Morte's Marching Morgue

[SangoProduction]

The party necromancer was looking to get some bodies, but is having...reservations about the legality of it. As in the town they decided to base out of has laws about raising undead needing a contract (though proving a failure to contract could be difficult). She doesn't like the idea of taking a chance of getting caught. Makes sense that a newbie to the town might be under greater scrutiny. The party has made no real attempts to find ways to gain contracts, or even ask around, but the party's pretty passive.

So, I've come up with a business idea. Rather than a direct transaction / contract, Morty runs a middleman business. People sell their contracted bodies to Morty. Morty then rents / sells bodies to prospective necromancers.

I have no bleeding clue how to price these things, and hoping for a bit of help.

I was wanting them to offer CR 1-4 humans for either rent or purchase. Maybe a couple common animals and a few (half-)orcs.
And as an optional feature, an enchantment that allows a body to be recombobulated with an hour of chanting by the necromancer, once all the bits and pieces are collected together.

Aside from aesthetic reasons, would there be any real difference between a CR 1 half-orc zombie and CR 1 human zombie? Of course, orcs are generally going to have higher CR, but that's a different question.
And is there a way to hide how it is basically a convenient device to allow the necromancer some bit of legal access to bodies? I mean, it's already established that there's a trade going on that's been so common place that it's been regulated and legalized. So middlemen like Pawn Shops would naturally pop up. But I do fear it can seem a bit contrived.

[Kayblis]

Arms & Equipment Guide has prices for hirelings(pg.60), and you can use these as base. Undead would be unskilled workers at best, so they probably cost less than the standard worker, specially because they don't require sustenance. For work that just requires repetitive tasks they could even cost a bit more than a normal person, because they're able to work 24h a day. Likewise, there are costs for mercenaries, so if you plan on using undead as cheap soldiers, that's covered too. You can use the table's level as CR, because undead tend to be very dumb in exchange for more HD. Having a couple living mercenaries alongside a bunch of undead for meatiness is not a bad strategy.

The undead contract can be as easy as having all undead bear an Arcane Mark unique to the contractor. You can notice if an undead is not from a contractor if it has no mark or an unknown mark. Have them marked on the torso, visible but under armor/clothing, to ease checking.

[SangoProduction]

Arms & Equipment Guide has prices for hirelings(pg.60), and you can use these as base. Undead would be unskilled workers at best, so they probably cost less than the standard worker, specially because they don't require sustenance. For work that just requires repetitive tasks they could even cost a bit more than a normal person, because they're able to work 24h a day. Likewise, there are costs for mercenaries, so if you plan on using undead as cheap soldiers, that's covered too. You can use the table's level as CR, because undead tend to be very dumb in exchange for more HD. Having a couple living mercenaries alongside a bunch of undead for meatiness is not a bad strategy.

The undead contract can be as easy as having all undead bear an Arcane Mark unique to the contractor. You can notice if an undead is not from a contractor if it has no mark or an unknown mark. Have them marked on the torso, visible but under armor/clothing, to ease checking.

Thanks so much. I probably should have thought of that.

[liquidformat]

The undead contract can be as easy as having all undead bear an Arcane Mark unique to the contractor. You can notice if an undead is not from a contractor if it has no mark or an unknown mark. Have them marked on the torso, visible but under armor/clothing, to ease checking.

Arcane mark face tats or hand tats seem a bit more reasonable than torso tats.

Maybe look at an extrapolation to figure out a buy price for the bodies, like half a year's rental price to buy or something like that.

[Falontani]

half orc zombie is stronger (literally) than a human zombie (if we go off of normal NPC stat blocks).

Half Orc and Orc zombies are literally better than human zombies.
Elf Skeletons are stronger than Human Skeletons.
Dwarf zombies are worse than Human zombies.

Their racial stuff is literally the only thing you are looking at, and if the bonus is to a mental stat or constitution then it is usually weaker than one with a bonus to strength or dexterity. Likewise if the creature has a penalty to a mental stat then you can ignore that penalty completely. So a dwarf with +2 con (dropped) and -2 cha (dropped) ends up like a human, except that the dwarf has a 20 ft movement speed.

This gets flipped if you use Soldier Skeletons from Libris Mortis or Karrnathi Skeletons from Eberron Campaign Setting. As now your skeletons are wearing armor. A Dwarf Solider Skeleton with a breastplate and Dwarven Waraxe is going to be much scarier than a Human Solider Skeleton with a breastplate and longsword. But the Orc Soldier Skeleton with Studded Leather and a great axe is still scarier than either of those.

That ritual you mentioned earlier, one hour of necromancer chanting, is equivalent to a sixth level spell which costs 5000 gold... each time. And doesn't work on Skeletons with 1 HD (such as the skeletons listed above, however it does work on the zombies... making them weaker, then failing the second time).

Lords of Madness has rules for Slavery and purchasing slaves, half the price (or even quarter it) for dead corpses for purchase. I agree with the Mercenary rules for 'hiring' the undead with arcane marks.