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Old 01-16-2019, 03:57 PM   #10
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: Do Skeletons decay?

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
"Zombies lose 1 ST per day unless re-enchanted." - No mention of rot.
That's the zombie creature description.

The Zombie spell description reads ""A zombie’s wounds cannot heal on their own, and it loses 1 ST a day as it rots".

The Skeleton creature description does not say it loses ST.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony
If re-enchanting eliminates the ST loss, it's clearly not actual decay of the corpse, it's decay of the enchantment.
It is the enchantment fading, because it says it can take years for all the flesh to rot off. It does mention "as it rots", which to me says that the enchantment fades as the flesh rots. To me, that's not a contradiction - it just means that casting Zombie on a body with flesh results in an enchantment that fades as the body rots.

Skeletons don't rot like that, so zombie spells on them don't fade.


Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
... the next time your halfling dies take him to the wizard's guild for a 100 point casting of the Zombie spell and just return every three months or so. ...
Result is ST 95, DX 10, IQ 19 (effectively, or higher?), MA 10
Does 8d+1 when slapping around poor defenseless dragons.
(More when wielding a redwood.)
For super-high-ST skeletons and zombies, it seems to me like there should be limits. As you surely know, your own house rules address this:

("A Zombie can only be cured by healing potions up to the maximum ST its creator bestowed on it. No zombie can be enchanted up to more than twice the ST it had in life without tearing itself apart. I.e. there are no skeleton ballerinas wielding telephone poles as two handed mauls at ST 60 and DX 12+. If you really need a ST 60 zombie then start with a giant's corpse and pay 75 fatigue (only the base cost of 5 is tripled for size) for a three hex zombie with ST 60, DX 7, IQ 0. A zombie retains the IQ 7 weapons talents it had in life.")

It seems to me that skeletons might want a lower max ST limit than zombies, as they have much less mass, and at some point, a heavy weapon swung by a light skeleton would swing the skeleton more than the weapon no matter how much ST it had.
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