This might be a question for Rules and Mechanics but I have my PCs entering a spooky undead area and want to use the Aphemia in this setting. But I am having difficulty interpreting the Grave Calling Song. RAW seems to suggest that undead would act in accordance to the Aphemia's will, but what would this look like in combat?
Grave Calling Song. Aphemia intones a low, growling magical melody. Every undead within 300 feet of her must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or fall under her control until the song ends.Aphemia must take a bonus action on her subsequent turns to continue singing, and she can mentally command the undead under her control as part of the same bonus action. She can stop singing at any time. The song ends if Aphemia is incapacitated or dies.
Say I have the Aphemia, perched atop a mausoleum statue singing the grave song, Zombie A fails the save but Zombie B succeeds. PC 1 moves past Zombie A & B to attack the Aphemias' life points directly. Does A make an Opp Attack to protect its master? Why wouldn't B as well?
What real purpose does the Grave Calling Song serve? Am I thinking about this too deeply or is my attempt at nuance well placed?
Grave Calling Song allows her to take control of any other undead--basically it would allow her to enter a necropolis filled with zombies that she does not control and place herself in control of them. It also allows her to try and take control of any zombies or undead the party might have under their control. During the Aphemia's turn, it has to maintain the song as a bonus action; this also allows it to command its undead to take actions on their turn. Think of it as a mass AOE spell for taking command of an entire undead horde that already exists
In your situation, Zombie A is now under the Aphemia's control. Zombie B is not. Presumably Zombie A has been commanded to be hostile to the players.
Zombie A is likely to take an opportunity attack because it is hostile to the players. I would probably not roleplay this as "protect the master" and more "thing I want to eat moved next to me, I will try to bite it." Flavor wise, I would say the zombies are more under the trance of the harpy--they do not become more intelligent or take on the harpy's tactical know-how--they just follow direct orders and react in a manner consistent with their limited intelligence.
Whether Zombie B makes an opportunity attack is a different question. If zombie B is independently hostile to the player characters, yes, it likely would--zombies tend to react and bite things they see as food. So, even if the harpy is not controlling the undead, if the undead is hostile it will still attack the party, and still likely would ignore the other (not tasty) zombies around it and try to eat the (tasty) party members.
For me, the key thing there is the range. If she's perched in an area with a lot of undead, there may not be many in the immediate vicinity, but with the song she can summon a bunch more if she needs them from within that 300 foot -- that's the length of a football field in all directions. Given how most lesser undead operate, she wouldn't even necessarily need to maintain the song for long -- she just wants to get them pointed in the right direction
Just figure out how many zombies or whatnot are in that range to be called by the song, roll the saving throws (either individually or in groups to speed up the process), and then have them show up in waves while the party is fighting her
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
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This might be a question for Rules and Mechanics but I have my PCs entering a spooky undead area and want to use the Aphemia in this setting. But I am having difficulty interpreting the Grave Calling Song. RAW seems to suggest that undead would act in accordance to the Aphemia's will, but what would this look like in combat?
Say I have the Aphemia, perched atop a mausoleum statue singing the grave song, Zombie A fails the save but Zombie B succeeds. PC 1 moves past Zombie A & B to attack the Aphemias' life points directly. Does A make an Opp Attack to protect its master? Why wouldn't B as well?
What real purpose does the Grave Calling Song serve? Am I thinking about this too deeply or is my attempt at nuance well placed?
Grave Calling Song allows her to take control of any other undead--basically it would allow her to enter a necropolis filled with zombies that she does not control and place herself in control of them. It also allows her to try and take control of any zombies or undead the party might have under their control. During the Aphemia's turn, it has to maintain the song as a bonus action; this also allows it to command its undead to take actions on their turn. Think of it as a mass AOE spell for taking command of an entire undead horde that already exists
In your situation, Zombie A is now under the Aphemia's control. Zombie B is not. Presumably Zombie A has been commanded to be hostile to the players.
Zombie A is likely to take an opportunity attack because it is hostile to the players. I would probably not roleplay this as "protect the master" and more "thing I want to eat moved next to me, I will try to bite it." Flavor wise, I would say the zombies are more under the trance of the harpy--they do not become more intelligent or take on the harpy's tactical know-how--they just follow direct orders and react in a manner consistent with their limited intelligence.
Whether Zombie B makes an opportunity attack is a different question. If zombie B is independently hostile to the player characters, yes, it likely would--zombies tend to react and bite things they see as food. So, even if the harpy is not controlling the undead, if the undead is hostile it will still attack the party, and still likely would ignore the other (not tasty) zombies around it and try to eat the (tasty) party members.
For me, the key thing there is the range. If she's perched in an area with a lot of undead, there may not be many in the immediate vicinity, but with the song she can summon a bunch more if she needs them from within that 300 foot -- that's the length of a football field in all directions. Given how most lesser undead operate, she wouldn't even necessarily need to maintain the song for long -- she just wants to get them pointed in the right direction
Just figure out how many zombies or whatnot are in that range to be called by the song, roll the saving throws (either individually or in groups to speed up the process), and then have them show up in waves while the party is fighting her
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)