The Tavern

A sort of inverse death knight, this midgame monster provides a means of introducing undead characters to the EXTREME DANGER that is dispel undead, without being quite as dangerous as a revenant or tzitzimitl. Also has a conveniently scary sounding name to alert the player to its precise purpose.

Has similar stats to the death knight, and a good chance of generating with some, not all, of the following bad ass vampire slaying equipment:

• Medium armor
• Cloak
• Hat
• (Potentially holy/flaming) melee weapon
• Plain crossbow

Can use the following abilities:

• Dispel undead

Reasoning:

1- cool factor

2- many first time undead players suffer YAAD to tzitzimitl due to being unfamiliar with the raw dmg output of dispel undead. This resolves that.

This is a reason to have this monster before Temple IMHO. Losing character in Depths is almost as frustrating as in Pan (or probably even more since it prevents player from getting first win) .

Josephine, revenants, ushabti, Tzitzimitl, Gloorx Vloq, player ghost

I think that's enough monsters with dispel undead

Addressing these in order: Unique who doesn't really cast it much, doesn't really cast it much, ok good point, too late game, too late game, too random/finicky

My monster is better because it has literally one spell. Hammers home the message. You could conceivably kill Josephine and some revenants and never get hit with dispel due to those monster's large spell sets.

2edgy4me. maybe reflavour as cleric/exorcist. robe wearing, quarterstaff wielding humanoid with dispel undead and minor healing.

That works too

Could also lower eidolon HD a little and turn them into mini-tzitzimimeh with cause fear/bolt of draining/dispel undead, making them a frail but highly threatening monster that shows up in mid-D (and maybe even in later wight packs?)

Eidolons are pretty uninteresting because vampire knights do a better job of punishing low MR in Crypt, and their bolt of draining is nothing special in a branch filled with nothing but negative energy. Moving them to D and giving them dispel prepares the player for revenants and actual tzitzimimeh, further establishes the "undead monsters can cast dispel undead" thing (which is not readily intuitive) and, most importantly, ensures that every game contains the amount of fun normally reserved for draconian ghosts.

Why not give them torment as well so they aren't popcorn to living creatures?