Originally Posted by
Maat Mons
In D&D 3.5, a template was a series of changes applied to a creature to get another creature. For example, Zombie was a template, and if you applied it to Human, you'd get a Human Zombie. Or if you applied it to Gnome, you'd get a Gnome Zombie.
D&D 3.0, there were also templates, but zombie wasn't one of them. Instead, there were just stat blocks for Small Zombie, Medium Zombie, Large Zombie, et cetera.
I see that 5e has stats for Zombie, and stats for Ogre Zombie, which leaves me a little confused, since neither of those is small. Do small creatures get reanimated as medium-sized Zombies?
Right now, Zombies are really, the only thing I have to look at for designing Fungoid Zombies. The internet says Tomb of Annihilation has Yellow Musk Zombies. And if those are anything like their 3rd edition counterpart, they should be closer to what I'm after, but still off in their own way. The internet also says that Volo's Guide to Monsters has Spawn of Kyuss. Assuming, again, that these creatures resemble their 3rd edition versions, they're probably the closest to what I'm after. Maybe I should hold off on designing Fungoid Zombies for now?