ways of getting rid of bodies for an assassin

[OGDojo]

so a friend of mine and i are building a semi-homebrew character with a few feats from different splash books and abilities from several different classes.
the point is...
we are looking for ways of getting rid of corpses or soon to be corpses.
we found assassin's dust in pathfinder (which disintegrates a corpse after it was killed) does it also work on living things That you kill a few rounds later? or is is specifically that they have to be dead first then its applied?
we also found the Disintegrate spell that destroys things that it kills but its pretty high level and would cost alot to put on a weapon.

Are there any other options that you can think of? if so i would love to hear of them
they have to be in a book somewhere (splash books of pathfinder or 3.X as well as core books)
as i said its semi homebrew meaning we are trying to pull from everywhere we can that is from d20 3.x rule sets.

*Please note this is for fun not for actual character use*

[Vaern]

A bag of holding or portable hole won't destroy a body, but will allow you to hide it and remove it from the scene of the crime. There's a kobold version of the portable hole that's pretty cheap, IIRC, which should make it easy to make people disappear until you can properly erase the corpse from existence.

*Edit*
Enveloping Pit, MIC, 3600 gp. Functions as a portable hole if you're lawful neutral, lawful evil, or neutral evil, except that it's 50 feet deep. Has an extra ability if you have the prerequisites to unlock its relic power.

[Khedrac]

If you can find a way of getting shrink item it will make removing the corpse for later disposal much easier. Bonus points if the DM allows the clothes worn to be affected with the body as a single object.

Summoning something that can eat the body before the summoning ends would also work.

Rather more noticeable is animating the body so it can walk itself out - but the chances are that it will be spotted exiting when the assassins wouldn't be.

Also teleport and plane shift are ways to send the body somewhere else.

Edit: I considered a bag of devouring, but they cannot be crafted (they're alive) and they prefer to feed on living creatures so they won't eat a corpse.

[Doctor Despair]

If you can swing it, Necrotic Termination doesn't get rid of the body, but it does get rid of the soul of a target in a pretty permanent way. On that note, raising the body as an undead creature is another way to deal with unwanted corpses lying around.

[Crake]

Shrouds of disintegration from the DMG/SRD sound a lot like the pathfinder's dust of disintegration but more cumbersome. 6600gp for a single use, command word item that disintegrates a body you place inside of it.

[Xervous]

I’m curious how a GM would rule a casting of fabricate on a corpse with the aim of extracting the water.

[liquidformat]

Edit: I considered a bag of devouring, but they cannot be crafted (they're alive) and they prefer to feed on living creatures so they won't eat a corpse.

Stronghold Builders Guide gave a price of 15,500gp for bag of devouring they also talk about different ways to use it such as being a trashcan, toilet, or even a trap to devour people unlucky enough to go spelunking in your bathroom/garbage room...

[nedz]

Shadow Cache (SpC p183) {Bard 3, Sorcerer 3, Wizard 3} Allows you to hide things on the shadow plane.

This is sufficiently out of the way for it not to be noticed, and is hard to locate magically.

Also since there is a 10% chance per day that the body goes missing you should be good.

[Telonius]

Rather more noticeable is animating the body so it can walk itself out - but the chances are that it will be spotted exiting when the assassins wouldn't be.


Depending on how it's accomplished, this could be a feature and not a bug. Animate Objects on the corpse could give the assassin a plausible alibi. "Hey, he was alive when he left the room; the guard saw him leave!"

For a Psionic assassin, Mind Switch would be a great way to avoid detection, though you'd probably need helpers. Get yourself tied up and near the target. Mind Switch. Walk up to the highest point you can get to, step off, then switch back to your own body on the way down.

[Him]

The engulfing pit with an ooze at the bottom, so you don't have to clean it.

[Maat Mons]

It wouldn't help with the body, but Prestidigitation would be great from removing bloodstains from the crimescene.

[Biggus]

In the ELH (p.233) the leader of an epic assassin guild has an cloak which can send a body to a void dimension "beyond even the recall of greater gods".

