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.)

 

[Jer]

Why would the creation of Chaotic Evil ghouls with the Create Undead spell and the creation of Neutral Evil zombies and Lawful Evil skeletons with the animate dead spell ever be anything but evil? You are deliberately adding evil to the world.

Alignments in the Monster Manual are only defaults - they aren't absolutes. By the RAW there's nothing saying that all zombies are Neutral Evil or all Ghouls are Chaotic Evil or all skeletons are Lawful Evil. A neutral or good caster could be creating Neutral undead or even Good undead. Those are campaign assumptions not baked into the game.

 

[Voadam]

anyone remember the prestige class from 3e from Complete Mage I think it was that was all about summoning demons and making them do good things cause like screw them? That was a great prestige class.

Fiendbinders from Tome of Magic? A truenamer prestige class about bending hostile demons to your will.

 

[Charlaquin]

5e does say this, though.

"Creating the undead through the use of necromancy spells such as animate dead is not a good act, and only evil casters
use such spells frequently."

Ehh… I don’t think that’s at all the same thing as saying it’s inherently evil.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Fiendbinders from Tome of Magic? A truenamer prestige class about bending hostile demons to your will.

Naw, the one I am referring to specifically was for non evil casters

 

[Cadence]

Have you checked out Amonkhet for MtG? They had worker undead (that were white mana instead of the usual black mana).

 

[Maxperson]

Alignments in the Monster Manual are only defaults - they aren't absolutes. By the RAW there's nothing saying that all zombies are Neutral Evil or all Ghouls are Chaotic Evil or all skeletons are Lawful Evil. A neutral or good caster could be creating Neutral undead or even Good undead. Those are campaign assumptions not baked into the game.

Sure. You can home brew everything to be different in your game. Discussions like these, though, are generally about the defaults.

 

[Jer]

Sure. You can home brew everything to be different in your game. Discussions like these, though, are generally about the defaults.

That's not homebrew though - that's rules as written. Homebrew is saying that the default alignments for monsters are the only alignments they can have

 

[Voadam]

I will say this for about the fifth time. There would be procedures to prevent the skeletons from rebelling in the worst-case scenario. I've covered everything you have said in previous posts. But in summary, the undead wouldn't be big ol skeletons. They would be optimized for work, not battle. Like a bucket with skeletal legs or a pair of arms that pulls on a rope. Before you ask, yes this is possible with the reanimate undead spell.

If you are talking about the 5e animate dead spell it does not seem possible to make a pair of legs for a bucket or a rope pulling arm.

The spell only creates a skeleton or a zombie, the full undead monsters.

I would be interested in what failsafes you think would work to prevent free-willed animated dead from running amok.

The thing that comes to mind is actively putting them in a pit each night and pulling out the ladder so that they are trapped if they become free-willed.

In 5e it seems tougher to set up zombie and skeleton workforces than in prior editions, it takes a continual use of spell slots each day or you get a wandering kill monster.

 

[Weiley31]

I mean, your Necromancer could always be a White/Grey Necromancer. Which is pretty much a Good/Neutral version of a Necromancer. They could only animate dead for a situation that requires it and then cancel it out after. Or perhaps you're a Shadar-Kai. The Raven Queen, IIRC, doesn't mind undead as long as they are Intelligent or being used to achieve a needed purpose.

I always liked the Diablo series take on Necromancers: They only care about maintaining the balance of life and death and would only use their undead to enforce that. They were pretty much hardcore against using the Necromantic arts for evil.

 

[Seramus]

Like a bucket with skeletal legs or a pair of arms that pulls on a rope. Before you ask, yes this is possible with the reanimate undead spell.

A murderous bucket with arms and legs that will try (hilariously) to murder you when inevitable oversights happen.