Animal Compainions: Death, Resurrection, and Undeath.


Rules Questions


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So Animal Companions. They're pretty cool, cause they get progression. But what happens when they die?

1) If an Animal companion is killed and immediately (the same day or week) revived by an appropriate spell, is it still bound to the PC, or does the PC have to preform the binding ritual again?

2) Sometimes an AC is disintegrated or otherwise killed in a way beyond the party's immediate ability to restore. What happens if several months later the PC is able to revive his/her old AC? Is it bound?

2a) What if the PC has taken a new AC knowing they want to dismiss them as soon as the old one is brought back? Which is bound? If the new one, will the old one necessarily hang out long enough to be bound again? (I assume that if the animal obeys the long distance "come" command, it would hang around)

3) What if a PC that has an AC and sufficient Cleric levels kills their own AC and raises them as an undead? Is it still an AC, just with an Undead template?

3a) If it's both, does it count against the character's AC or total undead HD controlled, or both?

3b) If the undead AC is now a former AC, does still have all the progression of the AC it had before (except it's feats, because usually those get stripped from an undead template)?

3c) Do you still make Handle Animal checks to push an Undead AC?

3d) How many tricks can an Undead AC know?

3d.1) Does it even NEED tricks as an undead?

This is what I think about.


1) As long as you haven't performed another binding ritual, your dead aminal companion is still bound.

2) ^

2a) The new one is bound when the old one is revived. Once you dismiss the new one, it's just a regular aminal and can do whatever it wants. All you have to do to bind it again is go to the environment it decides to live in, and do the ritual.

3) It's now a regular undead. It's no longer an aminal companion, it loses its int score, and obeys you in accordance to the Animate Dead rules.

3a) Just against your undead HD controlled.

3b) Here's the skeleton template. Note how it loses its class HD and int score as well. It's now just a regular aminal from the bestiary with the skeleton template on it.

3c) It's not an aminal anymore, so Handle Animal doesn't work. It obeys your spoken commands, according to Animate Dead.

3d) Zero, it has no int score.

3d1) Nope


Don't forget that raising them as normal undead takes away their "class levels", significantly weakening them.

Castilonium is right on all points.


Castilonium wrote:


3b) Here's the skeleton template. Note how it loses its class HD and int score as well. It's now just a regular aminal from the bestiary with the skeleton template on it.

What if you made it a mummy? That template doesn't lose HD. 15th level casters can use Create Undead to create a mummy. (I never suggested it was efficient, I'm just wondering.)


Yes, you can do that. But keep in mind it's not automatically under your control, and every day it can make a check to break free. Intelligent undead are almost always a bad idea.


Full disclosure: My party just wiped going after the BBEG Lich at level 8, rather than the 19 I was expecting (I warned them, so don't feel bad) and are currently rerolling.

So now I've decided the old party are various undead in the Lich's stronghold, and I'm trying to figure out how to handle the Caviler's mount. (I could make him a Pantom Lancer, but I don't wanna)


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Oh, you're the GM. Intelligent undead are the best idea.

Just slap some templates on it man. Make it a nightmare, that would be cool.

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