[Heliomance]

Don't kill them. Instead, do this:

Flesh to Stone (this spell is Instantaneous, so the resulting statue is not technically magical. As no tools were used to carve it, it's also unworked)
Transmute Rock to Mud
Mix the mud with water to the point where it can be described as muddy water
Purify Food and Drink
Drink the resulting pure water, or pour it in a nearby river


Et voila. Per Flesh to Stone, your target is not technically dead, so they cannot be resurrected. However, nobody is ever going to be able to get together all the water molecules that used to be your victim - or depending on how you think Purify Food and Drink works, you may have actually erased those molecules from existence - and put them back into a statue in order for Stone to Flesh to work. Not even True Resurrection can restore them, because they're not dead and thus their soul is not available to return to life.

A Wish or Miracle might be able to gather their scattered pieces and restore them to personhood, but it's not in the listed effects so it would be a GM call.

[Doctor Despair]

Don't kill them. Instead, do this:

Flesh to Stone (this spell is Instantaneous, so the resulting statue is not technically magical. As no tools were used to carve it, it's also unworked)
Transmute Rock to Mud
Mix the mud with water to the point where it can be described as muddy water
Purify Food and Drink
Drink the resulting pure water, or pour it in a nearby river


Et voila. Per Flesh to Stone, your target is not technically dead, so they cannot be resurrected. However, nobody is ever going to be able to get together all the water molecules that used to be your victim - or depending on how you think Purify Food and Drink works, you may have actually erased those molecules from existence - and put them back into a statue in order for Stone to Flesh to work. Not even True Resurrection can restore them, because they're not dead and thus their soul is not available to return to life.

A Wish or Miracle might be able to gather their scattered pieces and restore them to personhood, but it's not in the listed effects so it would be a GM call.

Well, that's terrifying. And I thought I was clever in a recent campaign feeding the body to a summoned monstrous centipede before dismissing it, haha

[Xervous]

Don't kill them. Instead, do this:

Flesh to Stone (this spell is Instantaneous, so the resulting statue is not technically magical. As no tools were used to carve it, it's also unworked)
Transmute Rock to Mud
Mix the mud with water to the point where it can be described as muddy water
Purify Food and Drink
Drink the resulting pure water, or pour it in a nearby river


Et voila. Per Flesh to Stone, your target is not technically dead, so they cannot be resurrected. However, nobody is ever going to be able to get together all the water molecules that used to be your victim - or depending on how you think Purify Food and Drink works, you may have actually erased those molecules from existence - and put them back into a statue in order for Stone to Flesh to work. Not even True Resurrection can restore them, because they're not dead and thus their soul is not available to return to life.

A Wish or Miracle might be able to gather their scattered pieces and restore them to personhood, but it's not in the listed effects so it would be a GM call.

I’ve usually seen things on this level of “no res” being a coin flip in modules on wish/miracle working if they’re not spelled out as absolute rip up the sheet character deletion.

[KoDT69]

Sphere of Annihilation - The Penultimate D&D Garbage Disposal ;)

Just gotta find one in a good spot, or get some mad arcane power to move it for you ;)

[SquidFighter]

Isn't there a cursed Bag of Holding in the DMG that eats what you put in it ?

[Doctor Despair]

You could wield the body as an improvised weapon and have someone sunder it, I suppose

[RaiKirah]

If you can be an Outsider with Reserves of Strength you can Alter Self into a Barghest and use Assume Supernatural Ability to pick up the Feed ability to eat your victims as a full round action. Possibly nets you extra RHD, though if you count as a new instance of a Barghest each time you probably avoid that.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Anyone capable of casting arcane spells can use any Eternal Wand (MIC) regardless of whether or not the spell it contains is on your class spell list. An Eternal Wand of Shrink Item is 10,900 gp and it's usable 2/day. That can also be used for amazing utility, such as shrinking a locked/barred/stuck door out of its frame, shrinking an expensive statue or other fixture to sell as loot, etc. Shrinking a body into a cloth patch has a lower chance of being found than carrying it in an extraplanar storage container if you're searched.

