The Spell Animate and Control Dead

[darthauthor]

The incantation Spell "Animate and Control Dead" found on page 211 of the Rifts Ultimate Edition.

The description reads, "With this incantation the practitioner of magic can animate the remains of dead bodies human, animal or monster and mentally control them like a puppet master would a marionette."


Question #1:
Running a campaign with Xiticix.
"Does the spell work on Xiticix?"
Yes or No.

Question #2:
The spells makes the "Dead" out to be S.D.C. beings.
"Does it work on MD beings or if it does are they considered S.D.C. while under the effects of this spell?"

My guess is that the author never considered the spell being used on a Xiticix.

Question #3:
"Could the spell be used to fool Xiticix by having the player characters carried as prisoners of the animated dead Xiticix?"

[ShadowLogan]

Q1:
Technically Yes given the text.

Q2:
The spell is Copied and Pasted from an SDC universe (likely Palladium Fantasy) at a time where MDC wasn't a thing and the spell wasn't updated for MDC aspects (some spells where, some didn't need it, but some could have benefited).

Personally given the spell is "Simple" I do not allow it to work on MDC beings since MDC creatures aren't considered and the stats only consider SDC beings. Granted Necromancy's Greater version doesn't address MDC beings either. And I know there are MDC undead out there (Maxpray Shamblr from CB1r, probably a few more here and other places) so it can be done, it just doesn't seem to be something the spell (and additionally C:Z/M) can handle.

If you are looking for a way it could explain the SDC for MDC creatures (and new SDC for SDC beings), I'd go with what you are attacking is actually SDC magical energy-field/substance (IIRC necromancy hints this is how it works for them, so likely how wizard version also works).

Q3:
No A&CD on Xit corpse(s) would not fool the bugs. The Bugs use chemical agents to identify/communicate with Hive members (which also means no infiltrating rival hives), and a corpse Xit isn't going to be able to pull this off (their death chemical might also be another give away).

[darthauthor]

So how should I treat it when a player wants to use the spell on a dead Xiticix?

Will the spell work?
Will dead Xiticix be made to work?
Made to fight?

Will living Xticix flee in horror or fight the dead Xiticix first?

[ShadowLogan]

I don't think the Xticix will flee or anything like that IF the spell did work on them, they will respond as if it was any other intruder IMHO. Remember the Bugs use chemical messengers, one of which is released upon death.

As to will the spell work on a Xticix. A by RAW approach the spell should work, however the Xticix corpse will be an SDC construct (and when you attack it you do damage to the magic animating the skeleton somehow (Necromancy's "Bone & Joint Bonding" spell pg187-BoM suggests magic "muscle" and/or "cartilage" form for part of the basis for various animating spells and is some type of ectoplasm-like substance). IF you are looking for MDC skeletons to create you have a few options (in no particular order):
1. Houserule: MDC skeleton stats based on generic size and don't care about base race (as seen in SDC races*) for the baseline spell
2. by RAW Necromancy offers ways to "beefup" SDC Skeletons (like Fragile Bone to MDC Bone-BoM pg193, or FB to Stone pg191 or FB to Wood g 187-8)
3. Houserule: as Xticix have an exoskeleton, the animated skeletons could be considered to be "wearing" armor (something one can do with animated dead)
4. by RAW the animated dead can wear armor and use equipment, so if you fashion "armor" out of extra corpses you could get MDC skeletons (of a fashion)
5. by RAW/houserule, you could create a variant of the spell to work on MDC creatures (there are RAW in one of the Nightbane books to modify existing spells, or you could just wing it).

*For example, in PF Goblins get +10SDC (in CB1r pg98) and are the same size as Dwarves which get +20SDC, or Elves are +10 but human size (taller end). However, the magic doesn't seem to care about race as they G&Ds would be a flat 50 and E&H would be flat 80. The same also holds for the various giant races in CB1r (in SDC universes) and Wolfen (considered giant size) as they get various SDC bonuses that wouldn't be reflected in the spell.