Cap'n Kobold
Hero
I'd say that we have pretty similar views.I sorta of cringe reflexively when I read statements like this. I would like to think a RPG is a collaboration between players and DMs.
Write a short story if you want to control everything.
In the example I gave, a player of non- evil Necromancer wizard asks if they could develop a variant of Animate Dead, that made neutral undead, that become inert corpses at the end of the spell.
Unless a DM is really wedded to a campaign premise that All Necromancer’s are Evil, what harm happens when a DM tries to allow a player’s character concept to fruition?
If I am asking a player to commit to playing a character, for potentially years, then I as a DM should be wilying to be flexible, in terms of accommodation.
This applies to even Tortles. I don’t like them, but if a player really wanted to play one, I would let them.
I’m not saying a DM, does not have Final Say, but the game is not solely the DM’s.
My view. Others don’t share it, which is fine.
A player should feel free to ask the DM if they want a change from the default made in the world, and the DM should work with them and try to accommodate that. But the DM has final say.
For example, in my Eberron game, making a unilateral change to the spell would significantly change the power dynamics of the base setting. To accommodate the player I would probably make this new way of animating dead something that only they can do, through special blessing or similar.
Alternatively they will have discovered a new spell: a breakthrough in magical theory, the equivalent of discovering cold fusion in our world. - With all of the outside interest that that would imply.
I've suggested possible reasons, but I can't know what the actual reasoning was, because it was a decision by the game designers and I'm not them.You aren't helping me understand. I know what the book says.
What no one seems to be able to do, is give a reason for that. It just is what it is and that is what it is. Even though RAW is contradictory, this one portion declaring evil must be true, even when it seems like it shouldn't be.
You rose to their defense, why can't you answer it? Surely they had to have a reason for the contradictions and the declaration of evil.
They sometimes respond to twitter or suchlike I think. If you want to know their reasoning, you could ask.
Then I would encourage you to run with that in your games, and either outright change the rules, or just ignore the bits that don't make sense to you.But if you don't want to discuss it, then don't discuss it. But since even RAW seems to have holes in it to allow for interpretation, I don't think I need to back down from my position that there seems to be more than one way to animate dead, and that those other ways are not evil by default.
"As a member of the peace council, you have access to the knowledge and authority to create chemical weapons that will kill a city. If we didn't trust you not to abuse that power, we would not have elected you."Equivalent analogy:
Here, as a member of a Peace Council I am going to give you a chemical weapon that will kill a city. But, I trust you to be responsible with it.
That makes no sense. If they do not approve of the use of that power, that power which Flamestrike says must be evil power (Dark and Sinister, remember) which is unlike all of their other magic, then why are they gifting it to their most devout followers? Because they trust them not to use the power they gave them? That is nonsensical.
Feel free to complain about the way the cleric spell list is set up, with a generic list that all clerics have access to and only a small selection of spells tailored to the domain the deity represents. I'm not unsympathetic and have already mentioned other ways in which it might not feel ideal.
If you have issues with the way the spell lists were set up, again, the game designers are the people to talk to. If you want to tell them why their system makes no sense, go for it. Just do it politely.
If you want to change the stats of the spore zombie to make more sense to you, I'd encourage you to do so. Or even with the normal zombies. Go for it.Especially considering how I continually have shown that the evil murder spirit summoned by dark and sinister magic is not the only RAW, if we can use the Zombie statblock and change it to neutral in one case, then we can use it and change it in another case. So, no matter what the MM says, it cannot be definitive for the spell, because the spell does not agree with the MM on what is going on.