Why does the spell animate dead suck so much?

[Morgeruat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lord Ludtke:
It is quite a powerful spell as the skelys are almost completely magic resistant. I have never been able to control more then 5 at one time, no matter what level I am at, but I recall seeing a screenshot where someone went into the Irenicus battle with 100 skel warriors.

Does anyone else remember seeing that and how was that done?

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cast Project Image, it lets you cast your normal spells and the summon spells you use don't count against your (real character's) summon limit, so learn 5 animate dead's, and as many PI's as you can, cast PI, and then have the PI cast ani dead, cast PI again, and have that one cast animate dead, etc etc, and you can have some really nasty amounts

[SixOfSpades]

Hmmm....the Mage and Cleric versions of this spell might be different. I know in BG1, it could only be cast by Clerics, and they could indeed create 1 skeleton per caster level. I remember wandering around Baldur's Gate with 30 Skeletons because I'd Charmed an Evil Cleric (who happened to be Level 10) and used up her Animate Dead spells.

[Memnoch]

quote:

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Originally posted by Nifft the Nimble:


Yes, for game balance reasons.

There is also a way around this limit, but it could be considered a cheating spoiler.

-- Nifft

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"Cheezy" rather than "cheating" is probably a more apt description of the way you are talking about.

[Morgeruat]

quote:

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Originally posted by SixOfSpades:
Hmmm....the Mage and Cleric versions of this spell might be different. I know in BG1, it could only be cast by Clerics, and they could indeed create 1 skeleton per caster level. I remember wandering around Baldur's Gate with 30 Skeletons because I'd Charmed an Evil Cleric (who happened to be Level 10) and used up her Animate Dead spells.

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The main difference is that the priestly version of the spell is 3rd level, rather than 5th like the mage variation, in PnP it says for the priest version that it is identical to the mage version.

Has anyone experimented with the priest version to see if you can get skeleton warriors? If so you could get the same troops from a 3rd lvl spell rather than spending a 5th level spell for the same effect...

[ 01-08-2002: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

SoA Ending Spoiler
Without using Wish

Someone mentioned a 100 Skeleton Warriors? I used the Project Image + Wish combo for it to be possible. Wish is a ToB spell( level 9 spell).

And yes, the clerical version will give you Skeleton Warriors as well, so long as your Cleric is level 15 and above.