Is necromancy evil or only as harmless as talking to your dead grandmother?

[Set]

I'd definitely be more worried at hearing some guy is an specialist in the Roofie School than hearing they're a necromancer.

Word. At least, with the necromancer, I won't be there any longer when they start messing with my body!

 

[Krius Aerion]

If my memory recalls all forms of healing magics used to be necromancy as necromancy itself is defined as Magics dealing in Life Force. It was only recently that healing was separated to conjuration.

I firmly believe that, like all schools of magic, it's not innately evil. Sure it gets a bad wrap and you can do pretty terrible things with it that doesn't mean that it is absolutely evil without exception. Every school of magic has it's bad spells. Necromancy just gets a bad wrap because it tends to be easier to apply to evil deeds.

I once played a Lawful Good Necromancer that used the bodies of his foes that committed evil acts to raise them and crusade in the name of good to redeem their souls in death.

 

[Nifft]

Word. At least, with the necromancer, I won't be there any longer when they start messing with my body!

I could cast Magic Jar and make you watch.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Lanefan]

Imagine a fight breaks out in your favorite bar. Which would you rather the drunken hooligans be throwing at each other?
- Hold Person / Deep Slumber
- Ray of Exhaustion / Vampiric Touch
- Fireball / Lightning Bolt

If they're that drunk, then regardless of spell school all they're going to be throwing at each other is wild magic surges!

Speak With Dead.

Whoever said "dead men tell no tales" never met this spell.

Lanefan

 

[Cadfan]

Necromancy isn't inherently good or evil because, even if inherent good or evil even exist or make sense as concepts, or even if inherent good or evil even exist or make sense as concepts in D&D, "necromancy" isn't real. So you can change its attributes as you like.

 

[Arkhandus]

1. I think necromancy in itself is evil, since it disturbs the peace of the dead, enslaves a soul, takes him from his proper realm or destination, and tampers with the right order of life and death. What say you, gentle reader?

2. I can see that many modern minds cringe at the self-righteous fanaticism of our ancestors who hunted witches and waged crusades against Moors and Saracens. But in a pseudo-mediaeval world where cosmic evil, inherently evil monsters and demons do exist, I would not say that a crusading mentality like that of the Silver Flame is inherently evil in terms of cosmological or moral alignment.
What say you, fellow roleplayer?

1. Necromancy just means "speaking with the dead." And before 3rd Edition, as far as I know, D&D included healing spells and resurrection spells and such as part of the Necromancy school of magic. Even in 3rd Edition, a few positive energy spells like Gentle Repose and Disrupt Undead belong to the Necromancy school, along with various others that do not animate or control undead. I do not think most Necromancy spells and effects are evil in nature. Only those that make undead and perhaps those that slay the living, among a few other things. Most Necromancies don't actually disturb the dead (heck, even the Divination spell Speak With Dead only contacts a sort of mental or spiritual imprint on the skull of a dead creature, not the actual soul itself in the Outer Planes or what-have-you).

Now, whether or not spells like Raise Dead or Resurrection are evil depends on your view of the natural order and how it pertains to the game setting. Generally they're not evil (they may, in some sense or some settings, be Chaotic effects in that they defy or interfere with the natural cycles of life and death, but not evil). Animate Dead or Create Undead would, of course, be evil; those kinds of Necromancies actually do entrap the soul of the deceased (preventing them from being Raised or Resurrected) and desecrate their corpses or spirits.

Controlling the undead is morally gray.......freeing them of their undead state and returning their souls to the Outer Planes or nature or whatever would be Good, but using spells like Command Undead isn't necessarily evil, especially if they're used for good purposes. Still never a Good act, but not necessarily Evil either. Sometimes it could be evil, and probably is most of the time.

2. Agreed on the Silver Flame and such. Though they did go too far at some points in Eberron's setting-history, the Silver Flame and most of its followers are not evil. Some are definitely neutral, but others are good and few are likely to be evil.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'd definitely be more worried at hearing some guy is an specialist in the Roofie School than hearing they're a necromancer.

Hah! Roofiemancers!

I bet they prefer to have Toad familiars, too.