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D&D 5E Why is animate dead considered inherently evil?

I'm having a troublesome time understanding why the animate dead spell is considered evil. When I read the manual it states that the spall imbues the targeted corpse with a foul mimicry of life, implying that the soul is not a sentient being who is trapped in a decaying corpse. Rather, the spell does exactly what its title suggests, it only animates the corps. Now of course one could use the spell to create zombies that would hunt and kill humans, but by that same coin, they could create a labor force that needs no form of sustenance (other than for the spell to be recast of course). There have also been those who have said "the spell is associated with the negative realm which is evil", however when you ask someone why the negative realm is bad that will say "because it is used for necromancy", I'm sure you can see the fallacy in this argument.

However, I must take into account that I have only looked into the DnD magic system since yesterday so there are likely large gaps in my knowledge. PS(Apon further reflection I've decided that the animate dead spell doesn't fall into the school of necromancy, as life is not truly given to the corps, instead I believe this would most likely fall into the school of transmutation.) PPS(I apologize for my sloppy writing, I've decided I'm feeling too lazy to correct it.)
 

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James Gasik

We don't talk about Pun-Pun
Supporter
Hey you can be evil and positive energy based!
Mummies.jpg
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
but the settings that are the most popular got that way by adhering to the rules, written and unwritten in fantasy, myths and D&D. It's why fantasy games are more popular than scifi games. People feel like they understand fantasy. It's got history, myth and tons of things the are expected. Thus the problem that when you start trying to peel the rules back people tend to recoil or get turned off. I'd argue it's why most other games aren't as popular as D&D. D&D live's in the normalized MYTHICAL space people expect. Take that away and it loses a huge portion of it's appeal.
You're not going to get anywhere with me by appealing to popularity.
 



nevin

Hero
You're not going to get anywhere with me by appealing to popularity.
and your not going to get anywhere with me by trying to pretend that the most popular thing is not popular for a reason. D&D is the most popular because it appealed to the most popular stuff and trying to change it because you have a problem doing something because it's popular, is still you swimming up stream like a salmon.
 



The "as long as the zombies are under the necromancer's control" is part of why it matters. The necromancer only has control for 24 hours and then has to reassert control. If they oversleep, get distracted, die, whatever, the undead they created become free willed killing machines.
Better not do that then! Yes letting the zombies loose would be evil or at least criminally negligent. So good people take good care of their zombies and safely dispose of them once they are no longer needed.

In addition if you use the default fiction of D&D, which you don't have to do, the force behind necromantic energy is actively in opposition to life.

Fire has no inherent destructive nature, a fireball will not go on a murder spree because you are not watching it. The negative plane energy that powers necromancy does have a destructive nature that causes creatures created to hate all things living and want to destroy them.
Fire absolutely has potential to cause massive destruction if used carelessly and is pretty bad for life. A simple campfire left unattended can lead to a forest fire, handling fire carelessly in a city might cause most of the city burn down.

I just don't think we are applying "If used carelessly, or if the operator is disabled might cause serious harm, thus evil" consistently. A lot of stuff is like that, nuclear reactors, aeroplanes, even cars and simple fire.
 
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Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
and your not going to get anywhere with me by trying to pretend that the most popular thing is not popular for a reason. D&D is the most popular because it appealed to the most popular stuff and trying to change it because you have a problem doing something because it's popular, is still you swimming up stream like a salmon.
Your point? Popularity doesn't matter in rules design.
 

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