Hey guys,

was wondering if you could give me some tips about the following. My player group has just become level 5. It consists of a Half-Orc Devotion Paladin, Dragonborn Battle Master Fighter, Tiefling Swashbuckler Rogue, Half-Elf Wild Magic Sorcerer and a Human Illusionist Wizard.

Now, the Wizard has decided he wanted to take up a bit of necromancy and get the ability to cast the Animate Dead spell. In the setting, Necromancy in itself is not forbidden in most places. There are necromancy spells that are not considered "evil" such as False Life, Revivify, Raise Dead or even Spare the Dying. That said, in many places it naturally would cause trouble with the locals if he were to bring up to 4 not-so-good-looking-and-somewhat-smelling-friends along.

I don't want to be that kind of dm that says that he can't take the spell, since it's not that big a deal. But I also don't want it to happen that the player effectively has a spell that is useless to him since his minions get whacked every other session. He says he is going to disguise them as "regular servants" but how convincing will that be? He wants to use them in order to carry stuff around (I use encumberance in my game) and as meat shields.

I want to find a way for him to use the spell as he intends it, but not trivialise the fact that he's performing a greatly unnatural act. How would you guys handle this? Thanks in advance :)

Necromancy is only as evil and unnatural as the moral and religious system says it is, which, if you were a materialist, means jack. In such a case, the dead are simply resources, like robots. I had a necromancer in a previous game. He was, at most, “a bit of a weirdo”, “taking jobs away from hard working peasants”, and other random stuff in between.

Finding "a way for him to use the spell as he intends it" isn't your job - it's his.

He runs his character, you run the rest of the world.

You have done your due diligence if you've described to him how his character believes the world around him will react to certain acts ( including the Paladin! ).

You're trying to be helpful for your players - and that's to be commended - but let him figure it out. That's part of the player fun :)

As a side notes - animated dead don't need to be "smelly"; years ago I had a Necromancer character who boiled down a dead horse to the preserved and varnished skeleton, wired all the bones together, and worked with an illusionist to make it look like a normal horse although it did not fatigue or spook and was voice controllable ( although it continuously consumed a spell slot to animate it on journeys ). The DM allowed the illusionist to tune the camouflage horse illusion so that it dropped for a split second if there was storm lightening - made for a dramatic effect :)

As long as everyone (players) are fine with a more complex situation for their PCs, I don’t see any problem with it. I would rather say you have a great opportunity for some fun game time ahead. PCs that make controversial decision that give opportunities for intrigue and conflict (within reason) are often much more interesting in a campaign. The same goes for having the PCs risk something by their actions. 

Disguising undead to enter a town should make for a fun scene and all of a sudden there is risk in entering the city. Using undead minions to achieve a goal (save the village from the orcs) adds a risk (easier to win, but will they really be seen as heroes?). 

So I say have the player go for it and enjoy the consequences. 

I would say you could allow him to use a disguise kit on his minions at disadvantage, possibly. 

How NPCs react to this if they discover an undead is a different matter, his character should also be able to ask around towns to see how people feel about undead and get an idea of how different people will view necromancy. This may be positive, neutral, or negative- up to you. Each can lead to some very different situations, so if he wants to consistently use necromancy I would definitely allow him to play around with it within the world you have created. 

Its similar to when a Ranger player i had wanted a giant wolf spider for a bet, hell yeah he can do it but in my world, depending on the civilization, the towns and cities aren't gonna be cool with a giant spider just roaming the streets so he would have to stash it or turn it over to be caged until they left town. 

You know the rules and laws of your world, once you make sure your players do let them do as they wish, consequences are theirs. 

So if you have a necromancer wizard who wants to roam around with minions how would the civilizations react? Sure he can disguise them, or attempt to, but that can go sideways real fast. As long as he understands any possible consequences let him go crazy, just be ready to play out the aftermath. 

Thank you guys for your feedback. It was always my intention on letting him have the spell and use it. I'll just need to figure out the balance between believable negative reactions (amount and magnitude) and the play on the table. I don't want it to slow tha narrative to a complete stop every time they go into a new town, but then again I do want necromancy to be somewhat "evil" (depending on the use of course).

I'm thinking about making a table of random reactions, with percentages on how a person feels about the undead when they are discovered. The player already mentioned he wanted to focus on skeletons since they do not smell and they move slightly more fluid than zombies, so the player is putting thought and effort into it.

Quote from RAJdeBoer >>

Thank you guys for your feedback. It was always my intention on letting him have the spell and use it. I'll just need to figure out the balance between believable negative reactions (amount and magnitude) and the play on the table. I don't want it to slow tha narrative to a complete stop every time they go into a new town, but then again I do want necromancy to be somewhat "evil" (depending on the use of course).

I'm thinking about making a table of random reactions, with percentages on how a person feels about the undead when they are discovered. The player already mentioned he wanted to focus on skeletons since they do not smell and they move slightly more fluid than zombies, so the player is putting thought and effort into it.

A random table actually sounds like a really good idea 

This sounds like fun to me. You'll have an opportunity to get your NPC clerics and their temples, local big-shots, and fanatics involved if you want to, up to and including rousing a mob of pitch-fork wielding townspeople trying to run the party out of town or worse. (I'm picturing that scene from Young Frankenstein with Kenneth Mars's Inspector Kemp trying to rally the townspeople against der Dokktor.) It could create really entertaining scenarios, all starting with that random reaction table you mentioned, and it will be especially fun if the character develops an attachment to the undead minions (as Wilder's character eventually does for "the monster" in the afore mentioned). It's an added complication for your story and a lot of fun for you as DM and for your players, or so I see it. Enjoy!

Quote from JCAUDM >>

Necromancy is only as evil and unnatural as the moral and religious system says it is, which, if you were a materialist, means jack. In such a case, the dead are simply resources, like robots.

Turning a humanoid's corpse into an undead creature makes them much harder to revive.

So, I've finally been able to work on this. I came up with the following:

Every time the undead facade is broken (depending on how well the player(s) disguise them) they have to roll a d%. The attitude the NPC has depends on the result of that roll on the table below.

Note that if the NPC is already hostile he won't become friendly by discovering the party has undead companions. Also specific NPC's (like a champion of Pelor or a dabbler in necromancy) might have different responses based on the story.

Your thoughts? Too simple? And do the percentages make any sense to you?

Personally, I think a 20% chance of a friendly attitude when someone discovers your servant is an undead creature is way too high even in a city. But I chalk that up to applying the values of the world in which I run my campaign to yours, and that's not a fair comparison. I think a random table can be a reasonable low-overhead method of handling this situation.

I get what you're saying. I'll change it to 10%, same as a town and increase the "indifferent" range