So the other day I had a debate with one of my friends regarding how many creatures you could create with the spell Animate Dead when you cast it as a 3rd level spell and then upcast it. Like, for instance, you use all of your 3rd level spell slots to create a handful of minions, and then use all of your 4th level spell slots to create even more minions. My friend was adamant that the upcast version of the spell would overwrite the base 3rd level casts, causing those specific creatures to no longer be under my control, citing page 205 of the Player's Handbook. Really, what all this boils down to is: can I have multiple groups of undead minions created by Animate Dead cast at varying spell levels—i.e., one group created by 3rd level spells, another group created by 4th level spells, etc.—or can I only have one group of minions created at a time?
Sorry if this was confusing, lol.
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Your friend may be confusing earlier editions of the game that gave a hard cap to the total HD of controlled creatures. 5e lets you go wild, you can create more undead servants with each casting. The maintaining control is a separate use of the spell that lets you maintain more than you can raise at once. Google some of the math for total raised horde if you devote all your slots to it, it's over 100 skeletons/zombies at level 20 and you can swap to different types with control undead for even more mayhem.
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So the other day I had a debate with one of my friends regarding how many creatures you could create with the spell Animate Dead when you cast it as a 3rd level spell and then upcast it. Like, for instance, you use all of your 3rd level spell slots to create a handful of minions, and then use all of your 4th level spell slots to create even more minions. My friend was adamant that the upcast version of the spell would overwrite the base 3rd level casts, causing those specific creatures to no longer be under my control, citing page 205 of the Player's Handbook. Really, what all this boils down to is: can I have multiple groups of undead minions created by Animate Dead cast at varying spell levels—i.e., one group created by 3rd level spells, another group created by 4th level spells, etc.—or can I only have one group of minions created at a time?
Sorry if this was confusing, lol.
Your friend may be confusing earlier editions of the game that gave a hard cap to the total HD of controlled creatures. 5e lets you go wild, you can create more undead servants with each casting. The maintaining control is a separate use of the spell that lets you maintain more than you can raise at once. Google some of the math for total raised horde if you devote all your slots to it, it's over 100 skeletons/zombies at level 20 and you can swap to different types with control undead for even more mayhem.