Higher HD zombies

[J-H]

Is there a way to turn creatures with more than 10 base HD into zombies, aside from dragons? I'm not finding it...

[Zaq]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the 10 HD restriction is specifically linked to animate dead, right? So any method that doesn’t directly mention animate dead (I think Fell Animate should work?) would seem to skirt the restriction.

[RoboEmperor]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the 10 HD restriction is specifically linked to animate dead, right? So any method that doesn’t directly mention animate dead (I think Fell Animate should work?) would seem to skirt the restriction.

The man is correct. The zombie template says 10+hd zombies cannot be created with the animate dead spell. Fell Animate has no language that says it replicates the animate dead spell.

[ShurikVch]

Spells
4th:
Seed of Undeath

4 (or 5)th:
Animate Legion

7th:
Greater Seed of Undeath

9th:
Plague of Undead
Putrefaction

Class Features
Pale Master (Libris Mortis) - Deathless Master's Touch:
A living foe of up to one size category larger than a pale master hit by the pale master's touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or die. A slain creature automatically animates 1 round later as a zombie and is under the pale master's control as if he had animated it. Undead created using this power do not count against a pale master's HD total for controlling undead.
Prerequisite: Class level 10th.
Yathrinshee (Player's Guide to Faerûn) - Curse of the Revenancer:
Any creature slain by a yathrinshee of 5th level or higher rises immediately as a zombie under her control.

Feats
Fell Animate

Items
Shrouds of the Unholy (http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x): able to create any Undead, period

Creatures
Kyuss worm (Monster Manual II, Dragon #336, Exemplars of Evil, Elder Evils):
Once the worm reaches the brain, it deals 1d2 points of Intelligence damage per round until it either is killed (by remove curse or remove disease) or slays its host (death occurs at 0 Intelligence). A Small, Medium-size, or Large creature slain by a worm rises as a new spawn of Kyuss 1d6+4 rounds later; a Tiny or smaller creature quickly putrefies; and a Huge or larger creature becomes a normal zombie of the appropriate size.
Mohrg (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/mohrg.htm): Create Spawn SA
Rot Reaver (Monster Manual III):
Animate Dead (Su): As a standard action, a rot reaver can animate any dead creature within 60 feet that was affected by its wound rot ability within the last 24 hours. Creatures animated by a rot reaver rise as zombies.
A rot reaver can animate a number of Hit Dice of creatures equal to its own Hit Dice.
ROT REAVER
Medium Aberration
...
Advancement: 11–20 HD (Medium); 21–30 HD (Large)Up to 30 HD! And no "as the spell of the same name" clause!

[Inevitability]

Plague Of Undead is a high-level way of doing this.

edit: ninja-ed!

[denthor]

Google search 3.5 cleric spells

Look at create undead 3rd level spell

Click on zombie.

25 gp per hit dice onyx gem needed.

Scroll down you will find entries for kobold, human, orge and more.

You need a freshly killed body , spell and the gems in 100 gp worth for a 4 hot dice creature.

Oh and an evil caster.

[Thurbane]

Google search 3.5 cleric spells

Look at create undead 3rd level spell

Click on zombie.

25 gp per hit dice onyx gem needed.

Scroll down you will find entries for kobold, human, orge and more.

You need a freshly killed body , spell and the gems in 100 gp worth for a 4 hot dice creature.

Oh and an evil caster.

I'm on a horse. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE)

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/ghostwalk_gallery/88566_620_10.jpg

[denthor]

I'm on a horse. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE)

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/ghostwalk_gallery/88566_620_10.jpg


You got me I watched waited for the old Spice commercial to say skip this.

[Zaq]

Items
Shrouds of the [Un]Holy (http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x): able to create any Undead, period

That Shroud of the Unholy is an extremely troubling item that desperately needed a second editing pass. Or, more likely, a first one.

Any undead, yeah. And it has different costs for different “versions” but zero text about what those different versions can actually do. One might guess that making higher-level undead is intended to require a more expensive Shroud, but it doesn’t say that. And it’s not at all clear (even reading heavily into presumed RAI) which Shroud should be needed when making an undead that the usual spells can’t make. Nor is it stated that the undead created needs any connection to the body used. One might turn a dead goblin Commoner into an Atropal with a 1,550 gp item. (Since the resulting undead isn’t friendly, this is insane, but that honestly isn’t the biggest problem here.)

While we’re in the weeds, is 10 lbs about the right weight for a funeral shroud? That seems intuitively really heavy, but I confess that I’ve never interacted with a real funeral shroud, and I’m probably making an ass out of you and me by guessing that it’s similar to a large bedsheet without any real evidence.

The Shroud of the Holy is similarly poorly written, but at least “can use Raise Dead prices to rez someone who wouldn’t normally be affected by Raise Dead” is slightly less horrifying than the worst abuses of the undead-creating one.

[ShurikVch]

While we’re in the weeds, is 10 lbs about the right weight for a funeral shroud? That seems intuitively really heavy, but I confess that I’ve never interacted with a real funeral shroud, and I’m probably making an ass out of you and me by guessing that it’s similar to a large bedsheet without any real evidence.Note: it doesn't specify the size of the body; how much of cloth you may need to wrap a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon?

[OgresAreCute]

Note: it doesn't specify the size of the body; how much of cloth you may need to wrap a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon?

Wraps linen cloth around dragon's pinky toe

Yup, I'd say that about does it.

[ShurikVch]

Wraps linen cloth around dragon's pinky toe

Yup, I'd say that about does it.I presuming it was a joke? :smallsmile:
The point is: Zaq said 10 lbs looks like extremely excessive for a funeral shroud; I pointed - it doesn't specify the size of the corpse
BTW, I found online calculator for weight/size ratio of cloth
Presuming shrouds have the density of finest cotton, 10 lbs would be a piece 6x42 m (equivalent of denim would be 6x6.3)


Also, there is, technically, one more way to create a "Higher HD zombies": Cauldron of Zombie Spewing - minor artifact from the Book of Vile Darkness - will turn 50 Medium-sized corpses into Zombies; so, how about the Gloom (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/gloom.htm)? With 25 HD, it will break the cap even before the doubling from Zombie template...