I've had a few ideas, but a lot of them don't really work well with a Good necromancer, like running a mortuary in a big city where there'll be corpses with no one who cares for them, which is super f-ed up lol.
Some higher level ideas are using Mass Polymorph (all my polymorph spells only turn myself or others into undead, plus some other limits) on easily obtained beasts like Draft Horses (don't hate me) which are only 50gp each, if you have simulacrums they can speed up the process once per sim. You'd have to kill and raise them again, but under controlled conditions that shouldn't be an issue.
For creating a higher level undead to control with Control Undead, you could use True Polymorph on an unused Clone, or just a CR10 or lower creature, and turn it into something with 11 or lower Int, like a Nightveil Specter or a Sword Wraith Commander. Could also turn an object into a Sword Wraith Commander and do it that way.
So what ideas do you have? Interested in ways that involve the world, like the mortuary idea just less evil, but combinations of spells and abilities are fine too! Also can be mass production of CR1/4 creatures for zombies/skeletons or ways to acquire higher level undead.
Polymorph spells, except for True Polymorph, can only turn things into Beasts - you cannot use them to create undead.
Running a mortuary and grave digging will be the best ways. You could also strike a deal with the city justice system - anyone who is executed for their crimes have their bodies given to you, provided you use the bodies as free labour for the city. Waste not, want not.
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Donate poisoned food to the local orphanage then wait a little bit. :)
Why would a "Good Necromancer" deliberately kill to get bodies? If they wanted to do that, they would be better off to just animate some zombies and send them to slaughter villages, collecting corpses.
Both as a Good Necromancer and as a Bad Necromancer, poisoning some kids is a very inefficient way to obtain corpses.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I second the idea of working with the city to "rehabilitate" executed criminals. Although even that is pretty F'd up when you think about it... I guess that's why being a "good" necromancer is generally pretty rare. Maybe you could volunteer at a plague hospital or something and ask people to donate their bodies to the cause or something. I think there's really no morally sound way to turn someone into a walking corpse without getting their express permission ahead of time. The difference would depend on your character's morality... some societies in D&D outright don't value the bodies of the dead, seeing them as nothing more than an empty carcass. I'd say your character could still be considered good if they honestly don't think of a body as a Person once they stop breathing, but simply avoid reviving the corpses of recently deceased loved ones in front of their friends/family just to avoid the awkwardness that would inevitably cause.
I've had a few ideas, but a lot of them don't really work well with a Good necromancer, like running a mortuary in a big city where there'll be corpses with no one who cares for them, which is super f-ed up lol.
Some higher level ideas are using Mass Polymorph (all my polymorph spells only turn myself or others into undead, plus some other limits) on easily obtained beasts like Draft Horses (don't hate me) which are only 50gp each, if you have simulacrums they can speed up the process once per sim. You'd have to kill and raise them again, but under controlled conditions that shouldn't be an issue.
For creating a higher level undead to control with Control Undead, you could use True Polymorph on an unused Clone, or just a CR10 or lower creature, and turn it into something with 11 or lower Int, like a Nightveil Specter or a Sword Wraith Commander. Could also turn an object into a Sword Wraith Commander and do it that way.
So what ideas do you have? Interested in ways that involve the world, like the mortuary idea just less evil, but combinations of spells and abilities are fine too! Also can be mass production of CR1/4 creatures for zombies/skeletons or ways to acquire higher level undead.
Open a cemetery.
volunteer triage emergency medical shelter- not everyone can be saved that needs medical help.
“Waste disposal” service for prisons/arenas/fighting pits.
start a “donate your body to the advancement of XXX” charity. Where you encourage people to gift you their corpses in the case of their passing, to help you research XXX.
become Miss Cleo, give their surviving loved ones peace of rest by using speak with dead with their deceased loved ones, but you will take care of the corpse and arrangements afterwards.
There is a german RPG called Splittermond which has a completely legal and morally grey guild of necromancers in their setting.
They operate by giving money to people who need it, on the condition that those people donate their corpses to work for them for a set amount of time after they died. This guild is basically the backbone of an entire society.
