Character concept: in a city, there's a gnome who works as the local undertaker. But he's also a necromancer -- with a side business as an information broker.
A necromancer? Hey, who's going to do a better job? And his alignment is LN -- he's a bit eccentric, but absolutely trustworthy. He has a very rigid code: if you give him a body to prepare for burial, he does that. (And very well, too). He's not turning any bodies into undead unless he pays for them first -- that side of the business is related, but separate.
He gets plenty of raw material for necromancy by dealing with the poor. Grandpa's dead, and the family has no money for a proper funeral? The gnome will do him up right, so that the whole neighborhood admires it... and then take Grandpa's corpse as payment, to be rendered into pieces for a skeleton, carrion golem, or what have you. But only if that's the deal! If you're paying full price, he'll prepare your corpse properly, give them a decent burial in a good coffin, and never look back. In fact, being a necromancer means he can make /sure/ the dead stay properly dead -- he knows all about vengeful spirits, how to drive off ghouls, you name it.
Going in another direction, Lawful Neutral means you'll do business with anyone who pays cash and keeps their side of the deal. In an urban area, that may mean criminals. Because sometimes people just need to dispose of a body, you know? And when that's the case, don't you want to deal with someone of proven trustworthiness? So he has contacts with both organized crime and the authorities -- hence the "information broker" sideline.
In appearance he's a severe little guy, black garments, white hair, mustache and beard trimmed to the millimeter. He's not suffering from that Bleaching thing, though. Quite the opposite; he's fascinated by the endlessly variations of death. Every corpse is a new story! (Give him someone killed in a really unusual way and watch his mustache tips quiver with excitement.) He's a respected member of the community who thoroughly enjoys his work.
And, yeah, he's got a back room full of undead.
I'm thinking something like Bard 1 / Exp 1 / Necromancer 7. (He started down the common-for-gnomes bard track before finding his true calling. And Perform [Oratory] and inspire courage are actually pretty useful for someone who has to deal with grieving families all day long.) Max ranks in Profession [undertaker]. Spells would be built around information and defense rather than combat per se. The Undertaker is not intended to be an antagonist for the PCs... more of a recurring NPC and a potential source of useful information. You can guess what sorts of payment he'll want, but then PCs do tend to produce a lot of dead bodies...
Thoughts?
Doug M.
