Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 1754635" data-attributes="member: 5143">Deathless from BoED and Eberron.  They are essentially undead powered by positive energy instead of negative energy.  They are always good.  Also, I have yet to see one that was mindless either.  They are what you are looking for if you want a more "this person has been granted eternal life by their deity in order to protect this holy site" type creature.  The description from the BoED on them is, I believe, better than the one in the Eberron book.By the way, this is more evidence of the whole positive energy=good, negative energy=evil thing.Actually, I think the problem is that you are starting with a concept and wondering why the rules don't support it.  What you should be wondering is the other way around, what concept do the rules support?By the RAW, undead are all evil, they are powered by negative energy.  Casting an Animiate Dead spell is evil.  Evil clerics cannot channel positive energy, good clerics cannot channel negative.  Deathless are powered by positive energy and are always good.  Holy water harms evil outsiders and is powered by positive energy.  Positive energy turns evil undead, and heals the living.  Poison is evil according to the BoED.  The alignment section says that morals and alignment are NOT subjective (something doesn't stop being evil because you believe that it is just like something else).My conclusion from this information is that some acts are evil BECAUSE they are evil.  Whether it is the gods, some uber-god above the rest of them, some will of the universe itself, or Bob, the guy down the street, someone decided "these things are evil, these things are good."  Now, you could wonder who the creature or beings are that created these rules and wonder about their motivations.  Maybe that's what this thread is about...I'm not really sure at this point.It is possible to say "Well, in my opinion, negative energy is not evil and therefore it should not be an evil act to channel it."  Great!  Then change Animate Dead to a non-evil spell in your game.  However, if you want to know WHY it is evil in D&D in the RAW, then it is this simple:D&D is based on certain cultural beliefs as to what is right or wrong.  These beliefs are in the game because a lot of them are typical fantasy elements in books and stories.  Unless I'm wrong and the necromancer walking around helping people with his army of helpful undead has become a common literary device.  These cultural beliefs about what are right and wrong foster a certain setting and theme.  A number of the D&D rules have these setting elements built into them.  If you don't like these elements, that's fine, it's easy to remove them.Basically, the reason seems to be that negative energy (or just the undead themselves) are evil for one reason or another.  You have yet to prove that negative energy is JUST an energy like fire.  Besides, if it is...why doesn't it burn people?  Oh wait, that's because it's not fire.  Why isn't it wet?  Because it isn't water.  Why isn't fire evil?  Because it's not negative energy.Majoru Oakheart</blockquote>

Verification