Hi everyone,
I recently started running a Skulls & Shackles campaign (no spoilers, don't worry), and one of the PCs really, really wanted to play a NE Necromancer (Wizard). He agreed for this to be a cooperative experience beforehand and I'm fine with his choice, really I think this campaign is kind of neat for morally ambiguous characters.
The party has not yet encountered any Undead, and at levels 1 and 2 he won't be creating any himself, yet Necromancers can channel energy to Command Undead (effect as Control Undead).
My question is: What does "controlling" a creature allow you to do? Dominate Person has similar wording, yet also has limitations (things that go against one's nature are hard to impose). How does this work when commanding the undead to do things other than act physically? Control Undead itself is a 7th level spell so I would assume it to be very powerful.
Concrete example: When successfully assuming control of an intelligent undead, can you force it to tell you everything it knows? Force a ghoul to tell you about its death? Get a lich to give away it's phylactery?
Thank you and kind regards
Total control. If it is physically possible for the undead creature to attempt following the command, it will attempt to follow the command. No other ruling makes sense or has RAW support. To answer the concrete examples:
When successfully assuming control of an intelligent undead, can you force it to tell you everything it knows?
Yes, but the controller may need to phrase the command well: "Truthfully tell me everything of importance you know" might yield different answers than "Tell me everything you know". Also you need to make sure the undead can answer: undead incapable of speech may prove to be a problem.
Force a ghoul to tell you about its death?
Depends. Ghouls might not necessarily remember its past life or death. I haven't found a definite yes or no to this, so expect variation based on GM.
Get a lich to give away it's phylactery?
Definitely, provided the lich in question knows where its phylactery is. A good command would be "Truthfully tell me everything of importance regarding your phylactery, including its location or directions to its location".
PS. Don't forget this FAQ about Command Undead. It's awesome.
Thanks a bunch. I've done some more research on this as well and found many people comparing controlled sentient undead to genies granting wishes or outsiders making contracts. They'll try to shift things in their favour if possible.
We'll see if my player's necromancer catches on.