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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Primitive Screwhead" data-source="post: 3103123" data-attributes="member: 20805">As to your minor nitpick, if you Animated Object a skeleton, it would look the same as an Undead skeleton but would not be evil...of course some other mechanics would be different as well. That would be an interesting twist to throw at a group of undead hunters...{Time to expand my HRs for GolemCraft 101 to include faux undead creation <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />}This gets into the whole 'soul' deal. At home I have a 'mind, soul and body' write up that explains how I see the mechanical stats reflecting the various aspects of beings. In this the Soul is tied to WIS and XP. Without a soul the character has a WIS of 1 and cannot gain XP.Elemental spirits IMC are portions of the elemental force that animate objects and do not gain XP.Animated objects, powered by elemental souls have a Wis of 1Undead have normal Wis scores.Constructs are a higher powered version of Animate Object that created an 'artificial' Wis based on the elemental soul, kindof like a limited AI.The mind is a combination of  INT and CHR. The animating magic provides at least a CHR of 1 either artifically or by enslaving the beings mind.The old module you refer to probably should have used Animate Object or possibly even Constuct mechanics for the negative plane empowered undead.{edit.. got home and figured I would post the entire ruleset...}[sblock]D20 Rules effects of Mind, Life-Force, Soul, and Body….Beings are made up of 4 parts, this is to show what happens when one or more of these parts are removed and or destroyed.First, to define the parts.Body: The physical portion in which the other portions reside while on the material plane. Consists of STR and DEX. Loss of the Body means both these stats are reduced to zero. In some cases, such as Astral travel or becoming a manifested spirit, these stats are considered to be the same score as the characters WIS and INT (respectively)Life Force: The supernatural force that holds the Mind and the Soul inside the body. Natural Life force consists of CON. Loss of this Life Force means that this stat is reduced to zero. Unnatural Life Force can be created that magically animates and binds any Mind and Soul. This Unnatural Life Force is reflected in a lack of CON score. The Unnatural Life force usually includes a set of ‘behaviors’ which the being will act out, regardless of  any lack of Mind. The most common ways to lose Life Force include having it cut while travelling Astrally or by powerful Death magic.Mind: The storing house for intelligence and memory, consists of INT. Loss of the Mind results in a score of zero. This mind remains with the area after death and can be contacted via a speak with dead spell and other means.Soul: This is the supernatural portion of the being that consists of WIS, XP, and retains an alignment. The Soul cannot be destroyed, rather it returns to the outer planes. Souls continue to move into, and out of, the Prime material until they gain enough experience and alignment to transform into a planar outsider. Loss of a soul reduces the characters WIS to a score of ‘1’, changes the characters alignment to True Neutral, and makes it impossible for the character to gain any experience. Partially formed Souls are comprised of Elemental energy and are often used in animating objects and constructs.The one remaining STAT… CHARISMA….   CHR is a combination of the Mind and Soul. Loss of the Mind makes CHR rather pointless, but a character can still interact without a Soul. One additional penalty to the loss of a soul is that your CHR is considered to be a ‘10’ for the purposes of interaction with others. Some animating magic fills in the blank when Mind or Soul is missing or not fully formed by installing an artificial CHR of 1Legend:Body {B} = STR & DEXLife Force {L} = CONSpirit {M for mind} = INTSoul {S} = WIS & XP & AlignmentIn this manner, the various beings can be ascribed to have:===========================================character = B + L + M + SConstruct = B + L + S(*)Mindless Undead = B + L + S(**)Intelligent Undead = B +L (**) + M + S (*#)(* Constructs and Animated Objects use partially formed Elemental souls. The result is a neutral alignment and incapability to (**either positive or negative dependant on how it is created. The magical alteration corrupts the Body and traps the Soul, meaning that Raise Dead and similar spells will not work and the Soul cannot continue its journey. The enforced inactivity will eventually wither away the Souls earned XP. As long as the Mind and Soul are not transformed, Resurrection or Reincarnation still work, but only after the unnatural Life Force has been destroyed.)(*# Due to the corruption of the Life Force, the Soul transforms, becoming single natured similar to an Outsider.  The Mind also is transformed in such a way that it cannot be recovered, not even by True Reincarnation.)What happens to ‘Trapped’ Souls? When a soul is removed from its binding Life-Force and not in its natural plane, it tends to waste away, losing XP as time goes on. What power of forces are trapping it will determine how rapid or slowly this occurs. It could be as rapid as 1 level per hour, or as slow as  1 level per decade. A Lich’s Phylactery fits the latter circumstance, along with the ability to continue gaining XP.. so the loss is not too much of a sacrifice. The rate of loss will depend as well on GM preference, as accidentally activating a ‘Trap the Soul’ should not be a auto-kill of a character. Generally speaking, the unnatural transition is hard on the soul, much as being raised or reincarnated. It should generally include the permanent loss of one level.Whats this bit about ‘selling your soul’? The eventual goal of a soul is to Transform and serve on an outer plane as either a demon or angel, eventually working its way up the ranks to possibly become more. Normally this occurs as the Soul gains experience and eventually makes a choice to align one way or the other. Demons like to short circuit this natural course of events by convincing a mortal to make this choice early. This adds a being of lesser power in their service, much preferable to waiting for the soul to make its own choice at a much later.. and more powerful, stage. Living Constructs. In Eberron, House Cannith discovered the means to Reincarnate into a Construct, creating a ‘natural’ housing for Mind and Soul. The magical means of doing this are restricted to the Creation Forges, all of which are known to be destroyed. House Cannith has confessed to not ever learning how these artifacts worked and they do not have the ability to recreate them.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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