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So one of my players is a corpse animating necromancer (or he will be once he gets level 2 and 3 spells). Help me with this process.
Example 1: Cast Animate Dead on a pile of five dead human Fighters all level 5 to make zombies. They lose all of their HD except 1 and gain 1 for being medium. So no matter how powerful a human or other humanoid is, they are only ever 2 HD? Total of 10 HD for issues of how many can be controlled. Since they were fighters they are capable of using any simply or martial weapon you put in their hands?
Example 2: Cast Animate Dead and Remove Paralysis on the pile of five level 5 human fighters to make fast zombies. Still each 2HD and still a total of 10HD, yes?
Example 3: Strip the flesh from those level 5 human Fighters to make Skeletons. Cast Animate Dead. Same thing happens and they lose all their HD but 1 but add 1 for being medium. Still proficient with simple and martial weapons you give them.
Example 4: Same as 3 but decide to make burning skeletons. No extra spell to be cast but counts as 20HD for control, yes?
Example 5: Cast Animate Dead on the corpse of a Young White Dragon. It has 7HD and is medium. It loses no HD but adds one for being medium, though they change from d12's to d8's.
Question 1: So casting Animate Dead on humans is mostly retarded, right? They lose most benefits and are only useful if you have spare magic weapons (and can't or won't sell them). Even then with only two HD they're pretty much guaranteed to get dropped by the first attack that hits them in latter levels.
Question 2: When you add the 4HD from the Undead Master feat, is that before or after you multiply your caster level by 4?
Question 1: So casting Animate Dead on humans is mostly retarded, right? They lose most benefits and are only useful if you have spare magic weapons (and can't or won't sell them). Even then with only two HD they're pretty much guaranteed to get dropped by the first attack that hits them in latter levels.
No more retarded than any other cheap minions. If you need cannon fodder to man the Dread Pirate Ship or to pull four-on-and-eight-off on the ramparts of your Fortress of Terror, skeletons are just the thing. In fact, they'll pull twenty-four-on-and-zero-off if you like.
Question 2: When you add the 4HD from the Undead Master feat, is that before or after you multiply your caster level by 4?
Your effective caster level is increased by 4. You can control 4HD per caster level. Hence your command and control ability is increased by 16HD.
Example 1: Cast Animate Dead on a pile of five dead human Fighters all level 5 to make zombies. They lose all of their HD except 1 and gain 1 for being medium. So no matter how powerful a human or other humanoid is, they are only ever 2 HD? Total of 10 HD for issues of how many can be controlled. Since they were fighters they are capable of using any simply or martial weapon you put in their hands?
Yes, all correct.
Example 2: Cast Animate Dead and Remove Paralysis on the pile of five level 5 human fighters to make fast zombies. Still each 2HD and still a total of 10HD, yes?
Yes, always do this--they're better with no downside.
Example 3: Strip the flesh from those level 5 human Fighters to make Skeletons. Cast Animate Dead. Same thing happens and they lose all their HD but 1 but add 1 for being medium. Still proficient with simple and martial weapons you give them.
No, Skeletons do not gain any HD. Human skeletons stay at 1 HD.
Example 4: Same as 3 but decide to make burning skeletons. No extra spell to be cast but counts as 20HD for control, yes?
No, still 10, because they still have 1HD.
Example 5: Cast Animate Dead on the corpse of a Young White Dragon. It has 7HD and is medium. It loses no HD but adds one for being medium, though they change from d12's to d8's.
Yes, assuming you go for a zombie, it will have 8d8 for HD. It's going to lose a lot more HP, though, because it also drops the 21 from its Con score.
Question 1: So casting Animate Dead on humans is mostly retarded, right? They lose most benefits and are only useful if you have spare magic weapons (and can't or won't sell them). Even then with only two HD they're pretty much guaranteed to get dropped by the first attack that hits them in latter levels.
Yes, it's pretty pointless if you're not an NPC. Did I mention that already? Animate Dead is pretty much for NPCs.
Question 2: When you add the 4HD from the Undead Master feat, is that before or after you multiply your caster level by 4?
Before.
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Thanks very much, guys. I can't believe I missed that skeletons don't get the HD adjustment! I think that covers Animate Dead. Now on to Create Undead.
With the inexplicable exception of Blast Shadows, the created Undead are not under the casts control when created.
Question 1: So if the caster has the command undead feat, he uses a channel when creating the undead creature and it tries to save and if it fails, comes under his control. Yes?
Question 2: Everything in Create Undead appears to be intelligent. That means they get a new save every day. Could someone tell an undead creature to fail its save and channel again before that happens to reset the clock?
If you want controlled intelligent undead, ask your DM about the Zombie Lord template. It's listed under Zombie variants and the cost is about the same as a bloody skeleton (or at least is hinted at, see the link). I usually equate the value of an intelligent zombie as roughly the same as an invincible skeleton.
As for your questions:
1) yes
2) yes. Anyone can willingly fail a save. Almost all cure/buff spells have saves, but it's assumed you willing fail this save because you want to be healed/buffed. Make sense?
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If you want controlled intelligent undead, ask your DM about the Zombie Lord template. It's listed under Zombie variants and the cost is about the same as a bloody skeleton (or at least is hinted at, see the link). I usually equate the value of an intelligent zombie as roughly the same as an invincible skeleton.
As I mentioned in the OP, I am the GM. While, it's true that the Bloody Skeleton is probably overpowered as hell, the Zombie Lord is equivalent to a Skeletal Champion which means it can be made with Create Undead but not Animate Dead.
As for your questions:
1) yes
Thanks.
2) yes. Anyone can willingly fail a save. Almost all cure/buff spells have saves, but it's assumed you willing fail this save because you want to be healed/buffed. Make sense?
Yeah, but heals and buffs also have the "harmless" descriptor in the save section. Channel doesn't.