Create Salt Mummy

[NM020110]

As the title may have implied, I'm wondering how to actually go about this. On the walker in the waste entry for the ability, the writer appears to have written out the fluff and forgotten to include actual rules text for it...

Is there an errata somewhere that clarifies this, or a decent homebrew fix?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

[Doxkid]

It is a supernatural ability that works on a corpse with no other listed parameters.

Thus, this is its info:
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Cast time: Standard action
Material component: One corpse
Target: One corpse (the same corpse used as the material component)
Saving throw: None
Spell resistance: None
Effect: Creates a Salt Mummy. This creature's information is listed on page 94 of SandStorm.
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Technically speaking, it has no Range and there is no suggestion or fluff that gives anything to work off of. This could mean one of several things:

1-You must be in contact with the corpse; the spell has the same range as Animate Dead: Touch range.

2-The range is the same as Create Undead:close range (25 feet+5 feet per two levels)

3-The maximum range is equal to the maximum distance a your character can spot the corpse: 6d6×40 feet for humans (the highest possible range for humans is 1440 feet).

4-Any corpse you are aware of may be transformed, across any distance.
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There you have it. Oddly enough, the corpse doesn’t seem to need to be humanoid, or even complete.

The Mummy is an OK pet, depending on when you get it. Unfortunately, it does not get all normal mummy traits. It also isn’t a template, it is a specific creature, while normal mummies are specific creatures AND other creatures with the Mummified template or Mummy monster class levels.

If it were a template, or if you could pick its feats, it would be quite a good pet. Still, being able to create one of these as a standard action every round as long as you have a corpse nearby (or not nearby, depending on who you ask) is nice.

[NM020110]

I rather doubt that that will hold up, but it does seem to fit the rules as "written". Thank you.

[Doxkid]

Yes, it would definitely be overpowered in most campaigns.

Before running that across with a DM, I suggest the following:
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Leave the time it takes to dry/mummify the corpse as a standard action. Increase the casting time for animating the Salt Mummy from the dried corpse to, at least, 10 minutes. An hour is really preferable though; the same casting time as Create Undead, which would make it seem reasonable to the DM.
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Require a humanoid or monstrous humanoid corpse. This is really just common sense; you should not be able to 1shot a chicken, pop this ability and walk away with a 12 hit die monster.
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Range: Touch.
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Cap the number of Salt mummies you can have at half your charisma modifier, with a minimum of 1. If this ability is used after that maximum number has been reached you must release a mummy of your choice to make room.

The released mummy is indifferent to you, but hostile to all other living beings.
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Add the ability to force a mummy you are still the master of to become inert; ie make an animated Salt Mummy under your control just a regular dry corpse again by using your Desiccating touch ability on it.
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There. Balanced.

You wont be popping the ability mid combat, so that'll make your DM happy.

It looks like Create Undead so you DM will think it is how the ability was intended to be (this is probably pretty close to how it should be in the book, actually).

You wont be able to pull a Salt Mummy Apocalypse out of nowhere, since you will have a maximum of 2 or possible 3 of the things at a time.

Finally, you'll be able to deal with Salt Mummies you don't want anymore by kindly de-animating them. If you wish you can carry one single Salt Mummy around as your personal servant.

Alternately, instead of getting the standard Salt Mummy, you could create a Salt Mummy template and apply that to a creature instead, scaling its abilities to be in line with both the actual Salt Mummy and normal monsters of its level. Since that sounds kind of interesting, I'll write up a Salt Mummy template for myself and, should you want it as well, I'll post it here later so you can use it too.

Also, if you want to see a proper write-up of Salt Mummies (just the creature's stats) in normal format, you should look in 3.5 Monster Manual III, page 146.