The thing is, it's a tricky and contentious brand of magic. The last couple of articles might have gotten you interested, but of course, it's not like just anyone can cast animate dead. (Sorry sword-swingers, before you get too excited, I'm not about to reveal a way for you to reanimate undead minions.) Animate dead is only for wizards and clerics, and worse still, the moral implications of even using such a spell are... suspect, at best. Being a heroic fantasy game, D&D characters are generally going to be good, and it can be hard to justify reanimating corpses with negative energy as a result. The problem is, naughty necromancers don't get any love from Santa come Christmastime. So how do capital-G-Good characters get in on the fun? And in the spirit of the season, can't rangers, druids and paladins also get a present while we're at it?
It turns out there's hope yet. Champions of Valor presents us with a little gem in the form of a level 4 Sanctified spell called animate with the spirit.
| Conjuration (Summoning) [Good] Level: Sanctified 4 Components: V, S, DF, Sacrifice Casting Time: 10 minutes Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level) Target: One corpse with HD equal to or less than your caster level Duration: 10 minutes/level (D) Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No By casting this spell, you request your deity to send you the spirit of a good-aligned outsider (of 6 HD or less) of the deity's choice to inhabit a corpse within range, which becomes animated by the spirit. If you serve no particular deity, the spell is a general plea answered by a creature sharing your philosophical alignment. If you know an individual creature's name, you can request that individual by speaking the name during the spell (though you might get a different creature anyway.) The Hit Dice of the corpse to be animated (not counting class levels) cannot exceed your caster level. The possessed body attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the possessing spirit, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions. While the body is inhabited by the spirit, it is treated as if were still alive but possessed. It uses the outsider's Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, mental abilities, and any class levels it might have. The body regains the Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, and innate abilities of the creature the corpse represented when it was alive. For example, a sahuagin's body breathes water and a troll's body regenerates. The spirit can't choose to activate the host body's extraordinary or supernatural abilities, and the host body's spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body. The spirit remains within the body until the spell is dismissed, the duration ends, or the host body is slain, at which point it returns to its original body with no ill effects. Sacrifice Component: 1d3 points of Strength drain. |
For 10 minutes per level, it calls a good-aligned outsider of 6 HD or less (similar to lesser planar ally) and has it possess a corpse you have on hand, so long as it's of a creature with less HD than your caster level. So you're using an extraplanar spirit to temporarily animate a corpse, but it's a Conjuration spell, not Necromancy - get it? You can give life to some beefy corpse without casting animate dead or even being remotely evil.
So as always, the question looms: what are our options here? Animate with the spirit has the potential to be a very useful spell indeed, but to make the most of it you'll need to understand the various facets at play here. Firstly, you should be aware of just what's available in the world of good-aligned outsiders. After all, this is where your animated creature is getting its mental abilities and the majority of its stats. The biggest selling point for a potential summon is going to be its SLAs, which can cover a very impressive range. Much like the higher-end summon monster spells, this can virtually expand your spell list by giving you access to loyal minions who can happily cast spells you couldn't otherwise. This is especially helpful for any short-listers like the ranger or paladin. Of course, the spell's wording makes it so you don't really have full control over what is summoned, but learning an individual's name and working out an agreement, or just spamming the spell until you happen to get what you're after by chance, can help you overcome this hurdle.
The second component to consider is which corpse you're using to host the summoned spirit. This is more along the lines of animate dead - you're limited to whatever corpses (or soon-to-be-corpses) you come across, but of course you can pick which one to target. Likewise, you're looking for tough bodies with plenty of Strength, but you'll also want to get as many hit points or HD as you can, since the body's HP will be invoked, and a minion's no good to you if it gets itself killed. Depending on whether you find a body with a really nifty innate ability, such as regeneration (i.e. the war troll) or a good attack routine (i.e. the hydra) then the body could actually become the most important aspect of the spell - there's nothing wrong with getting an efficient tank for a level 4 spell. If you do find a particularly tasty corpse (probably could have worded that better,) keep in mind that it isn't destroyed if the duration of animate with the spirit elapses, meaning you can use the same body again and again.
The third component to consider is frankly figuring out how to make use of it. Unlike lesser planar ally, this spell only last for 10 minutes/level, so certainly not all day, and unlike summon monster it has a 10 minute casting time, so you can't exactly toss this out on demand. Having enough time to cast animate with the spirit yet knowing when you'll need it can be tricky for combat scenarios, although there's potential just before a dungeon delve if you expect it to be a straightforward affair. Depending on which SLAs your summon gives you access to, it can be valid to just call something up for utility purposes, especially Divination spells and the like.
