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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 4521266" data-attributes="member: 44797">I am planning to do some possibly unusual things with an Animate Dead spell, and I would like feedback on some things that require judgment.  I do not need to limit myself to core books here – so if you can find answers/hints about undead in other WotC books, I’d love the citation.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Do zombies have memory?  Their Intelligence score would imply no.  However, they must have some accumulated knowledge; otherwise they would not know what a road was, what “attack” meant, or even how to grip something.  So, what level of memory do you think they have?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I’ve heard people interpret “follows spoken commands” (part of the Animate Dead description) as that a zombie can follow many commands over time, but it only acts on the most recent one.  If so, it isn’t possible to tell a zombie “follow the orders of my team” because any subsequent order from the team would “wipe out” my order.  Perhaps the team would be able to issue one order and then the zombie would reset/forget and come back to me.  What do you think?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I’ve heard people interpret “follows spoken commands” as that a zombie could be issued multiple commands, similar to a programming script with a few branches.  In such an interpretation, a zombie could indeed “follow the orders of my team” and do a decent job juggling a few co-existing tasks.  What do you think?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I’ve heard people compare the 2nd edition Animate Dead description (“follows simple spoken commands”) with the 3.5 edition (“follows spoken commands”), and conclude that Animate Dead now allows for more complex commands to be given.  Thus, even if the zombie “forgets” all commands except the latest, the latest can be detailed enough to account for a fair amount and be useful.  True?  Anything written in any other books to support this claim?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">How much discernment do their wisdom scores give them?</li> </ol></blockquote>

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