D&D 5E Why is animate dead considered inherently evil?

[Tolerable Tyrant]

I'm having a troublesome time understanding why the animate dead spell is considered evil. When I read the manual it states that the spall imbues the targeted corpse with a foul mimicry of life, implying that the soul is not a sentient being who is trapped in a decaying corpse. Rather, the spell does exactly what its title suggests, it only animates the corps. Now of course one could use the spell to create zombies that would hunt and kill humans, but by that same coin, they could create a labor force that needs no form of sustenance (other than for the spell to be recast of course). There have also been those who have said "the spell is associated with the negative realm which is evil", however when you ask someone why the negative realm is bad that will say "because it is used for necromancy", I'm sure you can see the fallacy in this argument.

However, I must take into account that I have only looked into the DnD magic system since yesterday so there are likely large gaps in my knowledge. PS(Apon further reflection I've decided that the animate dead spell doesn't fall into the school of necromancy, as life is not truly given to the corps, instead I believe this would most likely fall into the school of transmutation.) PPS(I apologize for my sloppy writing, I've decided I'm feeling too lazy to correct it.)

 

[James Gasik]

Oh I didn't mean to imply it was the monster's fault- just pointing out that Victor had deluded himself into thinking he was the good guy.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Somewhere I had some paper thinking about the various kinds of undead.

There were the shamblers (skeletons and zombies). They might be the restless dead of the evil swamp or the cursed battlefield, or just a youthful necromancer exercising their power. Not necessarily evil, but perhaps creepy or sinister.

There are the needful, ghosts, spiritual remains with unfinished business. Frightening, but not necessarily evil. Helping them resolve whatever ties them to the world may cause them to lead you to a buried treasure as their last act. Or quicksand, hard to say. They either don't have free will, or it is highly constrained. Never directly "made" like other undead could be.

The eaters, ghouls and vampires, have an amount of free will and can be intelligent. The more often they eat the more civilized they can act and human they seem. But if starved they become feral. Evil, but can be bargained with in the right circumstances.

The wrathful, wights, wraiths, sahu, &c., that were either made by malevolent forces, cursed due to their own malevolence, or sadly perished at the hands of malevolence and are pretty unhappy about it. Can't really be bargained with, but are sometimes forced into servitude.

Liches are their own deal, although similar to the needful. They have a driving need to know or survive to the point where they would transgress nearly any boundary to ensure their own survival. I've always considered them evil to the core, but after some long centuries they are overcome by ennui and apathy. They sit, their thoughts coming ever slower, until they crumble from entropy. This is actually rather tragic, for their soul jar prevents their soul from passing on to the Long Road.

 

[James Gasik]

You know, back in 1e and 2e, Mummies were stated to draw their power from the positive material plane, not the negative. Though most were still evil. Not sure if this was some backhanded reference to Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife or what.

 

[Maxperson]

100%, his ruling about See Invisibility is quite silly. I actually go the opposite direction. You can see them so clearly you might not even know they are invisible to other people unless something clues you off. I mean, if you're casting the spell you are obviously suspecting it, but I have had a few funny scenes with a player not immediately realizing it.

Yeah. That's how I run it as well. And I also have had some instances like that.

 

[Maxperson]

Ah, I see, I get the trope. And it could be cool if done very, very sparingly. Though I think it still should mostly be narrative thing and not have the character to be mechanically stunned in midst of action or something like that.

The only way I'd do that is if the were casting it on a true god. Not an avatar. The god. Those few times a party has met one over the decades, nobody bothered, because it was a GOD. There were other "clues."

 

[Maxperson]

You and me both, Crimson Longinus. Unfortunately, lol, I've had that happen. A lot.

Oh hey we were talking about Animate Dead, weren't we? Ghosts and Baelnorns. We know they can be good. The question is, how? If the force that animates even lowly zombies makes them evil, and let's be honest, most undead are, what makes these guys outliers?

They might know a secret ritual that allows it via positive(radiant) energy.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

There's the problem, if true. Undeath (in most or nearly all cultures) is inherently evil to some degree, as is the act of messing with corpses beyond funerary preparations and-or what the corpse's previous owner requested. So even if the system had some undead in fact be mindless automatons a la 1e skeletons, the act of creating them as undead at all is still icky.

So if there's bad writing involved, it's rearing its head through trying to deny the above.

Icky is not evil. Those are just cultural taboos. Not to mention that perhaps the person willingly donated their corpse to necromancy. If you really want some sort of universals morals, then it is better to be just some very broad general principles in manner of "harming other sapient creatures should be avoided" rather than cultural taboos like what foods one can eat, how corpses should be disposed of or who can marry whom.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Icky is not evil.

To be fair, icky = evil was 60% of the entire premise of the Book of Vile Darkness. Evil includes: Bugs, cancer, being too fat, being too skinny, body modification, and BDSM.

 

[James Gasik]

It's a fairly simplistic view of evil, but D&D has always been kind of black and white. The good guys are shining paragons of virtue, the bad guys are vile and depraved, and the PC's are wandering ne'er-do-wells who only do anything if it benefits them.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It's a fairly simplistic view of evil, but D&D has always been kind of black and white. The good guys are shining paragons of virtue, the bad guys are vile and depraved, and the PC's are wandering ne'er-do-wells who only do anything if it benefits them.

Which makes it all the more confusing that it pretends Good And Evil are important.