The Dead Walk is the warlock invocation that basically emulates animate dead. The warlock can raise skeletons or zombies basically at will, and even if he doesn't supply the material component, the undead stay around for a minute per caster level.
My warlock has been using this for a couple of levels, and it's been pretty useful. Any monster that goes down in combat can immediately come back and help us with the rest of the fight. The undead may not be so hot at attacking, but they're great at soaking up attacks.
I wonder though, does this ability have limitations I've been missing? At-will abilities seem susceptible to munchkinism, and I don't want to take unfair advantage.
As far as I can tell there are only three limits. First, the duration is only 1 min/level. Second, each casting of animate dead can only effect up to 2 HD/level. Third, the caster can only control 4 HD/level of animated undead.
For a 10th-level warlock this is pretty significant. 20 HD per casting can bring back, say, a young adult red dragon, a Huge creature with 6 natural attacks. I can control two of those at a time, and ten minutes of duration should be long enough to finish nearly any combat. I can basically double our party's melee strength with one mid-level power.
Is this invocation really as useful as it seems? Or is there some other limitation or drawback we just have not noticed yet?
My warlock has been using this for a couple of levels, and it's been pretty useful. Any monster that goes down in combat can immediately come back and help us with the rest of the fight. The undead may not be so hot at attacking, but they're great at soaking up attacks.
I wonder though, does this ability have limitations I've been missing? At-will abilities seem susceptible to munchkinism, and I don't want to take unfair advantage.
As far as I can tell there are only three limits. First, the duration is only 1 min/level. Second, each casting of animate dead can only effect up to 2 HD/level. Third, the caster can only control 4 HD/level of animated undead.
For a 10th-level warlock this is pretty significant. 20 HD per casting can bring back, say, a young adult red dragon, a Huge creature with 6 natural attacks. I can control two of those at a time, and ten minutes of duration should be long enough to finish nearly any combat. I can basically double our party's melee strength with one mid-level power.
Is this invocation really as useful as it seems? Or is there some other limitation or drawback we just have not noticed yet?
