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So my long-running Rise of the Runelords group finally met up after a 4 month hiatus and we started PF #4. I created a flimsy but clever excuse to get the party away from their reconstruction of Fort Rannick and travel back to Sandpoint (a PC is related to Madame Mrvashti and received a vision that she was dying, since she'd helped out the party in the past, they all made the trip back-more on that side story later.)
So, here's how the defense of Sandpoint went:
Well, here's where the bottle of awesome sauce got uncorked: Half-Orc Barbarian/Cleric of Gorum proceeds to buff himself, gets Haste and Stoneskin cast on him, then runs over to meet Longtooth at the temple. He uses his Strength Domain daily power and two power attacking crits later Longtooth decides to flee. With a little help from the mage the dragon stalls in the air over the forest north of town and crashes in a heap. Our half-orc had earlier cast Death Knell on one of the giants and his caster level is now 8th.
He decides to cast Animate Dead on Longtooth.
And that's when we end the session. The PCs had met the conditions for ending the siege and it was getting late and I didn't feel like dealing with adjudicating an undead dragon...He's got the gems, the levels, and the time to cast the spell. This is going to fun.
I'm thinking of having this reanimation of Longtooth be against the universal code of dragons in Golarion and I'll just send a more mature dragon their way at some point.
I don't have a problem with Animate Dead having consequences, but as a DM I prefer to let my players have fair warning beforehand (e.g. "Animating the dead is about as socially acceptable as necrophilia and cannibalism"). As a player, I'd be a little irked if casting a given spell caused grief to my fellow party members (e.g. waves of dragon attacks) without some kind of warning from the DM beforehand.
I don't see what the problem is, honestly. Longtooth can't be animated into a zombie because his HD are too high (can't animate a base creature of more than 10 HD into a zombie), and skeletal dragons are quite wimpy compared to other things he could be animating. Longtooth goes from 28 to 12 AC (+1 dex, -13 natural, -4 armor since he can't case mage armor any more), loses his immunities, loses his breath weapon, loses all his feats, can no longer fly, loses almost 40% of his hit points, etc.
I don't see what the problem is, honestly. Longtooth can't be animated into a zombie because his HD are too high (can't animate a base creature of more than 10 HD into a zombie), and skeletal dragons are quite wimpy compared to other things he could be animating. Longtooth goes from 28 to 12 AC (+1 dex, -13 natural, -4 armor since he can't case mage armor any more), loses his immunities, loses his breath weapon, loses all his feats, can no longer fly, loses almost 40% of his hit points, etc.
Actually HD aren't an issue as long as they're no more than twice the Cleric's caster level. I also don't think it matters much that it's a zombie/skeleton dragon. Cannon fodder is very important in mid/high level 3.5 games.
I guess I'm more concerned about story/campaign implications.
Actually HD aren't an issue as long as they're no more than twice the Cleric's caster level.
Is that a house rule? The SRD disagrees:
"If the base creature has more than 10 Hit Dice (not counting those gained with experience), it can’t be made into a zombie with the animate dead spell."
I don't have a problem with Animate Dead having consequences, but as a DM I prefer to let my players have fair warning beforehand (e.g. "Animating the dead is about as socially acceptable as necrophilia and cannibalism"). As a player, I'd be a little irked if casting a given spell caused grief to my fellow party members (e.g. waves of dragon attacks) without some kind of warning from the DM beforehand.
Have an important NPC point out that Animate Dead is an evil act (though so is Death Knell...) and that a large skeleton will be hard to hide from the town. Get the PC's discussing this in character. Think "12 Angry Men." If they all decide to animate the dragon, then no one can feel bad when the inevitable dragon flight comes for their baby.
Ryn, who likes consequences