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Message: <blockquote data-quote="robertliguori" data-source="post: 4281931" data-attributes="member: 47776">It declares that certain spells use moral energies, just like other spells use elemental energies.Let us consider the hypothesis that we can determine the morality of casting a spell based on its descriptors as opposed to its effects and circumstances.  Let us consider casting Holy Word in an orphanage.  Were we to do so, all non-Good babies and children in the vicinity (which, given that children are under the age of accountability and would probably come to a bad spiritual end were Zaphkiel not looking out for them) would die horribly.  One might suggest that the practical action of murdering a bunch of babies would outweigh the moral potential of the spell used to do so; however, in so doing, we contradict our initial premise.  So, to sum up, if Animate Dead is evil, full-stop, Holy Word is good, also full-stop.This means that either the alignment descriptor of spells does not determine the morality of actually casting them, or the alignment descriptor does describe the morality thereof, and what we call morality doesn't exist in D&D universes, having been replaced with the color of a football jersey and a preference for membranous versus feathery wings.</blockquote>