Korel's Wisdom Beyond Death
(Necromancy)

Range:  0
Components:  V, S, M
Duration:  Permanent
Casting Time:  1 turn
Area of Effect:  Undead touched
Saving Throw:  None

This spell imbues a formerly mindless undead (typically a skeleton or a zombie - free-willed undead cannot be affected by this spell) with Intelligence. In the casting of this spell, the subject's brain, or the remains thereof, is removed and replaced with a specially prepared gem.
The crystalline structure of the gem acts as a focus to draw together and intensify the dark forces already present in the undead, giving it an Intelligence of its own, determined by the size and perfection of the gem (see the table below). In no case can the Intelligence of the undead meet or exceed the caster's Intelligence at the time of casting.
Although the undead has Intelligence, it does not have free will - it is still subservient to its master (usually the caster). However, the added Intelligence enables it to remember and carry out more complex commands and, within certain limits, even display some initiative. The undead have access to the minds of the countless deceased to some extent, so other skills appropriate to the Intelligence level can be possessed, particularly if the living person whose animated body is affected displayed them.
For example, the animated body of a deceased general would almost certainly retain an understanding of battlefield strategy if given enough Intelligence. Likewise, an animated warrior would retain his fighting prowess, and therefore his original THAC0. Psionic or spellcasting abilities are not retained, however, since they either require living flesh or have to be extensively adapted to the new relation to the negative material plane.

	Gem Value	Intelligence	Skills (cumulative)
	10 gp	1-2	One immediate command
	20 gp	3-4	Command activated by condition
	50 gp	5-6	Simple strategies, like ambush
	100 gp	7-8	Multi-step, conditional commands
	200 gp	9-10	Average servant skills (cook, clean)
	500 gp	11-12	Can command other undead with permission
	1000 gp	13-14	Effective use of mid-sized group
	2000 gp	15-16	Effective command of troops
	5000 gp	17-18	Impersonation of humans
	10,000 gp	19-20	Extremely cunning

In any event, general Intelligence is gained, along with the ability to speak with a hollow, sepulchral tone (the gem is emitting the sound, which echoes in the otherwise hollow skull). The undead can perform at a level given by the table above. They can display initiative within their orders, but no more: an animated general given the order "take these troops and defeat that army", would do so to the best of his ability, utilizing appropriate battlefield tactics. However, he would not break off the attack to inform his master that the army is actually composed of allies.
At the higher levels of intelligence, there are rumours that the undead gain levels of self-consciousness. They are forbidden by the spell from disobeying their orders in the slightest or taking actions not supported by orders, but they can use badly formulated orders to the disadvantage of their master. In the former example, for instance, a very intelligent undead general might order his troops to concentrate on the leaders of the friendly army, knowing them to be friends of the caster. Nevertheless, the draw for necromancers to create such undead is immense, since they can be given very general commands - a super-genius skeleton (especially a disguised one) single-mindedly pursuing the goal of killing a single person can do so in unbelievably cunning ways.
Should the caster die, the undead affected by this spell gradually gain their own free will, retaining the Intelligence, over a period of one year. Defeating one of these undead in battle has a 30% chance of smashing the skull of the undead, therefore destroying the gem in a backlash of energies. Otherwise, the gem may be extracted and reused.
The material component of this spell is a gem of the appropriate size that has been soaked in the blood of a creature with at least the Intelligence desired for 24 hours. Some casters, with compunctions against killing other sentient creatures, use their own blood, but this rapidly becomes impractical.