Maybe you could work something like this out with your DM? You help the poor, unfortunate, weak and sick and in exchange their corpses serve you after they died. If you don't travel too much you could easily argue that you have already established sufficient contracts for the next months / years.
And if your DM could introduce such a guild into their setting you might be able to make this work work while traveling.
I'm running an Acq Inc campaign right now so forgive me, but...
Your necromancer is head of HR for a franchise, and you've managed to simultaneously cut health insurance premiums AND drop the company's subemployee turnover rate to virtually nil. Your performance evaluation is going to be GREAT. Ask for a huge raise.
There are plenty of "good" ways to acquire corpses that are not "lawful." Grave robbing, fake morgue, vigilantism (undead criminals kill criminals to turn undead), a fourth thing...
Lawful good is much harder. For that I can only suggest cooperating with local governments.
Team up with a church that considers the corpse to be nothing more than refuse to be discarded after the soul has moved on. Or start a cult with those beliefs....
Start a cult with a comune and make it a tenate of the faith that even the deceased should serve the community as laborers so that the living can devote themselves to life, art, love, and the pursuit of cultural benefits. Pleasure during life, labor after death. Sounds pretty “Good” to me.
In real life there's an incredible range of attitudes towards what's a "good" way to treat a dead body; e.g., some cultures traditionally burn their dead, while others consider cremation a terrible sacrilege - and no reason that wouldn't also be the case in DnD world. Which means you have a lot of wiggle room for your "good" necromancer, but you'll have to work with your DM to do some worldbuilding around it. In essence, your necromancer will need to find a culture or society in which there isn't a strong significance attached to a dead body (because the important part of a person is their soul, and that's gone). Once you've found that community, your necromancer can go about it a couple ways:
Appeal to the local government that you can take care of corpse disposal for them, either for free or for a much reduced price compared to their current system.
Put out ads asking people to pledge use of their corpse to you after they die. As incentive, you'll pay them a certain amount of money.
If dead bodies are treated basically like any other trash in this particular culture, you might be able to just help yourself to whatever disposal location they have.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Introduce small pox to a few villages. If you just give it a few days they should all be dead, unless a cleric or two strolled by, but the other villages should be dead. Then the undead can just make more undead for you.
I'm serious, start a Lawful/Good religion in which a tenet of the faith is that the deceased should serve the community so that the living can devote themselves to society. The reanimated dead serve the function of laborers so that the living don't have to.
"The gods gave mortals the gift of Necromancy so that, while our souls spend eternity in the afterlife, our discarded bodies can serve our descendants forever performing physical labor and defending the living, so that we the living may pursue more important matters and make the most out of our brief lives here on the Prime Material. Pleasure in life, labor in death. Thank the gods."
Lawful/Good, people signing up like crazy literally volunteering to be your zombies. Win/win/win.
Is there any angle using Fabricate to split large monster corpses into several smaller humanoid corposes? Or even Create Food and Water, to create small 45 pound corpses? Corpses are items, not creatures, and both of those spells seem to have the ability manipulate meat/organic material...
Walk around the streets of a city, find a person who is evil, terribly evil, like stealing money from homeless people evil. Find a way to get them on a trip to the mountains, make up some reason (as an adventurer they'll likely believe you), possibly hidden gold you need them to help transport. Once up the mountain, find a cliff, walk by it, and cast thunderwave.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Walk around the streets of a city, find a person who is evil, terribly evil, like stealing money from homeless people evil. Find a way to get them on a trip to the mountains, make up some reason (as an adventurer they'll likely believe you), possibly hidden gold you need them to help transport. Once up the mountain, find a cliff, walk by it, and cast thunderwave.
Walk around the streets of a city, find a person who is evil, terribly evil, like stealing money from homeless people evil. Find a way to get them on a trip to the mountains, make up some reason (as an adventurer they'll likely believe you), possibly hidden gold you need them to help transport. Once up the mountain, find a cliff, walk by it, and cast thunderwave.
Fus ro dah!
what?
