This spell temporarily animates the bones of a dead human, demihuman, or humanoid creature of man-size or less. The resultant skeleton will obey only simple commands until it is destroyed, turned, or dispelled, or the spell duration expires. As with the creations of the more powerful animate dead spell, a skeletal servant can be commanded to guard an area, follow the caster, carry heavy objects, and so on. The servant is not well suited to complex tasks (such as cooking, for instance) and is generally created to serve as a porter or temporary bodyguard.
A priest may have only one skeletal servant per level of experience in service at once. The material component is a handful of graveyard dirt. As with the more powerful animate dead spell, the creation of a skeletal servant is not a good act, and only evil priests use it frequently.
Notes: Restricted to necromancer-priests, common.