Spell Detail

Animate Dead

Description

creates undead skeletons and zombies.

this spell turns corpses into undead skeletons or zombies that obey your spoken commands. the undead can be made to follow you, or they can be made to remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place. they remain animated until they are destroyed. a destroyed skeleton or zombie can't be animated again. regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you can't create more hd of undead than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead. the desecrate spell doubles this limit. the undead you create remain under your control indefinitely. no matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can control only 4 hd worth of undead creatures per caster level. if you exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your control, and any excess undead from previous castings become uncontrolled. you choose which creatures are released. undead you control through the command undead feat do not count toward this limit. skeletons: a skeleton can be created only from a mostly intact corpse or skeleton. the corpse must have bones. if a skeleton is made from a corpse, the flesh falls off the bones. zombies: a zombie can be created only from a mostly intact corpse. the corpse must be that of a creature with a physical anatomy.

Source: Core Rulebook

Effects

  • creates undead skeletons and zombies.

Casting

System
PF1E
School
Necromancy
Subschool
Element
Dismissible
No
Casting Time
1 standard action
Range
touch
Target
one or more corpses touched
Area
Duration
instantaneous
Saving Throw
none
Spell Resistance
No

Class Levels

  • Adept 3
  • Antipaladin 3
  • Arcanist 4
  • Cleric 3
  • Oracle 3
  • Shaman 3
  • Sorcerer 4
  • Warpriest 3
  • Wizard 4

Components

  • verbal
  • somatic
  • material
    an onyx gem worth at least 25 gp per hit die of the undead
    Cost: 25

Tags

necromancy evil