Expanding on a question in play and in the comments.
You generally you can cast Zombie on an appropriate subject that also:
- hasn't been decapitated or otherwise mutilated beyond ability to function as a zombie
- is above -10 x HP
- hasn't been subjected to a Final Rest, Holy Warriors "Rest in Pieces" perk, or similar effect
- hasn't already been undead from another other source
- doesn't have some other effect that makes Zombie impossible.
This still leaves a lot of dead bodies that Gerry can use Zombie on. But it does mean that the usual adventurer means of killing things - massive amounts of fire, decapitation, lopping legs off to reduce combat efficiency, endless torso shots to whittle a foe down to automatic death, and skull shots - also tend to make for less zombies.
Equally, repeated damage to zombies means there is a limit to their utility. You can't fix them (except between sessions, given sufficient time, equipment, and money), and you can't bring them back to animation after they get put down on an adventure, either.
It's still a very useful spell. For GMs thinking about including this in their games, do note that this means you need to be able to convert anything you put into an adventure into a mindless undead servitor version on the fly and run it for the PCs. They'll find a way to animate it - orc, owlbear, giant, bugs, spiders, wolves, anything . . .
Gerry might want to pick up Frailty so he can drop enemy's HT so they'll fail those Death Saves faster leaving him better corpses for revival.
ReplyDeleteSidenote, does Toxic damage leave a "pretty corpse"? Or do they "rot/erode" away to represent the "total damage"?