Enchanting before zombie spell ?

[Cletor]

Is it within the rules to enchant a dead body and then use the zombie spell on it ?

My idea is was making something like a flaming skeleton by enchanting the body with "flaming armor spell", or perhaps an invisible zombie with the "inviseble spell".

[Balor Patch]

Is there some reason to think the object must be inanimate? Certainly not for the Ensorcel, Lich, and Wraith enchantments.

[Cletor]

Originally Posted by Balor Patch

Is there some reason to think the object must be inanimate? Certainly not for the Ensorcel, Lich, and Wraith enchantments.

So by this logic can I assume that enchanting living things is possible ?

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Cletor

So by this logic can I assume that enchanting living things is possible ?

See the Talisman and Amulet spell on Magic 58. I think it's a small leap from there to enchanting a person. It's going to be expensive to make, for example, flaming skeletons. On the other hand, one could tinker with the various magical assumptions, like in Thaumatology, to produce the proper effects you want in your setting.

I'm particularly fond of allowing Sacrifices and Ceremonial Magic style spectator bonuses to apply. For Quick and Dirty, the application of the penalty due to assistants quickly makes it so that trivial magic items, such as enchanted arrows and power stones are fairly cheap, but not too cheap. With Slow and Sure I would limit the power contribution to the ceremonial rules, but once a day. This would allow an expert enchanter with a half dozen skilled assistants to invest perhaps a fifty to a hundred points a day into a Slow and Sure project. More powerful magical items would be less expensive than they are under the default Gurps: Magic assumptions.

Toy around with your assumptions until you create the setting you want for your magic.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Cletor

So by this logic can I assume that enchanting living things is possible ?

Assuming (a) they match the item requirements for the spell, and (b) them being destroyed on a critical failure and quirked on a normal failure isn't a showstopper, sure.

[Black Leviathan]

There's a lot of enchantments that can be case on "Any" that you could put on a zombie. Before or after it's raised it's still an "Any". The whole advantage to zombies is they're cheap. For the price of an enchantment or two you could raise hundreds of the dead. It would only make sense if you had a nearly limitless font of mana or a very limited supply of corpses.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

The whole advantage to zombies is they're cheap.

Not really. Supply of legally available intact corpses is quite low in most societies, and obtaining them illegally is pretty risky and still has to deal with a limited supply (that is mostly in poor shape) unless you're bulk murdering people.

[Cletor]

See the Talisman and Amulet spell on Magic 58. I think it's a small leap from there to enchanting a person. It's going to be expensive to make, for example, flaming skeletons. On the other hand, one could tinker with the various magical assumptions, like in Thaumatology, to produce the proper effects you want in your setting.

I took a look at the talisman and amulet spells and they sounds good for defencive tools, as for the thaumatology book I don't have one to look yet but as soon as I can I will get one.

There's a lot of enchantments that can be case on "Any" that you could put on a zombie. Before or after it's raised it's still an "Any". The whole advantage to zombies is they're cheap. For the price of an enchantment or two you could raise hundreds of the dead. It would only make sense if you had a nearly limitless font of mana or a very limited supply of corpses.

Although corpses are very cheap, the zombies made from them are very weak comparing to 100 pts caracters, my goal was to make a necromancer (perhaps a lich) and have an army of undead that would survive longer than a few moments in combat. Enchanting time and cost could be ignored mostly since it's not a PC.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Cletor

Although corpses are very cheap, the zombies made from them are very weak comparing to 100 pts caracters, my goal was to make a necromancer (perhaps a lich) and have an army of undead that would survive longer than a few moments in combat. Enchanting time and cost could be ignored mostly since it's not a PC.

It will generally be easier to create a corpse golem and not bother with actual zombie spells.

[edk926]

The availability is going to depend on embalming abilities for the society. If they are just chucking the body into a hole and burying it, which is often the case whenever there were wars or disease outbreaks, then the window of viable full corpse is going to be short. That said, the environment can affect deterioration rate as well. Some places have a natural preservation while other places are particularly inviting for quick skeletons.