D&D General D&D doesn't need Evil

[Maxperson]

While this is true, If you're playing some kind of cosmic objective good vs. evil and actions objectively matter campaign The DM has to pretend to be objective and the players have to accept (pretend) that he is. Probably doesn't hurt to lay out some written guidelines.

And of course, in this case, I would recommend binging The Good Place which while it would show the futility of trying to lay out objective good and evil it would also show how fun it is to pretend to do so!

Only if Ted Danson is DMing.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Raising dead people and condemning them to an eternity of suffering as your servants is clearly evil.

Is this even a necessary component of necromancy in 5e? Do we imagine that a soul is at all involved in a zombie?

 

[Maxperson]

Is this even a necessary component of necromancy in 5e? Do we imagine that a soul is at all involved in a zombie?

A soul is not there, but desecration of the dead has and is regarded as evil. It's pretty hard not to view raising the dead to be servants and warriors for you as desecration of the dead.

 

[Lyxen]

Because chaotic demons are going to stick to a strict sin pricing schedule? And, would celestials trust fiends to do the weighing?

I should have put devils rather than fiends, because demons are more interested in destruction that your soul. But you do know that Asmodeus was indeed granted by the upper planes the right to judge how evil souls are because he uses them in the Blood War ? So yes, it's consistent.

And overall, I don't see how fiends are the ones weighing your soul when spells like "Detect Evil" can detect its weight in realtime while you are still alive. And in the Great Wheel, the fiends are on various alignment planes - the measure of your actions must be taken to send it to the proper plane, before any fiends see it.

The universe is weighing your soul, it's just that devils are nitpickers and like to keep records.

Except, of course, the DM themselves, being human and using human morals as their baseline, are probably not being particularly objective (or, perhaps more importantly, consistent)...

As a player, you are trusting your DM to be objective in all things, right ? Why is this one different ?

 

[Lyxen]

Is this even a necessary component of necromancy in 5e? Do we imagine that a soul is at all involved in a zombie?

It was not the case in all editions of D&D (in particular in 3e there was a clear distinction between skeleton/zombies which were just animated corpses and the rest of the undead), but 5e has clearly made necromancy evil.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Is this even a necessary component of necromancy in 5e? Do we imagine that a soul is at all involved in a zombie?

I once played a necromancer who saw all dead people as worshippers of his goddess. Raising them as skeletons and zombies was just calling the faithful to service.

 

[John R Davis]

Can you expand on why you feel D&D needs a big E Evil?

D&D's foundation is based on war games (no big E Evil) and exploring dungeons for treasure (no big E Evil).

At what point do you feel like Big E Evil became necessary for D&D?

Wargames? And there was no big evil?!?!??
Great/Powerful heroes need a Great/Powerful nemesis who is their opposite.

Loads shades gray games; let DND remain full on good 'guy' versus evil 'guy'.

And the Big E was in DND from the first ever module

 

[Lyxen]

I once played a necromancer who saw all dead people as worshippers of his goddess. Raising them as skeletons and zombies was just calling the faithful to service.

It's fine, but I would not think that even he would call that act "good", he would probably consider it "appropriate" or "necessary", but in 5e it is clearly evil (probably because of the negative energies involved.

 

[BookTenTiger]

It's fine, but I would not think that even he would call that act "good", he would probably consider it "appropriate" or "necessary", but in 5e it is clearly evil (probably because of the negative energies involved.

Oh, he definitely thought it was good! What a waste, for worshippers of his goddess to be moldering in the ground!

 

[Bird Of Play]

If they're objective, then you can quantify it. How much evil is shoplifting bread? How about shoplifting a diamond? Tripping a little old lady? Bilking her out of her life savings? I need to know so that I can measure it against the good of rescuing a puppy from a river and returning a stolen painting in order to determine the alignment of my PC.

You've just described the legal system of any country.

Hence, it's easy to quantify evil and good. Of course, variations apply: if the bread was the only food of a starving man, it's not the same as one piece of bread in a baker's shop. Those variations are not in the legal system.... but they are in a character's alignment.