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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 9565557" data-attributes="member: 2209"><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/56664/Behind-the-Spells-Compendium?affiliate_id=17596" target="_blank">Behind the Spells: Compendium</a>3.5Undead, Undead Creature: An open scroll depicted the very sphere now in use to be some type of soul collector. From a brief scan of the document, Lorash determined that this evil wizard was harvesting the humanoids’ souls to then power a spell that would raise their corpses as undead under his control.Guardian Undead: ?Buried Undead: ?Created Undead: ?Undead Servant: ?Intelligent Undead: ?Low-Powered Undead: ?Ghost of a Slain Child: ?Particularly Powerful Ghost: ?Drow Wizard Ghost: ?Drow Lich: ?Kritak, Gnoll Lich, Some Form of Demi-Lich: Unfortunately for Kritak, his experiments had not gone unnoticed. An elven alliance of adventurers from that era had been keeping tabs on the shaman. Previously considered a minor annoyance by the Ef ’winn Noras (roughly translated as “Watchers of Noras”), the gnoll’s ability to raise a skeletal army now elevated his threat potential. After a day of preparation, Kritak commanded his undead force to march to the graveyard. But the Ef ’winn Noras was ready and they ambushed the gnoll and his forces in sight of the shaman’s goal. Kritak used magic to strengthen his skeletons as the elves converged, some growing as tall as giants with others wielding weapons as formidably as the veteran warriors they were in life. In the end, however, the skeletons were no match for the elven adventurers. Kritak, it is said, battled to the death; but even as the final blow was struck upon him, a specially prepared wand exploded.After his exile, Kritak fashioned the wand as a security measure. For you see, even if his body perished the prepared magics of the wand would preserve the gnoll’s consciousness in a nearby body, allowing him to forever pursue his necromantic sorcery. In this case, an elven survivor became the vessel of Kritak’s soul and mind. Those other elves that were not killed in the wand’s blast were shortly slain thereafter by their “trusted friend.” But an unforeseen side effect of the possession magic soon manifested. Apparently, the raw power which fed the wand’s magic continues in the new body, which becomes a surrogate wand itself. Not designed to contain such necromantic energies, each body Kritak jumps into slowly deteriorates. Within months, a year at most, the gnoll’s current body disintegrates and his consciousness must jump into another living creature or be forever lost.The shaman is rumored to still exist, within Noras no less (although that nation has been split and renamed many times since) as some form of demi-lich. You can easily tell his true nature, for even if the host body has not yet deteriorated badly, the original “U” branded on him by Xox carries over from body to body as some kind of curse. This brand no longer means “exile” to the gnolls but rather is identified with Kritak directly. Many gnolls worship the former shaman as a deity of undeath. “Was Kritak the first lich?” you ask. No, but he is probably the first gnoll lich.Lich: ?Lich Lord: The pantheon decided to structure divine magic a bit differently than arcane. Prospective clerics needn’t learn obtuse rituals or gather bizarre odds and ends to cast a spell. All they would need would be faith (surely, an enticing lower bar for spellcasting).To promote awareness of their new gift to the mortals, they decided to spearhead the effort with both a useful and visual spell—one that allows healing by touch (in this case, cure light wounds)! One deity, however, was less than thrilled with the banner spell: the god of death, Jelluk. He and his followers (not to mention his many undead servants) had virtually no use for any type of cure spell. The pantheon deliberated on Jelluk’s cry of “unfair treatment” and eventually reached a compromise. The spell would retain its effects under the original parameters but now include a necromantic pattern which allowed it to be reversible. As a result, the cure light wounds spell could find use by any divine spellcaster no matter their moral tendencies and, most importantly, came under the school of necromancy thanks to the new configuration. This latter point was actually the intended goal of Jelluk the whole time. The death god knew that, even without this new spell available to his followers, mortals would be even more inclined to throw themselves into dangerous circumstances since their allies had the power to heal their wounds. More foolhardy mortals inevitably made