If you're looking to dispose of more than two bodies per day, the other suggestions of extraplanar storage or a Bag of Devouring are more economical.

[Toliudar]

Don't kill them. Instead, do this:

Flesh to Stone (this spell is Instantaneous, so the resulting statue is not technically magical. As no tools were used to carve it, it's also unworked)
Transmute Rock to Mud
Mix the mud with water to the point where it can be described as muddy water
Purify Food and Drink
Drink the resulting pure water, or pour it in a nearby river



Yup, and the one-spell version of this involves the 5th level spell Flesh to Salt and simply dumping the resulting statue (intact or reduced to chunks) into any body of water. Not quite as classy as drinking your victim, but not bad.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

What you want is the hoard gullet spell. It's a level 1 Sorc/Wiz spell (cheap!), it lasts 1 hour/level, and it can store multiple corpses (10ft/cube per level). The only limitation is that each object stored has to be three size categories smaller than you, but you can always hack it to pieces!

And there's something amazing about a subtle assassin who does the whole "sneak up and stab you quietly" routine before gruesomely tearing off your arms and eating your body. No trace left!

[Bphill561]

How about the Hook of Dissolution from the Book of Vile Darkness? Takes 3 rounds to dissolve a body, usable 3 times a day for around 14.5k gp.

[Particle_Man]

What you want is the hoard gullet spell. It's a level 1 Sorc/Wiz spell (cheap!), it lasts 1 hour/level, and it can store multiple corpses (10ft/cube per level). The only limitation is that each object stored has to be three size categories smaller than you, but you can always hack it to pieces!

And there's something amazing about a subtle assassin who does the whole "sneak up and stab you quietly" routine before gruesomely tearing off your arms and eating your body. No trace left!

Purify Food and Drink is even lower level.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Purify Food and Drink is even lower level.
Actually eating a corpse would take ages though. If you're in a place where you can't leave a corpse lying around, you probably don't want anyone walking in on you while you painstakingly eat a whole human body. Hacking off its arms and shoving it into your "mouth" pocket dimension (Hoard Gullet) could be done in less than a minute (one full-round action to coup de grace each limb or something, then a half action to "eat" the body).

[OGDojo]

These are awesome! so far really liking the Hook of Dissolution but im thinking i wanna try putting it on a dagger or katana so that i can murder someone in the streets and have the body disappear before the guards show up.

[Bphill561]

These are awesome! so far really liking the Hook of Dissolution but im thinking i wanna try putting it on a dagger or katana so that i can murder someone in the streets and have the body disappear before the guards show up.

Are you allowed custom items? The hook is slotless so it should cost the same as a weapon enchantment. The same book has Fleshgrinding as a +2 weapon property, which causes the weapon to grind into the flesh for 5 rounds after you let it go. The hook also works on incapacited individuals, so what else can we add to paralyze them?

[Jowgen]

Use Green Slime (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?574442-Fun-with-Green-Slime). Problem solved.

[Fitz10019]

Does it really have to be gone-gone? Or just gone long enough to slip away?

Invisibility would give minutes, if that's long enough to escape.
Rope Trick would give hours, if more time is needed. Set it up outside a window so the corpse drops outside after the spell expires. Another nice thing regarding Rope Trick is you could stow 7 bodies into a single casting. 8, if you conceal the rope another way.

Remember, generally speaking, assassins get paid after the body turns up.

