If I am a necromancer with a small army of zombies (created from Finger of Death) and won a battle against a group of humanoids, if there are any fresh humanoid corpses, I would immediately capture them and turn them into zombies later with by casting Raise Dead and then FOD on them after I get my spell slots back. It is expensive to revive an enemy humanoid just to kill them later, so is there a cheaper way to do it? And what do I do with all the undead corpses? Like, how do I recycle and reuse them?

I assume the only way to bring those FOD zombies back to life while still having them being under my control would be to cast Revivify or RD on each one? And as mentioned previously, this is really expensive. I guess I could cast Wish for free, but that is a slow process.

If I am reading the rules correctly, after a FOD zombie dies, I cannot use Animate Dead to raise those zombie corpses back to living zombies because those corpses are undead corpses and not humanoid corpses. However, if I clean the flesh off of corpses and turn each into a pile of bones and cast AD on them, would they still be under my permanent control because they were formerly FOD zombies? Even if I could directly target FOD zombie corpses, I would say no because I think AD overrides the effect of FOD so I do not maintain permanent control, but I am not sure.

You could always go for non-lethal damage or try to stabilize a dying creature before they die (that way you don't have to spend thousands of gp on diamonds).

As for recycling bodies, I am of an unpopular opinion that a humanoid's body is still a humanoid body even if it was turned undead in between. I base this mostly on that a level 3 spell with no costly component (animate dead) should not be able to prevent a 7th level spell that costs 1000 gp (resurrection) from working.

But you are correct that raise dead can not turn a corpse into an undead under any circumstances. You will have to use revivify (I would say that the creature is still under your control) or animate dead (which does overwrite FOD).

Quote from DxJxC >>

You could always go for non-lethal damage or try to stabilize a dying creature before they die (that way you don't have to spend thousands of gp on diamonds).

As for recycling bodies, I am of an unpopular opinion that a humanoid's body is still a humanoid body even if it was turned undead in between. I base this mostly on that a level 3 spell with no costly component (animate dead) should not be able to prevent a 7th level spell that costs 1000 gp (resurrection) from working.

But you are correct that raise dead can not turn a corpse into an undead under any circumstances. You will have to use revivify (I would say that the creature is still under your control) or animate dead (which does overwrite FOD).

Oof! Yeah, I just read the Raise Dead spell more carefully and I cannot bring back undead corpses as zombies. Resurrection does not allow me to target undead corpses either.

Revivify seems to be the only way to recycle undead corpses, but it has an extremely strict time limit so I have to act quickly. This does not seem practical to recycle lots of undead corpses. I guess having an army of Simulacrums of myself is one way to address this issue as wizard Simulacrums can cast third level spells once per long rest without expending spell slots.

I can use True Resurrection to target undead corpses, but it also undos undeath. To further complicate things, True Resurrection would not work if the soul does not want to come back, so even if I am willing to be patient and cast True Resurrection every day, it might not even work. Raise Dead and Resurrection have this issue too, so fresh corpses seems rather problematic.

Animate Dead and Create Undead does not exert permanent control and it has a lousy 24 hour time limit. It is fine if you just need a small escort of guards, but it is not a practical way of building an army. Dance Macabre has an even lousier time limit of 1 hour and it requires concentration.

I guess the best way create undead servants is to just be careful and not kill things. Seems like it is more hassle than it is worth to create an army via necromancy. I think I rather create an army of Magens and Simulacra since they are a lot less fragile and my max hit points cannot be reduced. I guess I would just use FOD zombies as a labor force rather than a combat force. If I do use FOD zombies as a combat force, I would also need to have a force of Simulacra supporting them to immediately cast Revivify or Gentle Repose to recycle them, but that is still 300 GP per Revivify, so that does not sound practical either.

If I do accidentally kill things, then I would try to cast Raise Dead or Resurrection via Wish on the fresh corpse. Those that come back alive will be turned into zombies via FOD. For fresh corpses that do not come back to life, I guess I will just turn them into regular zombies and wack them with Bonecounter. For undead corpses, I guess I could use the same process and cast True Resurrection on them and kill any that comes back with FOD. For undead corpses that do not come back via True Resurrection, I am not sure what I would do with them.

