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Oracle of bones, lvl 6. Animate dead, Gifted adept for animate dead +1 (i was told to do that, i don't actually know if it even works.)
Assuming no desecrate I can CREATE to 14 HD per cast of animate, and CONTROL, up to 32?
So it would just be 28/64 if i cast desecrate prior?
I'm new to this stuff, so i'm having a hard time understanding it.
Someone also mentioned Undead master, but one person said it only effects your CREATION, not the amount you can control, which is even more confusing.
Help?
Assuming no desecrate I can CREATE to 14 HD per cast of animate, and CONTROL, up to 32?
You can create up to 14 HD with a single casting (7x2). However, you can only control 28 HD at a time (7x4). I'm not sure where you're getting 32.
So it would just be 28/64 if i cast desecrate prior?
It would be 28/28 if you cast desecrate prior. Desecrate only increases the number of undead created, not the maximum you may control.
Someone also mentioned Undead master, but one person said it only effects your CREATION, not the amount you can control, which is even more confusing.
The Undead Master feat is poorly written and it's unclear what it actually does. Talk to your GM.
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ah thanks. Yeah i just hastily did the math wrong there.
So why is desecrate so highly recommended if it only saves me having to cast animate twice? If it doesn't double my controllable amount, i don't get it.
Alright, so if i understand the rest, if i added Spell spec:animate, and a tattoo, for +3 more, the number at my lvl would be effective 10, shifting the math to 20 HD per cast, and 40 controllable?
and if the GM allowed undead master, 28hd per cast, and 72 controllable with no desecrate cast on either of those?
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. When you cast command undead, your duration is doubled.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. They remain animated until they are destroyed. A destroyed skeleton or zombie can't be animated again.
Regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you can't create more HD of undead than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead. The desecrate spell doubles this limit.
The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely. No matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can control only 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level. If you exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your control, and any excess undead from previous castings become uncontrolled. You choose which creatures are released. Undead you control through the Command Undead feat do not count toward this limit.
Target: 1 undead creature.
Duration 1 day/lvl.
This spell allows you a degree of control over an undead creature. If the subject is intelligent, it perceives your words and actions favorably (treat its attitude as friendly). It will not attack you while the spell lasts. You can give the subject orders, but you must win an opposed Charisma check to convince it to do anything it wouldn't ordinarily do. Retries are not allowed. An intelligent commanded undead never obeys suicidal or obviously harmful orders, but it might be convinced that something very dangerous is worth doing.A nonintelligent undead creature gets no saving throw against this spell. When you control a mindless being, you can communicate only basic commands, such as "come here," "go there," "fight," "stand still," and so on. Nonintelligent undead won't resist suicidal or obviously harmful orders.
Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the commanded undead (regardless of its Intelligence) breaks the spell.
Your commands are not telepathic. The undead creature must be able to hear you.
So it works like this:
Animate dead scales off this equation:Oracle Levels + 1 = Your Total Effective Caster Level. The amount of undead you Animate is equal to ([Total Effective Caster Level + 4]*2).
The amount of undead that you can command via animate undead uses this equation:
Total Effective Caster Level * 4.
This means you can animate 22 ([6 + 1 + 4] * 2) HD of undead per casting of Animate Dead.
This means you can command through Animate Dead To 28 ([6 + 1] * 4) HD of undead.
Command Undead (Spell): Intelligent undead still receive their save each day, but your control so long as they do not succeed in the save is extended to 2 day/level.
Command Undead (Feat): 10 (Oracle Levels + 4) = Total HD of undead you control through the Command Undead Feat.
Command Undead and Command Undead are not the same thing, though I can see how you would have been confused, one is a feat that you "use" and the other is a spell that you "cast."
Does that clear it all up?
Edited due to bug found in equation for Animate Dead.
However, you should keep one thing in mind when it comes to having massive amounts of undead. You can't combine multiple undead creatures together to create a high HD monstrosity. If you can then I've not seen the rule, so if someone could link it that would be nice.
Your offensive Bread and Butter is going to be Bloody Burning Skeletons. They don't permanently die when they die unless special conditions are met, they are immune to fire, and they have a fire aura that deals 1d6 fire damage to adjacent enemies.
Then again, it is hard to hide an army of glowing skeletons in the night. On top of that Necromancy is considered an act punishable by death in most societies, so be wary of that army that comes to kill you. Then again, they might just turn out to be new Bloody Burning Skeletons.
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Hi Gravitygroove
I don't feel like explaining everything since other people already told most, but there was a cleric guide around which explained some of these questions; link for guide.
Malag
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ah excellent. So things that modify my Animate CL will modify my controllable amount (again, still don't get why desecrate matters if this is the case)
So if i added a tattoo for animate then 6+2 *4 =32. Alright think i have that part.
Then it's never animating any SINGLE thing that is more then 2* my CL?
I assume that means a dragon dies and it's 20 hd, so i can't even try to animate it... is this what desecrate is for?
And i did not know you could double template skelly's. so they would be 1hd=3hd if 2 templates were stacked? or is it a doubling of cost strictly,
so 1 to 2, 2 to 4hd cost.
My gm is going to allow me to get "disguise undead" from the 3.5 spells (he says it fits my character so go for it.) but i think the fire aura would kinda make that moot. =-0
Then it's never animating any SINGLE thing that is more then 2* my CL?
I assume that means a dragon dies and it's 20 hd, so i can't even try to animate it... is this what desecrate is for?
Desecrate has a number of uses. It permanently gives a HP boost to all minions created under its effeccts, and is also helpful for creating variant skeletons. A variant skeleton counts as twice its normal HD when it's created, so if you've got a 10 HD monster and you want to make it into a bloody skeleton you'll need to be able to create 20 HD with a single casting. It still counts as 10 for the purposes of controlling it, but this makes it difficult to create them.
When in doubt, create Bloody Skeletons and Fast Zombies. The extra effort is well worth the increase in power.
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cool. Thanks for the info.
Took desecrate, and my gm said he might consider the possibility of me finding a reliquary item of some sort along the way (we did harrowstone recently, and are now doing the beast of leppenstat, so i guess we might run into some BBEG that has one....
Appreciate you folks taking the time to help me out.
=-O
Someone mentioned the difficulty of hiding an undead army and the impossibility of combining undead into a larger easier to conceal creature. The Necrocraft from Beastiary 4 is exactly this, allowing masters of undeath everywhere rejoice as they make their small useless undead into big scary undead.