Ran into this a couple times now in our current adventure so I thought I'd get some input on how others handle it.
We seem to have a lot of skellies running around, so that's what I grabbed. They're mindless, so I can only give them simple commands. "come here," "go there," "fight," "stand still," and so on... is what it says.
But we got into some issues when I wanted my skellie to "guard this door". The DM judged that the skellie would guard it against anything that came along. Even one of our own guys just walking out. When I asked if it would attack a butterfly landing on the door, he said no.
The problem I have here, is that obviously there is some kind of intelligence at play, even if the skellie has none, then it must be built into the spell. Otherwise, how could I tell it to attack my enemies?
Now, you take Summon Monster, for example. "It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability." So, no command is needed when the thing appears, it attacks the enemies. But there must be more to it then the creature just looking around, figuring out who the enemies, must be, then attacking. What if you're in a barroom brawl? It's not going to know who is in your group and who isn't. But based on the wording of the spell, it does and it attacks. So obviously there there is more to it than the creature's intelligence.
The issue is the interpretation of those simple commands. If I point at a creature and say, "Attack", how does he know exactly which creature I meant? If there's only one creature in the area, ok. But 2 or more standing together? Do I have to say, the one in the blue shirt? Generally I assume no, there is some kind of intelligence there, and again I say it's built into the spell.
If I want my skellie to guard a door, should I have to say, "Guard this door against creatures coming from this direction, on 2 feet, that don't just try and turn the knob and walk in." Then it really isn't a simple command anymore.
So how much intelligence is built into the spell? If there isn't much intelligence and I gotta spell it out so much that it's no longer simple and the skellie can't understand, then I submit it's an almost useless spell.
Mindless creatures (undead or constructs) are subject to GM Fiat when it comes to giving them orders. Try to keep orders simple and uncomplicated. I would state something like: Attack anyone entering this room unless they say the password. A pretty simple statement.
One of my players has a construct. The construct doesn't always act according to the player's intended directions.
- Gauss
Edit: Your GM should have no problem with a single IF-THEN-UNLESS statement. That is what I define as pretty simple.
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While mindless and controlled, skeletons are still Neutral Evil. I would err on the side of attacking things rather than not attacking them. If the caster says "Attack" and points at two creatures, the skeleton will attack the closest, then the other one.
Summon spells discern which creatures the caster regards as enemies, but animate dead doesn't have that property.
Mindless creatures (undead or constructs) are subject to GM Fiat when it comes to giving them orders. Try to keep orders simple and uncomplicated. I would state something like: Attack anyone entering this room unless they say the password. A pretty simple statement.
One of my players has a construct. The construct doesn't always act according to the player's intended directions.
- Gauss
Edit: Your GM should have no problem with a single IF-THEN-UNLESS statement. That is what I define as pretty simple.
Good idea. I just posed this to my GM, will see what he says.
Starglim: what if one of those creatures is one of your teammates fighting some baddie? And the skellie can't tell which one you're pointing at?
Im interested in hearing what your GM says. Please update when you find out.
Regarding 'teammate fighting bad guys'. Introduce the skeleton to ally Schmeghead. Combat comes: "Skeleton attack the guy fighting Schmeghead!"
- Gauss
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Starglim: what if one of those creatures is one of your teammates fighting some baddie? And the skellie can't tell which one you're pointing at?
The skeleton will attack the closest, then the other one.
However, you should probably give a trained spellcaster some credit for being able to point out targets precisely.
Ok, so the GM has ruled that even what I was doing (IE: Guard this door) it not a simple command, so I'm pretty stuck at this point. Other than finding an undead with int, though we've only fought skellies through two nights of adventuring, so I dunno.
TheMyrddraal, Im sorry to hear that.
- Gauss