In my opinion, the dead reanimated by animate dead are only undead while the spell persists. Once they are killed, they revert to humanoid corpses.

Quote from Thauraeln_The_Bold >>

In my opinion, the dead reanimated by animate dead are only undead while the spell persists. Once they are killed, they revert to humanoid corpses.

Undead is not a condition that ends with 0 HP though, or else Raise Dead would not have the wording about requiring souls to rejoin the body. Resurrection has wording about souls and even explicitly forbids targeting dead undead creatures on top of that.

If you are wanting an undead army, go for a mummy lord. (Provided you are a 14 wizard) they can create undead for you. 

Why bother re-raising the dead? If you’re going to be a necromancer, what’s wrong with just fireballing another village every time you want to replace your horde?

Quote from Dragonhearthx >>

If you are wanting an undead army, go for a mummy lord. (Provided you are a 14 wizard) they can create undead for you. 

I do not see anything on their stat block where they can create undead though. I guess lore wise, some of them might have the knowledge on how to create mummies to serve me, so I guess that is something.

Quote from WolfOfTheBees >>

Why bother re-raising the dead? If you’re going to be a necromancer, what’s wrong with just fireballing a village every time you want to replace your horde?

Leaving corpses around is not only wasteful, but also unsightly. Not every necromancer feels the same way of course, but I do not like being wasteful.

As for using Finger of Death on every villager I see, that is a sure fire way to attract unwanted attention. I much rather prey on bandits and raiders. No one really misses bandits. As for raiders from a small goblin or orc village, they do not exactly have the organization nor resources to go after me, or else they would not be resorting to raiding in the first place.

If you don’t want to leave undead corpses around, be careful with your undead. And “unwanted attention” is just more opportunity for a necromancer to grow their army.

Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

I do not see anything on their stat block where they can create undead though. I guess lore wise, some of them might have the knowledge on how to create mummies to serve me, so I guess that is something.

Then you missed the "Spellcasting" trait on them, particularly the "3rd level" section. =)

Quote from WolfOfTheBees >>

If you don’t want to leave undead corpses around, be careful with your undead. And “unwanted attention” is just more opportunity for a necromancer to grow their army.

Yeah, I have to be more careful with how I use undead minions. Since zombies are so fragile, and quite frankly expensive to maintain, I think I might just use FOD zombies as laborers rather than combatants. On the battle field though, I would still use Animate Dead and Create Undead mid battle to bolster my forces, but any that survive would be wacked with Bonecounters and have the bodies carted off back to base. 

As for all the corpses, the only use for them i can think of is to just bury them in mass graves in front of my base of operations so the Simulacrums guarding the entrance can raise an army to mount a defense.

As for the unwanted attention, I do not want to bite off more than I can chew. I do not even know what kind of setting I want to put my necromancer in.

Quote from Tonio >>

Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

I do not see anything on their stat block where they can create undead though. I guess lore wise, some of them might have the knowledge on how to create mummies to serve me, so I guess that is something.

 

Then you missed the "Spellcasting" trait on them, particularly the "3rd level" section. =)

Ah, but Animate Dead is one of the issues. The Mummy Lord needs to keep casting Animate Dead over and over again just to maintain control too.

To be fair about my somewhat facetious argument here, you are building a necromancer, and along with that often comes some particularities that aren’t exactly pleasant or popular with common folk. One of which is that it takes dead to make undead. There is a reason why it has such a taboo. 

It is probably some sort of balancing constraint toward necromancy that they seem not to be able to just continually use the same corpse over and over. If they could, then each of their undead would be essentially permanent as long as the caster has relevant slots.

Quote from WolfOfTheBees >>

To be fair about my somewhat facetious argument here, you are building a necromancer, and along with that often comes some particularities that aren’t exactly pleasant or popular with common folk. One of which is that it takes dead to make undead. There is a reason why it has such a taboo. 

