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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6272473" data-attributes="member: 58197">Why doesn't the same theory apply to the PC necromancer animating someone?Why not? D&amp;D characters are loaded down with abilities which it is evil to use indiscriminately, but acceptable to use on a deserving target. As things stand, animate dead is no different from the paladin's sword in this regard. So why is it that animate dead is called out as something which makes you evil if you use it frequently--regardless of who and what you use it on?What necromancers have &quot;traditionally&quot; done is not the issue. Let's consider a PC necromancer, of good alignment, who wants to make a habit of animating the corpses of evil foes and using them to help battle evil. Right now, according to the rules, this is not allowed. Frequent use of animate dead means you are Evil, full stop, no matter what. Why?I do think there should be a reason in-game why frequent use of animate dead pulls you toward the dark side, more than equally frequent use of swords and fireballs. I outlined one approach a few pages back: Undead are spiritually linked to the powers of the Abyss, so every undead you create gives those powers more influence in the living world (and over you!). KM's suggestion of damage to the subject's soul is another possibility. At this moment, however, the rules offer no such reason.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 6272473, member: 58197"] Why doesn't the same theory apply to the PC necromancer [I]animating[/I] someone? Why not? D&D characters are loaded down with abilities which it is evil to use indiscriminately, but acceptable to use on a deserving target. As things stand, [I]animate dead[/I] is no different from the paladin's sword in this regard. So why is it that [I]animate dead[/I] is called out as something which makes you evil if you use it frequently--regardless of who and what you use it on? What necromancers have "traditionally" done is not the issue. Let's consider a PC necromancer, of good alignment, who wants to make a habit of animating the corpses of evil foes and using them to help battle evil. Right now, according to the rules, this is not allowed. Frequent use of [I]animate dead[/I] means you are Evil, full stop, no matter what. Why? I do think there should be a reason in-game why frequent use of [I]animate dead[/I] pulls you toward the dark side, more than equally frequent use of swords and [I]fireballs[/I]. I outlined one approach a few pages back: Undead are spiritually linked to the powers of the Abyss, so every undead you create gives those powers more influence in the living world (and over you!). KM's suggestion of damage to the subject's soul is another possibility. At this moment, however, the rules offer no such reason. [/QUOTE]

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