[OGDojo]

Are you allowed custom items? The hook is slotless so it should cost the same as a weapon enchantment. The same book has Fleshgrinding as a +2 weapon property, which causes the weapon to grind into the flesh for 5 rounds after you let it go. The hook also works on incapacited individuals, so what else can we add to paralyze them?

im allowed... A LOT of stuff. basically if it exists in a book as either an item or an enchantment we can custom make it into whatever item we want. for example.
Headband of intellect "Headband" means that it takes up your helmet slot however you can just remove the enchantment from the headband of intellect and instead put it on a ring, it would do the same thing but take up a ring slot instead.
Im allowed to bring feats from 3.5 into pathfinder and visa versa, im allowed to play 3.5 classes in pathfinder and visa versa. as long as it exists in a book that has been printed (Including dragon magazines) i can use it to better my character... except the Eldritch template from Pathfinder and a charisma template that gives a boost to all of your followers based on your charisma modifier to AC, BAB, Damage, Saves, and a bunch of other stuff cuz as we have found out... they just aren't fair for the DM to deal with.

[OGDojo]

Does it really have to be gone-gone? Or just gone long enough to slip away?

Invisibility would give minutes, if that's long enough to escape.
Rope Trick would give hours, if more time is needed. Set it up outside a window so the corpse drops outside after the spell expires. Another nice thing regarding Rope Trick is you could stow 7 bodies into a single casting. 8, if you conceal the rope another way.

Remember, generally speaking, assassins get paid after the body turns up.

i love this idea, basically i found a set of feats that i can take by level 15ish that will instantly kill someone with no save as long as i sneak attack them. then theres another feat that will do the actual sneak attack 3d6 rounds later. so i could be walking through a street and assassinate a target that wont die for 3d6 rounds. i want a way to dissolve his body when it hits the ground 3d6 rounds later... but i have been looking into the rules and the feats and the spells and a bunch of other stuff and cant find anything that will help, but the Hook of Dissolution would work great if im just trying to get rid of the body without the 3d6 rounds later thing and the invis thing would work except some people might notice a body vanishing in the middle of a crowd and call for the guards before my guy gets away. i want the body gone so that they cant even explain to the cops why they called because the body no longer exists.

[Heliomance]

i love this idea, basically i found a set of feats that i can take by level 15ish that will instantly kill someone with no save as long as i sneak attack them. then theres another feat that will do the actual sneak attack 3d6 rounds later. so i could be walking through a street and assassinate a target that wont die for 3d6 rounds. i want a way to dissolve his body when it hits the ground 3d6 rounds later... but i have been looking into the rules and the feats and the spells and a bunch of other stuff and cant find anything that will help, but the Hook of Dissolution would work great if im just trying to get rid of the body without the 3d6 rounds later thing and the invis thing would work except some people might notice a body vanishing in the middle of a crowd and call for the guards before my guy gets away. i want the body gone so that they cant even explain to the cops why they called because the body no longer exists.

Ah, that would be from the third party book just called "Feats", wouldn't it? I would advise your DM to think very carefully about allowing that. No Save Just Die Sneak Attack is... quite a thing, and will basically result in you trivialising everything forever.

[Doctor Despair]

Ah, that would be from the third party book just called "Feats", wouldn't it? I would advise your DM to think very carefully about allowing that. No Save Just Die Sneak Attack is... quite a thing, and will basically result in you trivialising everything forever.

To be fair, with sufficient optimization, Death Attack DCs can get absurdly high, such that targets fail 95% of the time, barring reroll feats

[Heliomance]

To be fair, with sufficient optimization, Death Attack DCs can get absurdly high, such that targets fail 95% of the time, barring reroll feats

And you should definitely speak to your DM before bringing that level of optimisation to the table. Also I have a feeling that the feat in question might bypass Death Ward, which Death Attack doesn't.

[Doctor Despair]

And you should definitely speak to your DM before bringing that level of optimisation to the table. Also I have a feeling that the feat in question might bypass Death Ward, which Death Attack doesn't.

Absolutely true that you should check with the DM before breaking out any high-optimization build like that, yeah

Death Ward doesn't protect against Death Attacks, contrary to what the name would suggest. It only helps against death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, and negative energy effects. Notably, Death Attack isn't even technically a nonmagical death effect, although it is absolutely logical (and reasonable) to houserule the descriptor onto the ability, as RAI would suggest it was probably meant to be.

