JonathonWilder
Villager
“The word 'undead' conjures up images of skeletons or desiccated corpses walking, searching, and seeking the flesh of the living. It conjures up images of terror and unending pain, of beings that know no rest, whose hatred of the living burns eternally in their unliving bodies.
Across the lands, stories abound of foolhardy treasure-seekers that enter ancient ruins, looking for gold or the rare artifacts only to have their spirits or bodies devoured by the creatures of unlife. In some stories, these would-be heroes rise again, forever serving a new master, their lives a long, cold, unending night of pain and hunger. They hunger for the living, hunger for a taste, a smell, anything that reminds them of what they lost forever.”
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At least this is what Dungeons and Dragons is supposed to/trying to conjure when the word undead is used (and how a DM should be having undead as shown). Many have been arguing that undead shouldn't be evil, or more importantly that spells that summon, create, or control undead shouldn't be evil... that those that use these dark necromantic arts don't have to be evil and that use of the spell Create Undead is no more evil then those that Animate Object.
Yet when one gets right down to it the real question is “how is necromancy harmful, why is it so very often innately evil?” The answer to this question will more often than not be up to the DM, though one will find answers to these questions by the original makers of D&D. You see, one thing I have found is while 3.0/3.5 edition of D&D is the better system mechanically (arguably anyway), 2nd edition actually has many info/splat books on a variety of subjects counting those that answer questions of why certain creatures and monsters are evil. One extremely impressive series of books are what are called the “Van Richten's Guides”, which go over a variety of 'horror monsters' that would commonly be used. These monsters are Vampires, Werebeasts, Created (think Frankenstein), Ghosts, Liches, Ancient Dead (think Mummies)... among three others.
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Let’s take vampires for example, which it is explained that while they do not always start out as evil, they will become such in time... how long matters the will of the one becoming a monster. Now this could be days, weeks, months, or even years all mattering how strong a character's belief and heart is. One thing I also did take from it because of this is while a vampire cannot be likely good, at least for long, there was nothing preventing it from being let’s say Chaotic Neutral (or maybe True Neutral). More so even other alignments if a vampire could get creative on coming up with ways of gaining fresh blood without harming anyone like from a willing donor or better still creating a spell much like Create Food and Water called Create Fresh Blood as that is one of the big things that push vampire towards an Evil alignment. With a strong enough self-disciple, for those willing to go to the trouble, a vampire 'might' be able to tame the Beast within that cause them to hunger and viciously attack humanoids to drink their blood, especially of their former race. ((Yet such vampires would be extremely rare and far between as well all up to the DM with the above being how I would handle such questions if I was DMing.))
There are other things that need consideration, especially a vampire's immortality and the psychological effects of such which almost always lead to selfishness and cruelty. There is also a tendency for those that become vampires to see 'lesser' races as nothing but playthings or not deserving of respect and mattering the vampire the love of the feeling of how much faster/tougher/stronger they are... using their powers to brutally destroy others and enjoy doing so. Yet such vampires that given completely into their blood lust don't normally last long, instead those that live longest and that are able to keep their sanity long enough are those vampire that play the part of being mortal. Normally this is through gaining a position of power and influence, almost always taking the place of an upper class member of a city or even working their way 'all the way up' where any oddities and eccentrics can be more easily marked off as “nothing to worried about, he is just odd/weird”.
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One option that does not relate to the above directly in the Van Richten's Guides (seriously, get a copy if you can and if you plan on adding vampires or other 'horror' monsters, even if it is PDF) is this:
Vampires with Surviving "Goodness"
“It's entirely up to the DM if a particular newly-formed vampire retains some part of his or her mortal attitudes, emotions, and beliefs upon the transition to undeath. For DMs who like concrete rules, try the following: If a character is killed by a vampire, and the creating vampire is destroyed or leaves the area before the victim rises as a vampire, roll 8d6 and compare the result to the victim's Wis. If the result is equal to or greater than the victim's Wis, the newly-formed vampire is completely and utterly Chaotic Evil. If the dice roll is less than the victim's Wis, however there's a possibility that the new Fledgling vampire might retain some portion of its previous world view, possibly including alignment. (See Chapter Eleven, "The Mind of the Vampire".)”
