dilemma in the welcome area regarding undead

[StabbingNirvana]

so, theres a dilemma in the welcome area ... regarding undead. question is:

is creating undead an evil act as portrayed in the book of vile darkness, or are all of those that follow things in the dnd books communists?

[Spooks]

Well since A.) the undead you can make in NWN are all inherently Evil... i think summoning an evil being counts as evil... and B.) Disturbing a corpses eternal slumber to do YOU bidding isnt the goodliest of things to do.
IMHO

[StabbingNirvana]

yup. my point exactly. all these people with 'opinions'. bah. dnd has a black and white system for good and evil. so, to all those liberal thinkers ... just because you believe it isnt evil, doesnt make it not evil

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

I will briefly both support and deny this aurgument...

1. The DnD alignment system is in no way, shape, or form black and white... true neutral IS grey, and there are many shades in between. Take Chaotic Neutral as an example, and call it a day.

2. Try not to summon allies of any sort (Black or White) into the welcome area... it is strictly bad form.

3. Don't be a nazi...

Cheers!

[soulfien]

well, neutral walks both sides, Justi.

Chaotic neutral does good and evil just as Lawful neutral.

Read up in the Book of Exalted Deeds 3.0 and it specifically states that good NEVER summonsevil beings to do their work.

But as in all D&D, cut out rules you don't like.

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

soulfien said:

well, neutral walks both sides, Justi.

Chaotic neutral does good and evil just as Lawful neutral.

Read up in the Book of Exalted Deeds 3.0 and it specifically states that good NEVER summonsevil beings to do their work.

But as in all D&D, cut out rules you don't like.

It is certainly agreed that good persons should really never summon anything evil, for any purpose, or vice-versa.

We could argue this for a millenia, however I will choose not to.

I will mention that neutral if played properly is just as distinct as good or evil, and that's all I meant.

The trouble is very, very few play neutral properly, at all.

Cheers!

[prophyet]

stabbingnirvana said:

so, theres a dilemma in the welcome area ... regarding undead. question is:

is creating undead an evil act as portrayed in the book of vile darkness, or are all of those that follow things in the dnd books communists?

I would like to add my two cents worth.

Remember that by creating an undead, you are using negative energy to bind a soul in our plane of existance unnaturally. (an inherantly evil act in my book) Otherwise you would just have bone or flesh golem, while distasteful and unsettling, they are not inherently evil.

I suppose neutral characters can get away with some evil acts, but if they dont balance those evil acts out with good deeds, they should become evil as their tendencies show.

For personal and metagaming reasons, I dont like decisively evil characters hiding behind a Neutral Alignment just to avoid a certain Paladin's Smiting.

Creating/summoning undead, Summoning Demons, and Protection from Good even are all considered evil acts to varying degrees PnP and should be reflected in the characters alignment.

But I do realize that Neutral is a grey area and I am far too black and white for that. That is why I never played a neutral character. In my mind a character is either good or evil. Neutral characters are just saying, "I don't have a real opinion on any issue."

I am waiting for that cleric spell Protection from Neutral, or the Smite Neutral skill. In strictly meta-gaming terms, neutral characters have huge advantages that more focused characters loose.

I could go on ranting about my hatred of neutral for ever, but Im sure I bored you enough.

[MithrilBlade]

Actually I believe when you create zombie you won't bind the soul in the corpse, it actually is just animating the corpse (and profane it at the same) with unholy energies making it mindless undead servant under your service.

Still I do have to agree, good people should not summon undead for any reason because they have to use negative energy for it and using that will corrupt the caster. Good clerics should never cast it for any reason simply because their gods would absolutely never grant them such "blessings", I don't think even most neutral gods would do.

[Quadhund/Greenhouse]

Neutral characters ... I have a thing or two to say about neutral characters, but I will save it for another day. And I am sure that most people do not play them for the purposes of avoiding smite's.

[C'tair]

richard said:

Actually we have several players on FRC that have neutral alignments that by PNP Detect Evil should show up as evil when checked.

this is from another thread. if some people see this as a clever way to gain an advantage through metagaming, the DM's can always fix it by altering their alignment. but as quad said, i think that most of the neutral characters have better reasons for it.