No Animate Dead?

[The_Pugilist]

I can't believe that there is not an Animate Dead ritual in the core book. It actually boggles my mind, especially given the relative ease with which it could have been added.

I just hope that they don't make us wait until they release a Necromancer class in PHB 5 or something to get this. Am I missing something or is this just gone?

Otherwise enjoying the books but this seemed an odd exclusion.

 

[Oompa]

Well its easy to make one yourself..

Just make the casting time 15 minutes or so, they need an skeletal corpse, have them pay like 150 gp for ingedients.. and let the duration be an hour or so?

 

[Oompa]

and give him minion skeleton stats?

 

[jmucchiello]

There are no summoning powers either. The ability to add opponents (on either side) is off balancing. Didn't one of the designers say PHB2 will have summoning as they "figured out" how to do it too late in the design?

 

[RigaMortus2]

From what I remember, they were reserving such spells for a Necromancer class and a Summoner class...

 

[The_Pugilist]

I'm with you so far. I think the duration could be set to permanent so long as we maintain some other limit. Maybe the restriction is they must be undead minions of your level or lower, and you can only control a total of 2x your level at any given time?

Also, much like raise dead, if you create higher level monsters the cost should go up.

Edit: Oh I knew a lot of necromantic stuff would be saved for later, but I figured a basic and somewhat restricted ritual would be ok. Hopefully Dragon will have something on it soon.

 

[frankthedm]

Those in the PHB are the rituals that the players need to be concerned with. The only rules the players need be concerned with in regards to the undead is how to attack them.

 

[The_Pugilist]

Those in the PHB are the rituals that the players need to be concerned with. The only rules the players need be concerned with in regards to the undead is how to attack them.

Hey I understand that and it is cool if that is the way you run your games (no evil, no necromancy, etc).

But one of my best players ran a great necromancer and she added to the fun everyone had. And it would be hard to do that without player access to this type of ability. So yeah, I don't think it is just an NPC ability.

 

[frankthedm]

Hey I understand that and it is cool if that is the way you run your games (no evil, no necromancy, etc).

How I run my games has little bearing WHY wotc omitted animate dead, evil gods and evil cleric powers from the PHB.

 

[rob626]

I have to agree with FranktheDM.

Mucking around with corpses is, In My Campaign, strictly a tool for the Bad Guys. Yes, you can justify it in a number of ways.. animating bodies to stand guard for an orphanage, animating bodies to move and then burn plague victims, etc. My campaign has still strictly defined the reanimation of the dead as a morally unambiguous act of evil. I am glad it is not in the PHB.

As for how the bad guys use it...wing it. Areas of corrupted Shadowfell animate the dead, or Crog the Farmer made a deal with a demon for the knowledge, or Thul the UberEvil has a ritual, or there is a nasty creature with the innate ability to create undead....whatever flavor floats your boat. If you build the encounters well you can make whatever fluff you want to justify it. As long as it's consistent and builds a better story that is.