Undead

The Undead refers to creatures that are brought to life after their death, in a manner that is different from resurrection in that their life is not fully restored. The Undead can range from zombies roltons to phantoms to much worse. They can manifest in corporeal and non-corporeal entities, although non-corporeal beings can be forced into a corporeal form by using the sorcerer spell, Phase (704).

Undead are immune to physical damage from unblessed weapons, although most spells harm them normally. Certain spells of a spiritual nature may be more or less effective, especially those from the Cleric Base spell circle (in which case their effectiveness may depend on the alignment of the cleric casting the spells). Generally speaking, clerics aligned to Lornon Arkati will be less effective against undead, while clerics aligned to Liabo Arkati will be more effective.

Corporeal and Non-Corporeal Undead

While still vulnerable to attacks by blessed weaponry, the non-corporeal undead (e.g. spirits, phantoms) take less damage from most attacks. Having no body, they are immune to bodily criticals, hence making them immune to instant death, disabling damage, and stuns. Generally, characters with spells like Bind (214) are ideal for hunting this variety of undead, where professions that rely on criticals, such as rogues, will have difficulty. The Order of Voln has an ability called Kai's Smite that also draws them into corporeal form temporarily.

The corporeal undead generally take damage normally from blessed weapons, though many are immune or resistant to piercing damage.

Sheer Fear

Main article: Sheer fear

Player characters may be incapacitated by sheer fear in the presence of undead creatures with substantially higher level than their own.

Undead Creatures

There are some of the many undead creatures in Gemstone IV. While this isn't a complete list it does consist of the majority of known locations and is especially accurate in the higher levels. Starter areas have been excluded as each city tends to have a low level graveyard or crypt areas crawling with undead from levels 1-15 or in the case of a single undead creature that is well represented in other areas, such as the Skeletal giant (33), have been excluded.

A long-standing gap from 64-75 has been pointed out numerous times in development requests. Creatures can generate +/- 5 levels, but it remains a popular request among players and is refered to as the Undead Gap.