Undead_Economics

Zombies are maintained in a reasonably intact state by use of preserving magic such as Gentle Repose, protective amulets, or they are repaired by Mending spells, which fixes decay or minor wear-and-tear, or Inflict ~ Wounds spells, which fixes significant lost hit points. If they decay so much that repair is no longer practical, i.e. they start to fall apart, then they are usually re-animated as skeletons, which are less valued as they are physically weaker, and their greater dexterity is of limited use as they need to be precisely instructed to make good use of it. Most undead control is via talismans, ; below, but if these are lost or destroyed then the undead are 'free', and usually wander off, becoming hostile to the living.

The price for undead depends on how many there are controlled by a single talisman, and what variety they are. But the typical price is 200 gp for a medium zombie, and 150 gp for a medium skeleton, so a minimum talisman of three medium zombies made by a 6th level cleric would be priced at 600 gp, or a minimum talisman of five medium skeletons made by a 5th level cleric would be priced at 750 gp.

The minimum price for a zombie of any size will typically be 100 gp, and 75 gp for a skeleton (it costs the animator a minimum of 50 gp per undead), for larger than medium undead add at least 100 gp per extra HD (150 gp/HD is more common).

A 'fresh' dead body ready to turn into a medium zombie has a normal price of 75 gp (minimum 25 gp), and one ready to turn into a skeleton 38 gp (minimum 12.5 gp); plus 38 gp (minimum 12.5 gp) per extra HD.

Undead Control: The use of Undead like zombies and skeletons, instead of slaves for manual labour, requires a means to freely transfer the control of them. This is done by creating an Undead Control Talisman, as part of the process of animating them. Creating a talisman requires an odd number of black onyx gems each worth at least 10gp, mounted in a copper medallion (of no particular value), the feat Create Wondrous Item (which does not require any experience points for this purpose), the ability to Animate Dead, and a number of bodies or skeletons equal to the number of gems in the talisman. The spell is cast and the talisman placed in rapid succession in the mouth of each body to animate, devaluating the gems, then the ritual is completed with a drop of the animator's blood.

Talismans created by this ritual do not allow the animator to animate or control any more HD of undead than they otherwise could, but a single talisman can be carried by anyone, no matter whether they have any caster level, and will allow them to control the undead tied to this talisman as if they were the animator. Control is transfered by the new owner placing a drop of their blood on the talisman

Working Dead are assumed to loose one hit point per week's hard physical labour from wear-and-tear (working 40 hours) unless repaired by a Mending spell per week.

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Amulet of Undead Healing: is a black onyx amulet which contains a drop of the (dried) blood of one capable of casting spells which repair undead. This acts to cause the undead to heal at the same rate that a living creature would from Natural Healing, i.e. one hit point per HD per day of rest. Rest for undead counts as only working 12 hours in any 24 hour day. Complete rest is doing no work, which gives one and one half times HD in hit points. If you are a living creature and you wear this amulet then the number of hit points you recover from Natural Healing per day is reduced by one, and the only other effect is that undead that normally attack living things will not be able to sense you are living, unless you attack them.

Caster Level: 3rd; Prerequisites: Create Wonderous Item, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Invisibility to Undead; Market Price: 1,500 gp; Weight: -.

Animate Dead is a 3rd level spell - suitable for being made into an oil. As the person applying the oil is the effective caster, and uses the oil's caster level, this means that anyone can have zombies or skeletons under their control, at a market price of 100 gp per hit die (62.5 gp per hit die, if done with all the trimmings in a prepared area), plus the cost of the corpses. They're Instantly under your control, and stay that way until something alters it