Animate Dead Max.

[Scott]

Do you think there should be a cap on how many undead servants a cleric can animate?

[GT]

I'd let 'em keep going until they drew the ire of some paladin(s) or lawful good clergy or powerful militant duke or deva or... whatever. It doesn't cost the cleric any food or upkeep, per se and if they go to far, they'll put their head through a noose! ^__^ BTW, I have an NPC Deathlord (Len Lakofka NPC, from The Dragon magazine) running around in my world; and even he doesn't make tooooooo many undead! Heh!

[GRWelsh]

I actually asked EGG about this once, in early 2007, and it still on Dragonsfoot -- here's the abridged discussion:

ME: "I have always wondered something about the AD&D spell Animate Dead. Is there any limit to how many skeletons/zombies a cleric may animate and retain control of? As written, a cleric can animate 1 skeleton or zombie per level of the spell-caster. But can he cast another Animate Dead the next day to animate another amount equal to his level? If so, a mid-level cleric could soon have his own undead army."

EGG: "The Animate Dead spell is as written, the cleric can animate and control only one per level, casting another Animate Dead spell would not change the fact that only one Dead could be animated and controlled. OTOH, using a Permanent spell on a controlled corpse(s) would make another Animate Dead meaningful."

ME: "If a 10th level cleric cast Animate Dead to animate 10 zombies, and left them in a dungeon and went to some other location and cast the spell again on 10 other corpses, what would happen? Would the spell have no effect since the cleric already controls the limit of what he can? Could the cleric relinquish control over the 10 previously existing zombies to create 10 more with the new casting? In that case, would the 10 zombies first animated simply become inanimate again?"

EGG: "My opinion is that a cleric creating zombies and then leaving, casting another Animate Dead spell elsewhere, would, at the DM's option, either return the animated corpses to their former state or else leave them as uncontrolled zombies. I rather prefer the idea of the latter happening with clerics above say 8th or 9th level."

ME: "So the Original DM has spoken... thanks for the input! I was expecting an either/or answer, but I like your suggestion better. I think this is an excellent house rule: have the previously created zombies or skeletons remain animated but become uncontrolled if a new animate dead spell is cast by a cleric of 8th level or above, or a magic-user of 12th level or above (i.e., 3 levels above the class level needed to cast the spell). Otherwise, they slump or rattle to the floor, inert..."

EGG: "Very well... And that allows for zombies showing up unaccompanied by clerical guardian."

[Scott]

I thought I remembered EGG making a statement like that. I consider that pretty low.
I the Slayers Guide to Undead, which I rate as one of the best books with Gary's name on it, it goes into how the animated dead can go berserk when control is lost, and they just roam around looking for living things to kill.

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Can skeletons or zombies be re-animated after being slain in skeleton or zombie form? If so, what means can be used to prevent re-animation? For example, if zombie bodies are burned, can they thereafter be re-animated as skeletons since their flesh remnants were burned away?

Can slain ghouls or other undead be subjects of animate dead and raised as either zombies or skeletons?

[GRWelsh]

That's for you the DM to decide, since it isn't clearly stated one way or the other.

I would say since it isn't stated you cannot do it, then you can, provided the remains haven't been sufficiently destroyed or scattered. For the basic spell animate dead, as long as the entire body is there, you can animate it -- even it is not in great condition. But as the DM, you may want it rule it as possible to animate partial skeletons and zombies -- so some of them could be missing an arm, hand, jawbone or even an entire skull! I rather like that image! You could even come up with a spell for it, such as animate partial remains, or animate dead parts.

In folklore, they would sometimes put the holy wafer of Communion in the mouth of a corpse, and/or behead it, to keep it from rising as a vampire or undead. You could come up with other in-game methods, such as blessing the remains and sprinkling them with holy water, garlanding them with garlic or mistletoe, placing a holy symbol upon the breast, etc.

Since you can use the animate dead spell to animate the remains of monsters, per the notes in the DMG, then I don't see why that wouldn't apply to a ghoul as well.

Caput mortuum!

[geneweigel]

This might be something possible only by high end magic (8th level new spell?) Otherwise it seems too user-end dry to me.

My experience, the animate concept had been stretched over use in its niche.

For example, animal skeletons by Len Lakofka introduced had a subsequent inquiry to Sage Advice in DRAGON #79 (OCT 1983):

In issue #66, Leomund’s Tiny Hut lists
some interesting lower-level monsters.
But one of them, animal skeletons, cannot
apparently be made using the spell
animate dead as described in the Players
Handbook.
It is conceivable that evil clerics could
develop a spell similar to animate dead
that would allow for the animation of
animal skeletons. Such a spell would
likely be of third-level power and similar
in most respects (such as casting time and
so forth) to the other spell.

The original entry in DRAGON #66 (OCT 1982) LEOMUND'S TINY HUT "New Monsters For Low Levels" by D&D's ur-minimalist extraordinaire Len Lakofka:

Animal
skeletons
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 2-20
ARMOR CLASS: 8
MOVE: 6”
HIT DICE: 1-1
% IN LAIR: 85%
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to sleep,
charm, hold, cold, death magic;
half damage from edged weapons
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Non-
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: S to M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
X. P. VALUE: 10 + 1/hp

Animal skeletons are created from
small vertebrates via the spell animate
dead, which produces 1 skeleton per
level of the casting cleric or magic-user.
These undead can be turned as a regular
skeleton but at +1 in the cleric’s favor,
using d6 + 6 to determine the number
(7-12) turned or destroyed. The animals
never have any special attack forms they
may have had in life. Animals smaller
than squirrels or larger than hyenas
cannot become animated skeletons.

and the subsequent follow up entry in MONSTER MANUAL II (1983) has no mention of the suggested alternate spell even though it appears updated:

SKELETON, ANIMAL

FREQUENCY Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 2-20
ARMOR CLASS: 8
MOVE: 6"
HIT DICE: 1-1
%IN LAIR: 85%
TREASURE TYPE: See below
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Non-
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: S to M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes:
Nil/nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE:
I/10+l/hp

Animal skeletons are animated from small vertebrate creatures by
means of an animate dead spell. Animal skeletons are produced at the
rate of 1-1/2 per experience level of the caster. They are typically
created to serve as guardians of a minor sort. Thus, they will not usually
have treasure nearby, save possibly that incidentally remaining from
past encounters. Usual animal skeletons are from the size of domestic
cats to the size of large dogs. (Nothing larger than a human can be
animated by the spell.)
Animal skeletons have no special attack forms. They are, of course,
immune to charm, cold, death magic, hold, and sleep. Blunt weapons
inflict normal damage, but edged weapons inflict only one-half normal
damage. They are turned as normal skeletons, but at +1 in the cleric's
favor, and 1 d6+6 will be turned or destroyed.

But this seems like a placeholder thats been placed too long. By the time you get to SLAYER'S GUIDE TO THE UNDEAD (2002) by Mongoose Publishing (an independent publisher using the D20 set up) you have Gary working in the confines of card-stacker play where a "template" takes over everything including animals without blinking an eye.

So his answers are based on that but some are hints in the confines of the D&D we know as he addresses the banality of D20:

Undead and the Undead Templates
While somewhat atypical, special circumstanees
might allow the combination of two or more undead
templates, such as a vampire/ghoul that needs to
consume both flesh and blood in order to survive.

So here we have something thats not on the D20 radar but on a different dimension. In my experience, different dimensions are high level spellcraft and not spell tweaks.