One of my players has a voodoo priestess that comes from a tribe that occasionally recruits the dead to temporarily fight for a noble cause. Since the animate dead spell doesn't really fit because it's an evil spell that indefinitely enslaves the dead, I decided to homebrew a spell that fits the player's description of how that ritual works. He described it as more like raise dead except it transforms the targets into barely sentient zombies or skeletons for 10 to 120 minutes.
Recruit Dead transforms one or more willing dead creatures into skeletons or zombies for 10 minutes per caster level. Unlike animate dead, the undead have an Intelligence of 3 and are not directly controlled.
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Why not just remove the (pointless, ridiculous) alignment tag from Animate Dead?
For that matter, why doesn't she just cast it anyway?
Why not just remove the (pointless, ridiculous) alignment tag from Animate Dead?
For that matter, why doesn't she just cast it anyway?
1) I'm using a modified Golarion setting, and I completely agree with the evil alignment descriptor for the spell, which indefinitely enslaves a dead creature's corpse against their will and hinders their judgment in the afterlife.
2) The mechanics of animate dead don't fit the flavor of the character at all. RAW, she can't send undead back to the grave and the undead are mindless. I did let the player take the spell and made a bunch of house rules for it at her request, but I feel like I've made so many that it should be its own spell.
3) Even alignment arguments aside, animate dead is still taboo in my campaign, because the monk's surrogate mother is a Pharasmin priestess. It might make the situation a little less objectionable if the spell reinforced the idea of rallying the dead for a noble cause.
Animate Dead without [Evil] or costly component costs, but needs to be cast each time you want to summon help, and is also a touch range spell.
I question the usefulness of this spell, how often are you sitting on a pile of corpses to reanimate as many zombies as you need?
I'd probably refluff Summon Monster instead of taking this spell, which seems mostly useful for NPCs.
He did consider Juju oracle, but he liked the Occult mystery more for some reason. I think because it had more divination-related revelations.
Animate Dead without [Evil] or costly component costs, but needs to be cast each time you want to summon help, and is also a touch range spell.
I question the usefulness of this spell, how often are you sitting on a pile of corpses to reanimate as many zombies as you need?
I'd probably refluff Summon Monster instead of taking this spell, which seems mostly useful for NPCs.
I did consider making it work like summon monster. You got a major point about the range. Maybe I should consider making it Close range.
There's a 3.5 spell called Summon Undead that may be worth a look. I think it was in the Spell Compendium. I know my DM loves using it on us. Bit of flavour text revamp to be calling her ancestors to fight for her, and you could be back in business.
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1) I'm using a modified Golarion setting, and I completely agree with the evil alignment descriptor for the spell, which indefinitely enslaves a dead creature's corpse against their will and hinders their judgment in the afterlife.
That's called 'flavor text', and as such, is freely mutable.
I'll check those spells out, Marc Radle and Trigger Loaded. Thanks! I do feel wary of having it be a summoning spell since the PC already has summoning spells. Having two spells that work the same for an oracle isn't ideal. I guess I could lump it with summon monster, but that spell is already pretty powerful by itself.
That's called 'flavor text', and as such, is freely mutable.
1) I'm using a modified Golarion setting, and I completely agree with the evil alignment descriptor for the spell, which indefinitely enslaves a dead creature's corpse against their will and hinders their judgment in the afterlife.
No, the spell mechanically enslaves corpses against the will of the creature. Not to be cross, but I didn't create this thread just so you can make the same snide anti-alignment arguments you make every discussion with mention of alignments or evil spells. I already pointed out two other reasons why animate dead is unacceptable.
I'm interested in giving my player a fun and fair alternative that goes along with his character concept.
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I'll check those spells out, Marc Radle and Trigger Loaded.
Sounds good! I actually wasn't talking about a spell though. The White Necromancer is a class in the New Paths Compendium (link added this time! :)
Based on what you were describing in the opening post, the White Necromancer class might be of interested to you and you player!
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I'll check those spells out, Marc Radle and Trigger Loaded. Thanks! I do feel wary of having it be a summoning spell since the PC already has summoning spells. Having two spells that work the same for an oracle isn't ideal. I guess I could lump it with summon monster, but that spell is already pretty powerful by itself.
That's called 'flavor text', and as such, is freely mutable.
1) I'm using a modified Golarion setting, and I completely agree with the evil alignment descriptor for the spell, which indefinitely enslaves a dead creature's corpse against their will and hinders their judgment in the afterlife.No, the spell mechanically enslaves corpses against the will of the creature. Not to be cross, but I didn't create this thread just so you can make the same snide anti-alignment arguments you make every discussion with mention of alignments or evil spells. I already pointed out two other reasons why animate dead is unacceptable.
I'm interested in giving my player a fun and fair alternative that goes along with his character concept.
Neither one of them really works, either, on any logical level, frankly, but whatever floats yer boat. You want to make unnecessary work for yourself, enjoy.
And I will give my opinion where I choose to, thank you very much.
Even at close range you need to be in a graveyard/battlefield with unburied dead. You know your campaign best, but the average dungeon delving PC isn't going to have bodies handy for this.
Necromancers with permanent minions hit up graveyards/animate post-battle corpses, but Recruit Dead is much tougher to use.
Maybe you could collect bones of the righteous/willing dead (small bones), and use them as a focus to recreate the entire skeleton/zombie?
Sounds like like a fluffed Summon Monster again. But as is the spell is still too environment dependent to get much use.