The most obvious facet of necromancy, and one of the most useful, is commanding the actions of the walking dead. The bony "pet" is both loyal and fierce, but is only as powerful as the mind controlling it. Know your pet commands as well as your own name if you wish to follow the dark path to power.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

It is important to realize that your undead servant will only sense your commands from a short distance away. Get to know this distance, for any commands that you issue when your minion is farther away go unheeded.

Also realize that, for all of its power, your undead servant isn't very quick when it comes to thinking and interpretation. If you issue several commands in rapid succession, don't be surprised if a few of them are ignored.

For complete control, the most important commands (attack and back off, at the very least) should be at your very fingertips, to be issued without hesitation.

These commands are also effective on those undead creatures which you dominate for a short time.

/pet attack

When this command is issued, your bony slave will rush off and attempt to destroy the pitiful creature that is your target. Remember that the skeleton, being without eyes, cannot sense enemies from a great distance and will only attack when the enemy is within range. "/pet kill" works in a similar manner. If you wish, you can add the specific name of a creature immediately after the command, such as "/pet attack Sir Edwin" – in this case, your minion will ignore your own target and head to the victim you've specified.

/pet back off

This command will stop your slave from attacking, and it will return to a more passive state. If it is hit again, however, it will once more join in battle, so plan accordingly. Mastery of this command will determine your popularity when hunting with others.

/pet follow me

This is the state in which your undead thrall arrives. It will follow you to the best of its ability (which isn't very good at times), and will attempt to destroy anything that strikes you.

/pet guard here

As soon as your pet hears this command, it will stay in one place until attacked or given some other command. If the pet is sent to attack, it will return to its designated spot when the attack is completed (either through the foe's death, or from the "back off" command). Terribly, terribly useful.

/pet report health

This simple command will let you know just how intact your skeleton friend remains.

/pet taunt

When your undead companion first arrives, it will naturally attempt to taunt attackers from you. Issuing this command will cease the taunting. Issuing this command again will resume the taunting. There are uses for both; generally, you'll want your minion taunting when it's just you and Boner, and you may want no taunting if you're in a group.

/pet sit down

This command will transform your threatening minion of death into an innocent-looking pile of bones. The bones seem to knit together faster when collapsed like this. After you've got your pet sitting down, you might want to remind it to follow or guard as appropriate – sometimes they forget.

/pet stand up

If your minion is collapsed into a pile of bones, this command brings them back up into a standing and ready position. It's good for effect. Since the pet will automatically stand up before following or attacking, however, I rarely use this command.

/pet get lost

If your skeletal follower annoys you, simply command it to get lost and it will promptly turn to dust. If you even suspect that your minion is about to do something out of line, don't hesitate to destroy it out of hand and summon another one. Callous disregard for our minions is occasionally called for. Note, however, that this does not work on dominated undead that you have not personally summoned – that would be too easy.

/pet guard me

When this command is issued, your skeletal pet will follow you around (much like the "follow me" command). It will also take it upon itself to attack the occasional bypasser without your specific instruction. I don't believe the dead deserve this much freedom, so I rarely use issue this command.

/pet who leader

Just in case anyone's wondering, this command will remind everyone who's in charge of whom. This is mostly useful when you're in a situation where you're dominating the undead and people wonder why the ghoul isn't attacking anyone.

/pet target

This is not precisely a command to the pet but makes the pet the necromancer's target. There are easier ways of doing this, but it works.

/pet as you were

This command clears the mind of your pet, causing it to forget all of your previous commands. This will cause your summoned pet to stand around mindlessly, only reacting to attacks on your person. Clearing the mind of a dominated undead will cause it to resume whatever wanderings it was pursuing – until the domination breaks, at which point it will come back seeking your fresh blood. This command could be useful if you've issued an attack command and let your enemy get away... but if you've done that, you pretty much deserve to die a horrible death in any case, so deal with it.