Some Rp help

[Product of Void]

I have a charactor concept I am working on its rather simple. Two classes wizard/palemaster. The charactor is not evil, just a man of flawed ideas. (LN)

Something he follows due to not wanting to die, and starting due to wanting to do some dead needing time.

question is what deed would be a "GOOD" deed requiring time or turning to necromancy.

what could he be still researching that would push to want to live longer to do it?

so any ideas?

[Phantom Lamb]

Saving a loved one?

[Kaeldorn]

Maybe the need to protect something that could fall into the wrong hands if he were to leave this world.

Or he could simply believe that existence is finite, and that death is an evil thing. Embracing UN-death being the only way to avoid it and thus the lesser evil. Then go about preaching to people not to be so foolish in submitting to such limited lives. Flawed ideas you said?

[Phantom Lamb]

He could have a task that needs completing before he dies. This task is very important, maybe research, but would take an impossible amount of time for a human. He values this task over the lesser evil of undeath.

[Product of Void]

saving a love one is kinda odd seeing he will be surrounded by undead.

I figure his undead summonings will be his old lab helpers that he carres on himself in a creepy way.

his view of good/evil and deities should prove intresting.

My view of the charactor is someone who is rather disconnected from the world as they have spent more time researching magic or pondering principles of magic. Then seeing a sunset or even noticing a crush by a lab assistant.

[CorneliusVonRichten]

Well, maybe he's researching for a way to returne dead and wild magic zones to normal. Hence, reparing the weave.

[Ghostman]

A terrible nemesis, ancient and immortal, has shown the PC the true depths of evil of which he is capable. Having no children or apprentices to carry on the battle against this undying foe, the PC knowingly and willingly condemns himself to eternal unlife in order to spend the endless eons placing himself between his all-powerful nemesis and the innocents that being would threaten.

[Rhifox]

My own RP is pretty much this idea. For the first part mainly as Kaeldorn mentioned, the belief in death as a *bad* thing, and thus something to be avoided, that life is always better regardless of what 'form' it is in.

Secondly, is the belief in pragmatism. Necromancy and reanimation has no evil qualities at all when one looks at it logically and rationally. As you say, undead minions helping you is a perfectly pragmatic use of what would otherwise be wasted. They don't require food, don't require clothing or sleep, don't require entertainment, etc.

As far as wanting to do good deeds though, Necromancy is not just about the reanimation (despite how often this is associated with it). It's defined as the study of magics relating to life and death. Again, pragmatically, this makes most healing and resurrection spells actually mislabelled necromancy spells (the fact that they use positive energy instead of negative energy doesn't mean they aren't necromancy, since plenty of necromancy spells use positive energy, IE Disrupt Undead). Necromancy can save lives as much as a Cleric's healing powers, if people would be more willing to look at it rationally instead of on traditional moral grounds.


The other ideas also have merit of course. I know Malaclypse's old character was all about the 'Necromancy to combat Necromancy', and there was a DM quest a long time ago dealing with an Archlich who was battling the Dark Advent, and only remained as one until his task was done, at which point he had the players destroy his phylactery to release him.

There's a lot of ways to make 'good' Necromancers, the 'evil' ones are overdone so props to going for the gray path.

[Urithrand]

Necromancy can save lives as much as a Cleric's healing powers.

I think you'll find that healing is from the necromancy school of magic. Like you said, it's the study of life and death.

[MithrilBlade]

Mainly you must remember that even though your character might have good intentions, becoming undead is always kinda evil act that drives the individual towards evil.
The power that grants undeath is always negative energy that taps the soul into malfunctional and rotting corpse which alone is tormenting for the individual psychologically.
In addition to this, the negative energy certainly affects the mind as well, all intellectual (lesser or greater) undead are, almost without exception, evil. This is because the undead creature loses all physical sensation that made him/her what he/she is, such as ability to touch or smell, while they mentally lose the ability to feel joy, love and the positive things of life, so the very best is deep apathy followed by the transformation, but usually they go to the other end: they let hatred, fear (not similar fear of death as in life), hunger and envy for all things living consume them with desperate attempt to feel something/anything and they become the shadow of their former personalities.

