Undead master feat...Please I need an answer!!!

[DM Artemis]

Ok so I don't normally post stuff in the rules forum, but I have a question. The undead master feat states that it only adds to the hd limit for animating, but shouldn't it also add to the control cap as well? I desperately need an answer for this please can someone point me in the right direction or if it has been errated I cannot find it. Anyone from Paizo that can share some light on this situation? Thanks so much

[Horselord]

By RAW it seems the control cap is unaffected. This means if you animated only creatures at the maximum HD you were capable of animating, you could not control 4 at once. Even so, stronger undead is more desirable than more undead in most situations so the feat is rather good.

[Mirrel the Marvelous]

But it DOES increase the control cap for the hit die you can control via the Command Undead feat! At least this is what I take from the wording (which could be better) of this Feat. Has this ever been FAQed?

[DM_Blake]

Yes, this feat is poorly worded, but obviously, it DOES affect the Command Undead feat because that feat is explicitly included in the description.

The Command Undead feat does not "animate" anything, so the phrase "When you ... use the Command Undead feat, you are considered to be four levels higher when determining the number of Hit Dice you animate." is utterly meaningless.

We can only assume the author didn't deliberately waste word space and everyone's time including the Command Undead feat in such a way that it has no benefit.

Therefore, we must assume that he meant to for anyone with the Undead Master feat to be able to use the Command Undead feat at +4 levels higher with regard to the only thing his level is applicable to - specifically, the number of HD he can command.

It's the only logical conclusion from this poor wording.

Ergo, you should probably read the Undead Master feat like this (see my edit in this font), any other interpretation makes no sense:

Undead Master
You can marshal vast armies of the undead to serve you.

Prerequisites: Spell focus (necromancy), the ability to cast animate dead or command undead.

Benefit: When you cast animate dead or use the Command Undead feat, you are considered to be four levels higher when determining the number of Hit Dice you animate or command. When you cast command undead, your duration is doubled.

[DonDuckie]

(EDIT: to add to DM_Blake's rewrite.)
I also house rule that it increases HD pool(s) by four levels. But the rules don't support this to my knowledge.

[Horselord]

Animate dead has a cap of how many HD a creature can have (2x caster level). So this feat is like Boon Companion (sorta) for undead minions. It allows the caster to animate creatures with 4 or 8 HD more than he could normally. Admittedly, desecrate does a better job.

[DM_Blake]

And this feat WITH Desecrate does an even better job.

I don't think the OP was confused about what the feat does for Animate Dead, but rather, what the feat does for Command Undead.

[Horselord]

Just to throw a spanner in the works, Command Undead is also a spell.

[DM Artemis]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I hope that a member of the Paizo staff sees this and hopefully makes an errata. To me it makes no sense why it would add to the animate but not the control. Desecrate handles that way better. IMHO I think it was just a simple miswording that I wish would be corrected. If anyone flags down James Jacobs I would highly appreciate it.

[Mirrel the Marvelous]

Horselord wrote:

Just to throw a spanner in the works, Command Undead is also a spell.

Which is also mentioned in the words of the feat. It doubles the duration of the spell. Free Extend Spell in other words. Not too shabby.