Animate Dead

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Echet
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Can PC corpses be animated?

Post by Echet » Sun Nov 02, 2003 7:12 am

1) Can PC corpses be animated?

2)If PC corpses can be animated, then if the PC is destroyed as an undead, can they still be raised?

Echet
Nysan
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Post by Nysan » Mon Nov 03, 2003 10:05 am

Sort of considered this question myself. Not in the evil, annoy people with the walking body of their friend type of thing (perish the thought, hehehe), but more along the lines of -hey he's too heavy to carry, perhaps i can animate him to move to where i can get a few components-

Never took the time, or risk any feedback, by trying it out ic. Its a good thing to bring up though.

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Post by Ilissa » Mon Nov 03, 2003 10:55 am

I have tried already to animate PC Corpse, it seemed the natural thing to do, and I was completely dissappointed, more so than I am with the spell animate dead itself.

It is a shame we cannot animate them. I believe we should be able to since techincally, if we RP it, we can sacrifice the corpse. Animating them would be just like sacrificing them in my book, in other words the player will require a resurection or divine intervetion etc.
The resulting RP could then be quite horrific and quite enjoyable.
This unfortunately leads to problems with looting of players corpses, amongst other things. Then again, if I sacrifice a players corpse (which I will do) then their stuff is left on the ground and a crash can wipe it. Often I pick it up and store it to pass it on in some way if I can.
Its just one of those things where common sense needs to be applied, and that is a rare skill in itself. So I see no changes there.

Personally I would be happy if you could order undead like you can with a familiar, that way when I have 2 undead dragons following me they will fight ahead of me, instead of joining in after I am almost dead. Animates should have to be killed first before the animater is targeted. Or at least something for a spell that has such an expensive one use ingredient.

Still if you use animated corpses for RP, and people take note of their presence, you can create quite an atmosphere. It would be a rare person indeed who would try and fight past 3-4 undead giants to try and kill a necromancer who, while you are fighting past 3-4 undead giants, is casting a spell to banish your sould to the void.

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Mingus

Post by Mingus » Wed Nov 05, 2003 6:22 am

Here's a suggestion to the coders. With special pets like undead, summoned monters and elementals, especially if more than one can follow. This all hinges on the fact that you have to order them around, so with out that, this will not work. Also The summoned pets have to be tied in some way with the PC so how ever a mob would react with the PC, the mob would do the same with the pet. in other words an agg mob would attack the pet instantly as it would the PC.

Make it so that these pets can be ordered to join your group and that you can follow them. So for most of the time they will follow you around but when it comes to engaging a monster, this set up has to be done prior before entering the room with the aggressive mob. 1) You pick out one of your pets and order the rest to follow that one, including yourself. 2) You order all you pets to the front and middle ranks and you in the rear. 3) Then you order the leader pet in towards what ever exit the agg mob is at. This make all the pets and you follow in return and the leaders would get attacked first.

Something else, would it be possible to make the pets in the first rank auto-rescue the other group members?(PC's or mobs)

Silly sugesstions I know but its the only way I can think of at the moment on how to resolve the issue. And not just for necro's but for all summoners too.
Mingus

Post by Mingus » Thu Nov 06, 2003 12:28 am

For a lack of a better word, I used “pet”, but I did not mean the kind you see on your score sheet. Far from that. I ment the kind that are summoned and last less than 1 hour game time before they disapear.

Say you animated a pack of zombies or skeletons, would they not follow your every command. If you were their focal point of their animation, I'd think they would come to your rescue just to stay alive. Much like how they auto-assist in battle with out a command, rescuing their master would be second nature.

But I agree that this is a tricky matter in deciding which mobs would fight on you behalf and wich would run. There is no easy blanket solution. But I still think summoned monsters are an exception to the current pet rules.
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Post by Lerytha » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:39 pm

I was just reading this, and was wondering whether the opinions of the staff have changed concerning PC corpse animation?

I do not have a necromancer personally, but to me, this kinda of RP would open up brilliant opportunities for necromancers. Suddenly gazing into the lifeless eyes of your loved one, whilst a necromancer is cackling behind you opens SO many doors.

Do you kill your undead husband? Do you judge them as alive, or dead?

The kind of RP this would open up would enhance the whole experience, I think.

Obviously, there would be concerns about people who wantonly raise PC corpses without RP. But from my experience, every single necromancer I have seen on the game has the RP ability to cope with this requirement of RPing the raising and not using it all the time.

Just a gentle wondering, and not meant to be a pressurisation.
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Animate Dead

Post by Natasha » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:57 pm

I know that in the past, the spell 'Animate Dead' was changed because people had abused the spell by making their undead do things that they weren't supposed to do. The PHB is pretty specific that you can tell an animated undead simple commands, like Attack, Defend Me, Patrol, Stay Put, kind of like a WarCraft Game. Unfortunately, due to the abuse that occurred, Necromancers cannot command their Undead at all, making it a relatively useless spell as one of the major strengths of the Necromancer is their ability to have an Undead in between them and whatever they are fighting.

Since then, times have changed and there are other such skills/abilities in the game that are liable to the same type of abuse, namely: Animal Empathy... pets can be ordered to do what you want them to. Summon Monster... you can summon a creature and command it to do your bidding. There are other skills that I am not sure whether they allow you to command the creatures or not, such as Summon Elemental or Animate Object, but the short of the matter I am addressing is the fact that Necromancers are still being punished for past abuse while plenty of other classes are allowed spells and pets that allow the same abuse that Animate Dead was changed for.

If it is possible to have a restricted list of commands for animate dead, I would propose that they are given the commands: get, drop, rescue, kill, and rest. I do not think that this is a huge request to make, and despite its simplicity this change would greatly benefit the Necromancer Class.

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Post by Timaeus » Wed Jun 22, 2005 3:34 am

Animal Empathy - sets the animal on the score sheet as a pet or mount which makes it so they can be given orders.

Summon Monster - can not be controlled

Summon Elemental - can not be controlled

Animate Dead - can not be controlled

Animate Object - can not be controlled


I am not sure if they can be coded to be controlled with a limited list of commands, that is best answered by Tyr.

If someone can give commands to a creature brought through a spell I think it should then take up either the pet slot or the mount slot for the character. Even if the creature is on a limited duration
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Post by Natasha » Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:09 am

Has it been changed since when Stayne had the old chain of his talking animated objects? As well, don't some of those abilities not consume the pet slot but allow multiple followers, as well? Also, I think it would be more Necromancer-ish to perhaps have a higher level spell that allows for the Undead to be their pet.

Natasha
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