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<blockquote data-quote="Jeff Wilder" data-source="post: 3105934" data-attributes="member: 5122">In fact, this was the case in every edition of the game up to, but not including 3.5, and the change, unfortunately, was partially my fault.&nbsp; (Well, maybe not, but I suspect so very strongly.)Up through and including 2E, mindless undead were, in fact, Neutral, exactly like animals and for pretty much exactly the same reason.In 3.0, undead were aligned &quot;Neutral,&quot; but the very, very poorly constructed text and table of detect evil could be read to apply to all Undead.&nbsp; (It didn't have to be read as such, but most people did.)&nbsp; So undead, whatever the alignment, had an &quot;evil aura.&quot;&nbsp; I got into a massive argument about this, in fact, and lost a $500 bet over it (long story).&nbsp; My back and forth with Wizards was long and extensive, which is why I think I was at least partially responsible for the change in 3.5, in which mindless undead became Neutral Evil.Note that even assuming the designers intended undead to radiate evil (which I personally doubt) and Wizards wanted the same thing (for whatever reason), mucking about with alignment (with its incredibly important component of &quot;intent&quot;) wasn't the way to do it.&nbsp; All they had to do was change it so that all undead have the [Evil] tag, like most evil outsiders.&nbsp; (There should probably also be a &quot;N/A&quot; entry available for alignment, but that's a different discussion.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeff Wilder, post: 3105934, member: 5122"] In fact, this was the case in every edition of the game up to, but not including 3.5, and the change, unfortunately, was partially my fault. (Well, maybe not, but I suspect so very strongly.) Up through and including 2E, mindless undead were, in fact, Neutral, exactly like animals and for pretty much exactly the same reason. In 3.0, undead were aligned "Neutral," but the very, very poorly constructed text and table of [i]detect evil[/i] could be read to apply to all Undead. (It didn't have to be read as such, but most people did.) So undead, whatever the alignment, had an "evil aura." I got into a massive argument about this, in fact, and lost a $500 bet over it (long story). My back and forth with Wizards was long and extensive, which is why I think I was at least partially responsible for the change in 3.5, in which mindless undead became Neutral Evil. Note that even assuming the designers intended undead to radiate evil (which I personally doubt) and Wizards wanted the same thing (for whatever reason), mucking about with alignment (with its incredibly important component of "intent") wasn't the way to do it. All they had to do was change it so that all undead have the [Evil] tag, like most evil outsiders. (There should probably also be a "N/A" entry available for alignment, but that's a different discussion.) [/QUOTE]

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