Talking to the (un)dead

[AlcopopStar]

Hello!

In the campaign i'm in we were lucky enough to kill some burrowing creatures that I plan to raise as zombies via animate dead.

the only problem i'm running into is that as undead raised by animate dead can only follow simple spoken instruction if I ever tell them to burrow I wont be able to get them back again!

How can I circumvent this,? is there a reasonable argument I could present to my gm, or at least a way to communicate my voice to them while they are underground?

[Mysterious Stranger]

Why not tell them to come back to you when they finished what you sent them to do. For example kill that <insert burrowing creature> and return here. That seems simple enough.

[AlcopopStar]

Well as another point, what qualifies as simple instructions for intelligence 0 creatures? How complex can I get?

My gm seems to think only direct combat maneuvers are acceptable, if I could i would program them but I really don't know what is allowed and what isn't.

[VRMH]

AlcopopStar wrote:

what qualifies as simple instructions for intelligence 0 creatures? How complex can I get?

Remember, it's not "Intelligence: 0", but rather: "Intelligence: -". So a Zombie should be able to understand anything a living creature with an intelligence of 10 would comprehend. The instructions still have to be "simple" though.

[AlcopopStar]

VRMH wrote:

AlcopopStar wrote:

what qualifies as simple instructions for intelligence 0 creatures? How complex can I get?

Remember, it's not "Intelligence: 0", but rather: "Intelligence: -". So a Zombie should be able to understand anything a living creature with an intelligence of 10 would comprehend. The instructions still have to be "simple" though.

Can you put the difference into words?

[VRMH]

An intelligence of 0 means: brain dead. You're either a plant (not a plant creature, but an actual plant), an object, or dead.

No intelligence score at all means: mindless.

• You're immune to mind-affecting effects.
• Any statistic that relies on an Intelligence score treats you as having a 10 (no bonus or penalty).
• You're probably easily fooled by non-mind-affecting illusions, though that's not actually spelled out in the rules.

[AlcopopStar]

Could you point me towards the rule that states this? I could use the middle point as an argument for more complex instructions.

E.i, Use burrow to attack that creature until it is dead and then return to me.

[VRMH]

I extrapolated it from the rules for Constitution:

Quote:

• Constructs do not have a Constitution score. Any DCs or other Statistics that rely on a Constitution score treat a construct as having a score of 10 (no bonus or penalty).
• Undead creatures do not have a Constitution score. Undead use their Charisma score in place of their Constitution score when calculating hit points, Fortitude saves, and any special ability that relies on Constitution(such as when calculating a breath weapon’s DC).

Since Zombies have no Intelligence and no ability to replace it with (like their Charisma that substitutes for their Constitution), it stands to reason to treat their non-existant Intelligence as 10. After all, if it was zero, they could not understand any command.

[AlcopopStar]

Hrm, that's more or less a house rule then. though a sensible one. It seems then the information is simply not present.

I suppose mindless would indicate not a lack of understanding but rather a an absolute lack of the sense of self. However I wish there was some indication as too the complexity of understanding an - int creature is capable of.

After all, even the simplest command require some level of cognitive processing.