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View Full Version : [3.5e] Preventing animate dead/create (greater) undead



crimsonangel01
2010-12-23, 12:26 AM
I know the most obvious way is to simply disintegrate the corpse, but are there any other ways that doesn't necessarily require a 6th level spell to accomplish (or at least, not from the wizard's spell list?)

Thanks in advance~

Glimbur
2010-12-23, 01:42 AM
Use an axe. Mangle the body so it's no longer a corpse. For bonus points, set it on fire.

Out of context, that is a very worrisome post.

Coidzor
2010-12-23, 01:57 AM
Remove enough bones such that the skeleton is not mostly intact.


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.

So if your group takes enough and large enough trophies, this can prevent living bodies from being turned into the basic mindless undead.

Alternatively, chop 'em in half and mix the bodies up if there's a whole lot of 'em, and probably take the femurs of each of 'em and giving them over to pigs/other appropriate method of destruction. A guy with mountain hammer could probably just sunder away at the corpses until they cease to be.

I have to wonder at the sort of situation where this is really necessary though.

Drakevarg
2010-12-23, 02:03 AM
One of my stock characters that I play when I don't have a particular concept in mind has a mild phobia of undead, so he takes the time to burn every single corpse he comes across.

This includes, at one point, a battlefield with something like 300 corpses strewn about. That one took a while.

Gabe the Bard
2010-12-23, 03:08 AM
The Mutilator Feat in Champions of Ruin lets you decapitate an enemy when you drop them to -10 HP. However, RAW this only prevents them from being raised. You'll have to talk to your DM to see if the decapitation will be enough to prevent animation, which requires a "mostly intact corpse."

What a macabre conversation... :smalleek:

crimsonangel01
2010-12-23, 03:14 AM
Yeah... though to be fair, it's for a good cause. Been having a bit of an issue with graverobbing/creating undead in my party's low/mid level game, so I guess we should start incinerating the bodies of everything we kill.

Coidzor
2010-12-23, 03:57 AM
Have you been able to figure out what it is that's following you around and raising the things you kill in order to attack you with them? On the other hand, hey, getting more XP this way. But definitely would increase the drain on character resources.

Sever+smash heads/skulls, sever limbs and burn them, and then chop the torsos into halves or quartersishes is probably the quickest way, that way you only have one corpse-fire per day or so of combat.

Of course, if the next character your party introduces is an LN cleric of Wee Jas, he can take care of it by making them undead himself for trap-springing/probing purposes...

Vemynal
2010-12-23, 04:49 AM
Now for an added bonus: Is it a good act to desecrate the corpses of an army to prevent them from being brought back as zombies/skeletons that will be used to kill innocent people from your town?

Gabe the Bard
2010-12-23, 04:58 AM
If graverobbing is the issue, there's a simpler solution, which is hallowing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hallow.htm) the ground where you bury the bodies.

Drakevarg
2010-12-23, 10:17 AM
If graverobbing is the issue, there's a simpler solution, which is hallowing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hallow.htm) the ground where you bury the bodies.

Magic is a simpler solution than liberal application of fire? :smallconfused:

Coidzor
2010-12-23, 11:58 AM
^: The main problem with fire is that it still allows skeletons and bone creatures, which are the preferred form of undead for humanoids in most cases. So enough bones to make them no longer mostly intact would need to be taken out after burning them, unless one had a bone-grinder available, in which case, yeah, cremation's a great option, would also provide the party with a fairly significant potential source of bone meal.


Now for an added bonus: Is it a good act to desecrate the corpses of an army to prevent them from being brought back as zombies/skeletons that will be used to kill innocent people from your town?

That's why you get the cleric of pelor to do it! :smallbiggrin: Because really, if Pelorites aren't good at cremation, who is?

Actually, receiving proper funerary rites is supposed to prevent a lot of the ability to create undead, or at least creates a barrier that whatever wants to animate the dead has to get around, so, OP, you might want to see about homebrewing a use of the Knowledge: Religion skill. Require some time and material for the ritual and then have it require the would-be necromancer to make a CL check versus the skill check if he tries a spell higher than animate dead, and either a dispel spell per corpse or another skill check in order to make the corpses undeadable again.

Hmm, I'll have to keep that in mind for my games, as unlikely to come up as it probably will be for like evars...

Depending upon how plot important the DM feels this is, though...

dgnslyr
2010-12-23, 12:09 PM
Get a pet Gelatinous Cube? Just have it nom up all the corpses. Of course, actually controlling it is the tricky Fun part. Isn't there an item in the MiC that lets you control and ride cubes?

Coidzor
2010-12-23, 12:30 PM
Get a pet Gelatinous Cube? Just have it nom up all the corpses. Of course, actually controlling it is the tricky Fun part. Isn't there an item in the MiC that lets you control and ride cubes?

If not, Drow of the Underdark probably does, and failing that one can go back to the Arms and Equipment Guide.

dgnslyr
2010-12-23, 12:32 PM
I think it was called "[something] of the Cube". No idea where to look, though.

Ravens_cry
2010-12-23, 01:10 PM
Burn your dead.
This has the plus side of allowing most resurrection spells still to work if needed.

Necroticplague
2010-12-23, 01:38 PM
These solution (kudos to SLASH'EM) might offer some help:
1. Eat the bodies.
2. Tin the bodies
3.Throw the bodies in acid
4. Throw the bodies in magma
5.Reanimate the body yourself
6. take a hammer to it, start shattering bones