Character Idea: Necromancer who wants to convince slaving cultures undead are more effecient

[Sepulchrave II]

I feel as though I have to give a shout out to Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique cycle - especially Empire of the Necromancers and Necromancy in Naat. It touches on exactly this kind of thing.

 

[Umbran]

Despite ENWorld being D&D-centric, I wasn't thinking specifically of D&D.

Well, sure. The viability of the plan is mechanic-dependent.

In the case where the mechanics do support it, you do have another question to answer: Why is this character the first to think of this? If the scheme does work, why isn't it already in action? Is the rest of the world just stupid, or something, that generations on generations have not considered this?

In the real world, new business models come along when conditions change to support them - new technology is developed, new resources become available, or the like. In most fantasy settings, magical knowledge is pretty static, or on the decline. There are loads of people before you who have known as much or more than the PC. So... why now?

 

[aco175]

How long do undead bodies last before they need repairs? Zombies will start to smell and fall apart after a few days/weeks. Skeletons might be better for a while but are they smart enough to do certain things. They can fight ok, so maybe most farming chores are not much harder than fighting. Smarter undead may want to be compensated- with gold, alive people to feed upon, whatever.

You can also place masks upon the undead to make them look more friendly. Even some sort of armor where you do not see they are undead makes commoners less distrustful initially. Give them all cool cloaks and panda masks and eventually the locals will see them as ok. Have them start by digging wells and building schools and churches.

 

[Zhaleskra]

In the case where the mechanics do support it, you do have another question to answer: Why is this character the first to think of this? If the scheme does work, why isn't it already in action? Is the rest of the world just stupid, or something, that generations on generations have not considered this?

Who says this character is the first? Maybe they think they are but they're wrong. Why did those who proceeded this character fail?

 

[Umbran]

Who says this character is the first? Maybe they think they are but they're wrong. Why did those who proceeded this character fail?

Admittedly, I was assuming one of the more basic tropes of fantasy RPGs - the rules of magic, and the state of the world are eerily static. Sure, the rulers of nations, and national boundaries, change, but the fundamentals of magic and economics are pretty much unchanging. And, in such a scenario, if the scheme could work, by the rules, there are so many chances over the decades and centuries for someone to think of it that... it should have been thought of several times over.

And, like the assembly line - you only need one to make it work for it to rather quickly become the way business is done. It starts to stretch credulity that over the generations, it didn't become commonplace. If the rules actually allow it, "Why did the several hundred other people fail" becomes harder to answer than, "Why did nobody else think of this before?"

In D&D, the answer is simple - the scheme doesn't actually work. Each 5th level or higher wizard who can cast the spells can only manage a couple of undead. And those undead, being mindless, are really only good for very basic manual labor. The value of the labor from a couple of undead is very small compared to the value that wizard can get out of something other than managing menial labor.

I expect this will be true for most RPGs. The games exist to tell tales of action and adventure, for the most part, not tales of working out the economics and bookkeeping of investment in the undead-labor industry.

However, let us assume the game mechanics do allow it. Both questions ("Why didn't anyone else do this, or why did they fail?") are answered by another major fantasy trope - mucking about with the dead is not socially acceptable. Like, really not acceptable. Like, burning at the stake level of unacceptable. No matter how much more efficient undead may be, nobody can afford to risk using them, for they'd be out of business and possibly executed for their trouble.

This changes the goal of the PC. It becomes not a question of efficiency, and instead becomes an effort to trying to convince the culture that mucking with undead isn't an issue.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also in fantasy tales, almost any culture that DOESN’T have a problem with using undead is considered an evil one by the majority of other civilizations.

So even if ONE culture adopts undead labor as an acceptable norm, odds are good they’re anathema to their closest neighbors, and and only tolerated by others who can keep them at a “safe distance”.

”Oooh, that smell! The smell of death surrounds youuuuuu...”

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Step 1 : offer to buy the slaves and free them on the first day of winter in the Island of Freedom
Step 2 : wait a few days until the slaves are dead of hunger/exposure
Step 3 : animate the dead and pay the former slave-owners by switching 4 undead for 4 slaves (as undead can work H24 and don't cost food, this is a big net gain).
Step 4 : the increased productivity makes the former slave-owner a proponent of the new undead labor force
Step 5 : competing slave owner will want access to the same deal, accept
Step 6 : when a quarter of the slave owners have converted to undeath-owning, have the deal downgraded to 3 undead for 4 slaves
Step 7 : when undead are the majority, offer a 1-for-2 deal only
Step 8 : you now own 31% of the former-slave labor force of the country
Step 9 : profit.

You don't need to kill the slaves, that would be evil. Offer them freedom instead and their survival is no longer your concern. You'd need to convince beforehand the local ruler to pass a law authorizing the creation of undead (in case it's frowned upon in the area) ; offering him a share in your business is usually the way to go. Or, since you obviously are high-level enough to create undead at will, you could just dominate the local king. You plan is to turn a country into Karrnath (especially since obviously Eberron has easier undead-creating rules).

 

[Zhaleskra]

Let's switch gears for a second. What about real world cultures, where rightly or wrongly it was believed to be a great honor to be sacrificed to the gods. Could being raised as undead be an extension of that pseudo-Aztex/Mayan belief?

 

[Derren]

Depending on how powerful the slavers are in the city you could try to beat them the economic way. Sell your undead (skeleton preffered) for the same price or cheaper than slaves. As soon as it is obvious that they can outproduce slaves, no need for food or accommodations, work 24 hours, no guards required only some controllers the demand will rise and sooner or later everyone will want undead instead of slaves.
The only dangers come from slavers who do not take kindly to that and probably the church.

 

[Umbran]

Let's switch gears for a second. What about real world cultures, where rightly or wrongly it was believed to be a great honor to be sacrificed to the gods. Could being raised as undead be an extension of that pseudo-Aztex/Mayan belief?

Well, if you are building your own world, you can always just decree it to be so. IN that sense, yest it could be.

Is that something apt to come up naturally, though? I'm not sure.

I'm thinking basic human psychology here. No matter the reason, no matter how much honor comes to you and your family in the process... people miss loved ones when they die. Grieving sucks. To see the soul-less husk of your loved one shambling around... there, but not really, and... either as bones or rotten and stinking... that does not seem like the path to stable acceptance of the policy.