undead and their HD

[Chaos018]

Question from a burgeoning necromancer PC. Let's say I use animate undead on a lv5 orc barbarian, thus creating a lv5 skeleton creature. My question is simple. Do I take the base skeleton creature from MM1 and roll 5 d12s to determine what HP is? Does is simple keep the 1HD? Does applying a corpse/bone/spellstitched template allow me to use their previous class abilities? I have been allowed to use choice skeley/zombie variants from libris mortis so I am good there, :). Just a little confused on this one thing

[Kelb_Panthera]

The standard zombie/skeleton template drops all class-based HD before converting them to d12's. Your example orc fighter would yield a 1HD skeleton or a 2HD zombie.

[Chaos018]

so it would not level up as I would, keeping it's 1 or 2 HD (plus equipment, templates and what not, feats) and being all that crunchy goodness? Hm...guess I was right, I will be having to improve the basic skeley a lot in my campaign. Undead won't be introduced a whole lot, if at all, in this setting. GM is simply running to help us have fun 'til another comes to replace him. Most of my undead will be what I create. May not be all that useful but I am a cleric, undead ain't all I deal with, :)

[Pilo]

Animate dead lets you apply the skeleton template (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/skeleton.htm) to a dead monster.

An orc gains HD by class level, and you drop them so a level 5 Barbarian Orc will have only 1HD as a skeleton.

Standard Orc skeleton:

Size/Type: Medium Undead
Hit Dice: 1d12 (6 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+3 studded leather armor, +1 Dex, +2 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+3
Attack: Falchion +3 melee (2d4+4/18-20) or javelin +1 ranged (1d6+3) or claw +3 melee (1d4+3)
Full Attack: Falchion +4 melee (2d4+4/18-20) or javelin +1 ranged (1d6+3) or 2 claws +3 melee (1d4+3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, undead traits
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 13, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 1
Skills: Listen +1, Spot +1
Feats: Improved initiative
Environment: Temperate hills
Organization: Any
Challenge Rating: 1/3
Alignment: Neutral evil
Advancement: -

[Chaos018]

how'd you get the ability stats for an orc skeleton? take human skeley from the book and add in the modifiers? standard skeleton was 13 Str, 'tis why I'm asking.

[mattie_p]

Basically, yes. From the SRD:
Abilities
A skeleton’s Dexterity increases by +2, it has no Constitution or Intelligence score, its Wisdom changes to 10, and its Charisma changes to 1.

[Chaos018]

would the orc skeleton retain its rage ability since it's an EX ability and not a SU or SP ability?

[Wookie-ranger]

would the orc skeleton retain its rage ability since it's an EX ability and not a SU or SP ability?

nope, sorry. it would loose the rage. rage is a class ability from the levels in barbarian.
IMHO there is no difference in animating a level 1 commoner and animating level 20 fighter. As long as both are the same race and have the same states they give you the same undead.
yeah, undead making is kind of shafted, look for things with racial special abilities "that improve combat" (ask you DM on a case by case basis what that means).
best looks for things with templates.

[Pilo]

In fact, I applied the skeleton template to the orc monster manual entry.

[Talderas]

Question from a burgeoning necromancer PC. Let's say I use animate undead on a lv5 orc barbarian, thus creating a lv5 skeleton creature. My question is simple. Do I take the base skeleton creature from MM1 and roll 5 d12s to determine what HP is? Does is simple keep the 1HD? Does applying a corpse/bone/spellstitched template allow me to use their previous class abilities? I have been allowed to use choice skeley/zombie variants from libris mortis so I am good there, :). Just a little confused on this one thing

Zombies and skeletons created via animate dead lose all class levels and anything derived from class levels.

If you want to retain the class levels of the undead you need to use Animate Dread Warrior or some other spell that retains them.

[Darth Stabber]

The key to using animate dead is to grab things with racial HD and decent natural attacks (especially in the case of skeletons). If you want to do better things with the corpses of non-monstrous creatures, you would need to grab a different spell, or pick up awaken undead to use afterward (holy crap can that spell bring back some power).

[Chaos018]

figured as much with the rage ability. I've been doing some digging as well as asking hereabouts, and it seems I can use polymorph any object on a corpse to make it anything I want and animate it that way, thus gaining said corpse's new abilities, but like Animate Dread Warrior, it's a wizard/sorcerer spell I would have to find a scroll on or something. I will look into that once my group's artificer gets high enough to make it, which may or may not happen. Level 5 cleric necromancer, btw. Now, if my game runs long enough, I can get said artificer to make me scrolls of stone to flesh, thus giving me another source of animation via statues into corpses, seeing as we are setting the entire campaign in a massive cave system with a lot of dwarves and insectoid enemies, it'll be more likely to do later. Just hope the DM doesn't go philosophical and state that the corpses made through this way never started out as having a life force therefore cannot be rezzed or made undead. Atm, just doing best with what I have, buffing & healing (once we actually get into combat), optimizing (not good at it, learning as I go) Animate Undead with a couple Corpsecrafter feats and variant skeleton/zombie variants.