Control undead

Control undead was a necromancy spell that enabled the caster to command one or more undead creatures for a short period of time.

Effects
There were at least two versions of this spell that were similar but with important differences. The earlier version of the spell automatically worked against weak undead such as skeletons, zombies, and ghouls, and lasted a bare minimum of 17 minutes, but the later version allowed each undead in the target zone a chance to resist the spell, and lasted a minimum of 13 minutes. The advantage of the later version was that it could possibly control more than twice as many skeletons or one much more powerful undead creature than the earlier version which was randomly limited at a maximum of six undead.

The range of the spell was 60 ft (18 m) for earlier version and even longer for more experienced casters of the later version. The area of effect expanded from a target point within this range until the number of creatures that could be controlled was reached. For the later version, these had to be within 30 ft (9.1 m) of each other.

Commands were given verbally in any language that the caster could speak and the minions would understand and obey as long as they were within hearing range. Regardless of the conditions or ability of the caster to communicate, the minions would not attack the caster while under his or her control. Undead creatures that were not mindless remembered who controlled them and what they did during that interval.

Components
In addition to verbal and somatic components, this spell required a small piece of bone and a small chunk of raw meat.

History
This spell was introduced by the Netherese arcanist-priest Sadebreth in &minus;2464 DR as Sadebreth's undead control in the city of Imbrue, after many years of work to duplicate the priestly ability.