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I know I am probably kicking a dead horse here, but why is animate dead evil?
I have a question about the animate dead spell. I know that the spell animates skeletons and zombies. How does it do this? Negative Energy? Does it bind the spirit of the deceased to its rotting body to animate it? I understand that the spell is Evil. Why?
I have tried to dig through my D&D books, and this is what I have found.
Animate dead has been with us for a while.
I have a 1st edition player’s handbook- (6th printing 1980)
1st editon players handbook
The text there reads as follows:
3rd level cleric spell (I was directed here from the 5th level wizard spell description P. 47
“ Explanation/ Description: This spell creates the lowest of the undead monsters, skeletons or zombies, from the bones or bodies of dead humans. The effect is to cause these remains to become animated and obey the commands of the Cleric casting the spell. The skeletons or zombies will follow, remain in an area and attack and attack any creature (or just a specific type of creature), entering the place, etc. The spell will animate the monsters until they are destroyed or until the magic is dispelled. (See dispel magic spell). The cleric is able to animate 1 skeleton or 1 zombie for each level of experience he or she has attained. Thus a 2nd level cleric can animate 2 of these monsters, a 3rd level 3 etc. The act of animating dead is not basically a good one, and it must be used with careful consideration and good reason by clerics of good alignment. It requires a drop of blood, a piece of human flesh, and a pinch of bone powder or a bone shard to complete this spell. “
Ah the days of brief spell descriptions.
The 2nd edition description is a little longer
I have the 11 printing 1994.
“This spell creates the lowest of the undead monsters- skeletons or zombies- usually from the bones or bodies of dead humans, demihumans, or humanoids. The spell causes existing remains to become animated and obey the simple verbal commands of the caster. The skeletons or zombies can follow the caster, remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific type of creature) entering the place, etc. the undead remain animated until they are destroyed in combat or are turned; the magic cannot be dispelled. The following types of dead creatures can be animated: A) Humans, Demihumand, and Humanoids with 1 hit die. The wizard can animate one skeleton for each experience level he has attained, or one zombie for every tow levels. The experience levels, if any of the slain are ignored; the body of a newly dead 9 level fighter is animated as a zombie with 2 hit dice, without special class or racial abilities.
B) Creatures with more than 1 hit die. The number of undead animated is determined by the monster hit dice (the total hit dice cannot exceed the wizard’s level). Skeletal forms have the hit dice of the original creature, while zombie forms have one more hit die. Thus a 12 level wizard could animate four zombie gnolls (4x[2+1 hit dice]=12), or s single fire giant skeleton. Such undead have none of the special abilities they had in life.
C) Creatures with less than 1 hit die. The caster can animate two skeletons per level or one zombie per level. The creatures have their normal hit dice as skeletons and an additional hit die as zombies. Clerics receive a +1 bonus when trying to turn these. This spell assumes that the bodies or bones are available and are reasonably intact (those of skeletons and zombies destroyed in combat wont be)
It requires a drop of blood and a pinch of bone powder or a bone shard to complete the spell. The casting of this spell is not a good act and only evil wizards use it frequently.”
I decided to turn to the Complete Necromancer’s handbook for further clarification about the Animate Dead spell. I understand what it does, I am curious to find out how
Interestingly in the Complete Necromancer’s handbook on page 46 and 47 the text refers to criminal or black necromancy, Grey or Neutral Necromancy, and Benign white Necromancy.
Interestingly Animate dead is placed in Grey necromancy.
“ Take Animate dead for instance, raising up a zombie to carry one’s luggage is not an evil act but animating the dead for the purpose of attacking a merchant caravan is another matter entirely”
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And now lets take a look at the text of the 3.5 spell.
(I know there is a 3.0 version, but I am too lazy to type it out)
“Necromancy [evil]
This spell turns the bones or bodes of dead creatures into undead skeletons or zombies that follow your spoken commands. The undead can follow you, or they can remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place. They remain animated until they are destroyed. (A destroyed skeleton or zombie can’t be animated again).
Regardless of the kind of undead you create with this spell, you can’t create more HD of undead than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead. (The desecrate spell doubles this limit. See page 128)
The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely. No matter how many times you use this spell, however you can control only 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level. If you exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your control, and any excess undead from previous castings become uncontrolled. (You choose which creatures are released). If you are a cleric, any undead you command by virtue of your power to command or rebuke undead do not count toward the limit.
Skeletons: a skeleton can be created only from a mostly intact corpse or skeleton. The corpse must have bones, co creating a skeleton from a purple worm, for example, is not possible. If a skeleton is made from a corps its flesh falls off the bones.
Zombies: a zombie can be created only from a mostly intact corpse. The corpse must be that of a creature with a true anatomy, so a dead gelatinous cube, for example cannot be animated as a zombie.
Materiel components: you must place a black onyx gem worth at least 25 gp per hit die of the undead into the mouth or eye socket of each corpse you intend to animate. The magic of the spell turns these gems into worthless burned out shells. “
P198 player’s handbook
Here is the text from the animate dead spell in the Pathfinder System Reference Document.
“This spell turns corpses into undead skeletons or zombies that obey your spoken commands.
The undead can be made to follow you, or they can be made to remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place. They remain animated until they are destroyed. A destroyed skeleton or zombie can't be animated again.
Regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you can't create more HD of undead than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead. The desecrate spell doubles this limit.
The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely. No matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can control only 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level. If you exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your control, and any excess undead from previous castings become uncontrolled. You choose which creatures are released. Undead you control through the Command Undead feat do not count toward this limit.
Skeletons: A skeleton can be created only from a mostly intact corpse or skeleton. The corpse must have bones. If a skeleton is made from a corpse, the flesh falls off the bones.
Zombies: A zombie can be created only from a mostly intact corpse. The corpse must be that of a creature with a physical anatomy.”
I have not found any information pertaining to the how and with what the skeletons are animated with. Just that the spell is “evil”
Page 174 of the 3.5 player’s handbook
“ Necromancy- Necromancy spells manipulate the power of death, unlife and the life force. Spells involving undead creatures make up a large part of this school. Representative spells include, cause fear, and animate dead and finger of death. “
Page 317 of the 3.5 monster manual states that “ the undead type: undead are once living creatures animated by spiritual and supernatural forces”.
This begins to hint at what animated the undead, the how.
On page 7 of Liber Mortis it states, “ where does the energy for animation come from? Negative Energy”
I have typed in the text of the animate dead spell through the editions so that people have some common materiel to work from for their discussion. If I have offended anyone by doing this I apologize.
Well that is all I have found. I am sure there is more stuff under my nose, and I have failed to see it.
The only evidence I have found that Animate dead is evil is the spell description- it states that the spell is evil. I like the idea of souls being bound to their corpses after death, however I have found no text cooberating this. I do think that the animation of the dead is an evil act. Why is it evil? Am I missing something very obvious under my nose? Thank you
What are your thoughts? Do you have any suggestions or answers?
Smurfariffic!
Thank you Spaclard for the link, and Blake Duffy thank you for the clarification. That makes sense. I think to further simplify things, in my home games, i will simply make the positive energy plane good aligned, and the negative energy plane evilly aligned.
Thanks.
??????
Was that even in question? I know it baffled me for years that animate dead wasn't an evil spell. Kudos to Paizo for getting it right the first time, but the fact that this is a 500+ posted thread elsewhere tells me that people are viewing animate dead as animate object for corpses, which it obviously isn't.
Also, that's a lot of research. It does raise the question though, what's the positive version? Spontaneous life?
Wow, I just had an ideagasm!
I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread: It isn't really a rules question, and there's already an active thread on this topic in the forum to which it would normally be moved.