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Walk around the streets of a city, find a person who is evil, terribly evil, like stealing money from homeless people evil. Find a way to get them on a trip to the mountains, make up some reason (as an adventurer they'll likely believe you), possibly hidden gold you need them to help transport. Once up the mountain, find a cliff, walk by it, and cast thunderwave.
Fus ro dah!
what?
It's a dragon shout from Skyrim. It pushes the target(s) away and ragdolls them. People use it to launch enemies (and allies, NPCs, whatever happens to be in the wrong place) off cliffs. It is a meme. Google it.
I would suggest starting a sport that involves dragging around large blocks of ice in freezing weather by hand through the wilderness. Get someone with high Charisma to promote it, like it demonstrates manliness or something. Offer a 100 gp cash reward. Ask your Druid friend to Druidcraft for weather prediction and hold the competition on the coldest day possible.
"Oh my! Did some people die from hypothermia while competing? Oh well, they signed the disclaimer that allowed them to compete and the contract now says that their bodies belong to me."
Since they did so of their own free will, you'd be acting both within the law and without coercion.
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I've had a few ideas, but a lot of them don't really work well with a Good necromancer, like running a mortuary in a big city where there'll be corpses with no one who cares for them, which is super f-ed up lol.
Some higher level ideas are using Mass Polymorph (all my polymorph spells only turn myself or others into undead, plus some other limits) on easily obtained beasts like Draft Horses (don't hate me) which are only 50gp each, if you have simulacrums they can speed up the process once per sim. You'd have to kill and raise them again, but under controlled conditions that shouldn't be an issue.
For creating a higher level undead to control with Control Undead, you could use True Polymorph on an unused Clone, or just a CR10 or lower creature, and turn it into something with 11 or lower Int, like a Nightveil Specter or a Sword Wraith Commander. Could also turn an object into a Sword Wraith Commander and do it that way.
So what ideas do you have? Interested in ways that involve the world, like the mortuary idea just less evil, but combinations of spells and abilities are fine too! Also can be mass production of CR1/4 creatures for zombies/skeletons or ways to acquire higher level undead.
Polymorph spells, except for True Polymorph, can only turn things into Beasts - you cannot use them to create undead.
Running a mortuary and grave digging will be the best ways. You could also strike a deal with the city justice system - anyone who is executed for their crimes have their bodies given to you, provided you use the bodies as free labour for the city. Waste not, want not.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Donate poisoned food to the local orphanage then wait a little bit. :)
Why would a "Good Necromancer" deliberately kill to get bodies? If they wanted to do that, they would be better off to just animate some zombies and send them to slaughter villages, collecting corpses.
Both as a Good Necromancer and as a Bad Necromancer, poisoning some kids is a very inefficient way to obtain corpses.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I second the idea of working with the city to "rehabilitate" executed criminals. Although even that is pretty F'd up when you think about it... I guess that's why being a "good" necromancer is generally pretty rare. Maybe you could volunteer at a plague hospital or something and ask people to donate their bodies to the cause or something. I think there's really no morally sound way to turn someone into a walking corpse without getting their express permission ahead of time. The difference would depend on your character's morality... some societies in D&D outright don't value the bodies of the dead, seeing them as nothing more than an empty carcass. I'd say your character could still be considered good if they honestly don't think of a body as a Person once they stop breathing, but simply avoid reviving the corpses of recently deceased loved ones in front of their friends/family just to avoid the awkwardness that would inevitably cause.
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Open a cemetery.
volunteer triage emergency medical shelter- not everyone can be saved that needs medical help.
“Waste disposal” service for prisons/arenas/fighting pits.
start a “donate your body to the advancement of XXX” charity. Where you encourage people to gift you their corpses in the case of their passing, to help you research XXX.
become Miss Cleo, give their surviving loved ones peace of rest by using speak with dead with their deceased loved ones, but you will take care of the corpse and arrangements afterwards.
There is a german RPG called Splittermond which has a completely legal and morally grey guild of necromancers in their setting.
They operate by giving money to people who need it, on the condition that those people donate their corpses to work for them for a set amount of time after they died. This guild is basically the backbone of an entire society.
