Over the tide of marching undead, a frightful duet of fury arose that gave even the barbarian a pause in the swinging of his axe. Positioned atop a hill among his comrades, he watched as the waves of foes went out like the tide and parted before a hideous, crawling abomination. A tangle of limbs and shredded clothes, it advanced towards them on twisted arms, eyes glaring from decayed, mirrored faces. Ribbons, gore-caked lace, and intestines hung from the shared form of the two wretched components of the amalgamated undead. Several of the twisted, dirty ropes stretched to emaciated wights with hate-filled eyes that diligently followed the holders of their leashes. The top teeth of each head were pressed together, but as the monster near close to the heroes, who had started to recover from their shock at the sight, it opened its mouth – and split the seam along its two disparate torsos. Broken ribs formed fangs in their body-long maw and their hollow chests were host to gore from past meals. As the ranger held back the urge to vomit, the conglomerate creature gave another earth-shaking roar as it unleashed its wight minions upon the band.
Illustration by Daniel Larios (who internally referred to this creature as the 'honeydoomer')
This is an ancient idea I came up with a long time ago and finally received some fantastic art for. I've done an undead for a creature that's love proved futile, but this is an undead that was very much in love before death forcefully separated them. Desperate to live their life together, the partners tear free from death to reunite once again. Once freed of their graves, their bodies meet in an embrace that never ends as they slowly begin to melt together. Design-wise, the wedded beast, which is supposed to be a pun on wedded bliss, is intended to be a battlefield controlling undead that has minions in the form of its spawn.
Despite being two bodies melded together, the wedded beast remains a Medium creature as they way they are connected wouldn't make sense as a Large creature. The combined force of their souls and their desperation to cling to life and each other grants them a bonus to resist channel and they have DR akin to zombies, but their greater might requires magic to overcome their unnatural form. The bite of the wedded beast makes use of their entire upper body and while they could in theory have four claws, they need two hands to walk upon. Their binds can be any number of things, but I personally like flavoring it as shreds of wedding garments that they used to lash themselves together and can also seize victims with. Once it traps another creature in these binds, leashing them to it, it can then use its ball and chain to wield their unfortunate victim as a weapon. This ability exists mostly for the pun, but I thought it felt in well with the concept, giving it some multi-target damage with some of that battlefield control by repositioning and knocking enemies prone.
'First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the wedded beast with a baby carriage' for their ghoul spawn! Create spawn is the natural progression of a couple and I was torn between having it create wights or ghouls but decided to stick to ghoul with including the ability that there's a chance for it to retain class levels, as I didn't want the spawn to be too powerful. The marital theme continues with its spell-like ability for death knell to represent wedding bells. But while it is love that causes the couple to pull themselves back from death, this undead state wears on their bond, deteriorating into periodic bouts of marital strife that make everybody else around feel extremely uncomfortable from the negative levels they inflict. Overall, the wedded beast is a tragic beast with abilities entirely inspired by being just goofing around and having fun with a theme, so I hope you all enjoy it!
Pathfinder 1e:
Another case of the 2e version being built before the 1e version, the 2e wedded beast went through a major revision following its testing. Initially, I had the wedded beast function as a normal creature with three actions and Marital Strife was an activated ability. But with some discussion with my testers, I decided to take a page from the likes of the ettin and several other intelligent, multi-headed creatures, and have the disparate parts act separately through Shared Responsibilities. I was debating how to have Marital Strife function with this change and I turned to building it as an aura that slowly damages the wedded beast as it frightens and drains them, akin to the negative levels afflicted by the 1e version. The self-damage is intended to be a balance for the constant effect of the aura rather than it being an activated ability. To keep the wedded beast's minions relevant to its level, the PF2e wedded beast creates Wight Spawn rather than ghouls.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Wedding Hells: After a series of disappearances, the heroes have been called in to investigate the problem. The disappearances seem focused around a pair of families along with some local clergy and the heroes quickly learn that two members of the family were wed some time ago. However, despite the happiness of the union, it was cut tragically short by an unfortunate event that killed the couple. As the heroes investigate the matter, they are led to ancient tunnels leading into a crypt patrolled by undead. Fighting their way through there leads them to a collapsed church where the targets are being held by the couple returned as a wedded beast. The abomination intends to hold a new wedding to bind them together in their unlife with all those that were there at their first union. Enforcing this grotesque ceremony are wights created from those who tried to escape captivity.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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