Oblivion:Undead

Undead creatures consist of various forms of reanimated corpses and spirits.  The undead on this page are also all listed in the Oblivion-Creatures-Undead category.  Information on locations where undead will be encountered is provided at Undead Dungeons.

Overview
There are three main classifications of undead:
Bones: skeletal-type undead, such as skeletons and liches
Ethereal: non-corporeal spirits, such as ghosts and wraiths
Zombies: reanimated fleshy corpses
In most places, the game simply specifies that an undead creature (of any type) can appear.  However, there are also places where the game specifies that an undead creature must be of one of these three types.  

All undead are immune to poison, and resist frost to varying degrees.  Undead cannot be drowned: they all have either Water Walking or Water Breathing as a permanent ability.  Their fatigue cannot be damaged or decreased in any way.  All undead are affected by Turn Undead, but are not affected by Demoralize.

Most undead creatures can be summoned; a complete list of summonable undead is provided under Summons.  Necromancers are very likely to summon undead, and necromancer dungeons are frequently inhabited with undead (except for liches); necromancers will not attack these undead, because they are both part of the NecromancerDungeon faction.

Almost all undead creatures are members of the Undead Faction.  This ensures that the various undead creatures inhabiting a dungeon will not attack each other.  Members of the Undead faction will also be friendly towards Necromancers and members of the Vampire Faction (i.e., NPC vampires, but not the player even if the player is a full vampire).   One notable exception is full Liches: they are members of the Lich Faction instead of the Undead Faction.  See Liches for more information.

Standard
These are the standard undead creatures that are generated by commonly used leveled lists; see Leveled Lists for more details.  The vast majority of the undead creatures encountered during the game come from these standard leveled lists.
The level provided for each creature in the Lvl column is the typical level at which the creature is first encountered.
Some creatures' health varies depending upon the player level, indicated by an equation in the Health column.  The lvl used in the equation is the player's level.  The soul for these creatures is usually variable; the souls column indicates the range of soul strengths that are possible.  For full details on variable soul strengths see the Souls page.

 


Leveled Lists
The following table summarizes the vast majority of the leveled lists that are used to generate undead creatures.  There are a few minor variations, such as liches not always appearing in leveled lists; the notes below the table provide details on such variations.
All skeletons come in both melee and archer varieties.  In most cases, whether the skeleton is a melee or archer type is randomly determined (with a 2 in 3 chance that it is melee, and a 1 in 3 chance that it is archer).  A few leveled lists, however, specifically request only melee skeletons or only archer skeletons.
All wraiths come in both armed and unarmed varieties.  Which type appears is always randomly determined (Faded Wraiths have a 1 in 3 chance of being armed; plain Wraiths have a 1 in 2 chance of being armed; Gloom Wraiths have a 2 in 3 chance of being armed).
All zombies come in four nearly identical varieties (they differ only in appearance and animations).  Which of the four appears is always randomly determined, with an equal chance of any of the four varieties appearing.

See Leveled Lists for details on how these lists are used to determine the probabilities of individual creatures appearing.



The editor names of the leveled lists that are covered by this table are as follows (including lists that are nearly identical, except for noted differences):
Standard = LL1UndeadLvl50, LL1UndeadLvl75
Same except Dread Zombie at level 15 (instead of 16): LL1UndeadLvl100
Same list except no liches: LL1Undead100, LL1Undead25, LL1Undead50, LL1Undead75, LL2Tomb100, LL2Tomb25, LL2Tomb50, LL2Tomb75
Same list except no liches, with necromancer: LL2NecromancerLair100, LL2NecromancerLair25, LL2NecromancerLair50, LL2NecromancerLair75
Same list except no liches, with vampire and vampire animals: LL2VampireLair100, LL2VampireLair25, LL2VampireLair50, LL2VampireLair75
Boss = LL1UndeadBossLvl100, MG10UndeadBossLvl100
Bones = LL1UndeadBones100, LL1UndeadBones25, LL1UndeadBones50, LL1UndeadBones75
Same list except melee skeletons only, no liches: LL1SkeletonMelee100, LL1SkeletonMelee25, LL1SkeletonMelee50, LL1SkeletonMelee75
Same list except archer skeletons only, no liches, LL1SkeletonMissile100, LL1SkeletonMissile25, LL1SkeletonMissile50, LL1SkeletonMissile75
Bones Boss = LL1UndeadBonesBossLvl100
Ethereal = LL1UndeadEthereal100, LL1UndeadEthereal25, LL1UndeadEthereal50, LL1UndeadEthereal75, LL1UndeadEtherealLvl100, LL1UndeadEtherealLvl25, LL1UndeadEtherealLvl50, LL1UndeadEtherealLvl75, LL2UndercroftUndead
Zombie = LL1UndeadZombie100, LL1UndeadZombie25, LL1UndeadZombie50, LL1UndeadZombie75, LL1UndeadZombieLvl100, LL1UndeadZombieLvl25, LL1UndeadZombieLvl50, LL1UndeadZombieLvl75

