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.
I have issues regarding the term "caster level". It makes me wonder the following questions:
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1.- If I am a level 5 Cleric, I can have 4*5=20 HD of undead under my control. What If I go 5 Cleric and then 3 Wizard? Do the Wizards level count against this limit? Do I get 4*(5+3)=32 HD now?
(I assume this is a "No", but I ask this anyway so the following questions have some sense. Also I might be wrong)
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2.- Now I go to level 12, and my character looks like Cleric 5, Wizard 7. I can cast animate dead with my wizard now. Do I get 4*(5+7)=48 HD of undead?
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3.-If so, are those HD from different pools? What I mean is, I have 20 HD from Cleric and 28 HD from Wizard. If I use my cleric to animate 19 HD of undead, and then my wizard to animate 27 HD of undead. Can I now animate a creature with 2HD? Or do I have to use them seperately as they do not come from the same source?
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4.-Advancing levels in Mystic Theurge, would make me get double the HD from each class level? As I am now advancing my wizard and cleric caster levels at the same time, right?.
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5. Is there an erra on Agent of the Grave prestige class? It says that each level counts twice, and I guess it only counts for the class that you are advancing your spellcasting with AotG.
The problem comes in the example that paizo provides: it says that a cleric 7/Agent of the Grave 3 would be able to control 52 Hit Dice worth of undead with animate dead.
According to this example a level 7 cleric woulld get 4*7=28 HD of undead. So the 3 levels of AotG woudl be giving him 52-28=24. Now, I had the impression that the HD control came from caster level, but he does not gain any at the first level of the prestige class. So how does this work?
-It is wrong. It should be 16 HD and not 24, to a total of 44 HD in the example
-What they really meant is three times per caster level so he would be getting 12 from the second and 12 from the third, to a total of 52.
-The prestige class actually gives you full spellcasting progression. It is a typo and you are getting caster levels from the first level of the prc
-This feature acts really weird. It makes you not gain caster levels from your spellcasting progression gained by this prestige class (for the porpose of animate dead). Instead, you gain you class levels as caster levels for the porpose of animate dead
If the last one is correct. Does this mean that this class do not give casterlevel bonus for the spellcasting advancement but for the class itself? Does this mean it would apply to both my wizard and cleric classes? Or do I have to chose each level (including the first one) to what class do I grant this benefit?
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6.-If I use a wand of animate dead, how many undead can I controll with it? Does this count against my HD limit?
If I had to tell how it works I would say that you cast the spell with the wand, with a caster level of the wand, so the caster level of the wand only affects the number of HD you can animate. As a counterpart you do not, however, have any caster level yourself (if you are a rogue for example) so you can animate the dead but no control them.
Is this how it works?
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7.- Then what if I have a race that allows me to cast animate dead, as a Devourer. Using the rules for creating races this can be done. What would it happen? Do I have the caster level (as my character level) for creating but not for controlling? I beleive the Devourer can controll their minion, dont the?
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8.- Having the JuJu Mystery, and the relevation that follows:
Spirit Vessels:
You can channel wendo spirits into lifeless bodies, reanimating them to aid you. When using the animate dead spell, you can control 6 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level rather than 4 HD. In addition, any zombies or juju zombies you create using animate dead, create undead, or similar spells possess maximum hit points.
Do I get this benefit for any caster class that have the animate dead, or does it just affect my Oracle's Animate dead caster level?
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9.- How about the Cruoromancer's ability:
Blood Command:
At 5th level, a cruoromancer can control up to 5 Hit Dice worth of undead creatures per caster level instead of the normal 4 Hit Dice of undead when casting the animate dead spell. He also gains the following blood infusion ability.
Commanding Infusion: When using this infusion with animate dead, the cruoromancer can create a number of Hit Dice of undead equal to three times his caster level instead of twice his caster level.
This ability replaces the 5th-level wizard bonus feat.
Does this only affect the wizard casting that spell from the wizard's spell slots?
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10.- The Dhampir favored class bonus for Wizards says:
Add +¼ to the wizard’s caster level when casting spells of the necromancy school.
Is this just for the casting? Does this affect only to the number of HD I can animate with one casting or is it also for the number of controled HD? It doesnt say I get caster level for necromancy when I am not casting.
1. No, It's based on the caster level of the class that has the spell learned.
2. No, you have 20 HD of Cleric Animate Dead and 28 HD of Wizard Animate Dead.
3. They're separate pools.
4. Mystic Theurge would advance both Wizard and Cleric caster levels so the HD pool would increase for both. It'll take awhile to use that combo and you won't be great at much else but it's quite the army.
5. You count your Agent of the Grave levels twice for all Animate Dead spell HD control limits. It sounds great but you lose alot of casting power if you're running Wizard x Cleric.
5b. Your spell casting does not increase at all for taking the first level of Agent of the Grave. So a Wizard 3, Cleric 3, Agent 1 casts like a Wizard 3, Cleric 3. Every level in Agent after 1 you need to choose a class that qualifies for Agent to increase that class's Caster Level.
6. You use the Wand's caster level and treat it as if the user cast the spell at that caster level. A little weird yes, but it's so horribly expensive that i don't think it'll ever see play.
7. Creatures with spell like abilities have an associated Caster Level. Devourer has a Caster Level 18. If it's a Supernatural Ability it would be based on HD.
8. It's not restricted to Oracle, so it'd apply to all castings of Animate Dead.
9. It never specifies it's Cruoromancer only, and the infusion only limits it to necromancy school spells not class specific ones so it's valid too.
10. It means that you add 1/4 to your caster level for the purposes of necromancy spells you cast. So a level 4 Dhampir wizard casts necromancy spells as a level 5 Wizard. Since Animate HD and Control HD are tied to Caster Level you'd count as a 5th level caster.
To Explain the Wand pricing a little bit. You need to decide the max amount of HD each casting of the wand can animate before you make it. Then multiply that by 50. You always use up 100% of the amount you can animate per cast even if you animate 1 body.
So an Animate Dead wand would cost 11250 gold for a caster level 5 wand, then add 25 gold per HD to animate which would be 10. So 250 gold per charge. That's an extra 12500. That's 23750 gold for a minimum level wand of Animate Dead.
Actually, the wand could be cheaper. You don't have to supply full material component for maximum use. If you used 50gp*50 for the material cost, the wand is cast at 5th level, but can only animate 2HD worth a cast.
There are items in the PRD scroll list that do this.
Wish scroll: assumes 25000 gp cost of wish, yet wish can cost more if the spell it emulates has > 10000 gp materials.
Would the materials you supplied during the crafting of the wand have to be used equally or could it be more like an account of onyx where in the first cast I can expend 300gp worth and in the second only spend 150, and effectively the wand is constrained both by charges and by its onyx balance?
