Should undead be allowed to speak?

[Dannyalcatraz]

I voted "Maybe-" as in intelligent undead yes, non-intelligent undead no.

And if your do speak, its always best to roleplay the conversation with the speaking dead after chewing on raw garlic, onion, and some good, old-fashioned foot-cheese (like limburger or a strong blue).

Nothing says "undead" like halitosis!

"Whooooooooo dares addresssssss Haaaaarnak the Aaaaaaaaarcanon?"

 

[fafhrd]

Awaken undead has a duration of "permanent" so watch out for dispel magic! (I think it should be instantaneous, like awaken).

Per the Spell Compendium, Awaken Undead now has a duration of instantaneous.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

A lich or a deathknight can certainly speak, and they have skeletal apearances. An awakened skeleton ought to be able to speak, too. After all, they are held together entirely by the magic that animates them, why shouldn't it extend to speech?

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=97

 

[Kisanji Arael]

The Last Unicorn says yes.

Vote YES on Skeleton Speak for the Lady Amalthea!

Now give me the wine....

 

[mvincent]

Vegan Zombie: GRAAAAINS!

 

[Steve Jung]

Maybe he's saying that they can't walk and talk at the same time. Awakened undead should be able to speak.

 

[BWP]

So, can mindless undead, because they have no organs such as a tongue or lungs, not speak despite being awakened by the Awaken Undead spell from CA?

I selected "other" because, well, you're asking a whole bunch of different questions here.

Should mindless undead be allowed to speak? No, because they're mindless.

However, based on the summary of the spell that you've used, the undead actually has a small amount of INT -- more than 2, which means it fulfils the D&D definition of "sentience". So the undead you're describing isn't "mindless" at all, and should certainly be allowed to speak, unless there's some specific reason why it can't (which is a different matter altogether). The DM is within his rights to rule that this particular type of undead can't speak, but hopefully he'd have a good game reason for it, rather than just through some desire to annoy you.

 

[Sejs]

Should mindless undead be allowed to speak? No, because they're mindless.

Mmnrrrrrrnnnnnnnngg....nnnnrrrrrrnnngggg...

 

[Nail]

Vegan Zombie: GRAAAAINS!

Too funny.

Spoiler

(Why do I hear my sister-in-law's voice when I read that?)

 

[lukelightning]

I'm changing my mind from YES to MAYBE.

The DM may have decided that for metaphysical/magic reasons, awakened undead still cannot speak. The in-game Laws of Magic are not known to us real-world folks.

Perhaps there is a Law of Magic in the universe that states "The Silence of The Grave Cannot Be Broken" meaning that it is impossible to enable a skeleton/zombie to speak.

Perhaps one must have a soul to speak. You can say that mindless undead have no souls, just an animate force of negative energy directed by residual instinct, while more advanced undead (those that are regularly intelligent) have souls. The awaken undead does not give the undead a soul or call its soul to the corpse (as it regains no former abilities), it just instills a higher capacity for reasoning within the remains.

Regardless, your DM should have informed you about this before you bought all those command word items.

On an aside: In my campaign there are two souls...the soul of the spirit, which is what we regularly think of as a soul that departs after death, has a personality and alignment, etc., and the soul of the body, which stays with body even after death and this is what is used to create most non-templated undead; this explains why a ghoul has none of its abilities or memories from its previous life.