ngenisis's page

From the Bestiary:

"Numerous variant skeletons exist, such as those whose bones burn with an unending fire and those who drip with gore and reassemble themselves over time. Both of these variant skeletons can be created using animate dead, but they count as twice their normal number of Hit Dice per casting. Once controlled, they count normally against the controller's limit.

Perhaps the most dangerous variant skeleton, though, is the skeletal champion. This skeleton retains its intellect, and often any class levels it possessed in life. A skeletal champion cannot be created with animate dead—these potent undead only arise under rare conditions similar to those that cause the manifestation of ghosts or via rare and highly evil rituals.

Each of the following skeleton types modifies the base skeleton in a few key ways. Except as noted, these variations can be stacked with one another—it's possible to have a bloody burning skeletal champion."

Here, skeletal champion is referred to as a variant. It also says the variants can be stacked, but no word on if a PC can actually create a skeleton with multiple variants. It also specifically says skeletal champions can't be created using animate dead, so should that also rule out creation using the Undead Lord's class ability?

The Corpse Companion supernatural ability of the Undead Lord Cleric archetype says this: "She can use this ability to create a variant skeleton such as a bloody or burning skeleton, but its Hit Dice cannot exceed half her cleric level."

1) Do you round up or down to determine half your cleric level? Is the minimum 1?

2) Can this ritual be used to combine any number of compatible skeleton variants? If so, why wouldn't you?

3) Are there no material components for this ritual?

4) Can this ritual be used to create a skeletal champion? Skeletal warrior?

5) How is this class ability anything but a weakened animate dead spell?

Thanks