It is probably some sort of balancing constraint toward necromancy that they seem not to be able to just continually use the same corpse over and over. If they could, then each of their undead would be essentially permanent as long as the caster has relevant slots.

 One idea that I have bounced around for myself. Is a village of necromancers that use their own dead but only if said dead person had agreed to become undead before they died. Said dead person would be either mummified or become carved bone depending on which one they wanted to be. Zombie or skeleton. Each undead was treated with the utmost respect. They would be used for things like protection or dangerous operations.

Ok. Lets go over how big your army of undead can get before it gets difficult to maintain.

1. Be level 20 necromancer wizard. We will be saving the level 7th and 9th spell slots.
2. Use command undead feature to make a mummy lord your errand boy.
   1. Have mummy lord cast animate dead to create/control 29 zombies
3. Cast [spell]animated dead[spell] with level 3, 4, and 5 level slots to create/control 27 zombies.
4. Cast create undead with level 6 slots to create/control 6 ghouls or use animate dead for 14 more zombies.
5. Use level 8 slot to cast create undead for 2 wights
   1. The Wights can create and control 12 zombies each for 24 total.
6. Cast finger of death when able to get loyal zombies with no upkeep.
7. Cast simulacrum using level 7 slot and 1500 gp component.
   1. Take a long rest (simulacrums can't recover slots)
   2. Have simulacrum cast wish as simulacrum on you.
   3. Repeat 6.2 infinitely
8. Have infinite simulacrums repeat step 2.
   1. Have simulacrums only create undead as needed since they can't recontrol them.
9. Use wish to cast clone on yourself.
10. Revel in immortality and infinite army.

That is over 90 zombies before simulacrum spam.

Quote from DxJxC >>

That is over 90 zombies before simulacrum spam.

I am kind of hesitant on spending my own spell slots to maintain an undead army, but I do like the idea of all my Simulacrums each having a retinue of guards. And since I am not actually maintaining those zombies, I can save my own precious spell slots for emergencies.

Then may I introduce you to the contingency spell.

Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

Quote from DxJxC >>

That is over 90 zombies before simulacrum spam.

I am kind of hesitant on spending my own spell slots to maintain an undead army, but I do like the idea of all my Simulacrums each having a retinue of guards. And since I am not actually maintaining those zombies, I can save my own precious spell slots for emergencies.

 The simulacrums don't recover slots though. And animate dead can only be used to maintain control if you are the original caster. Eventually your sims will run out of slots and you will have wild zombies running around (except for the mummy lords and their hoards).

I also just noticed that animate dead lets you maintain 3 more than it creates, so that is at least another 24 zombies you and each mummy lord.

You also get back some slots on a short rest which I didn't account for.

Of course any level 17 wizard can skip straight to steps 7, 9, and 10. No undead, just infinite wizards.

Quote from DxJxC >>

Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

Quote from DxJxC >>

That is over 90 zombies before simulacrum spam.

I am kind of hesitant on spending my own spell slots to maintain an undead army, but I do like the idea of all my Simulacrums each having a retinue of guards. And since I am not actually maintaining those zombies, I can save my own precious spell slots for emergencies.

 The simulacrums don't recover slots though. And animate dead can only be used to maintain control if you are the original caster. Eventually your sims will run out of slots and you will have wild zombies running around (except for the mummy lords and their hoards).

I also just noticed that animate dead lets you maintain 3 more than it creates, so that is at least another 24 zombies you and each mummy lord.

You also get back some slots on a short rest which I didn't account for.

Of course any level 17 wizard can skip straight to steps 7, 9, and 10. No undead, just infinite wizards.

Simulacrum can still cast Animate Dead once per long rest without expending a spell slot since it is a level 3 spell, so each Simulacrum can have four personal guards. And until I or they find more mummy lords, they can use Command Undead on a Wight temporarily.

Quote from Dragonhearthx >>

Then may I introduce you to the contingency spell.

That is true, although I can only use one Contingency at a time though. I think Teleport should be enough, but having some spell slots for emergency purposes would still be nice.

I was thinking more of resilient sphere. 

Also how many creatures are you wanting?