Animate Dead (3.5/Pathfinder) RAW?

[Sentient]

Simple Question: Looking at the spell "Animate Dead" in 3.0/3.5 versions it simply says "corpse" as target and then lists certain limitations/conditions on the resulting undead.

However, Read-as-written, it NEVER states that the corpse must match the resultant undead in any fashion.

So, RAW. Can I use a rat corpse to make a 12 HD zombie hill giant?

[redking]

Simple Question: Looking at the spell "Animate Dead" in 3.0/3.5 versions it simply says "corpse" as target and then lists certain limitations/conditions on the resulting undead.

However, Read-as-written, it NEVER states that the corpse must match the resultant undead in any fashion.

So, RAW. Can I use a rat corpse to make a 12 HD zombie hill giant?

The RAW is here.


This spell turns the bones or bodies of dead creatures into undead skeletons or zombies that follow your spoken commands.

Quick answer is no. The longer answer is that the resultant undead are skeletons or zombies of the corpse.

[Eldonauran]

Animate Dead applies a specific template to the resultant creature (corpse). So, no. You cannot make a mountain (hill giant) out of a mole hill (rat corpse). :smallamused:

[D&DPrinceTandem]

Now if you where to obtain Polymorph any object you could permanently polymorph the skeleton of a rat into the skeleton of a Hill Giant (Same Kingdom [Mineral]+5, Same Class [Bone] +2, Same or lower intelligence [(-) to (-)] +2 = +9 duration factor = permanent]
Then animate dead.