Of course, Extend Spell - whether via the feat or a metamagic rod - doubles the duration to a more respectable 20 minutes/level. Something else to keep in mind about animate with the spirit is that it is of the Summoning subschool, so any feats or class features that specifically call out Summoning will apply. Imbued Summoning and Beckon the Frozen might make for some fun little tricks (free heroics, anyone?) but of particular note is the Moonspeaker class from Races of Eberron. The Extended Summoning class feature at third level automatically doubles the duration of all Summoning spells - combine this with Extend Spell for a respectable 40 minutes/level, and that's nearly enough to last all day!
Lastly, you need to ensure you have what it takes to cast the spell. Animate with the spirit is of course on no spell list other than the Sanctified list, and a quick rundown may be required for those unfamiliar. In order to cast a Sanctified spell, you need to be any kind of Good and you need to be a class that prepares spells - so wizards, druids, rangers and clerics can all cast animate, but bards and sorcerers cannot (except from a scroll.) Secondly, a Sanctified spell requires a cost to be paid once the spell has elapsed - in the case of animate, 1d3 points of Strength drain. This can be pretty nasty, especially if you mean to make even semi-regular use of the spell, but there are ways around it. A casting of sheltered vitality will protect you if it's active when the spell expires, but since the animated creature could be unexpectedly killed off, you can't always be certain of the duration. The bone ring, from the Magic Item Compendium, is a safer bet: it automatically protects you from three points of ability drain per day. It's a bit pricey, but it can be worth the cost to skirt the drawback of various powerful Sanctified spells and even protect you from any wayward ability damage.
Pelor, Take The Wheel
As far as host bodies are concerned, they largely follow the same guidelines as most run-of-the mill undead. But what of the outsider that will be inhabiting the body? It turns out that the list of Good outsiders with 6 or fewer HD is pretty select, so you can basically evaluate everything on offer rather than merely working within some general guidelines. Again, while you may not be able to pick exactly what kind of outsider answers your call, it's good to at least be aware of what capabilities they have when they do come a-knocking... or what's worth checking Ye Olde Phonebook for if you want to befriend an individual.
Bralani (MM): The bralani is probably the best mental component you can get in the core books. They continuously have a tongues effect that allows them to speak any language, which can come in handy. In terms of spell-like abilities, you get access to blur, charm person, gust of wind, mirror image and wind wall at will, as well as lightning bolt and cure serious wounds twice per day, all at CL 6th. You don't get much in the way of obscure utility; the abilities on offer here mostly make the host body more resilient and robust in combat. Still, you could do worse.
Cervidal (MM2): The cervidal doesn't have much to offer, with the only points of real interest being hold person and suggestion 1/day. Command at will could come in handy versus a low Will save type, though.
Coure (BoED): Not great. You have dancing lights, detect evil, detect magic and faerie fire at will, and magic missile and sleep 3/day. These effects should all be largely dismissable by level 7, but I'd still say it's marginally preferable to the hound archon. At least you also get a continuous tongues effect, and arguably the magic circle against evil effect.
Emprix (web): If web content is on the table, the emprix makes for a powerful option. For whatever reason, it has two 'sets' of spell-like abilities: a pile of enchantment spells (daze, charm person, suggestion, charm monster, confusion and emotion at will, mass charm 3/day and geas 1/month) as well as a list of more generally 'Cleric-y' spells at will (including continual flame, cure light wounds, detect magic, holy aura, remove disease and remove fear.) Many of the enchantment spells will be off-list for divine casters, so it's possible to access some handy diplomacy-related spells this way. The infinite out-of-combat healing is also pretty nifty (especially for arcane casters.) In addition, the emprix has detect evil, detect chaos, see invisibility and even true seeing always active, and depending on DM interpretation, might be able to temporarily grant a small suite of weak SLAs to one other creature. Overall, the emprix has a lot of application both in- and out-of-combat, and several of its spells are well above the level of animate with the spirit.
