DM Ruling on Undead Summining...

[The Whistler]

I wonder if that's your character's thought process when it comes to adventuring. Does he back down from the chance to slay a dragon and claim his trove because he 'might be eaten' ? Objectively speaking dragons and their ilk are amongst the most dangerous creatures an adventurer can face in d&d; yet the vast majority of players would attack one without a second thought.

So why the double standard ? Is it because the necromancer in question might be a player ? Necromancers are the anathema of life. Only truly vile characters would shrug their shoulders at what they do and only the most debased would even consider grouping with someome that might reanimate their corpse if they die. To clarify, my post is addressed at necromancers raising the dead and conducting other macabre experiments on them. Necromancers that act as conduits between the living and the dead, or scholarly types that research and experiment with negative energy are an entirely different animal.

Then again, if the necromancer is obviously powerful then the smart thing is to turn tail rather than spend your afterlife as his mindless thrall.

[Blame The Rogue]

the dragon has a hoard of treasure

the necromancer only offers a chance at death for a few trinkets

logistics

[V'rass]

Adventuring is different... those bad guys are actively trying to harm me or those i consider allies and thus my characters would react to them with hostility. The mobs don't give you the option of diplomacy or ignoring them... they attack on sight and thus the only option is to kill them before they kill you. If there was an option to try and reason with the mobs rather then fight then them my characters would almost always do such.

Also my characters have a very narrow view of what evil is. Basically as long as someone is not harming another then there is no wrong doing. Raising the dead by itself does not cause anyone harm as the soul of the deceased is not present but already in the afterlife. Only if the summoned undead were used to harm innocents or perform crimes would the no harm rule be broken. My characters don't care what other people think about this, that is how they see it and that is how they will act. Give them evil points if you wish but i will not be changing their beliefs. Good and evil may be absolute but that does not mean my characters realize or accept that.

[Blame The Rogue]

Adventuring is different... those bad guys are actively trying to harm me or those i consider allies and thus my characters would react to them with hostility. The mobs don't give you the option of diplomacy or ignoring them... they attack on sight and thus the only option is to kill them before they kill you. If there was an option to try and reason with the mobs rather then fight then them my characters would almost always do such.

Also my characters have a very narrow view of what evil is. Basically as long as someone is not harming another then there is no wrong doing. Raising the dead by itself does not cause anyone harm as the soul of the deceased is not present but already in the afterlife. Only if the summoned undead were used to harm innocents or perform crimes would the no harm rule be broken. My characters don't care what other people think about this, that is how they see it and that is how they will act. Give them evil points if you wish but i will not be changing their beliefs. Good and evil may be absolute but that does not mean my characters realize or accept that.

this is an important consideration as well

each character has their own beliefs, and code of conduct, or lack thereof

my characters each typically have a certain code of conduct...and they all tend to look at life pragmatically

[Thorsson]

There's a simple question here about characters (not players); should characters normally react strongly to necromancers on sight (recognition) or not? Lore suggests they should unless they have good reason not to. Not seeing a reason in the posts above, which suggests to me that we are experiencing yet more "hugging", this time of zombies. Maybe you as people would be happy with someone raising skeletons and zombies in the neighbourhood; although if you're that brain dead you're probably zombies already; FR characters, however, should not be so blasé.

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!

[Blame The Rogue]

my rogue will just mind his own business...and let the next paladin that comes along risk his own life vs the necromancer

[Atlas]

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[Steve]

It is kinda hard to fear the Undead and necromancers of this controlling-undead-type, when a Player Character needs not fear their own death!

[V'rass]

Maybe you as people would be happy with someone raising skeletons and zombies in the neighbourhood; although if you're that brain dead you're probably zombies already

Actually i would be perfectly fine if necromancy were real and people actually could raise undead and use them for menial tasks in my neighborhood. I am a satanist in RL... morality and ethics never factor into any of my decisions nor should they. Things such as social taboos and political correctness are in my opinion meant to be broken and that is exactly what i do. I will say and do what i want, when i want, and how i want as long as there is a logical reason for doing so.

This does not mean i support crime, murder, and atrocities either... merely that morality to me is mutable. However we are starting to get off the topic... this is about IC stuff not RL.

[Blame The Rogue]

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.” ― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.

my rogue would say, "it takes wisdom to know when to be brave, and when to walk away." he will always fight at times and places of his own choosing

knowing when to take risks makes one wise, not cowardly

[Steve]

A rogue, a paladin and a necromancer walk into a bar....

[Blame The Rogue]

A rogue, a paladin and a necromancer walk into a bar....

this ^^^^

[Blackman D]

wait a minute, why am i in the bar?

[Blame The Rogue]

wait a minute, why am i in the bar?

if a dwarf had a gold piece for every time they woke up in a bar asking themselves this very same question...

[finneas]

The real question is "How often do you walk away because necromancers are evil and likely wizards and likely powerbuilt and thus I have no real chance of winning..." I know that as bad as it is, I find myself doing this on many of my characters. Every one of my characters would IC kill the undead thing but I know OOC that my characters will just get their butt kicked by pvp powerbuilder #123532451023502385 so I just ignore and walk away.