Across the lands, stories abound of foolhardy treasure-seekers that enter ancient ruins, looking for gold or the rare artifacts only to have their spirits or bodies devoured by the creatures of unlife. In some stories, these would-be heroes rise again, forever serving a new master, their lives a long, cold, unending night of pain and hunger. They hunger for the living, hunger for a taste, a smell, anything that reminds them of what they lost forever.”
-------------------------------------------------
At least this is what Dungeons and Dragons is supposed to/trying to conjure when the word undead is used (and how a DM should be having undead as shown). Many have been arguing that undead shouldn't be evil, or more importantly that spells that summon, create, or control undead shouldn't be evil... that those that use these dark necromantic arts don't have to be evil and that use of the spell Create Undead is no more evil then those that Animate Object.
Yet when one gets right down to it the real question is “how is necromancy harmful, why is it so very often innately evil?” The answer to this question will more often than not be up to the DM, though one will find answers to these questions by the original makers of D&D. You see, one thing I have found is while 3.0/3.5 edition of D&D is the better system mechanically (arguably anyway), 2nd edition actually has many info/splat books on a variety of subjects counting those that answer questions of why certain creatures and monsters are evil. One extremely impressive series of books are what are called the “Van Richten's Guides”, which go over a variety of 'horror monsters' that would commonly be used. These monsters are Vampires, Werebeasts, Created (think Frankenstein), Ghosts, Liches, Ancient Dead (think Mummies)... among three others.
--------------------------
Let’s take vampires for example, which it is explained that while they do not always start out as evil, they will become such in time... how long matters the will of the one becoming a monster. Now this could be days, weeks, months, or even years all mattering how strong a character's belief and heart is. One thing I also did take from it because of this is while a vampire cannot be likely good, at least for long, there was nothing preventing it from being let’s say Chaotic Neutral (or maybe True Neutral). More so even other alignments if a vampire could get creative on coming up with ways of gaining fresh blood without harming anyone like from a willing donor or better still creating a spell much like Create Food and Water called Create Fresh Blood as that is one of the big things that push vampire towards an Evil alignment. With a strong enough self-disciple, for those willing to go to the trouble, a vampire 'might' be able to tame the Beast within that cause them to hunger and viciously attack humanoids to drink their blood, especially of their former race. ((Yet such vampires would be extremely rare and far between as well all up to the DM with the above being how I would handle such questions if I was DMing.))
There are other things that need consideration, especially a vampire's immortality and the psychological effects of such which almost always lead to selfishness and cruelty. There is also a tendency for those that become vampires to see 'lesser' races as nothing but playthings or not deserving of respect and mattering the vampire the love of the feeling of how much faster/tougher/stronger they are... using their powers to brutally destroy others and enjoy doing so. Yet such vampires that given completely into their blood lust don't normally last long, instead those that live longest and that are able to keep their sanity long enough are those vampire that play the part of being mortal. Normally this is through gaining a position of power and influence, almost always taking the place of an upper class member of a city or even working their way 'all the way up' where any oddities and eccentrics can be more easily marked off as “nothing to worried about, he is just odd/weird”.
----------------------------------------
One option that does not relate to the above directly in the Van Richten's Guides (seriously, get a copy if you can and if you plan on adding vampires or other 'horror' monsters, even if it is PDF) is this:
Vampires with Surviving "Goodness"
“It's entirely up to the DM if a particular newly-formed vampire retains some part of his or her mortal attitudes, emotions, and beliefs upon the transition to undeath. For DMs who like concrete rules, try the following: If a character is killed by a vampire, and the creating vampire is destroyed or leaves the area before the victim rises as a vampire, roll 8d6 and compare the result to the victim's Wis. If the result is equal to or greater than the victim's Wis, the newly-formed vampire is completely and utterly Chaotic Evil. If the dice roll is less than the victim's Wis, however there's a possibility that the new Fledgling vampire might retain some portion of its previous world view, possibly including alignment. (See Chapter Eleven, "The Mind of the Vampire".)”
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