Summon Undead Problem Solved?

[Voodoo]

'Advanced' as in advanced by HD imo should be allowed, mainly since one of the examples in the MM skeleton is for an Advanced Megaraptor.

Of course this doesnt works for creatures that advance by character class since they lose all class levels when they get the template.

 

[Thanee]

'Advanced' as in advanced by HD imo should be allowed, mainly since one of the examples in the MM skeleton is for an Advanced Megaraptor.

The reasoning there was, that if you summon a creature, you most likely summon a typical creature of its type.

While you can, after slaying an advanced megaraptor, animate its corpse, which will result in the aforementioned skeleton, if you summon it - under the assumption, that summoned creatures are typical representatives of their type - you would rather summon a (non-advanced) megaraptor skeleton.

However, I also allow and use advanced creatures here. It mostly makes finding a suitable creature easier and the differences between advanced ones and normal ones with the same total HD aren't really big, anyways. The most deciding factors are number of natural weapons and Str/Dex scores, anyways.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Shin Okada]

The Summon Undead spells originated in 3.0, and IMHO they should use the 3.0 zombies and skeletons, which were not templates, but just monsters of various sizes.

The 3.0 SRD is here: http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/srd.html

I attach an rtf that has the stats for skeletons and zombies of the various sizes.

Yeah. IMHO the spell is more balanced and make sense in that way.

Also, only using HD cap make things really complex. There are many templates which makes monsters stronger without increasing HD, such as Half-Dragon. I guess with the current errata rule, we will rarely see skeletons or zombies of common creatures.

 

[Three_Haligonians]

For what it is worth..

I use the variant summoning rules that came out in Dragon #302 which is based on summoning monsters of a certain CR instead of HD or whathaveyou.

Works for me but as always, YMMV.

J from Three Haligonians

 

[Kilroy]

The necro in my game is currently fond of effriti, because skeletons keep magical flight.

I'm worried that he's also going to be fond of balors, because skeletons keep weapons too.

 

[Thanee]

For some reason, I doubt, that efreeti have a bone structure.

And the balor's sword is a supernatural ability, skeletons do not get those.
Although, there are several monsters with magical weapons, but I would just grant summoned undead a mundane version thereof.

Bye
Thanee

 

[demiurge1138]

The necro in my game is currently fond of effriti, because skeletons keep magical flight.

I'm worried that he's also going to be fond of balors, because skeletons keep weapons too.

yes, but when a balor dies, his weapons are destroyed. No vorpal swords for the enterprising necro.

Demiurge out.

 

[Jack Simth]

He also EXPLODES.

Death Throes (Ex): When killed, a balor explodes in a blinding flash of light that deals 100 points of damage to anything within 100 feet (Reflex DC 30 half ). This explosion automatically destroys any weapons the balor is holding. The save DC is Constitution-based.

No Balor skeleton for the enterprising necromancer, either.

 

[Kilroy]

yes, but when a balor dies, his weapons are destroyed. No vorpal swords for the enterprising necro.

Demiurge out.

Does summon undead actually call the skeleton from somewhere? I thought it just created it.

 

[glass]

Does summon undead actually call the skeleton from somewhere? I thought it just created it.

I think where exactly summoned undead (or monsters) come from is left deliberately vague.

In any case though, even if Summon Undead does create the skeletons from scratch, I'd say you can't summon it if you couldn't animate it, so no Balor skeletons.


glass.