem more ‘realistic’ in your game.

Zombies controlled by a necromancer or similar creature should only react to simple orders. Other types of zombies should only act if they see something or are acted upon. Otherwise, they should roam or amble around rather aimlessly.

Coming upon a horde and having them suddenly react to the players can be a great way to push them towards stealth.

9

Prepare Ways For Your Players To Win

Set An End Goal

Zombies can be an imposing fight, especially in larger numbers. Prepare before the encounter what your players will have to do to win against the odds, or at least survive the encounter.

Killing the necromancer, breaking a cultish curse, or just eradicating the zombies, the choice is yours to make, but your players should be able to reveal an end goal to solve their problem with the undead.

10

Combine With Other Monsters

Make Them Work As A Team

Zombies are great, but why stop there? Combine a zombie encounter with other grim monsters for an added bonus. This will have your players thinking on their feet, as every mix has different options for cohesion among the monsters.

Zombies can be easily buffed by a spellcaster or made more difficult by other undead like vampires or even ranged combatants. You can even bring out the optional flanking rule for added difficulty in a zombie encounter.

11

Set The Magnitude

One Zombie, Or A Hundred?

One of the things that makes zombies so deadly is the numbers they can appear in, as many shows and movies have shown. Understand in your preparation for the encounter just how many zombies you want your players to fight.

In waves, one large horde, or just a singular zombie here and there, are all fair choices. This ties into how the zombies are formed and into what setting they appear in. You can even make it to where NPCs are turned into zombies, depending on the success or failure of your adventurers.