Desecrate + Animate Dead combo

[NPC]

This question came up last night in our game when my evil cleric cast desecrate, then animate dead.

From the desecrate spell description in the 3.5 SRD:

If the desecrated area contains an altar, shrine, or other permanent fixture dedicated to your deity or aligned higher power, the modifiers given above are doubled (–6 profane penalty on turning checks, +2 profane bonus and +2 hit points per HD for undead in the area).

Furthermore, anyone who casts animate dead within this area may create as many as double the normal amount of undead (that is, 4 HD per caster level rather than 2 HD per caster level).

So to properly desecrate an area, is the altar, shrine or permanent fixture required to create double the normal amount of undead? Our DM seemed to think yes, most players no, and I can see either interpretation as valid.

How do you interpret this?

 

[EPRock]

Desecrate has Material Components

http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/v35/SpellsD-E.rtf
PHB:218

Material Component: A vial of unholy water and 25 gp worth (5 pounds) of silver dust, all of which must be sprinkled around the area.

This is the only required components for this spell, as long as he has them he can desecrate any area.

 

[jgsugden]

This question came up last night in our game when my evil cleric cast desecrate, then animate dead.

From the desecrate spell description in the 3.5 SRD:

So to properly desecrate an area, is the altar, shrine or permanent fixture required to create double the normal amount of undead? Our DM seemed to think yes, most players no, and I can see either interpretation as valid.

How do you interpret this?

Because the animate dead text follows the text regarding an altar, I see it as requiring the altar to get the undead effect. It is far from clear, though.

To me, the spell becomes a bit too strong if you can use it to get a sudden double power effect froma more powerful spell in any circumstance.

If a cleric could desecrate an area and then cast animate dead for double the normal effect of animate dead at any location, it wouldn't make sense for the two spells to be separate entities. They'd be such an obvious pairing that the writers would just work the effect of doubling the amount of undead that could be controlled into the animate dead spell to save space (ie; if you sprinkle 25 gold worth of silver dust and unholy water around, double the nomral number of animated undead).