This is the sort of thing I imagine @BardicWizard was taking about in their blog draft

That's pretty sweet

Beholderkin abberations conjured by summon aberration have a walk speed of 30 feet

but no legs

Anybody want to try to tackle my question?

You don't have to answer it there, I just want to know people's thoughts and opinions on it

Spam: rpg.stackexchange.com/q/179639/62294

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported question (93): Ace Force: Apex Legends is on Mobile? Can you believe there are more heroes with even cooler abilities? by zhulei123 on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

@BESW those are the true essence of horror

@TheDragonOfFlame I'm really hoping we get beholders in the upcoming d&d/MTG crossover

@Medix2 Not a fan of the question. In the future, someone will ask if a certain spell or effect can be dispelled it will get closed as a dupe of this question rather than getting an answer tailored to the situation.

@ThomasMarkov Yes and it should because there aren't rules

Whether any given effect can be dispelled is up to the GM, same as the general case; and if somebody asks about an effect that is nuanced or unique compared to the general case, their question simply won't be closed at all

Like... it feels weird to be told "you shouldn't ask about the general rules" when general rules are precisely what I wanted to know

@AncientSwordRage the upcoming what-

excitement intensifies

@TheDragonOfFlame Magic: The Gathering's first-ever Dungeons & Dragons set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, releases next summer

so my friend was talking to me about how necromancers are dramatically underutilized in canon worldbuilding - why don't they build giant factories with skeleton assembly lines producing ammunition, war machines, etc.? - and I have 2 questions. 1) are there any examples of necromancers doing this in canon? 2) what does the char sheet look like for a magic user who can Control Countless Thousands of Undead?

why aren't there more necromancer armies, if the magic enables such scalable lethality?

What canon?

5e

published materials/scenarios

Hmm... Well I suppose Amonkhet might still count (assuming D&D 5e)

And possibly related; What is the maximum number of PC-controlled undead?

Oh dude, Finger of Death.

Thanks!

@chaos I think a big chunk of why they aren't used more is because that level of necromancy tends to attract the not-good kind of attention from officials in most places? (if you're in Zhent territory or Thay, you might get a pass...)

I mean sure, but if you think of necromancy like nuclear weaponry or electricity, you have to wonder.

@chaos given the controls placed on nuclear weaponry, I suppose that's not a terrible analogy in some ways?

In-universe morality is insufficiently developed in this regard I think. Does studying and practicing Necromancy make your alignment Evil?

@chaos broadly speaking, no

but animating dead is a VERY Evil act in FR

Why?

@chaos the way I think of it (and I'm not 100% sure how canonical is) it's basically enslaving folks' souls

(also should I be @replying?)

A lot of people would prefer their dead relatives not to be paraded parading around

I thought the soul of the creature didn't enter into the equation.

If it does, that changes the calculus.

@Someone_Evil yeah, at a more everyday level, there's definitely that

I'm thinking an empire could, for example, implement a capital punishment system that zombified the executed.

In a place like FR you'd be hard pressed to get very far in such an enterprise before 3-5 upstarts come along and topple your whole endeavour

@Someone_Evil sure, but this is a social consequence of necromancy, not an essential one. It's still unclear to me that it is essentially evil to control undead in FR.

(not to get into the weird incoherencies of D&D good/evil too much.)

@chaos I think that's is what it's rooted in

@Someone_Evil can you look over the header I added to Dale’s answer on the booming blade question?

@chaos A lot of Good vs Evil distinctions in Forgotten Realms boils down to "it just is"

(Was is DnD 3.5e that felt the need to include Ravages, that are exactly like poisons except not evil?)

@kviiri yeah, it's sometimes kinda silly

@kviiri Yuuup. The BoED was almost entirely a collection of "all the mechanics you want to use but can't because Bad, refluffed as Good Actually."

Hey folks, weird question. I just saw this question was closed as needing more focus. How is it not focused enough? (Not "accusing" anyone of anything, more just curious -- only mentioning that because tone over text doesn't always make sense lol :) ) rpg.stackexchange.com/q/179590/27388

If I had to guess, I'd say it falls into a not-always-agreed-upon grey area of "list question."

But I'm not familiar enough with the system or the current site policies regarding it, to say with confidence.