Seed: Animate Dead
Necromancy
Knowledge (arcane lore) DC: 34; Range: Touch; Targets: One or more corpses touched; Duration: Instantaneous; Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: No
You can turn the bones or bodies of dead creatures into undead that follow your spoken commands. The undead can follow you, or they can remain in an area and attack any creature (or a specific type of creature) entering the place. The undead remain animated until they are destroyed. (A destroyed undead cant be animated again.) Intelligent undead can follow more sophisticated commands.
The animate dead seed (which is more potent than the animate dead spell) allows you create 20 HD of undead. For each additional 1 HD of undead created, increase the Knowledge (arcane lore) check DC by +1. The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely.
You can naturally control 20 HD of undead creatures youve personally created, regardless of the method you used. If you exceed this number, newly created creatures fall under your control, and excess undead from previous castings become uncontrolled (you choose which creatures are released). Any undead you command through a class-based ability to command or rebuke undead do not count toward the limit.
For each additional 2 HD of undead to be controlled, increase the Knowledge (arcane lore) check DC by +1. Only undead in excess of 20 HD created with this seed can be controlled using this DC adjustment. If you want to both create and control more than 20 HD of undead, increase the Knowledge (arcane lore) DC by +3 per additional 2 HD of undead.
Type of Undead: All types of undead can be created with the animate dead seed, although creating more powerful undead increases the Knowledge (arcane lore) check DC, according to the chart below. The GM must set the Knowledge (arcane lore) check DC for undead not included on the chart, using similar undead as a basis for comparison.
| Undead | Knowledge (arcane lore) DC Modifier |
|---|---|
| Medium or smaller skeleton | 12 |
| Medium or smaller zombie | 12 |
| Animating spirit | 10 |
| Frightful spirit | 8 |
| Large skeleton | 8 |
| Large zombie | 6 |
| Groaning spirit | 6 |
| Small or smaller liquefied zombie | 4 |
| Medium liquefied zombie | 2 |
| Weakening spirit | +0 |
| Mummy | +0 |
| Large liquefied zombie | +0 |
| Possessing spirit | +2 |
| Huge skeleton | +2 |
| Huge liquefied zombie | +2 |
| Ash wraith | +4 |
| Huge zombie | +4 |
| Gargantuan or Colossal skeleton | +6 |
| Gargantuan or Colossal zombie | +8 |
| Gargantuan liquefied zombie | +8 |
| Colossal liquefied zombie | +10 |
| Vampire | Hit Dice +4 |