Why is Animate Dead [Evil]?

[Old Fezziwig]

So messing with the dead of ogres, goblins, orcs, etc. isn't evil, but animating dwarves, elves, and humans is? That seems a bit weak to me; I mean, you can't have it both ways. What makes it okay? Because they're "evil" races? Because they tried to kill the party? Because they aren't human? Raising little bunny rabbits as little bunny rabbit zombies would be evil. The cultural taboo against animating the dead in human cultures would likely extend to raising the dead of other races—it isn't natural, any way you slice it.

Best,
tKL

 

[AEtherfyre]

Remember the fact that those who are raised as undead can't be resurrected while their bodies are out walking around?

That's because, when you create a skeleton or zombie (or worse), you're binding the soul of the departed into the corpse, under your absolute control - and that's always an evil act.

Not to mention that, if I'm not mistaken, the alignment of non-intelligent undead has been errata'd to NE - and all other undead are pretty much uniformly evil.

So, yeah - undead are bad, and that's the extent of it. If you want untiring servants and don't want to be evil, summon a few elementals or something.

[edit] Oh, yeah - Magic Jar. Far as I can see, this is an inconsistency of the rules - because you can't resurrect someone if they're any type of undead, not just the intelligent types. Either rule that non-intelligent undead are neutral and that it isn't evil to create them - and that they don't stop resurrections - or rule that Magic Jar is mistaken. Yes, the people who write the books do make mistakes. [/edit]

 

[LoneWolf23]

Personally, I think it's simply Evil by Association. Namely, what use does "Animate Dead" have? If it's labor or guards you need, it's easier to simply hire them.

The people who tend to animate corpses to do their bidding are generally very disturbed individuals who somehow gain satisfaction from raising dead bodies to serve them.

 

[GhostInTheMachine]

Yes. Animate dead is evil because with your non-sentient, untireable workforce that doesn't need to get paid, you can underbid almost any work contract. It puts honest, hardworking, living people out of jobs.

Personally, I'd see nothing wrong with re-working spells like animate dead to take out OUR cultural bias against such things. What if it just animated the corpses into weaker forms of bone/flesh golems? There is certainly no ability that zombies or skeletons have that requires them to have a soul.

 

[rushlight]

"1. You're using Negative Energy
As shown in Manual of the Planes, the Negative Energy Plane is Neutral. Negative Energy does not mean Unholy."

That's not exactly true. While the plane has no "evil" descriptor, that is only relevant to the fact that it doesn't actively target Good people, while ignoring Evil people. It's neutral to that axis, since it hurts EVERYONE. It's not "evil" really, but it IS destructive. To the extreme. And usually, utilizing destructive energy is also destructive.

Negative energy is basically Bad (since things that hurt are bad, and things that heal are good). Since D&D is a very black-and-white world, Bad generally equals Evil, although that's not written anywhere. It's also true that hurting things can be either Good or Evil depending on the intent, so in certain conditions using Negative energy isn't a Bad thing. That's why not all uses of Negative energy is considered Evil. There ARE however some uses of it that are. And in the D&D world (which again is cut-and-dry) those spells are labeled as [Evil].

Now, if you desired to make a game with more shades of grey (like our own modern world) then you could relax or throw out all together the restrictions of Good and Evil. However, you would also face some redesign on any ability that relies on alignment. If there is no clear distiction between Good and Evil (the condition that you would have if you threw out those descriptors) then there would also be no clear distiction between Good and Evil people. By the same logic you've used (it's basically the intent and use of the spell, not the spell that makes it [Evil]) then that would also apply to people. You can be a basically Bad person and do Good things, therefore you aren't "Evil". Alignments would be practically useless, since it's the current state of thought of a character that dictates it's alignment, not a proscribed set of beliefs. So people could be "Evil" one moment, and "Good" the next. (Just as casting "Animate Dead" could be used both for "Good" and "Evil".) So it's possible to blend these things into a less cut-and-dry world, it would just take some work on your part.

Another option is you could just decide that the denizens of your world really don't concern themselves with what happens to a body once the soul has passed away. To them, the body is just a shell that has no significance without the soul to inhabit it, therefore using the body afterward wouldn't be desecration.

Last, you could always just make it not [Evil] because you don't want it to be. Rule 0 always takes president!

 

[The Kender]

GhostInTheMachine:
Thankyou, I needed to hear that ^_^ I never thought about putting commoneres out of jobs. Of course, Golem creation requires you to enslave an Earth Elemental Spirit. Really makes you wonder, how is making a pile of bones walk more evil than putting together human body parts to make a flesh golem(I don't like Zombies)

rushlight:
I can hit somebody chaotic evil just as well as I can somebody good with an Inflict Critical Wounds spell.

Also, try spending a few months on the Positive Energy Plane. You end up blowing up from all of the positive energy. Wouldn't that make Positive Energy bad also?

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Also, try spending a few months on the Positive Energy Plane. You end up blowing up from all of the positive energy. Wouldn't that make Positive Energy bad also?

You just reminded me of one of my favorite quotes of all time: "Too much of a good thing is still too much."

Best,
tKL

 

[Coik]

Mucking about with the dead is taboo in most cultures. At the very least it's considered bad manners.

Yeah, that's the long and short of why Animate Dead (and undead and Necromancy in general) are falsely classified as evil.

Originally posted by Kajamba Lion
Part of it, I think revolves around the fact that animated corpses violate the natural order...

But the thing is, if we go that route, than all magic becomes innately evil. Fireballs ain't exactly part o' the natural order, either...

So messing with the dead of ogres, goblins, orcs, etc. isn't evil, but animating dwarves, elves, and humans is?

It's probably the same exception that makes B&E, murder, and theft against those races morally okay.

Originally posted by Alcamtar
My understanding was that negative energy WAS evil in earlier editions of D&D.

Well, I can't speak for 1st edition, but I know that wasn't the case in 2nd.

Really, negative energy is just entropy "personified..." and really, what's evil about entropy? It's just as natural a part of existance as life...

 

[Malin Genie]

With unintelligent undead the souls are not involved; you are using negative energy to move the flesh and bones around. So I don't think the whole 'bondage of souls is bad' explanation fits.

On the other hand, you can't raise or speak with animated dead, so perhaps you could say that the act of animating the corpse severs the soul's connection to the body - that could itself be considered evil....?

Also as already noted, even if Negative Energy itself is not evil, manipulating/channeling Negative Energy has been defined to be Evil - end of story.

In relative morality terms, I prefer to see it as no more evil that using animate object - it just happens that the object in question is a corpse. But DnD uses a system of absolutes, so whether acts are ethically good, bad or indifferent to our scrutiny is in the end irrelevant to whether they are Good or Evil.

 

[BryonD]

COULD be evil. A fireball can evil when it's burning down an orphanage. A sword can be evil when you're chopping off innocent commoner's heads.

But jaerdaph's point was that Animate Dead COULD be evil just by the simple process of casting it. Application comes later.