Maybe you could work something like this out with your DM? You help the poor, unfortunate, weak and sick and in exchange their corpses serve you after they died. If you don't travel too much you could easily argue that you have already established sufficient contracts for the next months / years.
And if your DM could introduce such a guild into their setting you might be able to make this work work while traveling.
I'm running an Acq Inc campaign right now so forgive me, but...
Your necromancer is head of HR for a franchise, and you've managed to simultaneously cut health insurance premiums AND drop the company's subemployee turnover rate to virtually nil. Your performance evaluation is going to be GREAT. Ask for a huge raise.
There are plenty of "good" ways to acquire corpses that are not "lawful." Grave robbing, fake morgue, vigilantism (undead criminals kill criminals to turn undead), a fourth thing...
Lawful good is much harder. For that I can only suggest cooperating with local governments.
Team up with a church that considers the corpse to be nothing more than refuse to be discarded after the soul has moved on. Or start a cult with those beliefs....
Start a cult with a comune and make it a tenate of the faith that even the deceased should serve the community as laborers so that the living can devote themselves to life, art, love, and the pursuit of cultural benefits. Pleasure during life, labor after death. Sounds pretty “Good” to me.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Is there anything saying you can’t have 1 re-animated corpse going around collecting corpses and doing the dirty work for you?
just let Frankenstein’s monster bring you what you need. Then you have plausible deniability.
In real life there's an incredible range of attitudes towards what's a "good" way to treat a dead body; e.g., some cultures traditionally burn their dead, while others consider cremation a terrible sacrilege - and no reason that wouldn't also be the case in DnD world. Which means you have a lot of wiggle room for your "good" necromancer, but you'll have to work with your DM to do some worldbuilding around it. In essence, your necromancer will need to find a culture or society in which there isn't a strong significance attached to a dead body (because the important part of a person is their soul, and that's gone). Once you've found that community, your necromancer can go about it a couple ways:
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Introduce small pox to a few villages. If you just give it a few days they should all be dead, unless a cleric or two strolled by, but the other villages should be dead. Then the undead can just make more undead for you.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
I'm serious, start a Lawful/Good religion in which a tenet of the faith is that the deceased should serve the community so that the living can devote themselves to society. The reanimated dead serve the function of laborers so that the living don't have to.
"The gods gave mortals the gift of Necromancy so that, while our souls spend eternity in the afterlife, our discarded bodies can serve our descendants forever performing physical labor and defending the living, so that we the living may pursue more important matters and make the most out of our brief lives here on the Prime Material. Pleasure in life, labor in death. Thank the gods."
Lawful/Good, people signing up like crazy literally volunteering to be your zombies. Win/win/win.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Is there any angle using Fabricate to split large monster corpses into several smaller humanoid corposes? Or even Create Food and Water, to create small 45 pound corpses? Corpses are items, not creatures, and both of those spells seem to have the ability manipulate meat/organic material...
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Walk around the streets of a city, find a person who is evil, terribly evil, like stealing money from homeless people evil. Find a way to get them on a trip to the mountains, make up some reason (as an adventurer they'll likely believe you), possibly hidden gold you need them to help transport. Once up the mountain, find a cliff, walk by it, and cast thunderwave.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Fus ro dah!
what?
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
It's a dragon shout from Skyrim. It pushes the target(s) away and ragdolls them. People use it to launch enemies (and allies, NPCs, whatever happens to be in the wrong place) off cliffs. It is a meme. Google it.
I would suggest starting a sport that involves dragging around large blocks of ice in freezing weather by hand through the wilderness. Get someone with high Charisma to promote it, like it demonstrates manliness or something. Offer a 100 gp cash reward. Ask your Druid friend to Druidcraft for weather prediction and hold the competition on the coldest day possible.
"Oh my! Did some people die from hypothermia while competing? Oh well, they signed the disclaimer that allowed them to compete and the contract now says that their bodies belong to me."
Since they did so of their own free will, you'd be acting both within the law and without coercion.