Did the rules change about variant skeletons / zombies?


Rules Questions


So I thought I would check the PFSRD for all the relevant rules for my character and pick up the links, in regarding necromancy to minimize time needed to check upon rules. When I got around to template pages for skeleton's and zombie's I noticed that there is not a rule anymore there to make variants.

With little search-fu I was able to check that it wasn't just my memory failing. There were rules for this stuff, basically they count twice the HD at the time of casting. But I also remember some needing additional spells to create such as haste when making fast zombies.

So were the rules changed? If so it would be nice to see some reasoning behind it if something was posted. Is it somewhere else in the PFSRD these days and I just failed to find it? The rule is not just there for some reason?

Any help would be appreciated.

Scarab Sages

The rules, as far as I can tell, haven't changed.

Skeletons never had extra spells, but they cost HDx2 to create (normal HD to control).
Zombies have mention of remove paralysis, haste, and contagion mentioned, but not in a specifically rulesy way, and don't require extra HD to create.

This article (and its sequel) detail extra variants that assume both HD cost and extra spells for both types of undead. (Those articles, joined, and with a readable table, also appear here.)


Thank you very much. Especially for the links they were really useful.

Still the situation is a mystery to me which prompted this. But since I can not find anything that would suggest it has changed I will assume it has not.


You can check the errata documents. They detail all changes made since the first book.


I noticed same thing. Also a mystery to me why d20pfsrd made the change.


Checked all the latest erratas, just on the off chance it didn't happen to be in some other book. Used the search words Skeleton, Zombie, Variant and Undead. Nothing came up with that. So I am pretty certain it is just layout thing, or something of the like in the srd. The fact that lesser animate undead still says that "You cannot create variant skeletons or zombies with this spell." Would also indicate the rules have not changed.

I could be wrong, but I think it should have come up somewhere in my searches if it was the case.

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