Can you prevent people from being reanimated by a necromancer?

Sometimes in battle I'll be slaying the apprentice necromancers / skeletons etc to then go off and attack the more senior foes only to find that the recently killed victims have been reanimated and are now attacking me.

Sure, they seem less powerful when they've been reanimated, but they're still annoying. Is there anything particular I can do, either to a recently slain character or while I'm actually killing them to prevent them from being re-animated again?

I'm thinking possibly an enchanted weapon or a spell of some kind that I'm not aware of.


Solution 1:

  • Decapitation will prevent reanimation, though it's impossible to pull off consistently, and it doesn't work on creatures.
  • Reanimated corpses will turn to dust after the spell ends or the caster is killed, which prevents further reanimation.
  • Disintegration from lightning magic also works.
  • Kill the necromancer raising them.
  • Raise them first.

Solution 2:

Another sort-of solution that I often use is making sure I loot the weapon and armour from a slain enemy as soon as it goes down (before it can be raised). While it doesn't precisely prevent them being raised, it does usually render them trivial. Unless they have some spells, that zombie in his underpants trying to punch you isn't much of a threat and can be mostly ignored while you go for the caster instead.