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.)

 

[Crimson Longinus]

In the game world I run, [rape, murder, torture, inflicting harm on others when not reasonably necessary in self defence or the defence of others and in a proportionate manner, selling or destroying a soul, necromancy etc]

Notice how necromancy is not like the others. All others directly harm other people, necromancy doesn't.

are evil acts. [Altruism, kindness, self sacrifice, charity and mercy] are good acts.

Altruism and kindness, like in using animate dead to save people? Self sacrifice like risking your immortal soul in order to help others with your necromancy?

 

[Mort]

Have you met a tiger? I know we humans like to pretend moral superiority over all other animals, but if we're going to pretend evil exists, tigers are cats, man.

I have an acquaintance who breads Bengal cats, which means she keeps servals at her cat farm. One of the servals got mad that she (my acquaintance) was paying too much attention to another serval, and with one swipe broke her (acquaintance's) nose. Servals are decent size but weight only about 10% of the average tiger. I'd hate to see what a jealous tiger would have done!

And that's the point, sure animate dead provides for control, but control can go away - and then a mean, evil serial killer is released of the leash!

Can a see a society (or even just group) that uses the undead and has all sorts of safeguards in place to ensure the undead stay controlled? Sure, could be very interesting. But I'll bet rule #1 in that society is control your undead at all times, failure to do so is on you and punishable accordingly. And even then, if it were standard issue undead, I'd still have trouble seeing the group as "good."

 

[Maxperson]

Do you know what also directly harms people? Hitting them with a longsword! Longswords are evil, man! If you have ever rolled an attack roll, you're evil!

Show me a normal longsword that lusts after murdering the living and will do so by itself.

 

[Maxperson]

So in this thread we learn that longswords and fireballs are inherently evil. Cool.

And that people will twist what people are saying in order to be "right."

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Okay, let's see. Here's 10 (I only needed 10) quotes from the PHB. Read them together and see what you think.

1. School of Necromancy (PHB 118)
"Most people see necromancers as menacing, or even villainous, due to the close association with death. Not all necromancers are evil, but the forces they manipulate are considered taboo by many societies."

2. School of Magic (PHB 203)
"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."

3. Animate Dead Spell (PHB 212-13)
"Your spell imbues the target with a foul mimicry of life, raising it as an undead creature. ... The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you’ve given it."

(note that if you are creating zombies and skeletons, you are creating evil creatures where there were none ... you are not summoning or binding already existing critters)

4. Druids (PHB 65)
"Druids accept that which is cruel in nature, and they hate that which is unnatural, including aberrations (such as beholders and mind flayers) and undead (such as zombies and vampires)."

5. Paladins (PHB 82, 84, 86)
"Even so, their martial skills are secondary to the magical power they wield: power to heal the sick and injured, to smite the wicked and the undead ... The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead ... As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring fiends and undead ..."

6. Detect Evil and Good (PHB 231)
"For the duration, you know if there is an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead within 30 feet of you ..."

7. Hallow (PHB 249)
"Everlasting Rest. Dead bodies interred in the area can’t be turned into undead."

8. Raise Dead (PHB 270)
"The spell can’t return an undead creature to life."

9. Resurrection (PHB 272)
"You touch a dead creature that has been dead for no more than a century, that didn’t die of old age, and that isn’t undead."

10. Negative Plane (PHB 300)
"Like a dome above the other planes, the Positive Plane is the source of radiant energy and the raw life force that suffuses all living beings, from the puny to the sublime. Its dark reflection is the Negative Plane, the source of necrotic energy that destroys the living and animates the undead."


So, does a necromancer absolutely have to be evil? No. It's says so. But ... repeatedly animating the dead is evil, because:
A. It's taboo in most societies; and
B. It violated the bodily autonomy of the individual (in a world where there is certainly an afterlife); and
C. It prevents the person from being raised; and
D. It creates an evil being where none existed before; and
E. It uses the energy of the Negative Material Plane, which is NOT GOOD BOB; and
F. Read in its entirety (including the existence of spells to prevent people from coming in and raising the dead) it's clear that the base rules strongly mean that animating the dead ... aka, creating evil creatures to serve your bidding and keeping those people from ever having the chance to live again, not to mention not getting their consent, is an evil act.

You are welcome to modify your campaign world so that this isn't the case, and you're welcome to ignore ideas like what constitutes "good" or "evil" (or even having those ideas), but that's the base rules.

 

[Maxperson]

Once you remove the alignment any patron can be good, evil, neither or both.

This is wrong. The lack of alignment does not prevent good and evil. Tyr is not suddenly going to be evil along with his good. Asmodeus is not suddenly going to be good along with his evil. Who they are will remain the same. Alignment just describes what is already there. It isn't what made them what they are.

 

[Maxperson]

And it's not given that your fireball don't set a city in fire and kill thousands of people.

That's true, which is why it's generally a crime to cast a fireball in a city. And why it's evil when you do so recklessly and set fire to it, killing people.

 

[Maxperson]

That's assuming a) someone is there to destroy it and b) that the players/PCs don't completely forget about it. With our crew, b) would be inevitable at some point - it's truly amazing what they'll forget given half a chance.

Once in an older game of mine a party got into a big argument about what to do with a Hobgoblin who had surrendered. Most of the party wanted to kill it but one stood firm on taking it in as a captive instead. Eventually the captive-taker convinced the rest to tie it up and not kill it; but once it was tied up everyone completely forgot about it. They never questioned it, never fed or watered it, and when they wandered off next morning after sacking out for the night they just left it quietly lying there.....

They remembered it a couple of days (!) later when they needed some information and went back, by which point it had long since been found and freed by its buddies.

Yeah. It's pretty inevitable that something will happen and the undead will eventually break free.

 

[James Gasik]

Giant in the Playground.

 

[Mournblade94]

Yes.

That is the point of created undead. They are corpses animated and preserved by magic.

edit: And you know what creature carries the most human pathogens? Humans.

So again QED Humans are evil.

Great! And now when they get defeated you've got rotting corpses all over the place. I'm not sure animate dead says it's preserving the corpses. Humans and rotting corpses have never been on the same level of danger. There's a reason we hsve an evolutionary aversion to the smell of rotting meat.

In any case necromancy is the magic of disease and contagion if you look at the other spells. It's also eternally putting souls in torment. I can't see am argument for it being anything other than evil.

It violates the circle of life in nature, and drains vitality. It's a malevolent force.