awaken undead RP question

[Ettina]

If you use Awaken Undead on a mindless undead, what personality do they have? Are they the same person who was used to create the zombie? (With some changes, obviously, since in most cases Awaken Undead won't give them as high of Int as they had when alive.) Do they remember being alive (eg, can you use Awaken Undead on a zombie to ask it about things it knew when it was alive, or are those memories lost)? If they have a master, do they love the master, or do they hate the master but are compelled to obey them?

I want to know if my necromancer could use Awaken Undead to taunt her zombie, since I thought up a really neat backstory for how he ended up as her zombie, and it would be so fun if he knew who he was and resented being under her control.

[Inevitability]

I guess you'll have to ask your DM. However; it says the spell grants intelligence, as opposed to restoring intelligence. That may be reason enough to say it doesn't remember things from it's past life.

[Grollub]

If you use Awaken Undead on a mindless undead, what personality do they have? Are they the same person who was used to create the zombie? (With some changes, obviously, since in most cases Awaken Undead won't give them as high of Int as they had when alive.) Do they remember being alive (eg, can you use Awaken Undead on a zombie to ask it about things it knew when it was alive, or are those memories lost)? If they have a master, do they love the master, or do they hate the master but are compelled to obey them?

I want to know if my necromancer could use Awaken Undead to taunt her zombie, since I thought up a really neat backstory for how he ended up as her zombie, and it would be so fun if he knew who he was and resented being under her control.

No, it would be a "fresh" intelligence.. think child like at first, with no knowledge of its life prior ( for a zombie at least )

[atemu1234]

No, it doesn't restore prior memories. It takes something like Emancipated Spawn to do that. Nope, rather they gain a -new- intelligence, a new mind.

I once had a necromancer. Very tragic, born to a wealthy family. Parents died when he was young, and he was essentially raised by his brother. His brother eventually also died, but he animated him, paid someone to Awaken him, expecting his brother to be the same in death now as he was in life. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way. His brother was dead, and now his (sentient but malevolent) corpse walks around instead. Since the undead won't consent to a rezzing, the necromancer instead had his brother work as a butler.

Had some of my better roleplaying.

[Segev]

The interpretation where the awakened undead is a different person can lead to interesting questions of what happens if raise dead is used.

Resurrection, reincarnation, and true resurrection get around this problem: The first requires you to cut off a finger or ear or something from the zombie (I suggest an ear; it likely won't be missed as much), but will regenerate the body of the original from the casting. The other two both create new bodies from whole cloth, if needs be.

Interestingly, the undead would not get a choice to consent or not to the raise dead effect; not only is it under the necromancer's control, but the person who is being raised is not the undead sentience. The dead person's soul is what gets to choose whether to return or not. If he accepts...it's a good question what happens to the new spirit inhabiting the undead body.

[Xelbiuj]

I assume they'd just remember everything that happened since they were turned undead.

[weckar]

Sounds like a job for a Wizard to figure this one out. I don't doubt one already has. Strange fellas.