Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Say you're trying to move the deceased out of the dungeon for a proper burial or resurrection/raise dead, so, to ease matters, you cast animate dead on them and give them the simple orders of "follow us, fight when told."

Are they basically just a zombie per the monster manual, one you roll hit dice for and go from there?

How much can they carry (hey, might as well put 'em to use) before they're encumbered?

etc.

thedungeondelver wrote:Say you're trying to move the deceased out of the dungeon for a proper burial or resurrection/raise dead, so, to ease matters, you cast animate dead on them and give them the simple orders of "follow us, fight when told."

Are they basically just a zombie per the monster manual, one you roll hit dice for and go from there?

How much can they carry (hey, might as well put 'em to use) before they're encumbered?

etc.

Thats my impression. The soul is not in the dead body, so its just a slab of meat walking (so just standard zombie stats). I'd allow it to carry a little more then a human in weight, but it would move painfully slow (though never tire). Might wonder off in the woods, attack party members, spook (attack) horses, freak out dogs etc. I also get the impression this would be done to help the party get out alive. I'd let the player role (and control it) I suppose. A chance to play Bub (from Day of the Dead, arguably the worst of the Romero films).



Its odd that in all the years playing we've never had a cleric do this to a party member. I guess it just never came up.

I was under the impression that a PC or NPC animated as undead couldn't be raised afterward, but upon some refresher reading, if a skeleton or zombie was created within the span of time that a corpse can be raised, then it is raised if it makes its RS roll.

WRT the HD of the zombie, if you use a higher-level monster, you can end up with a more-powerful zombie (see DMG p 41 or the weaker UA spell Animate Dead Monsters).

I've never understood "animate dead monsters" - the DMG adequately outlines the effect and results of animating dead monsters without that spell (or monster zombies in the MMII).

thedungeondelver wrote:Say you're trying to move the deceased out of the dungeon for a proper burial or resurrection/raise dead, so, to ease matters, you cast animate dead on them and give them the simple orders of "follow us, fight when told."

Are they basically just a zombie per the monster manual, one you roll hit dice for and go from there?

How much can they carry (hey, might as well put 'em to use) before they're encumbered?

etc.

Standard zombie (unless the PC was of abnormal size; gnome & halfling zombies might have only 1 or 1+1 HD, while a half ogre probably has 3 HD)

Zombies are strong (decent to hit chances despite being slow & clumsy, and a d8 damage with their fists), I'd use 18 STR encumbrance (standard +750 gp)

thedungeondelver wrote:I've never understood "animate dead monsters" - the DMG adequately outlines the effect and results of animating dead monsters without that spell (or monster zombies in the MMII).

It's the UA/1.5e, all one needs to understand is that is sucks