Equinal (BoED): This is one of the better options available. The equinal has aid, command, detect evil, detect magic, dimension door, dispel magic, fog cloud, light, magic circle against evil, magic missile and see invisiblity at will, as well as slow and wall of stone once per day. In addition, it has the ability to speak with animals telepathically and even Lay on Hands like a paladin. Dispel magic is always useful, especially when it can be repeatedly cast with impunity, and dimension door is interesting in that it will be off-list for any divine casters of animate with the spirit. Furthermore, wall of stone is of a higher level than animate, giving you early access to some powerful battlefield control. The equinal doesn't have the longest list of useful SLAs around, but it's perfectly servicable in many situations, both in- and out-of-combat.
Hollyphant (BoED): In addition to the usual handful of small, low-level effects, the biggest spell-like abilities on offer are banishment, flame strike, heal and raise dead once per day. All of these effects are a higher level than animate, and squarely off-list for non-Cleric casters. On top of that, a hollyphant even has an impressive list of at-will psionics (including detect thoughts, invisibility, see invisibility and suggestion) plus 60-foot telepathy. The hollyphant is the the classic weak-body-with-powerful-magic type of creature, and that makes it well-suited for the mental component of animate with the spirit. Many of its effects are difficult to get otherwise, especially for short-list casters and even for Druids.
Hound Archon (MM): The hound archon is nothing special by the time you can cast animate with the spirit - I'm going to mention it purely under the assumption that it will be the lazy DM's go-to for what answers your call (they're in the core books, they have exactly 6 HD, they don't have any crazy mental abilities that are hard to work with... just be glad you weren't given a lantern archon.) The spell-like abilities you have on offer here are aid, continual flame, detect evil and message: a bit of utility that's hardly noticeable by this level. At the very least, you can make all the everburning torches you want for a quick buck.
Movanic Deva (FF): Easily the single greatest option for animate with the spirit, the movanic deva is basically an immense shopping list of excellent spell-likes. Right off the bat you have commune and raise dead once per day, as well as divination, ethereal jaunt, hallow, plane shift and remove curse three times per day, and even continual flame, create food and water, death ward, discern lies and polymorph self at will. Some of these are really big deals, singlehandedly letting you add divination, planar travel, resurrection and spells that would otherwise cost money or XP, in one fell swoop. On top of that you just get a long list of helpful little effects - prayer and aid as buffs, cure serious wounds and remove disease as healing, detect evil and daylight if you happen to need them. Sometimes it's hard to see how this much spell-like goodness was crammed into 6 HD of monster.
Divine Circumvention
Getting a buff body and a magic-laden spirit is enough of a hurdle that you should be happy to even pull that off, but there are some tricks you can include to make things a little easier... or to play around with it even more, if you so choose.
One of the things necromancers take for granted with animate dead is that their undead minions are self-propelling. This is only sometimes the case with animate with the spirit: let's say you do get your hands on a good, sturdy troll corpse. You want to make use of it as long as you can, since every time you animate it, it's a beast. But when it's not animated you just... carry it around? I can think of more hygienic practices.
That's where the spell secure corpse, from the Book of Exalted Deeds, comes in. This 6th level cleric spell allows you to magically store a corpse in your holy symbol for up to a day per level. Now you can cart around that dragon carcass without filling an entire bag of holding - and who's to say you're only allowed one holy symbol? An 11th level cleric will have enough money to get an entire necklace of the things, and you can use them to store a variety of useful corpses for specific situations. Besides, it's a great way to get rid of evidence, you know?
If you're having trouble getting the carcass of your dreams, don't forget that casting stone to flesh on a statue will explicitly create a corpse, and statues can be trivially made thanks to fabricate. There's also polymorph any object once you're getting on in levels, but there are some weird implications with the spell when it isn't necessarily permanent. Let's say you polymorph a rock into a corpse, use animate with the spirit to inhabit said corpse, then the duration of polymorph elapses. What are you left with - an outsider possessing a rock? Frankly, that sounds like it could have some useful applications as well!
Another thing of real interest to consider is that animate with the spirit has both a range and a single target, meaning it's a valid choice for Chain Spell! Animating a single corpse can be pretty useful, but just imagine getting to animate a dozen or more, each with their own spirit. Talk about an army in a box; this is one heck of a trick if you can pull it off before a big tussle.
That's The Spirit
A "Good" counterpart to necromancy with a creative twist, animate with the spirit has real potential for a reasonable cost if you prepare appropriately. In particular, it's an effect that's normally well out of reach for many classes (how often do paladins get to make zombies?) and can even grant access to many other useful effects in the form of summoned spell-like abilities. Good characters should keep this spell in the back of their mind whenever they end up with a particularly useful corpse or befriend an extraplanar being.
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