Undying Minions (CBN)

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Although some necromancers enjoy living company, others relish only the presence of the dead, animated in a twisted form unlife by the Forbidden Art. The creation of undead has always been associated with necromancy, but its powers are far more expansive than many of the uninitiated would care to imagine. A necromancer has the power to raise up a variety of undead into service, not simply the stereotypical automaton.
Independent, self-willed undead such as ghosts, wraiths, spectres, vampire, and the like can rarely be created by a necromancer. These creatures usually come about through some divine curse or by the malignant force of their own personality. In this section, we are concerned with the necromancer's methods and requirements for creating undead minions. We also address, however briefly, the topic of golem creation, since it can involve the transfer of life force into an inanimate object and thus falls into the murky province of necromancy.
Skeletons. These are the simplest undead for a necromancer to raise to unlife. Starting at 1st level, the wizard can bring animal forms to unlife (see animate dead animals). At 5th level, she or he can temporarily animate a single human skeleton (see bone dance). Finally, at 9th level, the wizard can create a large number of permanent human or monster skeletons (with animate dead).
Certain death priests with access to skeletal servant can also temporarily animate skeletons, starting at 1st level. This ability becomes permanent at 5th level, when they gain access to animate dead. Finally, a few magical items, such as the staff of skulls and the thunder of doom can also be used to raise up undead skeletons.
In Ravenloft, it is also possible for a 9th-level necromancer to raise up a giant skeleton (see the MM) with even greater powers. Since such creatures are partially imbued by mysterious Dark Powers, it is generally impossible to create such a creature outside Ravenloft. Of course, the evil goddess of Undead may grant such a boon to members of her priesthood, but such a favor is unlikely to be granted to a wizard (unless, perhaps, he or she is a devoted worshiper).
Skeletons are mindless automatons and, as such, are useful only as soldiers, guardians, porters, and workers. They are incapable of individual thought or initiative beyond the instructions given to them by their creator.
Crawling claw. These animated hands and claws can be raised up by a wizard or priest starting at the 1st level of experience, providing they have the knowledge to do so. The secret of this relatively simple necromantic rite can be found in both the Art of Necromancy and the Book of Shadows (for the wizard version) and also the Nycoptic Manuscripts (for the priest version). After the severed limbs have been assembled, up to one claw may be animated per level of experience of the spell caster. Once created, crawling claws can be directed by the telepathic commands of their creator, but more often, they are given duties similar to that of the skeleton, whose intellect (or complete lack thereof) they share.
Zombies. Unlike skeletons, which are merely the desiccated framework of a creature's form, a zombie is an animated corpse. Most sages maintain that the zombie, like the skeleton, is a mindless slave, but this is clearly not the whole story. Those who have experimented with animated cadavers (most notably Kazerabet in the Art of Necromancy) have revealed that most zombies remember some facts about their former lives, depending upon how quickly they were animated after their deaths. Clearly, the animated corpses of the long dead, whose worm-eaten brains have been filled with cobwebs and rats' nests, will have little or no recollection of their former selves (in this case, they conform most closely to the stereotypical description of the zombie in the MM). However, those zombies who are raised up almost immediately after their deaths can be ordered to recall facts about their life to their current masters. Despite this interesting feature, however, a zombie is little better than a skeleton in terms of its ability to act independently and of its own initiative.
The common zombie can be brought to unlife temporarily by a necromancer at 5th level (with bone dance) or permanently at 9th level (with animate dead). A priest can create permanent zombies at 5th level with animate dead. Note that the clerical as well as the wizard versions of animate dead can raise animal and monster as well as common zombies.
Shadows. A necromancer can readily summon these evil spirits from the Negative Material Plane once at the 9th level of experience (see summon shadow). These creatures answer a necromancer's summons willingly, for it provides an easy opportunity for them to feast on life force. Once the summoning expires, these creatures usually return to the Negative Material Plane very quickly. They do have free will, however, and if properly approached, may even enter the wizard's service, assuming that they will be provided with enough fresh life force to temporarily ensure their loyalty. Highly chaotic, violently hungry, and unpredictable, shadows rarely stay attached to a living master for long, especially if the wizard has valuable living allies. They can sometimes be found in the permanent retinue of a lich.
Ghouls. Some would maintain that ghouls represent a separate race of free-willed undead descended from giants and genies. Although this may be the case for some types of ghouls (such as the Zakharan great ghul), it is nonetheless possible for an experienced necromancer of no less than 12th level to create minion ghouls (or lacedons). The process may be as straightforward as casting ghoul gauntlet, or it may involve a more obscure variant of animate dead. Regardless of the rite employed, the procedure must be applied to a still-living individual who dies during the evil incantation and raises within 24 hours as a ghoul.
Because of their chaotic nature, ghouls can be very difficult to command, even for their creator (unless he or she has the special ability to turn or command undead). Usually, a necromancer will allow ghouls to wander in packs near the wizard's lair, summoning them only when they are required to perform a specific task. The ghouls often require some form of payment in return, usually in the form of living sacrifices (one victim for each ghoul's willing service) or, at the very least, a large number of fresh corpses.
Dracolich. This undead creature results from the necromantic transformation of an evil dragon, always with the help (wanted or not) of at least a 12th-level necromancer. The wizard prepares a receptacle for the dragon's spirit by casting enchant an item and also prepares a necromantic potion. If the dragon consumes the potion (of its own accord, through trickery, or coercion), it dies, and its life force transfers to the enchanted receptacle. Later, the dragon's spirit can reanimate a dead reptilian body. Dracoliches retain all of their abilities and intellect that they possessed in life. In addition to immortality, they gain undead immunities and unique powers.
