Cruromancer: Animate Dead, Commanding Infusion, and Desecrating Infusion numbers


Rules Questions


I did a search and It didn't seem like the question had been asked:

How do the Hit Dice calculations for Animate Dead end up when Commanding Infusion and Desecrating Infusion are all taken into account?

Cruomancer archetype is right here

Lets look at a 10th level wizard Cruomancer (and lets say through his favored class Bonus from being damper make it a 12th caster level).

also, this situation hasn't come up in a game, its just me building characters...

Animate dead says you make a number of hit dice of undead equal to twice your caster level. Thats 24 HD.

Commanding infusion says you can control a number of hit dice of undead equal to three times your caster level instead of twice. Thats 36 HD.

Desecrating infusion says he effectively can cast desecrate on himself once per day and lasting 1 minut per level (thats 10 minutes)

Desecrate (the spell) says you can "double the normal amount of undead (that is 4 HD per caster level rather than 2 HD per caster level)"

My Understanding/Lack there of:
NORMALLY: During this Cruromancer's day, he can either animate 3HD per caster level (36 HD).

OCCASIONALLY: For a total of 10 minutes, he can cast animate dead that either animate 4HD per level (48 HD), or 6 HD per level (72 HD).

reasons for 4 HD per level: the desecrate spell specifies in parenthesis "that it is 4 HD per caster level rather than 2 HD per caster level"

reasons for 6 HD per level: If we were to consider the 3 HD per caster level from commanding infusion as "normal," and the desecrate spell says "double the NORMAL amount," then the number of Hit dice per caster level would be 3x2 which is 6.

I'd like to clarify that I'm not confused about the necromancer's ability to channel energy or command undead, and I understand that the HD counts for this ability is completely separate from the animate dead ability.

Please feel free to ask clarifying questions if you don't think you completely understand my question.


Snow_Tiger wrote:
Commanding infusion says you can control a number of hit dice of undead equal to three times your caster level instead of twice

No, it says you can create that many undead. There is no change to the normal limit on how many HD you can control through the spell.

Cruromancer wrote:
A cruoromancer can only affect a spell with a single type of blood infusion

So he could not use both on a single casting, but since the Desecrate effect lasts 1 min/lvl, lets say he casts a Desecrated False Life on himself, then starts using Commanding Animate Dead spell while under the ongoing Desecrate effect.

I think you would end up with 6 HD per CL. The Desecrate spell reads "double the normal amount of undead," and I think the parenthetical part is basically summarizing what that would normally mean. Since you are animating 3 HD per CL, you double that.

Of course, since you can only control 5 HD per CL, this could leave you with a bunch of uncontrolled undead. You could put the excess HD of "animating potential" to use making them Bloody Skeletons instead of regular ones.


Increasing your creation HD can (sort of in a limited circumstance) increase the amount you control, since you control all undead that reanimate in a particular casting of Animate Dead even if exceeds your control cap:

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.

Of course abilities like Commanding Infusion are a complete waste of time. Just use Command Undead (the spell) and you'll be able to control more HD of undead then you'll know what to do with. Seriously, it's days per level and *any* amount of HD per casting and guaranteed against mindless undead (like the ones you animate). I mean once you have over 300 HD of undead controlled thanks to Command Undead (this is a super easy low balling), does an extra 12 HD really matter?

Just dump those pointless abilities.


Yes I believe I meant the create

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