Topic: Animate Dead question

[alloowishus]

THe spells says that the dead moves at -20 MM and -10 OB and gets +10 ob/lvl of the spell. What does this mean exactly? It's not an undead yet, that's another spell to bind a spirit into it. So does that mean it starts with an OB of 0?

[jdale]

I don't see a version of the spell that says +10 OB/lvl of the spell. Where are you looking?

In general, if it's -10 OB, that's relative to the stats for standard created undead I. So the final OB will be different depending on the attack type. E.g. for RMSS, standard created undead I get either a +25 small bash attack or a +15 weapon attack, either of which would be reduced by that -10.

[alloowishus]

Ok thanks, in the Necramancy spell list for creating undead, the first level animate dead implies that it doe NOT create an undead, it just animates a dead body, it takes another spell to bind a spirit to the dead body to create an undead. So that's why the -10 OB thing is confusing. WHat is the OB of an animated corpse that is not undead yet?

[jdale]

RMU says:

1. Animate Dead I – Caster can cause any dead body (within 50% of his own mass), to rise up and move. The caster must concentrate for the body to perform an action; if he stops concentrating, the body will stand motionless. The body can be maneuvered with a -25 modifier and can melee with a -20 OB. The body cannot have been dead more than 1 day. Use the stats from Creature Law for Class I Standard Created Undead except that the OB is -20 and it cannot move faster than a walk.

So that's not creating undead, like you say, it's just puppeting a dead body. The OB is going to be the listed OB of a Class I standard created undead except reduced by 20.

The RMSS version is the same except it points you at Creatures & Monsters for the stats. As noted above, class I standard created undead in RMSS have an OB of +25 small bash or +15 weapon attack. So if you are using the 4th level Animate Dead II which only reduces the OB by 10, then the dead animated by this spell will be making their attack as a +15 small bash (25-10=15) or +5 weapon (15-10=5).

[rdanhenry]

The wording could be a little more explicit that it is OB -20 compared to the Class I SCU, rather than a miserable -20 period. Perhaps some text in Creature Law can clarify that "stats for SCU are also used for animated dead, but modified as stipulated in the relevant Animate Dead spell"?