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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keith" data-source="post: 808087" data-attributes="member: 10752">Interesting topic!  One notion that seems to crop up a few times is the one of life essence being “trapped” in skeletons or zombies, which I think is missing the time scale of creating these creatures.  In both cases, but most overtly in the case of a skeleton, the creation process occurs well after the individual has died, and whatever occurs after death in the campaign setting has occurred.    The notion that a run-of-the-mill evil spell could be used to animate the corpse of a major hero, and in so doing draw their life force, or any part of it, back from the afterlife and trap it in a mere skeleton…well, absolutely does not work for me.  I wonder what other people think of that scenario?For me skeletons and zombies are animated objects with no portion of the people who have gone to whatever rest they get in their world.  The alternative seems like too much of a breech of the fundamental function of life and death, particularly when you may have real, existing gods actively involved with that function.   While it makes perfect sense for skeletons/zombies/similar creatures that get created to have the qualities listed under “undead”, to me they are little different from a chair animated to attack.Another twist on this topic:  the Lich is not undead, I think.  While the process of becoming a Lich is described as evil, I don’t recall any mention of death.  Thus, a living 11th level spellcaster transforms, personality and skills intact, into a Lich.  Lich is a prestige class for evil spellcasters, not a type of undead!  The description does say, I believe, that the Lich “extends their life”.  That is not the same as dying and coming back as undead, to me.  Bit of devil’s advocacy here, but I do think I have a point.Finally, why IS becoming a Lich evil?  Why don’t good casters create a process that extends their lives but is not evil?!  I think the answer to this is that this issue, extending life-spans, should be a major concern with spellcasting, but has been totally fumbled in D&D.  Magic is approached from a combat perspective, not from what you could call a medical one.  The cure spells are there, but where are the anti-aging and disease prevention spells?    I’m wandering off topic, though.  The topic at hand is enough to handle at once.Cheers</blockquote>

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