Unliving Identity

''In a macabre ritual, you sacrifice some of your essence to imbue a mindless zombie with a sentience of its own. You restore its memory and skills it once knew in life.''

You recall a mindless zombie's consciousness from the Gray, transforming it into a Thinking Zombie (TotDL 78). This spell restores personality, memory, identity, skills, class levels - everything but life. The creature remains undead, and if you previously controlled the zombie, you may elect to retain control of it, but its Hit Dice count against the total you can control with animate dead; if you exceed that number, excess undead from previous castings become uncontrolled.

Many creatures prefer not to return from the Gray to inhabit an undead body. If the creature is unwilling to return, it can make a Will save using its save bonus from life (not that of the target zombie). The spirit's spell resistance, if any, also applies. Some clerics and all druids transformed into thinking zombies become ex–members of their class. The “good vs. evil” component of the thinking zombie's alignment becomes evil, but creatures who were nonevil in life usually gain the death wish weakness (TotDL 18).

Material Component An item significant to the zombie's former life, such as an article of clothing, a favorite piece of equipment, etc.