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Do undead suffer penalties for wearing armor if they don't have the armor type's proficiecy?
For example, an Oracle can summon a skeleton. Can he put armor on that skeleton and maybe a shield and the skeleton operate like normal along with no penalties?
Under the Template Rules for skeleton, it does say all Feats of previous life are gone; however the listing for Skeletal Champion shows him wearing armor with full armor class bonus yet he has no feat for any armor.
I think the issue with giving armour to a summoned creature would be running afoul of the time it takes to don it. Check your summon duration against how long that armour takes to put on.
Creatures are generally considered proficient in armour they're described in. The listing for the undead type specifically states:
Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Undead not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Undead are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
I'd say they would suffer penalties if you gave them heavy armour, as the entry for the champion only shows medium. I'd also think that a summon would come with its usual equipment.
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It's the Bones Oracle using:
Raise the Dead (Su): As a standard action, you can summon a single skeleton or zombie to serve you. The undead creature has a number of Hit Dice equal to your oracle level. It remains for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. At 7th level, you can summon a bloody skeleton or fast zombie. At 15th level, you can summon an advanced skeleton or zombie. You can use this ability once per day plus one additional time per day at 10th level.
So in the case of a level 2, a summoned skeleton comes with broken chain...that would imply he could be given a better suit of chain mail? My player is bound to ask this question, too.
BTW, to put chain on efficiently is 4 minutes! Hastily is 1 minute. Wouldn't be a smart idea to waste his turns putting on armor. A shield, however, could be easily equipped but the skeleton would still suffer penalties for non-proficiency.
This Oracle also has the ability to command undead- he could just as easily put armor on one of these guys...the ability is longer than a summon at 1 minute per level; could be a viable option when he's higher level, but it'd still be 4 minutes of time waiting to fasten and secure the armor. Plus someone's got to carry all that crap.
Shield should be fine; if they can use any armour, shields are good too. And yes, make sure he knows how long it takes to upgrade undead this way if he wants to do it. As well as where he's storing all this junk :)
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Found this under rules for undead:
Proficient with its natural weapons, all simple weapons, and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Undead not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Undead are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
Looks like the Oracle, if he determines to have the time, can equip a basic skeleton with chainmail armor. Alternatively, despite not having a shield in its equipment list, it can use a shield.
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Also, I can't tell if you're intended to be restricted to the base skeleton and advance its hit dice, or scour the bestiaries for the optimal monsters to apply the template to (which may have better or worse armor proficiency).
Well, I didn't on that one- is it possible to summon any sort of creature in which can obtain the skeleton template? Of course, the ability is limited by number of HD anyways; a 2nd level Oracle, in our case, can summon a 2 HD skeleton if that's the case- a skeleton of anything that has 2 HD.
Is that allowed? At higher levels, shoot, a 20 HD skeleton can be summoned?
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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Do undead suffer penalties for wearing armor if they don't have the armor type's proficiecy?
They only have what their corpse had when alive. Skeletal Champion was something that had Full Plate proficiency.
rounds equal to your Charisma modifier
Hastily is 1 minute.
A shield, however, could be easily equipped but the skeleton would still suffer penalties for non-proficiency.
1 minute is 10 rounds. You would need a CHA 32 to have 1 round.
Shield would be taking non proficient penalties (which might be 0 for mithril buckler etc.)
btw. nice trick to do armor faster: get the help of an unseen servant :)