good creatures to animate as skeletons

[Elethiomel]

...But skeletons lose all class levels. That level 1 human fighter is no longer a fighter; thus he no longer gets heavy armor prof. from the class - thus the question remains.

No. The Skeleton entry says "Drop any Hit Dice gained from class levels (to a minimum of 1)", which means that a human fighter 1 that is raised as a skeleton does not lose his fighter level.

 

[Asmor]

No. The Skeleton entry says "Drop any Hit Dice gained from class levels (to a minimum of 1)", which means that a human fighter 1 that is raised as a skeleton does not lose his fighter level.

I suspect that that is poorly worded, and what they meant is drop the hit dice from class levels, but leave a minimum of 1 racial hit die. You know, like how the elves in the MM all have 1 hit die, unclassed, and all creatures with only 1 hit die which take a class level lose their racial hit die.

 

[Pell-Mell]

The rast has both supernatural flight and the fire subtype. The ogre mage and yeth hound have supernatural flight as well.

 

[evilbob]

Ah, an ogre mage - not a bad candidate. 40' movement, large size + reach, can fly... Only its mediocre strength and low total HD keep this from being incredible. Plus, it loses a lot from the loss of all its mental abilities... Still, very nice. If only its Dex were naturally higher, it could use a longbow from the air to good effect...


Speaking of all this, I suppose one could - if you just had money to burn, I guess - invest in magical items for raised skeletons? Like a +1 bow or a +2 Dex item? It's expensive, especially for something that's basically a shock trooper, but is there any reason you couldn't load up a skeleton with magical items and let it loose?

 

[Elethiomel]

I suspect that that is poorly worded, and what they meant is drop the hit dice from class levels, but leave a minimum of 1 racial hit die. You know, like how the elves in the MM all have 1 hit die, unclassed, and all creatures with only 1 hit die which take a class level lose their racial hit die.

I'm AFB, so I don't know, but according to my memory all humanoids in the MM come with a level in an NPC or PC class, most often Warrior. No humanoids that I can remember has only racial HD - at least when they only have one HD.

 

[Shin Okada]

I'm AFB, so I don't know, but according to my memory all humanoids in the MM come with a level in an NPC or PC class, most often Warrior. No humanoids that I can remember has only racial HD - at least when they only have one HD.

In MM (3.5e), humanoids with no racial HD has some NPC or PC class (say, 1st-level warrior).

There is a humanoid only with racial HDs. Bugbear.

But there is no humanoid with only 1 racial (humanoid) HD.

 

[Asmor]

Wow. I never noticed that before. Color me embarassed.

That rule about replacing their existing hit die seems entirely less arbitrary now.

 

[Drowbane]

except from Dragon #324...

Looking for any good 16 hit die or fewer creatures to animate as skeletons (or zombies) using animate dead. Suggestions up to about 20 HD are also welcome. Thanks!

"getting more bang for your bones"

CL 16: marilith skeletons (2), or 8-headed hydras (4), or deinonychus skeletons (8)

The article covers CL 5-20... and for the most part its good advice.

 

[Victim]

Hydras are better as zombies, I think, since the Hydra multihead attack on a standard action is one of the few ways to give zombies extra attacks on their standard action.

Cloud Giants (17 HD) and Titans (20 HD) make excellent skeletons. They have huge STR for their HD, so they can still make effective attacks even with their poor Bab bonus from being an undead. They also have multiple attacks and reach. Titans also keep their "use bigger weapons ability" IIRC.

You can also use the undead for utility rather combat. A few Umber Hulk skeletons are great for digging - they can even go through stone (although slowly). And there's no reason why Undead can't work all the time; they can be digging at 24 hours a day. Their attack bonuses are fairly low however (but they have 3 attacks).

 

[Drowbane]

Hydras are better as zombies, I think, since the Hydra multihead attack on a standard action is one of the few ways to give zombies extra attacks on their standard action.

Zombies can take only a single Move action or a single Attack action (do those even still exist in 3.5... or is that something leftover from 3.0?)... so unless thats a misprint (and they are indeed allowed a Standard action), even a Hydra Zombie is incapable of attacking more than once per round.