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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 4523102" data-attributes="member: 44797">Hmm.  I've had no replies, so let me try a different angle.  I'll tell you what I'm hoping to do.  I'd like to work within RAW, so suggestions for doing that are welcome.Our group was headed south toward the town we needed to find.  Along the way, a wagon with a family approached.  We asked about the town.  They confirmed they had just come from there.  We asked how the town was doing.  "Minor skirmishes, no big deal," we were told.  However, our sense motive radar told us he was holding back, so we pressed him for more info.  We didn't get much.  We moved on... right into a hobgoblin trap just 2 miles down the road.The fight was brutal, and afterwards, we all sat around the table wondering how the heck the wagoneer managed to get past them.  Then we realized he had been covering for them, or involved, or something.We are (I think) supposed to leave behind the ambush as either a set piece that no longer troubles us, or as a side quest to go hunt down the wagoneer.  I would prefer to do neither.  There was a freshly killed family in the farmhouse the hobgoblins occupied.  I would like to use my Speak With The Dead spell to quiz the family about who killed them, and if the wagoneer was seen or involved.  Then, IF the wagoneer was indeed involved, I would like to cast Animate Dead on all of them (the family AND the hobgoblins).My instruction to the family?  "As a group, covertly pursue your attackers along this road or elsewhere and take revenge, then return to the outskirts of town with their cart and any other property you find on them."That instruction is rife with assumptions.  First, are they capable of "covert?"  Second, can they handle an instruction that long?To the hobgoblins, my instruction will be: "As a group, covertly return to where the hobgoblins live, slaughter them in their sleep even if they awaken, then return to the outskirts of town with everything the hobgoblins own, even if it takes multiple trips."This instruction has another big assumption -- undead remember where they lived in life.  For that matter, do undead know where they are in death?  Would they know where "town" was?Perhaps they have no memory at all but merely an imprint from the cleric?  In which case they function as well as I cast?EDIT: Ah, I see in the Monster Manual that both skeletons & zombies say they require "simple instructions."  Do you think my instructions are too complicated?  How would I break them down into smaller tasks?  I could use sending spells to give them additional small instructions as they go.Also, it appears that they do indeed function only as well as I cast.  Their wisdom is apparently only minimally useful.  Still not sure what kind of memory they would have, though.</blockquote>

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