Skyrim:Reanimate

	Reanimate
School	Conjuration
Type	Other
Enchanting
ID	00065bd6
Base Cost	2
Items	Weapons
Availability (Click on any item for details)
Spells Staves

Enchanting description: Reanimate a weak dead body to fight for you for <dur> seconds.

Reanimate revives the corpse of a targeted NPC. The corpse comes back to life and fights for the caster for the duration of the spell. The advantage of reanimated enemies is that there is a variety of enemies to reanimate as opposed to conjured creatures who have to be unlocked or bought individually.

Enchanting

The following items use this effect, but cannot be disenchanted:

• Staff of Dread Zombies
• Staff of Reanimation
• Staff of Revenants
• Staff of Zombies

Spells

The following spells use the Reanimate group of effects. Following each spell is the specific variant of the effect that it uses:

• Raise Zombie: Reanimate (00065bd6; ReanimateFFAimed0)
• Reanimate Corpse: Reanimate (00096d0b; ReanimateFFAimed25)
  • With the Dark Souls perk, instead uses: Dark Souls Reanimate Corpse (000cab63; PerkDarkSoulsReanimateEffect)
• Revenant: Reanimate (00096d0c; ReanimateFFAimed50)
• Dread Zombie:
  • Reanimate (00016c3d; ReanimateFFTargetActor75)
  • Reanimate (00096d0d; ReanimateFFAimed75)
• Dead Thrall: Reanimate Thrall (0007e8e0; ReanimateThrallFFAimed)

A zombie with the Ahzidal's Necromancy effect

Ahzidal's Necromancy^DB

The unique Ahzidal's Necromancy enchantment available from Ahzidal's Ring of Necromancy^DB changes the effects of your Reanimate spells when equipped. Reanimated corpses will be covered in frost and will explode for 50 points of Frost Damage the first time they take damage. This kills the zombie in the process, however.

Notes

• The average thrall groans while they are reanimated. Some NPCs with unique voice acting sets (such as Galmar Stone-Fist) do not groan at all in undead form.
• Anything that is reanimated turns into dust when killed or when the spell expires and cannot be reanimated a second time. The exceptions are creatures reanimated by Dead Thrall, The Ritual Stone power, or with staves, which leave normal corpses that can be reanimated again and again.
• The level cap of a reanimated undead target can be raised by 25% with Restoration perk Necromage.
• Reanimation spells do not work on giants (though the Ritual Stone's power or the Soul Tear^DG shout will reanimate them). Dwarven sentinels do not appear to be able to be reanimated by any means. ^{[verification needed — Needs to be tested]}
• Decapitated enemies cannot be reanimated.
• Reanimated necromancers will not reanimate fallen enemies.
• NPCs with unique death quotes, when brought back by Dead Thrall, will sometimes repeat them when they die again—for instance, Amaund Motierre will repeat "But... we had a deal!"
• Conjuration XP gained by casting this spell is only attributed when the dead body is completely reanimated, and only when you and your thrall enter combat.
• Frequently, when you reanimate an enemy that uses a weapon (such as a Bandit Chief or a Falmer), they will neglect to use said weapon in combat. To fix this, take the weapon from their dead body and place it back on them before reanimating. It seems that thralls will only use weapons that are nearby, and taking and replacing the weapon ensures that it is on their body rather than on the ground.
• You cannot access a reanimated NPC's inventory.
• With the Twin Souls perk, two NPCs may be reanimated at once.
• Transforming into a Vampire Lord^DG or Werewolf will dispel any thralls.
• When you fast travel to a major city with a separate loading screen (such as Solitude), your thrall is left behind at the city stables to be picked up later. However, most of the time they will enter the city after a few moments and rejoin you there.
• Thralls may get lost. To remove the "Reanimate Thrall" active effect, get arrested, transform into a werewolf or vampire lord, hunt down and kill the lost Thrall, or use console commands.^{[verification needed — Specific patch where this behavior changed]}
• Dead thralls cannot be healed without the Necromantic Healing or Heal Undead spells. Non-vampire dead thralls do not regenerate health naturally and are not affected by Fortify Healing Rate enchantments. But they will use and benefit from healing potions, food and self-healing spells (if they knew any while being alive).

Bugs

• Generic NPCs reanimated with the Dead Thrall spell that are then taken to a different cell and killed can cause another of their NPC type to spawn when the latter cell resets. ^?
• Reanimated corpses or thralls may get stuck in some locations and may not go outside with you.
  • To fix this, go back inside and find your thrall, open the console, and target your thrall—you should see their RefID. Do not click on anything else. Close the console, go outside, and open the console again to issue the command moveto player. Your thrall should now stand next to you. If you have more than one thrall, copy down all their RefIDs on a notepad, then use prid RefID moveto player.
• Player-reanimated zombies and thralls will occasionally die when transitioning to another area regardless of how much time is left, leaving unlootable ash piles in the new area.
• Reanimating the corpse of an enemy killed while under the effects of paralysis will cause the resulting thrall to remain walking on the spot, unable to move. They cannot be paralyzed, ignore combat, and are impervious to physical damage. This makes for a great way to train your combat skills on them, as they will only perish once the reanimation spell wears off. They are, however, still susceptible to destruction magic in this state, and you will not get experience for conjuration since they won't enter combat with you.
  • This can be fixed by using all three words of Unrelenting Force on the zombie or thrall. Doing so will turn them into a ragdoll, which should reset their behavior once they get up.
• On rare occasions, reanimated subjects will not disintegrate on death, giving you an opportunity to raise them again.
• If a caster first resurrects NPC A and then NPC B while the reanimation sequence of NPC A is still in progress, NPC A drops dead again, but may retain the blue glow. If NPC A is hit another time by the same caster and spell, it will disintegrate instantly. ^?