Amazing returning Skeleton?

[myradale]

All right, I've got a quick question here about the spell animate dead.
Yup, plain old boring 3rd level animate dead.
If my 5th level Cleric of super-evil-bad has both desecrate and animate dead, and happens to come across a recently deceased Cloud Giant, he can animate it as a skeleton (19hd) and have it as his willing servent indefinately. Pretty easy way to get a tough minion, I figure.

Now, he goes up against Mr goody-goody, and his poor skeleton gets his bones rocked. Poor skeleton, dead again. Can my cleric animate the same corpse again as long as he has another 475gp black onyx on him? Or does the skeleton sustain so much damage as to be made useless?

 

[Bad Paper]

Now, he goes up against Mr goody-goody, and his poor skeleton gets his bones rocked. Poor skeleton, dead again. Can my cleric animate the same corpse again as long as he has another 475gp black onyx on him? Or does the skeleton sustain so much damage as to be made useless?

no. The bones are destroyed into splinters and whatnot when it is destroyed. Can't animate again.

 

[Scharlata]

no. The bones are destroyed into splinters and whatnot when it is destroyed. Can't animate again.

Yupp!

See the spell entry for Animate Dead (PHB, p. 199): "(A destroyed skeleton or zombie can't be animated again.)".

Added: 5th-level clerics can only animate 10 HD of undead with a single casting of animate dead. So the cloud giant skeleton option would be off limits, I guess.

Enjoy!

 

[ThirdWizard]

EDIT: Bad math.

 

[werk]

All right, I've got a quick question here about the spell animate dead.
Yup, plain old boring 3rd level animate dead.
If my 5th level Cleric of super-evil-bad has both desecrate and animate dead, and happens to come across a recently deceased Cloud Giant, he can animate it as a skeleton (19hd) and have it as his willing servent indefinately. Pretty easy way to get a tough minion, I figure.

Now, he goes up against Mr goody-goody, and his poor skeleton gets his bones rocked. Poor skeleton, dead again. Can my cleric animate the same corpse again as long as he has another 475gp black onyx on him? Or does the skeleton sustain so much damage as to be made useless?

Why not 20HD?

 

[griff_goodbeard]

IIRC though there's a sixth level spell in Libris Mortis that let's you do this. Can't remember the name of it though.

 

[Shin Okada]

IIRC though there's a sixth level spell in Libris Mortis that let's you do this. Can't remember the name of it though.

Revive Undead. The undead monster will lose a HD. But it is still much better than to find another big corpse or skeleton. And much cheaper than to animate another one.

 

[Scharlata]

Why not 20HD?

Hi!

A living cloud giant has 17 HD. An undead cloud giant skeleton animated by a cleric at least of 9th level would have 17 HD, not 19 HD, nor 20 HD.

Kind regards

 

[RigaMortus2]

There is also a 2nd lvl spell Command Undead (I forget the book it is in... might be PHB or CD). It has no HD limit...

 

[Scharlata]

There is also a 2nd lvl spell Command Undead (I forget the book it is in... might be PHB or CD). It has no HD limit...

PHB, p. 211