dotseth's page

Retry penalties are ONLY for failures, NOT for successes. The +5 dc increase retry penalty for Intimidate is only if you fail, NOT if you succeed.

Imagine it like when you fail to pick a lock and break the tool off inside it, or fail to move silently and have the guards alerted to possible intruders. If you tried to be scary but your voice cracked and you tripped over your cloak and fell in the mud, all your subsequent Intimidate checks would be harder.

When you animate dead you keep all the ones from the current cast no matter how many it is. Only the ones from prior castings go out of control. That is why raising the animate limit is important and raising the control limit is meaningless.

On a related note, Mystic theurge type shenanigans to get an arcane and divine control pool don't work because the spell doesn't care if you cast it from a different class or an item.