Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whimsical" data-source="post: 2446117" data-attributes="member: 3976">There's another aspect of the [evil] of animating dead boides: disrespecting the creation of person's god.  Fantasy creation stories tend to have the creator god forge or mold the original human/elf/dwarf/etc. Subsequently, these races owe their existence to their creator, and their bodies are sacred constructs that belong to their god. So, animating bodies created by gods is sacrelage.This isn't canon, but it can help those DMs or players who want to have a concrete reason why animating the dead is evil.Of course, you as the DM can just say "No, it isn't" as JimAde says and *poof* animating the dead is not evil. Or it's not evil if you have the permission of the bodies' ex-occupant. This doesn't require a magical contract; a normal will should do. Also, having a challenger cast speak with dead on the corpse can get satisfactory verification.As a DM, you can go even further than this and have your fantasy society reflect this new status of undead. Where the rich can extend their lives indefinately, the poor can lease or sell the bodies of their deceased kin for grunt work, and the ones in between use them in their own enterprises (having grandpa's body pull a plow through the field instead of a mule). Where it is common for eveyone to keep the heads of their deceased ancestors in a safe place to chat with or ask important questions using speak with dead. Where there are good deities with the undead portfollio. Where an industrial revolution is taking place which uses animated body parts (arms, legs) to power machines and automate assembly lines.I ran a Lawful Good necromancer in 2nd ed and she never animated dead (which, by the way, did state was an evil act to use at the end of the spell description.) There were a lot of nonevil necromantic spells in the Complete Wizards Handbook and I simply used those along with the regular wizard spells.</blockquote>

Verification