for a status quo of dead mortals despite the new spell. Oh no, reversibility of cure spells was just an added bonus. For you see, Jelluk’s added necromantic pattern allowed for every casting of the spell, no matter its form (healing or harming) to pay some amount of lip service to the death god. Each of these spells thus drew a very minute amount of energy from him with a reciprocal amount of “worship” returned (albeit unknowingly from the caster).To keep secret this “pseudo-worship,” Jelluk created a complex network of energy conduits around his planar home. When these bits of worship-power reached his realm, the conduit system absorbed and dispersed them to predefined locations. In the process, the energy was converted back into tiny bits of necromantic power—nothing that could be easily traced even by a deity’s prying eyes, mind you. Use of cure spells over the many centuries has added up to quite a bit of hoarded necromantic power for Jelluk. So just what is the god doing with it? Several theories have been bandied about by mortal minds, two of which have been verifi ed. The first is that some of the energy is creating and maintaining a number of “lich lords” whose forms do not require phylacteries and possess increased vitality and power.Lilleth Voran, Lich: ?Skeleton, Skeletal Warrior: ?Low-Powered Servant: Besides creating some low-powered servants and warriors, animate dead tends to give evil spellcasters some clout amongst their rivals.Skeleton: After a number of years’ work, Kritak was ready to join a clan again—by creating his own. Not long before his exile, a great battle was fought between some forgotten human king’s army and a fierce gnoll clan of great number. Who won isn’t important—well, maybe to historians, but not to Kritak. The first field test of corpse soldiers (the predecessor of animate dead) took place amidst the snow covered swamps not far from Kritak’s home. During a ritual which lasted for a full hour, the corpses of the human soldiers slain in the battle rose from their watery graves in answer to the gnoll’s call. After the spell was completed, nearly 150 skeletal warriors were assembled outside the swamp.When you create skeletons and zombies with this spell [animate dead], you form a minor mental link with them.If a weapon with this quality [animating] inflicts enough damage to bring a living target below zero hit points, the target must succeed a Fortitude save (DC 20) or be instantly turned into a skeleton or zombie (wielder’s choice).Corpse Soldiers spell.Owlbear Skeleton: ?Robed Skeletal Figure, Undead Servitor: ?Vampire: ?Vampire, Creature Possessing the Energy Drain Ability: ?Wight, Creature Possessing the Energy Drain Ability: ?Zombie: When you create skeletons and zombies with this spell [animate dead], you form a minor mental link with them.If a weapon with this quality [animating] inflicts enough damage to bring a living target below zero hit points, the target must succeed a Fortitude save (DC 20) or be instantly turned into a skeleton or zombie (wielder’s choice).The spell focused a considerable electrical charge into Vask’s palm; a charge that took the shape of any symbol the sorcerer chose. Vask chose his personal symbol—a stylized “V” within a circle—with which to brand his newly acquired property. Each adult male was branded on the back of the left wrist. As if this humiliation was not enough, the magical electricity was quite painful and some men did not survive the procedure. These, Vask coolly noted to the others, were not worthy of his lordship. After dismissing his newly minted slaves, he raised the slain men as zombies to serve inside the keep aside the unseen servants Vask commonly used.Corpse Soldiers spell.Zombie Crackling With Electricity: ?Corpse SoldiersAs the spell animate dead with the following exceptions:Level: Clr 5, Death 5, Sor/Wiz 5Casting Time: 10 minutesRange: 300-ft.-radius, centered on youTarget: Any whole corpse in rangeThe spell’s power reaches into the earth which allows even buried undead to come to the magic’s call. There is no limit to the amount of undead affected by a single casting of corpse soldiers. All corpses within range walk, shuffle, claw, or swim their way to you after casting. No matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can control only 7 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level, instead of the 4 HD maximum as imposed by animate dead. In addition, each undead receives a +1 profane bonus to attack and damage rolls.Material Component: A black onyx gem worth 1,000 gold pieces which you must smash at the end of the casting time.</blockquote>

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