Is it inherently evil to summon up a demon?

[blackshirt5]

The NPC wizard with the party in my campaign is a former nobleman who found a book in the back of his family's library that detailed the dark path of demonology. Now, the question is this:
Is it inherently evil for him to summon up fiends? He's tried once before(for the purposes of information), and is pondering doing it again(fiends are a fount of knowledge, being theoretically eternal). He refuses to sacrifice souls or anything of that nature, preferring to rely on his own strength of will to bind any fiend he summons, and strength of blade to defeat any that escape his pentacle(although the last time Angcuru helped out on that one).

So, is it?

 

[Voadam]

Summoning spells that summon creatures with the evil descriptor, such as demons, means the spell detects as evil.

is making deals with a devil evil even if the effects are not evil?

Morally, eh.

Supernaturally taint wise, yes.

 

[Rary the Traitor]

Voadam is absolutely right.

Is it inherently evil to summon up a demon?

According to the standard D&D rules, yes.

According to most people's common sense, no.

 

[Endur]

Demon Summoning

A neutral character might not think it was evil.

A good character probably would think it was evil.

After all, the Demon could escape the pentacle, flee the room, and kill an innocent. The Demon doens't have to attack the summoner.

Furthermore, there is a well-known phenomena of demons corrupting their summoners. So even if the summoner isn't evil now, over time the summoner may become evil.

 

[blackshirt5]

If it helps, the world is a very dark and dangerous world, and the wizard takes the stance(and always has taken it) that "The End Justifies the Means".

 

[Tom Cashel]

According to most people's common sense, no.

I'd love to know where you come across information like that.

 

[Grazzt]

Voadam's right. The spell descriptions for such spells (like lesser planar ally, lesser planar binding, etc.) state that "When you use a calling spell that calls an air, chaotic, earth, evil, fire, good, lawful, or water creature, it is a spell of that type."

So, calling a demon (CE) makes the spell (and act) both chaotic and evil.

 

[blackshirt5]

I'm using the Demon Summoning rules from Encyclopaedia Arcane: Demonology, so I'm not sure what the specifics on evil in that one are, as far as the act of summoning.

I know though that you don't need to be evil to become a demonologist.

 

[drnuncheon]

If it helps, the world is a very dark and dangerous world, and the wizard takes the stance(and always has taken it) that "The End Justifies the Means".

That is often the first step to evil. Remember what the road to Hell is proverbially paved with...

J
And no, I don't mean frozen door-to-door salesmen...

 

[kenjib]

I think that it is decisively and irrefutably an evil act. However, it is not damnably so depending on the context. The real threat is that, no matter how good the intentions, a demon's power to pervert and seduce even the most noble aspirations toward the cruellest of deeds should never be underestimated.

I would have the NPC think that it's okay, and the demon would definitely corroborate this, blurring the boundaries of moral behavior in the name of good deeds, all the while convincing the NPC that he's doing the right thing. Eventually the demon would get the NPC to unwittingly commit an act of great evil. At that point, the circle of corruption is complete and the NPC has become addicted and bound to the demon's will. The demon can use that situation (through psychological abuse and blackmail) to force his new servant to do his bidding.

He starts thinking he is doing the right thing, but in the end he is forced to do the wrong thing or suffer grave consequences.