So I've never really used this spell before. As a GM, most necromancers just have skeletons or zombies prepared beforehand. As a player, I've never played a character with tge ability. However, I'm playing a true neutral wizard in my current campaign, and the GM dropped two scrolls of Animate Dead in my lap. I have the spell, and need to find out a few things.
1: Onyx cost. 25gp per hit die is obvious enough. Can I make a skeleton or zombie at a set HD? Or are they limited to just racial + size mod? Is it 25gp per unadjusted? So a medium human zombie would be 25gp, and have 2 HD (1 from human zombie racial, one bonus from medium size), or do I pay the adjusted HD cost or 50gp? And for variant skeletons, whos HD are taxed double against my alotted total HD of undead, are they also double the cost, being 100gp for a bloody skeleton human?
2: Can I make a Juju Zombie (Bestiary 2) or other zombies and skeletons released after Bestiary 1? There's a specific line about not being able to make a Skeleton Champion because they're a unique case (made like ghosts), Jujus appear to have no such limitation, though their retained class levels would enormously inflate their HD and cost. Plus I have yet to browse through the other bestiaries but I imagine there are others.
I'm trying to make a cheat sheet for at the table so it doesn't slow the game to just quick raise a new minion friend, so any important information would be good.
1. They are limited to the resultant HD so a medium human zombie would cost 50gp and have 2 HD (1 from race and 1 from size). For variant undead they only count double HD for purposes of paying the cost to animate them. So a bloody human skeleton would cost 50gp to create (1 HD x2) but would only count as a single HD once it's animated for purposes of control.
2: Juju zombies are created via the spell Create Undead not animate dead. Animate dead only makes unintelligent zombies and skeletons and their variants. As soon as the undead gains an intelligence stat you start needing Create Undead instead of just Animate Dead.
1. They are limited to the resultant HD so a medium human zombie would cost 50gp and have 2 HD (1 from race and 1 from size). For variant undead they only count double HD for purposes of paying the cost to animate them. So a bloody human skeleton would cost 50gp to create (1 HD x2) but would only count as a single HD once it's animated for purposes of control.
2: Juju zombies are created via the spell Create Undead not animate dead. Animate dead only makes unintelligent zombies and skeletons and their variants. As soon as the undead gains an intelligence stat you start needing Create Undead instead of just Animate Dead.
That answers. Thank you.
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Also remember that costly material components are built into the scroll, so it is assumed to have the capacity to create undead equal to what a caster could create, though you may end up wasting some of that.
I don’t believe that’s an actual assumption you can make based on any written rules. Could you quote it?
To my knowledge, whoever created the scroll put x amount of onyx into the creation. Have the GM clarify exactly how much for you.
Also remember that costly material components are built into the scroll, so it is assumed to have the capacity to create undead equal to what a caster could create, though you may end up wasting some of that.I don’t believe that’s an actual assumption you can make based on any written rules. Could you quote it?
To my knowledge, whoever created the scroll put x amount of onyx into the creation. Have the GM clarify exactly how much for you.
at the bottom of the Magic Item table for scrolls it has this note
Prices assume that the scroll was made at the minimum caster level. The cost to create a scroll is half the base price.
It also states earlier
The creator must have prepared the spell to be scribed (or must know the spell, in the case of a sorcerer or bard) and must provide any material component or focus the spell requires. A material component is consumed when she begins writing, but a focus is not.
So, it can be assumed that the default for a divine scroll of animate dead includes the material cost for 10 HD worth of undead and that an arcane scroll of animate dead would include the material cost for 14 HD worth of undead.
This is the assumed default, the DM of course can adjust the amount as they see fit.
Whatever the case, the market value of the scroll would be proportionally increased by whatever amount the scriber of the scroll used as the material cost for making it.
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Caster Level has no bearing on how much onyx was used in the creation of the scroll, just as Val’bryn2 pointed out. So no, you cannot make any assumption about the material components in the scroll based on that.
A level 5 cleric creating a scroll of Animate Dead would probably want some 10HD scrolls (the largest amount he can create with a single casting) but may also wanna create some 3HD scrolls for some cheetah bones he has stashed. Or maybe even a 20HD scroll in case he pulls out the big guns and has a desecrate effect going!
Ask the GM how much onyx was used.
GM said 300gp after some discussion (neither if us are experienced arcane caster players so we had to discuss it.
New question. What's the HD cost of classic horror skeleton variants?
You'll probably have to ask your DM. Since bloody and burning specify its reasonable to assume other variants have a similar cost.
When i wanted to make bloody mundra skeletons my GM agreed to 100gp per HD (25x2x2). He also added the additional requirement that mundra (bloody or otherwise) required two corpses of the same size (since it has 4 arms).