A dracolich can be an extremely powerful ally for a necromancer, but it is free-willed and not under the wizard's complete domination. The creature must usually be enticed with offerings of treasure in order for it to undertake any mission on behalf of its living caretaker. The Cult of the Dragon, which regards the undead dragon as a semi-divine form, is said to worship the dracoliches they help create.
Ghast. Using methods similar to those outlined above for the ghoul, a necromancer of at least 14th level can create ghasts. However, these powerfully chaotic creatures are even more unpredictably violent than their weaker cousins, and thus much more difficult to control. For this reason, they are rarely raised except as an experiment. Afterward, they are either literally trapped in an area (to serve as unwilling guards), set loose into the countryside (where they promptly wander far away from their creator's domain), or simply destroyed.
Ju-ju zombie. These hardy undead make the best undying servants. They can be created once a necromancer reaches at least 14th level by first slaying a victim with finger of death (or once the wizard is more powerful, by casting energy drain) and then animating the dead body. Because of the manner in which they were slain, ju-ju zombies retain a surprising amount of their original personality and intellect—far more than the ordinary zombie. They are capable of independent, reasoned thought, although their undying mind is heavily clouded with a sleepy, dreamlike stupor (hence their effectively low intelligence). Ju-ju zombies are not self-willed, however, and as long as their creator lives, they will follow his or her commands with faithful obedience.
If their master dies, they become completely self-willed, carrying out (as much as possible) any ambitions they may have followed in life. In one of his short stories (“Necromancy in Naat”), Clark Ashton Smith writes about how a pair of zombies who were once lovers while they were alive return to their romantic courtship after their necromantic master dies. Most ju-ju zombies, however, are filled with a latent hatred of the life they were denied by their creator.
Kazerabet once relied heavily on ju-ju zombies to help run an entire dictatorship, long before she embraced the lifestyle of a sage and wrote the Art of Necromancy. Ju-ju zombies were at the top of her undead bureaucracy, serving as her chief lieutenants and messengers. Each ju-ju zombie was given command or authority over a number regular zombies and skeletons and set to perform a specific task, which they performed with tireless efficiency. An appendix in the Art of Necromancy includes a few secrets about preserving a ju-ju zombie's original living appearance. Kazerabet admits to employing ju-ju zombie masseurs in her boudoir, and she always liked her handsome body servants to be as aesthetically pleasing and lifelike as possible.
Crypt thing. This creature is a necromantic guardian set in place by a wizard or priest of at least 14th level to secure a crypt, graveyard, or tomb. The creature's teleportation attack can be quite disorienting and frightening to opponents, and most often, crypt things act more as deterrents than physical threats. Unless the necromancer or priest has chosen a tomb or crypt as a lair (or stores something valuable in such a location), a crypt thing is unlikely to be a popular topic of research for that particular spellcaster. Kazerabet hardly gives them more than a passing reference in her Art of Necromancy, and the Book of Shadows is little more informative.
Golems. The most powerful necromancers can create golems. Although not strictly undead, golems are magical automatons that can be created by transferring some life force or elemental spirit into an inanimate object. As such, they are a perfect topic of study, experimentation, and creation for the necromancer, particularly the Anatomist or the Undead Master. The necromancer can create many types of golems as detailed in Van Richten's Guide to the Created and the Monstrous Manual.
The simplest of such creations, which can be assembled by a wizard of 14th level or higher, is the necrophidius. It appears to be a huge skeletal snake topped by a fang-toothed human skull. According to the Art of Necromancy, it is possible for a necromancer of at least 16th level to fashion multi-headed variants of the necrophidius.
A 14th-level necromancer can also fashion a flesh golem, either by summoning an elemental spirit to animate the corpse-hewn receptacle or by transplanting the brain of another sentient individual into the creation. The latter version of the flesh golem, known as the Ravenloft variant, is fully detailed in Van Richten's Guide. Finally, at 18th level, a necromancer may want to create a bone golem, essentially a towering bone colossus capable of terrible destruction.
A few death priests, particularly those serving deities of Murder and Revenge, have the ability to create a scarecrow once they reach 9th level. This evil automaton is created specifically for the purpose of killing a particular individual, much like an assassin.
Skeleton warrior. This undead creation is formed when a necromancer of at least 16th level binds the spirit of a powerful fighter into a specially prepared circlet, often using the spell life force transfer. The skeleton warrior retains all of the abilities, intellect, and personality it possessed in life, except that it must obey, as a willing slave, whoever wears the circlet. Not surprisingly, all skeleton warriors seek to obtain the circlet containing their souls so that they may destroy it and rest in peace. To counter this, the necromancer either must always wear the circlet or must somehow restrain the skeleton warrior (perhaps in a locked room) when the wizard chooses to remove the circlet. With their high magic resistance (90%), skeleton warriors make almost unbeatable wizard-killers. Undead Masters are among the few necromancers who would willingly tolerate such a constant threat in return for the service of this powerful minion.
It is rumored in the Book of Shadows that a talented wizard may be able create another type of soul receptacle for a skeleton warrior (like a ring, perhaps) that would enable an ambitious necromancer to simultaneously control more than one of these creatures. Other powerful mages, such as the famous Elminster, have noted that it may be possible to bind wizards in such a fashion. For example, Tashara of the Seven Skulls was said to have bound no fewer than seven lesser undead wizards into her service before she was finally outdone by her own ambition and greed for magical power. Such awesome necromantic bindings, including the subjugation of liches (if such is indeed possible, as implied in the Art of Necromancy), are risky enterprises for only the most powerful necromancers.