Animate Dead

Necromancy [Evil, Minion]
Level: Death 3, Necromancer 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Targets: One or more corpses touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Spell Points: Death 5, Necromancer 7; XP; see text

“Rise, and serve me for all time.”

This spell turns the bones or bodies of dead creatures into undead skeletons or zombies that follow your spoken commands.

The undead can follow you, or they can remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place. They remain animated until they are destroyed. (A destroyed skeleton or zombie can’t be animated again.)

Regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you can’t create more HD of undead than twice the number of spell points spent on this spell with a single casting of animate dead. (The Desecrate spell increases this limit)

The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely.

• Skeletons: A skeleton can be created only from a mostly intact corpse or skeleton. The corpse must have bones. If a skeleton is made from a corpse, the flesh falls off the bones.

• Zombies: A zombie can be created only from a mostly intact corpse. The corpse must be that of a creature with a true anatomy.

Experience Cost: You must spend 5 XP per Hit Die of the undead you intend to animate.