Best Outsiders to use Animate Dead on?

[Bill Bisco: Eloquent Elf]

Dear all,

Planar Binding Calls Outsiders to a specific location, you can then kill those outsiders and then animate their corpses.  Which outsiders make the best zombies and skeletons?

I know Nightmares are great since they naturally fly without wings, but what else?

[Bill Bisco: Eloquent Elf]

The Zombie Dragon Template from Draconomicon halves the Dragon's Natural armor, applies -2 Dex and -6 Charisma, but they get to keep their breath weapon.

I looked in Draconomicon which has the Chaos Dragon which allows the Dragon to make a Cone of Confusion: Will Save or be Confused for 1d6 rounds+Age Category.  That kind of save or die is very nice.  The Ethereal Dragon Force breath is very nice, hurts incorporeal just fine and little resistance.  Oceanus Dragon is even nicer.  Grating a breath weapon to save or be dazed for 1d6+age Category Rounds.  Pyroclastic dragon is even nicer.  Disintegrating line, save vs. fort or crumble to ash!!  Straight up save or die!!  Shadow Dragon is very nice too, the affected creatures gain negative levels.

For games that allow Pathfinder, I found the following Nice Monsters that should make good uses for Planar Binding:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/wendigo
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/marilith
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/demon-shemhazian
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/devil/horned

The Wendigo seems to be the king of mobility and damage, dealing 4d6 extra cold damage off of its 3 attacks.  Assuming you don't need the 120 ft speed, the Shemhazian seems to get the most damage per attack while the Marilith has the greatest potential since she has 6 arms + Tail so if you had magical weapons it would eventually outdamage the Shemhazian.


As far as tactics go, I can imagine a team of Shadow Dragons and Pyroclastic dragons working together.  The Shadow Dragons will all breathe to reduce the saves of the affected creatures while the Pyroclastic dragons will breathe on the foes to cause them to die.  That being said the dragons will be vulnerable during the inbetween rounds and can get pummelled very easily.  Perhaps 2 Wendigos to be frontline fighters and defenders to intercept.

So since my DM has limited me to 6 corpses from outsiders gained from Planar Binding, I am thinking of:

2 Zombie Dragon Pyroclastic Dragons
2 Zombie Dragon Shadow Dragons
2 Skeletal Wendigos

Now that being said, the dragons are a liability in that they only get a standard or move action per round which can really mess them up.  Any ideas on how to improve this?  I can only think of a Belt of Battle, but the problem with that is that it takes a mental action to activate and decide how many charges to use, and I'm not sure if I can argue that a Mindless Undead can do that.

Secondly, they really need some Charisma, I am thinking giving them +6 cloaks of Charisma, but that can be expensive, but it sure helps their DCs which are critical in this exercise.

Any help is appreciated.

[Suin Bahhar]

I don't think outsiders leave corpses. They are banished back to the plane were they originated from when killed.

[X-Codes]

I don't think outsiders leave corpses. They are banished back to the plane were they originated from when killed.

No, if outsiders are summoned (along with any other creature that is summoned), then they vanish and go back to the plane of their origin if they die, but they also do not actually die from such an experience.

Outsiders that are called with a Planar Binding or Planar Ally spell, however, are absolutely able to be killed, and will leave a corpse.

[Bill Bisco: Eloquent Elf]

Somewhat funny regarding all of this is the number of angels and other creatures that start off with magical weapons.  This seems like an easy way to make money and give artificers all the craft points they want

[X-Codes]

Somewhat funny regarding all of this is the number of angels and other creatures that start off with magical weapons.  This seems like an easy way to make money and give artificers all the craft points they want

They also often have a huge chunk of treasure outside of the listed equipment they're using.

[JaronK]

IIRC Chain Devils were pretty good for using Animate Dead this way.

JaronK

[Ed-Zero]

I was looking at some of the outsiders in PF and found this little guy:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/heralds/emperor-of-scales

Basically, it's a floating head that has a bunch of snakes underneath its skull. Makes a strong bite attack and 8 snake bite attacks that have a good chance to hit but aren't that strong.

I just like the imagery of it

[Felix Underwood]

zombies:
Ghaele Eladrin

Skeletons:
 Arrow Demon
 Kelvazu

The Book of Exalted Deeds has some text about summoning/calling specific outsiders that have more hit dice than the typical example.  I'm away from my books and notes at the moment, but I believe it was in the description of some of the celestial champions.

Also, you can use permanent level drain to broaden the range of creatures to make valid for animate dead.