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

[Tolerable Tyrant]

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.)

 

[James Gasik]

But monsters are people too.

That was the joke, yes, everyone is a monster in D&D!

 

[James Gasik]

Yeah, I had enough of being told how I was supposed to play (Tanar'ri, Baatezu, goodbye Assassins and Half-Orcs) back in 2E.

(Lovely thread necromancy by the way)

I mean, to be fair, it wasn't TSR telling us how to play, it was the "moral guardians" taking offense to us playing at all.

 

[nevin]

you are abusing the laws of reality by making dead things get up and walk around. been considered evil since Myth's were created.

THIS is why it's evil.

 

[nevin]

I mean, to be fair, it wasn't TSR telling us how to play, it was the "moral guardians" taking offense to us playing at all.

yeah. I still haven't mastered all those Satanic spells though. None of the ones in the books seem to work..... Protection from evil hasn't kept my mother in law away even once.

 

[James Gasik]

yeah. I still haven't mastered all those Satanic spells though. None of the ones in the books seem to work..... Protection from evil hasn't kept my mother in law away even once.

Man trust me, when my neighbor got my Mom worried about me being a Satanist after seeing me with my 1e DMG, and Mom asked me "do you worship the Devil?", I had to bite my tongue not to reply with "I don't know, can he teach me to cast magic missile?"

 

[James Gasik]

you are abusing the laws of reality by making dead things get up and walk around. been considered evil since Myth's were created.

THIS is why it's evil.

Sure, but take the Golem. Itself a cautionary tale about making a statue get up and walk around, quickly becoming uncontrollable (or for a more light-hearted take, The Sorcerer's Apprentice), but nobody says Animate Objects is an evil spell!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure, but take the Golem. Itself a cautionary tale about making a statue get up and walk around, quickly becoming uncontrollable (or for a more light-hearted take, The Sorcerer's Apprentice), but nobody says Animate Objects is an evil spell!

No, but perhaps it is considered unwise. We've all seen the Magician's Apprentice.

 

[James Gasik]

No, but perhaps it is considered unwise. We've all seen the Magician's Apprentice.

I don't have a problem with a culture deciding necromancy is wrong. Or right. And if the default D&D society says "man, I don't like no dead things walking around", that's cool.

It's when the rules themselves say, "this particular thing is bad, but other things that are effectively the same are ok!". Like some evil druid randomly granting sentience to a vicious predator- that's a horror movie waiting to happen! But are Druid spells evil? Naw, just annoying Neutral.

And really, this is the messed up part. On the one hand, WotC is saying "necromancy is bad", but then goes on to make the School of Necromancy a subclass option in the PHB (but consigning Cleric necromancers to the DMG)! Yeah, that's consistent.

 

[nevin]

Sure, but take the Golem. Itself a cautionary tale about making a statue get up and walk around, quickly becoming uncontrollable (or for a more light-hearted take, The Sorcerer's Apprentice), but nobody says Animate Objects is an evil spell!

the golem is a mythical construct from jewish lore and it contains a spirit that animates the body and is permitted by god or at least by a loophole in the divine laws. body doesn't decompose, is intelligent and can act with intention. Quite a bit different than calling up rotting corpses and even if they are freshly dead they are rotting, just in the early states. Animate object being compared to animating Aunt Gertrudes body to scare off intruders doesn't even make sense. Messing with Dead bodies, with the exception of killing animals for food has been considered evil by most cultures for hundreds of thousand's of years. If your DM want's to play it as not evil fine but it's perfectly normal in nearly every culture on earth to consider that evil. Certain people's attempt to pretend otherwise is quite strange. And dislike of being told to follow cultural norms doesn't change anything about how the majority are going to precieve it.

 

[James Gasik]

the golem is a mythical construct from jewish lore and it contains a spirit that animates the body and is permitted by god or at least by a loophole in the divine laws. body doesn't decompose, is intelligent and can act with intention. Quite a bit different than calling up rotting corpses and even if they are freshly dead they are rotting, just in the early states. Animate object being compared to animating Aunt Gertrudes body to scare off intruders doesn't even make sense. Messing with Dead bodies, with the exception of killing animals for food has been considered evil by most cultures for hundreds of thousand's of years. If your DM want's to play it as not evil fine but it's perfectly normal in nearly every culture on earth to consider that evil. Certain people's attempt to pretend otherwise is quite strange. And dislike of being told to follow cultural norms doesn't change anything about how the majority are going to precieve it.

Ok, that's certainly true in our world. But D&D worlds aren't our world. For one thing, magic is real and can be quite common. And rather than being aloof, D&D Gods are actively granting miracles by the truckload to their priests.

The idea that all D&D societies would evolve the same way as they did on our earth is a bit ludicrous on it's face. And even if they did, there are lots of evil actions societies will turn a blind eye to if there's a need, like slavery or child labor.

My objection, by the way, isn't that animating the dead is something a society objects to- that's perfectly fine. It's that the game itself says "on a metaphysical level, this thing is evil, while other, equally objectional things are not metaphysically evil".

Like, say, Dominate Person.