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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 807150" data-attributes="member: 8461">If you're looking for a hard-and-fast rule here, D&D rules aren't going to provide you with much. This sort of thing tends to be nebulous enough that it's a "DM's perogative" answer.That said, 2E did have some answers to this. In 2E, characters who became sentient undead did not have their souls go on to the Outer Planes. No petitioner forms on the plane of their alignment or domain of their god, and their memory core doesn't go to the Astral Plane. It was hinted at, though never outrightly said, that destroying undead sent them to oblivion, soul and all. There was no repository of "undead who are no more". It was also vaguely noted that undead don't keep their souls however, and negative energy now resides where the soul once was. The presumption here was that an undead's soul has been destroyed (or is somehow trapped in the undead shell, since they could still be resurrected).As to whether those who become skeletons or zombies have no soul pass on...that's slightly more difficult to adjudicate. 2E had no answer there. I personally would say no, mindless undeads' souls do not pass on. The spells that make them undead trap the soul in their rotting corpse, though I'd rule this for the sake of mere simplicity, and because even mindless undead can be granted sentience.Note that vampires and liches retain more than "basic thought patterns and memories". These creatures retain all their intelligence and memories of their old lives. Ghouls and wights and such are the ones that only seem "semi-sentient". Also, its pretty well understood that an undead is the same person it was when alive...just with a warped personality.EDIT: I recommend you pic up Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead, a 3E Ravenloft product that can be used in any setting. It has some great flavor text on the nature of undead, specifically lesser corporeal undead, along with a great variety of new powers and such.</blockquote>

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