Turning undead conundrum

[chomskola]

I am running an encounter from a published adventure (sunless citadel) the pc's are standing outside a room, if they step into the room the skeletons animate. Some questions follow from this

1. Can the skeletons be turned? (without entering the room)
2. Can they be shot at since they are inanimate and if so would they lose all bonuses to AC?

[Duke of URL]

Both answers depend on whether or not the magic used to animate them triggers on the party entering the room or whether they were animated in the past and have just been ordered to stay "posed" until someone enters.

In the former case, the answers are:

1) No.
2) They would be treated as objects. Unless enough damage is done to render to bodies not whole enough for a spell like animate dead, it won't do much good.

In the latter case, the answers are:

1) Yes. (As long as the cleric has line-of-effect.)
2) Since they are simply feigning, they don't lose any bonuses to AC, but of course can still be flat-footed if surprised or lost initiative.

[Runeclaw]

2) Since they are simply feigning, they don't lose any bonuses to AC, but of course can still be flat-footed if surprised or lost initiative.

If they are voluntarily refraining from all movement, they should be treated as helpless until they start moving. With an effective Dex of 0. Can't be pretending to be a corpse while at the same time dodging arrows.

[chomskola]

OK thanks for the answers so far guys, how would you handle issues like "detect magic" in a situation like this where the material says that the undead animation is triggered by the door opening, but doesnt specify the spell used to animate the undead ( the descr. shows that the power of the collpase of teh citadel was such a powerful malevolent force that it infused the creatures with the seed of unlife) ?

[Downysole]

OK thanks for the answers so far guys, how would you handle issues like "detect magic" in a situation like this where the material says that the undead animation is triggered by the door opening, but doesnt specify the spell used to animate the undead ( the descr. shows that the power of the collpase of teh citadel was such a powerful malevolent force that it infused the creatures with the seed of unlife) ?

You're going to have to define that for your characters as you play and be consistent with it. If you plan to throw them a lot of undead and in the first room, they find out that the undead have a slight necromancy aura about them (due to the power of the collapse of the citadel), then they will expect it later and may prep Detect Magic for this specific purpose. So, consistency is key.

I don't believe that undead actually give off a magical aura once they have been created except for the leftovers of the spell used in their creation, so if you determine that you want this to be the case, you're probably going to have your players sense the aura from the powerful destruction ages past.

[Duke of URL]

If we're saying the room is essentially a trap that animates the skeletons, then I'm not sure detect magic would indicate the presence of trap (as that would make magical traps, in general, useless). If they were pre-animated and just dormant awaiting some victim, then there'd be no magic to radiate as animate dead, et. al. are instantaneous effects.