"This spell turns corpses into undead skeletons or zombies that obey your spoken commands.
The undead can be made to follow you, or they can be made to remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place."
Okay, simple enough...but what does this mean in practice?
Can Mr Wizard name them as A, B, and C and instruct them to attack individual targets using the power of pointing?
Could Mr Imp Familiar instruct as Mr Wizard's proxy?
I really like some examples of how people have used it in their games.
Thanks.
Unintelligent undead have a (no) simple mind so keep commands short and simple.
'Attack' or 'Defend me' or everything that you can say in six seconds (one round) should be valid. Undead dont know names etc. so you must work with pointing and spoken commands 'you attack A' etc. Directing three undead with pointing and commands to attack three different targets should be valid.
For clarity I am naming the undead.
"Undead A, attack him" *points at target* "Undead B & C, attack him" *points at another* is a valid set of commands then?
I'm not wanting to do anything fancy just "Follow and defend me from attack" and "Kill him *points*" stuff.
Zombies are stupid... But does the magic that bond them is ?
My opinion is you command each zombie with a spell that has some limit: You can give some basic orders ("defend that stuff", "kill that filthy dwarf!", etc...).
So, you (and only you) can give each zombie separate but basic orders.
That's how I DM it.
I've always figured "Obey that guy" was a simple enough order for them to understand.
Sounds fine to me. I compare it to summoned creatures. Even though you probably can't speak the creature's language you cant still command it to do simple things: attack; defend; follow; carry; etc.