Shriekers
Shriekers are a one of the so-called "rare" types of created of undead, but they are well documented in scholarly records and many bards' stories because no one survives an encounter with shriekers and forgets them easily.
Shriekers are coporoeal humanoid that attack enemies with their horrible voices.
Their primary attack is an ear splitting screech that causes great pain in all those who hear it able to bring low many enemies at once.
Some especially advanced shriekers have additional abilities such as a softer attack that can immobile and entrance or specific individual targeted attack that erode a person's sanity.
Prognosis
Even though they are dead and therefore need to breathe to live, Shriekers lungs need to expand and contract just like a living person screaming. only with a Shrieker this is exaggerated to an inhuman degree. Wearing armor constricts their chests and reduces their effectiveness to use their horrible voices. Shriekers are not better at absorbing hits than a garden variety zombie. They cannot move faster than a slow walk while using their sonic attacks. This means they are slow moving targets. Most undead feel no pain and Shriekers are not exception, so there is very little middle ground between 'fighting at full strength' and 'utterly destroyed. Shriekers are an exception to this rule. A wounded Shrieker is not slower or weaker than an unwounded one but every perforation in its torso weakens its voice. While a Shrieker can lay low two score men with their scream, all it takes is one man with the strength of will to resist shooting an arrow at the Shrieker. One arrow is not going to take a Shrieker down for good, but it will take a Shrieker out of the fight until it can be healed. The second problem is that the necromancers are not immune to the ill effects of their own Shrieker's shrieking. You can mitigate the first downside by deploying a Shrieker in a mixed unit of undead providing your Shrieker with ample meat shields and defenders. You can mitigate the second major weakness by casting deafnees on yourself, or deploying the Shrieker far away. Earplugs help some, but not completely. There are two minor drawbacks to be aware of as well though in some cases these are strengths, not weaknesses. First minor drawback Shriekers can only damage opponents who within an arrows flight, but they can be heard from well over a mile away. Sometimes you want to frighten opponents from a distance and other times you do not want to give away your position. Shriekers make good decoys. The second minor drawback is that Shriekers can bring opponents low with their screams but are not very good at slaying people outright. Sometimes you want prisoners, sometimes you want corpses. This is another reaosn why Shriekers work well paired with more martial undead. Just make sure your instructions to your minions are explicit and who is to be slain and who is to be captured."-Magnati, independent necromancerby Eron12 with Heroforge"Shriekers are sometimes mistaken for banshees by ignorant commoners. Some necromancers nicknamed Shriekers 'faux banshees'. Shriekers are very powerful weapons, but there are two major downsides to their use. First, Shriekers are very powerful weapons but they are very much glass dragons. They can deal a lot of damage but they are bad at defending themselves. Real banshees can deal out pain and take a punch.
Affected Groups
This doesn't sound hard, but when you consider how boring the life of a ordinary peasant farmer or even a typical aristocrat is, you'll understand that they will grasp on to any bit of entertainment like a shipwrecked sailor clinging to a piece floating debris at sea. Gifted singers are usually famous. At least locally famous. Successful necromancers need to be able to build up their power in secret and it is difficult to quietly 'disappear' someone who is provides entertainment from their neighbor. Your best bet is to find an elderly has-been singer who used to be a good singer in his or her youth. It takes some legwork to find people like this, but few will ask questions if an elderly person dies in their her sleep of a 'rapid unexpected illness'"-Magnati, independent necromancerby Eron12 with Heroforge"The magic needed to create a Shrieker is not difficult, but the prep work is difficult. Shriekers can only be created with a relatively fresh fully intact corpse of a humanoid that was a gifted singer in life. It does not matter if they are male or female, young or old. Some necromancers claim that death by drowning or strangling leads to better results, but there is little evidence to back this up this theory. I think these necromancer just like the irony of denying breath to someone with a beautiful voice.
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