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Old 01-16-2019, 11:31 AM   #4
Shadekeep
 
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Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Aerlith
Default Re: Do Skeletons decay?

Quote:
Originally Posted by warhorse11h View Post
I can't say what the official stance is, but my take on it would be that once the zombie has decayed to the point where he becomes a skeleton, he wouldn't be subject to further ST loss.
That was my original interpretation as well - flesh decays, bones don't. But then it raises the conundrum of "if a skeleton is sufficient to hold onto ST, why doesn't the skeleton of a zombie do the same?"

In other words, the underlying magic doesn't make sense to me if one form loses ST but the other doesn't. It seems like it's actually the animating field that is dissipating at the rate of 1 ST per day, rather than the flesh/bones.

The only way I can see to justify "zombies lose ST, skeletons don't" in a magical sense is to assume that the spell animates the flesh in the case of a zombie, and animates the bones in the case of a skeleton. Which is a bit weird and arbitrary, but then magic isn't always logical. And that particular justification still doesn't quite cover the transition of a zombie to a skeleton, unless one assumes the magic is slowly seeping from the flesh into the bones over time.

Ultimately though I'm most interested in the core question - do skeletons lose ST per day? That's what matters in a gameplay sense.
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