There are some quest-specific undead leveled lists that are not covered by this table.  These quest-specific cases generally are just offset from the standard leveled lists by 1 to 3 levels.

Summons
The Summon effect page provides additional information about summon spells, such as spell cost and spell difficulty.
Summoned versions of creatures are unable to summon underlings
Many (but not all) summoned versions of creatures do not drop any ingredients.



Bones Undead
Bones-type undead creatures include all skeletons and all liches.  All bones undead drop Bonemeal.

  are encountered at all levels.  They rely upon weapons for attacking.  Standard skeletons all come in both melee and archer varieties; the melee varieties are about twice as common.  All skeletons have the following resistances and abilities:
70% resist frost
100% resist poison (immune to poison)
100% resist paralysis (immune to paralysis)
permanent Water Breathing ability
Higher level skeletons (Guardians, Heroes, and Champions) have greater health and better weapons.

 

Skeletons


Skeleton Guardians


Skeleton Heroes


Skeleton Champions


Bugs
Skeleton archers have no running animation when they have an arrow nocked. Since they have a generic combat AI package, they will try to run away sometimes with an arrow nocked, however they will simply turn around instead, waiting for you to hit them.

Liches
thumb|right|A Lich

Liches are generally only encountered at high levels; Nether Liches are somewhat weaker than standard Liches.  They rely upon magical attacks, both from their staves and from their spells (which are generally randomly determined).  They will also usually summon an undead underling.  All liches have the following weaknesses, resistances, and abilities:
25% weakness to fire
100% resist frost (immune to frost)
100% resist poison (immune to poison)
25% resist magic
25% spell absorption
permanent Water Walking ability
In addition, standard Liches also have a 25% Reflect Spell ability.  Overall, Liches have more health and more powerful staves than Nether Liches.

This is a summary of information on Liches. See the main Lich article for more detailed information.
 

Ethereal Undead
Ethereal undead include all ghosts and wraiths.  All ethereal undead drop Ectoplasm.  They all have the following resistances and abilities:
100% resist frost (immune to frost)
100% resist poison (immune to poison)
100% resist normal weapons (immune to normal weapons; can only be damaged by enchanted, silver, Dremora, or daedric weapons.)
Permanent Water Walking ability
There are a couple of exceptions, where the exact value of the resistance is not 100%.

Ghosts
thumb|right|A Ghost
Ghosts are encountered at all levels; ancient ghosts are a somewhat stronger (more health, more powerful attacks) version.  Ghosts rely upon magical attacks, in particular Frost Damage.  They have both touch and targeted attacks; the touch attacks are considered Lesser Powers, and are therefore unaffected by Silence effects.

This is a summary of information on Ghosts. See the main Ghost article for more detailed information.
 
Wraith
thumb|right|A Wraith
Wraiths and all of their variants are often encountered throughout the darker parts of Cyrodiil. Wraiths are categorized into the weak Faded Wraiths, common Wraiths, and the far more powerful Gloom Wraiths. The higher level the wraith, the higher their health and the stronger their spells.

All wraiths have a powerful curse that they can cast on you (effects vary with type of wraith) that is immune to silence.  Most wraiths have several additional spells, in particular Frost Damage and Silence spells. In addition, about half of all wraiths carry a sword.

This is a summary of information on Wraiths. See the main Wraith article for more information.
 

Zombie Undead
Zombie
thumb|right|A Zombie
Zombies are reanimated corpses. They have mottled, muddy green flesh, various deep and fatal-looking wounds, and they are often missing an arm. Zombies can be deceiving for players having not encountered one before, as they can run and give chase, and have a distinctive groaning voice when they detect prey.

This is a summary of information on Zombies. See the main Zombie article for more detailed information.
 

Dead
These creatures are all already dead, and are mainly of interest because of the possibility of finding loot on some of their corpses.



Test
These creatures are listed in the construction set but are never found in-game.