Uses for Undead Creation By-Products?

[Chilingsworth]

Inspired by a post in my "Modernizing an Evil D&D Society" thread:


Remember good sir, That a single fresh corpse is best used to animate four, not one, undead. Why waste an entire corpse on a single zombie, when you can form a husk, a congealed mass, a flesh golem, and a skeleton from the same set of remains?

Now, this wouldn't actually work: Flesh golems require complete body parts, explicitly from multiple donors; There is no creature known as a congealed mass; and the closest things to a husk that I'm aware of (Forsaken Shells and Skin Kites, both from Libris Mortis) are not createable by characters (or at least, their method of creation isn't described.)

It got me thinking, though. If I'm making skeltons, I don't need the blood, flesh, or skin of the donor corpses. Even if I'm making zombies, I still don't need the blood (and possibly the skin) of the donor. That being the case, What other purposes could I put these "waste" products to?

Let's list them, shall we?:smallamused:

Blood:

Creation and maintanence of Blood Golems (Fiend Folio)
Creation of Blooded Creatures (Unapproachable East)
Creation of Bloofire Oozes (MMIV)
Creation of Blood Hulks (MMIV)

Flesh:

Feed for any carnivorous monsters in my employ.

Skin:

Other than feeding it to forsaken shells and skin kites I manage to ally with/enslave, I've got no ideas.

[pHalcyon]

You can do all sorts of useful things with skin. Even whole books, with parchment and leather. It's not undead or used to fight, but nobody said the uses couldn't be practical.

In the same vein of thought, you could also just use whatever detritus you have left and decorate or creep everyone out. Fun fluff and a Fort save to resist being nauseated. :smalltongue:

[BowStreetRunner]

Use the skins to craft Fleshshifter Armor (BoVD), or use many of the parts as components to cast any number of the spells in BoVD - especially the optional components on pp. 45-46 which can enhance your spells.

Craft Skull Talismans from Frostburn.

[Slipperychicken]

Use the skins to craft Fleshshifter Armor (BoVD), or use many of the parts as components to cast any number of the spells in BoVD - especially the optional components on pp. 45-46 which can enhance your spells.


Those optional components contain separate prices for many body parts. If you have time to do some butchering, you can get some decent cash (2.37gp market value per normal corpse so you should get like 1gp for it). Not bad if you're Evil, low level, and really need the cash.

Of special note are "feather of an intelligent creature" for 20gp, which makes every feathered creature with Int 3 or higher (familiars, angels, raptorans, pegasi, etc) into a gold mine, considering that normal birds often sport thousands of feathers. Depending on how much a "bit" of skin is, you can also get some decent cash from lycanthrope hides (7sp per bit).

[The Viscount]

Brains can be extracted for creating brain golems. Potentially you might also be able to make them into Brains in Jars. If you somehow have an ocularon working either alongside or under you it can make good use of eyes.