What happens when a chatacter UMDs a scroll of Animate Dead?

[Coidzor]

Since they have no CL and all, just the CL of the item.

Ok, now there's that as the basis. What happens if a character has used a CL 5 scroll of Animate Dead and then found and used, say, a CL 20 scroll? Or another CL 5 scroll?

[noob]

In a code he would control the undead with his latest cl since after he use the scroll nothing set his cl.(so if he use a cl 5 scroll he lose the control of all the undead that can not be kept with the new undead he controls)
Or he could even possibly control undead with his simulated cl done with a umd check.

[The_Jette]

Since they have no CL and all, just the CL of the item.

Ok, now there's that as the basis. What happens if a character has used a CL 5 scroll of Animate Dead and then found and used, say, a CL 20 scroll? Or another CL 5 scroll?

Official ruling? No idea.

My game: just because you can Animate Dead with a scroll doesn't mean that you control the undead that you have animated with a scroll. Sure, the scroll had a caster level. But, that was used up when the scroll was used. So, now there's a mindless undead creature animated just in front of you, and it's uncontrolled. I hope you're not a SA focused Rogue...

[Troacctid]

The number of undead you can control is determined by the caster level of the spell.

[Segev]

As Troacctid said, your control limits are determined by the item, in this case. If you use a 5th CL scroll of animate dead in the area of a desecrate spell to animate the maximum number of HD of undead you can (20, which is also the control cap for a 5th level caster using animate dead), and then later used a 20th level CL scroll under the same conditions to animate a further 60 HD (20 less than its maximum, but also 20 less than the maximum you are allowed to control), the fact that you're not exceeding your CL-based control cap means you retain control of all of them.


If you did that backwards, and, say, animated 60 HD worth of undead with a 20th level scroll in a desecrated area, which theoretically leaves you with 20 more HD you could control, and then you used a 5th level scroll to animate those 20 more, you're stuck checking your control cap with that 5th level limit. Now, you're only allowed to control a maximum of 20 HD, so you have to let 60 HD go. This is because the spell checks your CL when you cast it, and makes you relinquish control based on exceeding the cap set by that CL.