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<blockquote data-quote="DND_Reborn" data-source="post: 8569597" data-attributes="member: 6987520">Alignment has quickly gone to the sidelines in D&amp;D given its lack of impact on 5E rules.As such, &quot;evil&quot; is subjective. The components aren't even an issue really, since nothing specifies the blood, flesh, or bone dust come from a sentient creature. Although a &quot;foul mimicry of life&quot;, 5E doesn't specify where that comes from, and really the only reason it is &quot;foul&quot; is because it is not actually life. But looking at the stat blocks of the undead, we'll see there is support for where their &quot;life&quot; comes from (a bit later).The bones or corpse are really just objects, devoid of life, so this point it is no more &quot;evil&quot; than the animate objects spell, really. As you suggest, it similarly could be thought of as transmutation as animate objects is.However, some important differences should be pointed out:1. Animate Dead is instantaneous, but really should be considered permanent as the undead, once created, exists until destroyed. They cannot be dispelled via dispel magic, etc. So, unlike animate objects, they continue to go on once made.2. Skeletons and Zombies ARE evil (lawful and neutral).&nbsp; Although they obey your commands, the implications due to their alignment is that some &quot;essence&quot; has revived them, also given that they understand the languages they knew in life, this implies a tie to their previous life. So, perhaps some &quot;link&quot; to their soul is established by the spell. If this is the case, necromancy makes more sense and the spell is linking the departed soul to the animated creature.The fact also they you must re-establish control daily implies the undead created want to do their own thing. Skeletons actually have an INT 6, so while not bright, they are capable of independent thought.Over all, while I understand your point, I would say the spell is &quot;evil&quot; in that it compels the departed soul into a servitude until the undead escapes, but even then the soul would likely be vengeful for being linked to its corpse (hence why skeletons and zombies are evil). To be clear, my interpretation isn't that the soul is inhabiting the corpse, but rather is &quot;linked&quot; to it.FWIW, in 1E AD&amp;D, both skeletons and zombies were (true) neutral, but then the flesh component had to be human.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DND_Reborn, post: 8569597, member: 6987520"] Alignment has quickly gone to the sidelines in D&D given its lack of impact on 5E rules. As such, "evil" is subjective. The components aren't even an issue really, since nothing specifies the blood, flesh, or bone dust come from a sentient creature. Although a "foul mimicry of life", 5E doesn't specify where that comes from, and really the only reason it is "foul" is because it is not actually life. But looking at the stat blocks of the undead, we'll see there is support for where their "life" comes from (a bit later). The bones or corpse are really just objects, devoid of life, so this point it is no more "evil" than the animate objects spell, really. As you suggest, it similarly could be thought of as transmutation as animate objects is. However, some important differences should be pointed out: 1. Animate Dead is instantaneous, but really should be considered [I]permanent[/I] as the undead, once created, exists until destroyed. They cannot be dispelled via dispel magic, etc. So, unlike animate objects, they continue to go on once made. 2. Skeletons and Zombies [I]ARE[/I] evil (lawful and neutral). Although they obey your commands, the implications due to their alignment is that some "essence" has revived them, also given that they understand the languages they knew in life, this implies a tie to their previous life. So, perhaps some "link" to their soul is established by the spell. If this is the case, necromancy makes more sense and the spell is linking the departed soul to the animated creature. The fact also they you must re-establish control daily implies the undead created want to do their own thing. Skeletons actually have an INT 6, so while not bright, they are capable of independent thought. Over all, while I understand your point, I would say the spell is "evil" in that it compels the departed soul into a servitude until the undead escapes, but even then the soul would likely be vengeful for being linked to its corpse (hence why skeletons and zombies are evil). To be clear, my interpretation isn't that the soul is inhabiting the corpse, but rather is "linked" to it. FWIW, in 1E AD&D, both skeletons and zombies were (true) neutral, but then the flesh component had to be human. [/QUOTE]

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