A bit of a mouthful there! I have been preparing to do a DnD campaign for a while now, and have been using it as a good springboard to create creature, character and environment concepts. Also it's fun. Anyhoo, I really need to get a better handle on Zbrush (you know, for the career part of my life) and I decided to start working on concepts in Zbrush and then rendering them out and painting them. It's taking me longer then it would to just paint it, but I think the net result after more of these will be time saved. And honestly, Zbrush is so damn fun. I love it.
The way the undead is handled in my campaign (scifi/fantasy) is similar to the Last of Us, in that I use spores (and variations of them) to fulfill that role. Mushroom zombies are awesome. I'll avoid going into all the details since likely no one is interested, and on the off chance that one of my friends playing read this.