Ogre Zombie

An ogre zombie at the party's side is a necromancer's gift, a problem hidden inside a present. Maybe the party's wizard took a level in necromancy and animated the corpse of an ogre they killed in the last dungeon. Maybe a friendly NPC necromancer lent the party muscle for the next mission. Maybe a curse on a magic item is animating ogre corpses to follow whoever holds the item. In every case the zombie is a tool with no will, no judgement, and a body that smells worse every day.

In play, the zombie is a mobile siege weapon. Slam at +6 for 13 bludgeoning average breaks doors, walls of stacked crates, and most non-magical chains. It can carry up to a Large load thanks to Str 19, which means it hauls a downed PC out of a collapsing tunnel without complaint. It understands Common and Giant but cannot speak, so the controller gives orders and the zombie obeys to the letter, including the bad-faith readings the party didn't intend.

Combat is straightforward and grim. Send the zombie at the biggest threat. It walks 30 ft., closes, slams. With 85 HP and Undead Fortitude it survives most encounters of its CR or below, then keeps surviving them. Players should feel their action economy widen and their morality narrow. Any town the party enters with a visible ogre zombie is a town that calls the watch.

Set a clear expiration. The animation lasts a week, the necromancer wants the corpse back by the new moon, the curse demands a fresh body each session. Without a deadline the zombie becomes a permanent pet and the campaign never recovers.

An ogre zombie is a slow-moving wall of damage that will not stay down. CR 2, 85 HP, AC 8, 30 ft. walk, Slam at +6 for 13 bludgeoning, Undead Fortitude on every drop to 0. The bad AC is a trap; players will hit it constantly and feel like they're winning, then it eats a fireball, drops to zero, makes a DC 5+damage Con save, and stands back up at 1 HP grinning from a freshly torn jaw. Plan the encounter around that beat.

Open in melee or not at all. The zombie has no ranged option and a +6 Perception, so it never surprises a party that's looking. Its job is to occupy the front line and force a decision: concentrate fire to clear the Con save threshold in one hit (high single-hit damage beats DC 5+damage), or chip and let Undead Fortitude eat your action economy. Critical hits and Radiant damage skip the save entirely, so a cleric in the party changes the math. A cleric not in the party makes the zombie genuinely scary.

Position it where retreat hurts the party: a doorway, a bridge, a coffin-lined corridor with no flank. Slam at +6 for 13 average is a real number against any wizard who tries to slip past, and the zombie's Poison and Exhaustion immunities mean standard caster lockouts (Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Hypnotic Pattern) often miss or don't apply. Wisdom save is +0, so Hold Person is the actual answer, and a smart party will find it. Zombies do not flee. They advance until destroyed, then the next one shoulders through the door behind.

Describe the wet creak of a Con save succeeding. Players will flinch harder at the sound of a zombie inhaling at 0 HP than at the slam itself.