Lost with zombie archetypes stacking


Rules Questions


Hi, I would like to know how many hit dice a relentless cursed ogre would be equivalent for the animate dead spell ?

The ogre had 4 hit dice. He gets 2 for becoming a large zombi.

Relentless gives another 2 hit dice.

Is he considered a (4+2+2)x2 (for relentless)x2 (for cursed) = 32 hd ??

Is he considered a ((4+2)x2 (for relentless) +2 (hd given by relentless)) x2 (for cursed) = 28 ??

Or even (4+2+2)x3 = 24 or (4+2)x3 = 18 ???

As you can see I'm lost.

Could you help me ?

Liberty's Edge

When you are citing materials that aren't in the rule archive it is good form to link the abilities or put them in your post.

Relentless Zombie :

Relentless Zombie (CR +1)

Source PCS:CHR

These have all the powers of fast zombies, and also gain a Climb speed equal to half the base creature’s land speed, the scent special ability, a +4 racial bonus to Survival checks to track by smell, and two additional Hit Dice.

Cursed Zombie :

Cursed Zombie (CR +1)

Source PCS:CHR

Created as the result of a powerful curse rather than through necromantic spells, cursed zombies can bestow a curse upon their victims.

A cursed zombie gains the curse special attack, delivered with its slam attack.

Zombie curse (Su): slam; save Will DC = 10 + 1/2 the zombie’s Hit Dice + the zombie’s Cha modifier; frequency —; effect as bestow curse; cure —.

I fail to see where you get the x2. Actually D20PSRD has a note:
"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.)"

Note that I don't see the note cited there in the rule archive.

So it is:
4+2+2= 8 HD.
If your GM feel that the HD should be doubled when animating those kind of zombies, he should follow the standard Pathfinder rule about multiplying.

CRB wrote:
Multiplying: When you are asked to apply more than one multiplier to a roll, the multipliers are not multiplied by one another. Instead, you combine them into a single multiplier, with each extra multiple adding 1 less than its value to the first multiple. For example, if you are asked to apply a ×2 multiplier twice, the result would be ×3, not ×4.

It is used mostly for critical and other rolled effect, but it is meant to be applyied even to this kind of situation.


Thank you for your answer.

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