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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6271411" data-attributes="member: 58197">IMO, they should either provide a clear reason for the "evil" tag on animate dead and apply it consistently, or remove it and let individual DMs sort it out for their own campaigns. Either would be acceptable to me, but my preference is for the former (probably in an optional sidebar rather than the main text of the spell).I'm a traditionalist when it comes to making undead horrors. If undead are indeed mere mindless automatons, then the logical consequence of animate dead on a large scale is a utopian society where most physical labor is done by skeletons. Even with limits on how many undead a given spellcaster can animate, you'd still see them show up just as much on the side of Good as of Evil. And considering the diversity of funeral customs among humans in reality, I find it highly implausible that "respect for the dead" would be enough to prevent such things.I don't like the world that results from this. When the party meets undead, I want that to be a clear sign that Bad Stuff is going down; if PCs are making undead of their own, they are walking a dark road. However, it's not enough to just say "Casting animate dead is bad, mmmkay?" There needs to be some kind of explanation of how and why it's bad. My go-to explanation is that every undead creature represents a link between the material plane and some dark power; Orcus in the default cosmology. Orcus can see through their eyes and reach out through them to influence the living world. A large number of undead in one place will spread an abyssal blight upon the land simply by the fact of their presence. Given time, they might even create a rift to the Abyss itself. Mindless undead not under the direct control of a master will respond to Orcus's malevolent will, seeking to destroy the living. And living wizards who maintain a mental link to undead servants will start to hear Orcus whispering in their dreams.There are a number of other explanations that could work, but this is the one I find most appealing. It does not preclude the use of necromancy by Good-aligned spellcasters--you might decide that for this one task, it's worth the risk. But it's always a dangerous bargain.(As for the "desecrating corpses is bad" argument--really? It's perfectly okay to kill an enemy, it's perfectly okay to loot the enemy's body, but if you make the body get up and shuffle around, that's beyond the pale? Sorry, not buying it.)</blockquote>

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