Animate dead!! Is it me or it is very complicated??

[Javiash]

Hi everyone, I'm playing tomorrow an Urgathoa Cleric level 6 and I want my undead minions. But I'm having so much trouble to trully understand this spell.

First- I want to reanimate my last character who died in this campaign, also level 6... that means that when I reanimate him he will only have 1 HD, cause he lost his class HD, right? But adding templates raises his HD or not? I want him to be a bloody mudra skeleton (my DM let me to attach to extra limbs in the time of casting the spell). So, is he will still be 1 HD? Or can I choose how many HD he can have? And this question birngs us to my second question...

Second- the rules says that the cost is 25gp per HD. This is calculate with his class HD or only his racial HD? The same example. My last character will raise with 1 HD, so it will cost me 25 gp (no templates) o I have to pay 150 gp (6 class HD, no templates)

Third- How do I give classes to my undeads? If I want a rogue skeleton, how can I magnage this? Or a ranger zombie? You get my point.

Fourth- If a reanimate a plague zombie... his spaws, will they be intelligent or not? I know they wont be under my control, but having the command undead solves that, unless they are intelligent undead.

I know that aplying templates raises the cost but only to reanimate them, not to the actual number I can control.

I know I have more doubts about this spell, but right now I don't remember them. So meanwhile you can answer this ones and then I will post the new ones.

Thanks in advanced.

[Zhangar]

Animate dead on a PC-race race humanoid is always going to give you a 1 HD (skeleton) or 2 HD (zombie) creature. Adding templates does not raise the actual hit dice.

You'd only apply the racial HD for cost. The class levels are "lost" more or less.

By default you can't give standard zombies or skeletons class levels.

The skeleton champion and zombie lord variants are intelligent and do have class levels, but I'm not aware of a method to make those.

[Val'bryn2]

One: Yes, he's still 1 HD, because it's only racial HD that matters.

2: 25 gp, as it goes off only racial hd

3rd, you don't, nonintelligent beings, or any creature with Int less than 3, cannot take class levels

4. looking it up, get back to you in a minute

[Val'bryn2]

Edit: since the zombie is unintelligent, it's staying unintelligent.

[Javiash]

Val'bryn2 wrote:

Edit: since the zombie is unintelligent, it's staying unintelligent.

Thanks everyone!! You solved my doubts I have since last week in a matter of minutes.

Now I bring new ones:

-When animating zombies they gain an extra HD, does this new HD counts in the total HD I can control?

-When animating zombie lords or Skeletal champions, they keep everything? Memories, feats, class skills(the amount of skill points change, I know)

This are the ones I have now... I'll come back later :P

Thanks!!!

[Javiash]

NEW ONE, haha.

-What does it means the CR+1 in each template? Does this change the cost of animation? O raises its HD?? Example: the fast zombie is CR+0, but the relentless is CR+1 and is exactly the same as the fast zombie but better. So why would you raise a fast zombie if you can have a relentless one??

Thanks.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Javiash wrote:

NEW ONE, haha.

-What does it means the CR+1 in each template? Does this change the cost of animation? O raises its HD?? Example: the fast zombie is CR+0, but the relentless is CR+1 and is exactly the same as the fast zombie but better. So why would you raise a fast zombie if you can have a relentless one??

Thanks.

It's a calculation for the Challenge Rating for the DM. Has no effect on HD or animation calculations.

[Ashiel]

Javiash wrote:

-When animating zombies they gain an extra HD, does this new HD counts in the total HD I can control?

Yes. Because it's based on the HD of the controlled creature, rather than the HD of the base creature.

Quote:

-When animating zombie lords or Skeletal champions, they keep everything? Memories, feats, class skills(the amount of skill points change, I know)

Yes, more or less. However, skeletal champions aren't animated with animate dead.

Quote:

-What does it means the CR+1 in each template? Does this change the cost of animation? O raises its HD?? Example: the fast zombie is CR+0, but the relentless is CR+1 and is exactly the same as the fast zombie but better. So why would you raise a fast zombie if you can have a relentless one??

I'm not particularly familiar with the CR+1 zombies. The only two variant zombies in core are fast and plague zombies, which have no influence on how many you can control (you can only raise 1/2 as many variant skeletons with a single casting though).

*Goes and looks it up*

Relentless zombies get +2HD which means they're a little beefier and harder to control than normal zombies. That seems to be about it though.

[Javiash]

Ashiel wrote:

Quote:

-When animating zombie lords or Skeletal champions, they keep everything? Memories, feats, class skills(the amount of skill points change, I know)

Yes, more or less. However, skeletal champions aren't animated with animate dead.

Thanks again and again for your help.

