Jeff Wilder said:
10 controlled skeletons would be worth way more than four horses. The oil would be a great deal. (Don't forget that draft horses have skeletons, too ... )
It's really an extremely interesting idea. SSS explored it a little bit in Hollowfaust, and I fleshed the idea out (heh, heh) quite a bit for my Church of Wee Jas, but it'd be interesting to see it on a societal scale.
I actually forgot to add the material components cost - for an oil capable of animating 10 HD of undead by that spell, there is an extra cost of 250 gp for materials (gem worth 25 gp for each HD of undead created... with a caveat that they are single gems for the critter animated, reading straight from the spell. Would an oil be subject to that particular caveat?) which brings the price of the oil up to an even 1,000 gp for the "full" caster-level 5 version, or 1,250 for a version that can take full advantage of a Desecrated area and give you 20 HD of undead all at once - the max you can control by the use of the oil anyway - it's a bulk rate discount.
Let's see... a casting of Desecrate from a minimal priest capable of casting it costs... 10*Caster Level*Spell Level + Materials = 10*3*2+25+25=110 gp - so the full 20 HD of undead, under your countrol, could be purchased for 1,360 gp (not counting bodies, of course); and if you go in with friends, you only need one casting of Desecrate, save a few GP that way))
Edit: Also, what are the bodies worth? 1/2 standard? A heavy horse defaults to 200 gp, and has 3 HD; a skeleton made from a heavy horse will also have 3 HD. A full run (20 HD oil, Desecrate) on Heavy Horses can manage six of them (18 HD, total; perhaps add a donkey (8 gp base cost - negligable - and 2 HD) to round it out to 20 HD). At half-standard for the bodies, that's an extra 604 gp on top, for a total of 1,964 gp for six heavy horse skeletons and one donkey skeleton. Although, as the difference will only be two points of Str, you may well want to go with light horses (at 75 gp base each - 225 gp for 6 bodies, using the 1/2 figure, plus a donkey again at 8 gp base) - for a total of 1,589 gp.
With a non-desecration build, you get 10 HD - that's three horses and a gaurd dog; 1,000 gp for the oil, 112.5 gp for the horse corpses, 12.5 gp for a gaurd dog corpse; 1,125 gp total.
Granted, that will still likely be more valuable than the 8-10 heavy horses (max desecration route; 5-6 heavy horses for non-desecrate route) you could otherwise buy with (about) the same amount of cash in most circumstances, but how many farmers will be able to put out that much GP
all at once to take advantage of it? Also, what about if all that cash was instead spent on light horses? Those are only 75 gp each; 2000 gp buys you 26 of them (with 50 gp left over for other stuff), 1,000 gp 13 (with 25 left over for other stuff). Which is more valuable; 13 light horses or three animated horse skeletons?
There's also a maintenence issue; unless everybody is at least a level-1 Evil Cleric, the farmer will have to pay to fix every little injury on his skeleton horse - 10gp for an Inflict Light Wounds that only heals 1d8+1 damage, as well as a trip to town with the injured undead to see the cleric (a wasted day; no work can be done). A horse, on the other hand, can be left in the barn overnight, fed and watered, to recover 3 HP naturally. All day, and it's 6 HP (if I'm remembering natural healing right - 1 hp per HD for normal rest, 2 HD per hit die for complete rest).
Then again, live horses require feed at 5 cp per animal per day (although a cheapskate can have them graze, feed is better - although not necessarily defined on how)
