Creative uses of Animate undead

[Vattic]

So i'm playing a 3rd level witch (all pathfinder or d&d 3.0 and up allowed) with a DM approved crazy race that gets animate undead as an at will SLA starting at level one.

What should i be doing with this? What are some fun, interesting things i can do with animate undead? There is no onyx cost, it's a very liberal game, and i have a lot of options.

So far, i've done a bit of corpse crafting (without the feat) disguising undead as servants and such. But i still feel like i'm missing some major fun.

Do you folks have any ideas?

[Jeff the Green]

Go dragon hunting. The zombie dragon and skeletal dragon templates are much better than the normal ones, and unlike bone creature and corpse creature they can be applied with animate dead.

[Bad Wolf]

Having an army of undead dragons would be awesome. Of course, Io, Tiamat, and Bahamat might be a tad displeased...

[Blackhawk748]

I recommend Hydra Zombies, as well as Troll and Ogre Zombies, and Tiger Skeletons, all of these are very good at stomping face.

[OldTrees1]

Mobile House/Carriage/Boat
Economic Infrastructure
Computer
Instant Mail

[Coidzor]

Well, you could always look up Haunt (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9061.0) Shift (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=6315.0) and Haunting Presences and the fun you can have with that, though it does require a fair bit of reading to understand the Haunt Shift trick (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1693456) fully.

[atemu1234]

Once saw a pit trap with skeletons inside...

[ShurikVch]

You know all those dead creature who usually useless to necromancers, such as awakened trees, gelatinous cubes, and so on?..

There was one undead in MM4 -
http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98668.jpg

You can create bloodhulk warriors, giants, or crushers based solely on the size of the corpse you wish to animate: a Medium corpse is required for a bloodhulk fighter, Large for a giant, and Huge for a crusher. Smaller and larger corpses cannot be made into bloodhulks. The creation of a bloodhulk changes the original corpse too much for it to retain most of its original features. "Solely on the size" means we may use any corpse of required size

Unfortunately, they are twice expensive in sense of control - up to your HD, or X2 in a desecrated area.

[Jeff the Green]

Oh, here's another: see if you can get a zombie mob (from Cityscape). It's basically a swarm, and if I recall correctly it'd have 30 HD.

[ShurikVch]

Oh, here's another: see if you can get a zombie mob (from Cityscape). It's basically a swarm, and if I recall correctly it'd have 30 HD. HD limitation

Unless it's mob of dragons, you can't animate more than 20 HD

But you may animate Throng of Children...

[atemu1234]

HD limitation

Unless it's mob of dragons, you can't animate more than 20 HD

But you may animate Throng of Children...

Are you my mummy?

[Extra Anchovies]

My favorite use for a Large or larger humanoid skeleton is as a literal exoskeleton - pop off its skull, build a harness and/or seat inside its ribcage, and go nuts.

[Jeff the Green]

HD limitation

Unless it's mob of dragons, you can't animate more than 20 HD

But you may animate Throng of Children...

Technically you can't kill a mob either, only disperse it. The idea is to make the group of zombies become a mob in the same way that if you get a bunch of level 1 humanoids together they're treated as a single creature.

[Karnith]

My favorite use for a Large or larger humanoid skeleton is as a literal exoskeleton - pop off its skull, build a harness and/or seat inside its ribcage, and go nuts.
Use a big Zombie Dragon instead and you've essentially got a (disgusting) mech, complete with flight and a breath weapon.

[ShurikVch]

Technically you can't kill a mob either, only disperse it. The idea is to make the group of zombies become a mob in the same way that if you get a bunch of level 1 humanoids together they're treated as a single creature. Only as hp damage
Say, Wail of the Banshee will drop them all :xykon:

[atemu1234]

Only as hp damage
Say, Wail of the Banshee will drop them all :xykon:

Maybe. Just maybe...

[Bad Wolf]

Are you my mummy?

Put gas masks on them, pump up their strength and watch everyone piss their pants in fear.

[Bulhakov]

I'm not familiar with DnD limitations on this, but is making corpse/flesh/bone constructs/homunculi an option? E.g. crafting a few body parts together to make a crossbow turret that can work as an automated sentry gun? A walking chest with little bone feet? A working pair of extra limbs attached to your armor? Skeletal exoskeleton?

Can undead be put in full armor and disguised as golems/warforged? E.g. "What undead? This is an animated suit of armor! ... Oh, the skeleton rattling inside? Those are just bones of a friend we promised to deliver to his homeland" :)"

Animating bats/rats/bugs for scouting and/or potion/oil delivery? E.g. Kamikaze undead bats carrying bottles of napalm/poison gas

[Jeff the Green]

I'm not familiar with DnD limitations on this, but is making corpse/flesh/bone constructs/homunculi an option? E.g. crafting a few body parts together to make a crossbow turret that can work as an automated sentry gun? A walking chest with little bone feet? A working pair of extra limbs attached to your armor? Skeletal exoskeleton?

Not as such, no. However, an artificer with refluffed items could work. The sentry crossbow would be an arbalesterECS, the chest a packmateMoE, the extra limb a spare handMIC, and the skeletal exoskeleton would be undead armorLM.


Can undead be put in full armor and disguised as golems/warforged? E.g. "What undead? This is an animated suit of armor! ... Oh, the skeleton rattling inside? Those are just bones of a friend we promised to deliver to his homeland" :)"

Easy enough. There's even a spell for it, disguise undead, which works for 24 hours.


Animating bats/rats/bugs for scouting and/or potion/oil delivery? E.g. Kamikaze undead bats carrying bottles of napalm/poison gas

For best results, include Destruction Retribution. :smallwink:

[drack]

You know all those dead creature who usually useless to necromancers, such as awakened trees, gelatinous cubes, and so on?..

There was one undead in MM4 -
http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98668.jpg
"Solely on the size" means we may use any corpse of required size

Unfortunately, they are twice expensive in sense of control - up to your HD, or X2 in a desecrated area.

You don't mean that one undead in MM4 -

http://www.revleft.com/vb/picture.php?albumid=334&pictureid=2820
that said, with free onyx costs may as well get a legion of undeads. Give em improvised tower shields to hide behind to give the whole army total cover and use heroes of battle rules to volley arrows over them. It's horribly inefficient and would otherwise be underpowered, but human skeletons are easy to find and you could refill your ranks at any time so you'll end up with a nice army forever. You can even nab a cart and reanimate a dead horse or mule and lash it to the cart to carry about all your extra corpses.