Undead races

[Gaedel1]

Are there any D&D 5E mods or information for running undead races for PCs? Such as Zombie, Mummy, Vampire, Werewolf, Frankenstein, Wight, Lich, etc.?

If not, what would be your recommendations for adding them in manually?

[LordNova2]

You are diving deep into the realm of home-brew, especially for 5e. Most likely you would have to make your own module for that...
If you need any ideas for the races I would recommend D&D Wiki (https://www.dandwiki.com/), but just purely for inspirational needs as allot of the stuff in there can have balance issues.

Monstrous Races (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/230312/Monstrous-Races) can be an OK source for turning most monsters into a playable race, but it is a bit lacking in the undead department, and it is only a PDF.

Here is a good video on how to go about adding your own race in Fantasy Grounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYdl0sUYbUw

[GavinRuneblade]

Are there any D&D 5E mods or information for running undead races for PCs? Such as Zombie, Mummy, Vampire, Werewolf, Frankenstein, Wight, Lich, etc.?

If not, what would be your recommendations for adding them in manually?

Nitpick: Werewolves are not undead according to most conventions. The mechanics for PC lycanthropes that I enjoy the most use the Blood Hunter character class (https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/blood-hunter). This class was created by Matt Mercer for use by Vin Diesel, and the FG conversion (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/170777/Blood-Hunter-Class) was done by Rob2e who is one of the best.

There are two semi-official 5e undead variants: The Zendikar (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/228651/Plane-Shift-Zendikar)and Ixalan (https://media.wizards.com/2018/downloads/magic/plane-shift_ixalan.pdf)Vampires. If you download the build from my blog post (see below), it has all the abilities for these vampires built in.

For a Frankenstein's monster (remember Dr Frankenstein was the creator and the creature is his monster) I would start with the Warforged from Eberron (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=WOTC5EWGTE) and then replace the armor bonus with something else you feel works better.

Since you appear to be looking at classic undead types, I have a blog post (https://gavinruneblade.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/building-a-classic-vampire/) on making FG versions of a traditional vampire for one of my players. Rather than custom rules I like to stay with official rules and just customize the flavor/description.

I have not tried a mummy, zombie, wight or lich as a PC. Though I have been considering giving it a try for a Ghostwalk one-off game. My thoughts on them are:
Zombie: I would find a str/con race (maybe goaliath or bug bear), and use some of the blood hunter ghosthunter and cleric of the grave abilities to swap out for anything in the race that I didn't think fit.
Wight: The hardest thing would be making being insubstantial balanced. As a result I would start with a flying race and swap insubstantial for flight, then again use cleric of the grave or blood hunter ghost hunter abilities to swap out. For example, Aarakocra but replace flying with insubstantial, and replace claws with resist necrotic and immune to poison but vulnerable to radiant.
Lich: I'd just straight up use a Vedalkin (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=WOTC5EGGTR)and then give necrotic and poison resistance with radiant vulnerability. The rest should fit close enough. Even amphibious I consider "close enough" because a lich doesn't need to breathe.

[lostsanityreturned]

The DMG has a list of template like adjustments for monsters. Some may need a little adjusting to balance it out.

Werewolves and vampires are going to be broken if you are doing anything remotely close to the 5e statblocks though.

But zombies / skeletons are easy and fairly balanced out of the DMG. As long as you don't feel like being a int/charisma based spellcaster ;)

[Gaedel1]

For the Frankenstein race, I used the Flesh Golem as a base as follows:

STR +1, CON +1
Can't speak (But can read, write and understand Common)
Construct
Darkvision 30'
Immutable Form (immune to Exhaustion, Paralyze, Petrified an Poison.)
Slam
Aversion to Fire (after fire damage, suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until next turn.)
Berserk
Lightning Immunity

I was thinking about healing with the Lightning, but that would probably have been too powerful. Maybe have it added at a higher level. Berserk would be out of control, attack anything close until calmed down, similar to the Hulk.

[GavinRuneblade]

That's more of the movie Frankenstein's Monster than the novel. In the novel he was extremely intelligent and a bit of a philosopher. I do love those classic b/w movies though.

For aversion to fire, maybe give wisdom saves vs frightened and use the same DC as a concentration check. That would make it easy for him to recover after the damage stopped, but hard to stop panicking while the flames were burning. Then make him immune to charm and frightened during berserk. Should be pretty dead on.

Nice ideas!