So as long as you remember that there are consequences of becoming undeath, you might indeed become LN apathetic creature, constantly struggling to guide his actions more towards the good-oriented behavior than that of evil and darkness.
On the other hand, pale master is not full undead so they are partially safe from the effects, but there will be certainly consequences for even partial perversion of nature.

[Ghostman]

Mainly you must remember that even though your character might have good intentions, becoming undead is always kinda evil act that drives the individual towards evil.
The power that grants undeath is always negative energy that taps the soul into malfunctional and rotting corpse which alone is tormenting for the individual psychologically.
In addition to this, the negative energy certainly affects the mind as well, all intellectual (lesser or greater) undead are, almost without exception, evil. This is because the undead creature loses all physical sensation that made him/her what he/she is, such as ability to touch or smell, while they mentally lose the ability to feel joy, love and the positive things of life, so the very best is deep apathy followed by the transformation, but usually they go to the other end: they let hatred, fear (not similar fear of death as in life), hunger and envy for all things living consume them with desperate attempt to feel something/anything and they become the shadow of their former personalities.

So as long as you remember that there are consequences of becoming undeath, you might indeed become LN apathetic creature, constantly struggling to guide his actions more towards the good-oriented behavior than that of evil and darkness.
On the other hand, pale master is not full undead so they are partially safe from the effects, but there will be certainly consequences for even partial perversion of nature.

On this note, I feel that this is a point of view and subject to interpretation. D&D canon has had several undead in the past which were neutral, or subject to different alignments than evil, at least (though I would have to do a bit of research to remember what they are). Furthermore, since positive energy can destroy as well as heal, I don't see why the opposite couldn't be true as well--that it could, through its preserving power of unlimited life, bind a soul to an object (in this case the object being a dead body).

[CorneliusVonRichten]

The Baelnorn lichs are Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral. http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Baelnorn so not every undead is Evil. But I doubt that Kelemvor or Lathander like them.

[Jai_V]

Keep in mind that D&D (especially FR) isn't always a world of "shades of gray" like real life. Some Necromancer spells are inherently evil and, unfortunately, those are some of the most useful.

The whole idea of undeath and reanimation has evil doesn't make sense to me...

Death = Bad

[Azulfae]

It's a great concept and I think it will be very intresting to play. There will be a lot of people who will dislike such a character purely because what he is doing goes against everything they know to be right and to not dislike what he does would be to go against their own gods.

I've always had the concept that all of the gods in D&D are terrible evil beings. Why should a soul be subordinate to a deity in death, why does anyone who is independent enough to reject the gods, good or evil, be condemned to the wall of the faithless.

There are only two ways to avoid the wall, seek a chance in death to become a fiend/demon or undeath.

Both ideas are evil concepts but good and evil are indeed conceptual and down to perspective. Why is undeath judged as evil? Because the gods don't get their souls.

Imagine if a soul could escape the gods and escape the wall and not have to become a fiend of some kind to do it.

Maybe the time required to work this out is more than we are given in life.
Maybe undeath or partial undeath is the only way to draw out your time enough to find a way.

Maybe your character is seeking the imortality of all mortals, a way to release all our souls from an afterlife of slavery or subordination.

Perhaps your character wants us all to be free.

Then again this idea would be a chaotic neutral alignment I think.

Just my idea if you like it anyhow.

[Ghostman]

Keep in mind that D&D (especially FR) isn't always a world of "shades of gray" like real life. Some Necromancer spells are inherently evil and, unfortunately, those are some of the most useful.

The whole idea of undeath and reanimation has evil doesn't make sense to me...

Death = Bad

Again, I would disagree. Drow were supposed to be inherently evil as well, as were goblins and orcs, but Salvatore's characters have a complexity to them in many cases that goes far beyond that. This is a fantasy world, and the creators (in this case the devs and DMs) are the only ones who can say what is inherently evil and what is subject to a moral complexity.