[Thurbane]

Shrouds of disintegration from the DMG/SRD sound a lot like the pathfinder's dust of disintegration but more cumbersome. 6600gp for a single use, command word item that disintegrates a body you place inside of it.

Yeah, 6,600gp is steep.

A Minor Schema (MoE) of Charnel Fire (BoVD) is 1/day, and costs 18,000gp - so it would pay for itself in 3 uses. Admittedly, it would require a UMD check (DC 29) for an Assassin to use it. As a bonus, makes it harder to bring the creature back to life.

[OGDojo]

Ah, that would be from the third party book just called "Feats", wouldn't it? I would advise your DM to think very carefully about allowing that. No Save Just Die Sneak Attack is... quite a thing, and will basically result in you trivialising everything forever.

it is 3rd party my dm is very open to alot of stuff, i like his DM style because its open. also we havent built this character, we know when too much is too much and limit ourselves a little (i used the Eldritch template in an actual campaign... 36 cha is broken especially if you combine it with Pagent of the Peacock and another feat that lets you add your cha to your initiative. so if we find something that inherintly breaks the game we build a character around it and see whats the worst it can do. then we ban it or let it slide depending on power and availability.

[Him]

Edit: I meant Enveloping Pit. Just LN and produce, worship Kurtulmak(or your resident Kobold God.)

The extra room is in case you have a busy day.

Portable hole with a gelatinous cube in the bottom. Cheap at around 3600, their remains will be dissolved in a extra dimensional space.

Should be fairly easy to catch the cube just need a location, set up the hole and a rope to swing with as it chases you in.

[Miss Disaster]

Shadow Cache (SpC p183) {Bard 3, Sorcerer 3, Wizard 3} Allows you to hide things on the shadow plane.

This is sufficiently out of the way for it not to be noticed, and is hard to locate magically.

Also since there is a 10% chance per day that the body goes missing you should be good.Shadow Cache is a good idea! Although keep in mind it's potentially challenging Area and volume/weight limitations. Also, I'll leave this semi-related Rickyism (from Trailer Park Boys) here for yucks:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/1d/58/4b1d580c23243b689ce321f7a1c96880.jpg

[eyebreaker7]

Isn't there a cursed Bag of Holding in the DMG that eats what you put in it ?

Bag of devouring. That's what I was thinking too.

[Him]

Enveloping pit gets the job done and is a relic that most kobold tribes who worship kurtulmak would have.

Plus is would be a fun session just catching the cube. Enveloping pit and gelatinous cube ftw!

[Morty_Jhones]

It not a great idea but it is reusable...

Mordkines chest.

Simply summon it to you and chop up your victime to fit, them banish it back to the eather.

then when you have shown the everdence to the cliant you can just banish it and then dismiss the enchantment or dispose of the body at your convenance.

bags of devoring are just so unreliable... it might take your hand off.

[Tvtyrant]

so a friend of mine and i are building a semi-homebrew character with a few feats from different splash books and abilities from several different classes.
the point is...
we are looking for ways of getting rid of corpses or soon to be corpses.
we found assassin's dust in pathfinder (which disintegrates a corpse after it was killed) does it also work on living things That you kill a few rounds later? or is is specifically that they have to be dead first then its applied?
we also found the Disintegrate spell that destroys things that it kills but its pretty high level and would cost alot to put on a weapon.

Are there any other options that you can think of? if so i would love to hear of them
they have to be in a book somewhere (splash books of pathfinder or 3.X as well as core books)
as i said its semi homebrew meaning we are trying to pull from everywhere we can that is from d20 3.x rule sets.

*Please note this is for fun not for actual character use*

Put a ring of possession on a Mimic? It still turns into a 5x5ft object but the creature is tiny, so it can sit in your pocket and then turn into a big removal vacuum.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/48/69/10/4869104b0243f32b270d7c2ff28b982c.png