Animate Deathless

[MukkTB]

I took a shot at homebrewing an a deathless equivalent of animate dead. Given that it was not RAW I stuck it over on the hombrew section:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=298239

I would appreciate any help in making the homebrew as close to RAW and RAI as possible. Or any comments on the quality of the thing.

[ArcturusV]

Hmm... I don't know Pathfinder myself, so I'll try to keep my nose out of any Pathy related stuff. But Deathless, at least as I recall them from Book of Exalted Deeds originally... were pretty freewilled. I mean you had the Risen Martyr, free willed of course as it was a PC, and wasn't able to be destroyed/controlled by turning. So it seems off that a spell might create a mindjacked personal slave as per the Animate Undead.

Again, going off RAI as it seems from the original deathless.... the clause about Attacking Owners or Control seems... a little off. I'd run Deathless as effectively normal NPCs. You may create a deathless, but you don't just go "AHAHAHAHA! Now you are my mind slave!" to some Deathless Bear you just created. The bear will do what it would normally do. Maybe get talked into something if you can Empathy it or otherwise talk to it and convince it to help you.

That said... if you went with limitations like that? I'd actually drop the Int requirements off the spell. Don't allow a Controlled status. Thus creating Deathless can be more like an "Oh ****" button when you need something. Like a low level version of Gate. Summon up Deathless in the middle of a fight. Get out of the way.

If you're concerned about Diplomancer types just using a skill check to mindjack the Deathless into your slaves or something anyway (Particularly if you drop the Int requirements and suddenly you're getting stuff like Deathless Adult Silver Dragons), you can do a Ghost related thing, make it so they are bound to the area of their death/important area in their life and won't stray too far from it for long.

[MukkTB]

From my reading of the RAW deathless material, deathless can be commanded just like normal undead, except the energy types required to do this are backwards. The type rules include:

Evil clerics can turn or destroy deathless creatures as good clerics turn or destroy undead. Good clerics and paladins can rebuke, command, or bolster deathless creatures as evil clerics rebuke, command, or bolster undead.


So in 3.5 RAW, a deathless creature could be totally controlled by a cleric with access to the right kind of magic.

That didn't seem to fit with the flavor so I homebrewed control to be a lot weaker on deathless, essentially "won't be eaten by your own things," and "+5 to get them to do what you want using skills as normal."

[ArcturusV]

Teach me for going off the top of my head. Ah well.

[MukkTB]

Thanks for your input in any case. It would be frustrating if this thread dropped off the front page with only the OP and nobody cared enough to say anything.