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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Saeviomagy" data-source="post: 809187" data-attributes="member: 5890">From the description of the spell "speak with dead", it's quite clear that SOMETHING stays in the body that contains the sum total of everything it knows, along with some modicum of it's personality. The spell very specifically states that the soul of those spoken with is not contacted in any way.However it also says that the body, which is containing 'imprinted' knowledge, cannot learn.To me, this would suggest that skeletons etc are something simpler than this - they are merely motive force, nothing more. Otherwise one would expect that they would have personality, and the ability to think (which they do not, with an int of -). Also, it shows that animation of a corpse is perfectly possible without it being [evil], and in addition, it's possible to do without disturbing the soul.Furthermore, it suggests that intelligent undead (and creatures which are possessed) should retain all the knowledge from their previous life, unless this 'imprinted knowledge' is somehow destroyed.Finally, it would suggest that an undead would not be able to learn new things unless it were inhabited by something which is capable of learning.Personally, I think that the [evil] descriptor on animate dead (along with the fact that evil priests command undead and channel negative energy) is eithera) Purely cultural.b) Purely game-balance.In other words the descriptors should not be there. An evil cleric should be capable of being positively aligned, and vice versa, and the only real restrictions should be whether your god and culture supports this. Animating unintelligent dead creatures may well be distasteful or taboo to certain cultures, but I can't see why it should be a broad-band 'evil' act. In fact, I believe planescape presents a culture in which the animation of your corpse after death is a right which can be traded, and only a minimal stigma applies to that.</blockquote>

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