Death Knight: Army of the Dead

[Tyloris]

The Army of the Dead spell is overly complicated. Not necessarily the spell itself, but the statblock that accompanies it. Putting a statblock in the middle of the spells document seems unprofessional and I'd like to move it into the Manual of Monsters as part of the Scourge. In order to do that, we'd have to drastically cut down on the number of features that the creature has.

To that end, I suggest that we make it a Horde of Ghouls instead of a Shambling Horde. The new version of the horde would be using the horde rules suggested by Jih (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m-fZ6jr9KXj8WJ2xEuIufy-yN5EpTJ54/view) rather than the...whatever it is that is in the document right now. Here's what it would look like using those rules (though I used the 5e ghoul's hp, as otherwise it would have resulted in a CR 14 creature):

---

Horde of Ghouls

Gargantuan horde of Medium undead, chaotic evil

---

• Armor Class 12
• Hit Points 262 (25d20)
• Speed 30 ft.

  ---

  STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
  16 (+3)	15 (+2)	10 (+0)	7 (-2)	10 (+0)	6 (-2)

  ---

• Damage Immunities poison
• Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, poisoned, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
• Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
• Languages —
• Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

  ---

Cannibalize. If the horde moves into a space containing a humanoid corpse that has been dead for less than a day, or if a humanoid creature dies while within the horde's space, the horde regains 10 hit points at the start of its next turn.

Horde. The horde can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the horde can move through any opening large enough for a Medium ghoul. Additionally, the horde is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.

Reactive. The horde can take one reaction on every turn in combat.

Turn Resistance. The horde has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead. Additionally, the horde can be affected by the Destroy Undead feature regardless of CR limits, but has advantage on the saving throw against it and is not destroyed on a failed save. Instead, it takes radiant damage equal to 5 × the cleric's level on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success.

Actions

Multiattack. The ghoul makes four attacks, or two attacks if it has half its hit points or fewer.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) slashing damage.

[Tyloris]

OmNomDom33887Today at 10:27 PM One comment on the Army of the Dead thing; stat blocks in the spell list isn't that bad a thing, especially with Tashas now which had a bunch of stat blocks in the spell list. So wouldn't think its a big issue

[Tyloris]

OmNomDom33887Today at 10:29 PM Additionally, probably would keep it in spell or at least in the HHB with the common mobs, sort of like how zombies and skeletons are for the sake of raise dead or whichever spell summons them. Just a matter of convenience on the players end