I think you can animate a skeletal champions. In www.d20pfsrd.com in the variants you can animate there is a magus, that says that is a skeletal champion. That means you can only animate magus's or you can animate different skeletal champions?

And if it is only magus you can animate, does it have to be a former magus o any skeleton you animate like this turns into a magus?

Again, thanks to everybody.

[Javiash]

Val'bryn2 wrote:

Edit: since the zombie is unintelligent, it's staying unintelligent.

Again with this one, you are telling me that they come back unintelligent, excelente, but how about if the plague zombie that first bite them was also relentless or fast, do they come back like that also or only regular plague zombies?

And the extra HD that the relentless and zombie lord give are separate of the extra HD they gain for been zombies??

[Val'bryn2]

It would only gain the plague template, at least how I run it, as there's nothing indicating that it gains all the powers of the infector.

And as for animating skeletal champions, you can only go off the options in the spell, and since, technically speaking, the Skeletal Champion and Zombie Lord are separate templates, you can't add them.

[Snakers]

Look up brewers guide to undeath, it's in zenith guide compilation. Great handbook fit any necromancer

['Sani]

Javiash wrote:

Ashiel wrote:

Quote:

-When animating zombie lords or Skeletal champions, they keep everything? Memories, feats, class skills(the amount of skill points change, I know)

Yes, more or less. However, skeletal champions aren't animated with animate dead.

Thanks again and again for your help.

I think you can animate a skeletal champions. In www.d20pfsrd.com in the variants you can animate there is a magus, that says that is a skeletal champion. That means you can only animate magus's or you can animate different skeletal champions?

And if it is only magus you can animate, does it have to be a former magus o any skeleton you animate like this turns into a magus?

Again, thanks to everybody.

d20pfsrd is a fan run site, and it often includes 3rd party materials which are not published by Paizo. 3rd party materials often change or break rules from official Pathfinder. In regular Pathfinder, Skeletal Champions and Zombie Lords can not be created with Animate Dead so here on the official Pathfinder boards the 'you can't do that' was the answer you got.

[Benchak the Nightstalker]

To clarify--
You can create skeletal champions, just not with animated dead. You need a higher level spell, create undead.

The rules for how to do that are in Undead Revisited (and probably on d20pfsrd somewhere).

I believe they keep the class levels they had in life, so to animate a rogue skeletal champion, you'd need to find a dead rogue.

[Javiash]

Ok, so no zombie lord or skeletal champion... Is there an official list of the variables we can use? For both zombies and skeletons, please.

And can we use a dead zombie's skeleton to animate a skeleton? I know the rules says that no skeleton or zombie can be animated again, but this is different, or not?

Thanks.

[Tacticslion]

Animate Dead (<-that's a link) says,

Animate Dead wrote:

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.

Skeletons: A skeleton can be created only from a mostly intact corpse or skeleton. The corpse must have bones. If a skeleton is made from a corpse, the flesh falls off the bones. Editor's Note: The bloody skeleton and burning skeleton variants are created by use of the animate dead spell but count as double their normal HD when doing so.

Zombies: A zombie can be created only from a mostly intact corpse. The corpse must be that of a creature with a physical anatomy. Editor's Note: The rule regarding costing double HD for creating variant bloody skeleton and burning skeleton variants was not included in the fast zombie and plague zombie variant zombie template details. It is left to the GMs discretion if that rule would apply to creating variant zombies.

Note: This spell can be used on any mostly intact dead vermin that has an exoskeleton. When this is done the creature gains the exoskeleton template. The template does not indicate any additional costs or requirements (see Exoskeleton template.) [smaller]Source: AP91

The Zombie template notes,

Zombie wrote:

Note: The bloody skeleton and burning skeleton variants indicate that they are created by use of the animate dead spell but count as double their normal HD when doing so. The variant zombies listed below did not include any such information. It is left to the GM to determine if this rule is fair when creating the zombies below (unless someone alerts us to some official ruling by a Paizo source that is.)

Each of the following variant zombies modifies the base zombie in a few simple ways.

Skeleton wrote:

The bloody and burning skeleton variants are created using the animate dead spell, but count as twice their normal number of Hit Dice per casting. Once controlled, they count normally against the controller's limit.

Compare that to create undead (and its greater variant), you'll find a list of specific undead (inclucing, expressly, the skeletal champion and juju zombie).

What that means is that... that's all. While Classic Horrors Revisted has those templates, none are explicitly tied to the animate dead spell other than to vaguely reference it a couple of times in the same chapter (but never in direct reference to the templates themselves).

Unfortunately... that's all there is. There are no more official answers that I know of. Sorry.