D&D 3E/3.5 (3.5) What can you command undead to do?

[orion90000]

How specific directions can mindless undead follow? I'm leaning towards the basic commands under Handle Animal.

And the rules do not say, but can you command all undead with the same standard action or do you need to issue the same mental command to each minion separately (separate actions)?

 

[Sekhmet]

When you control a mindless being, you can communicate only basic commands, such as “come here,” “go there,” “fight,” “stand still,” and so on. Nonintelligent undead won’t resist suicidal or obviously harmful orders.

Your commands are not telepathic. The undead creature must be able to hear you.

There you go. Both questions answered.

 

[orion90000]

What about this:

Commanded
A commanded undead creature is under the mental control of the evil cleric. The cleric must take a standard action to give mental orders to a commanded undead.

I appreciate the quick response, but you didn't clarify if you can command multiple minions with the same command.

 

[orion90000]

I suppose I did fail to mention that I was refering to undead under your control via Rebuke undead or Animate undead. The Command Undead spell you referenced seems to work a little differently.

 

[Sekhmet]

Oh, yes. They are a little different.
It appears the Command portion of Rebuke Undead works via mental control, and it takes a standard action to Command any Commanded Undead.
The wording suggests you can Command every Undead you control with one mental command, assuming it's the same command.

 

[frankthedm]

Oh, yes. They are a little different.
It appears the Command portion of Rebuke Undead works via mental control, and it takes a standard action to Command any Commanded Undead.

So that's why an allip has the madness ability!

Madness (Su)
Anyone targeting an allip with a thought detection, mind control, or telepathic ability makes direct contact with its tortured mind and takes 1d4 points of Wisdom damage.

 

[Jack Simth]

So that's why an allip has the madness ability!

Madness (Su)
Anyone targeting an allip with a thought detection, mind control, or telepathic ability makes direct contact with its tortured mind and takes 1d4 points of Wisdom damage.

And here I always thought it was simply an interesting way for an enterprising caster to discourage people from making use of Mindsight, Detect Thoughts, and a few other things.

 

[Celebrim]

How specific directions can mindless undead follow? I'm leaning towards the basic commands under Handle Animal.

That seems completely reasonable.

Claiming that the undead are mindless raises hard questions. My basic interpretation is that they are something like computers - they can engage in complex tasks but they have to be told EXACTLY what to do, and that they can engage in no creativity or initiative at all. But adhering to that is hard. You don't want to make the players write algorithms out. True mindlessness would make them pretty much useless without some sort of elaborate programming language and days of time to write out the steps. So presumably they come equipped with some basic reutines of some sort. But of course, exactly how a spell manages all of that isn't really specified. If the assumption is that they are actually provided their reutines by some sort of evil will or spirit, that would violate the tenent that they are mindless.

Perhaps its best not to think about it too deeply.

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION] Especially when we're talking about the most frequent undead controlled - Skeletons or Zombies.
Zombies can't take more than a standard action, which throws a spoke in the wheel of "complex tasks".

 

[frankthedm]

And here I always thought it was simply an interesting way for an enterprising caster to discourage people from making use of Mindsight, Detect Thoughts, and a few other things.

Mindsight didn't exist yet when the allip was written up and Detect thoughts and such generally have the [Mind-Affecting] descriptor, something undead have blanket immunity to. To me it seemed like some sort of bizarre ability that was only there as a bit of flavor and a too dumb to live test. But the other thing I wondered "OK, if the character foolishly does try to make mental contact, why is the punishment only wisdom damage when the allip hits for wisdom drain?".

Now it all makes sense, that ability only deals damage because it is supposed to happen. The Allip is like a

MTG card that hurts the controller. An evil cleric can mitigate the wisdom damage as long as he doen't issue commands too often. And when a rival cleric is in the area, the evil cleric pays 1d4 wisdom damage to make the allip seek and destroy the rival cleric and then casts a Lesser Restoration spell.