Deadspeak

[Nihm]

A necromancer, evil cleric, or Dirge of Tormented bard only ability to converse with neutral npc undead, to attempt to get from them rare lore, alchemy hints, or perhaps even a small quest.
 
It makes sense that these would be able to communicate with the more sentient types of undead, perhaps for a small sacrifice of "Life force" (xp) or some other undead-only currency.

[Drakill Tannan]

While this sounds good to me, nothing stops a necromancer from raising a shambling corspe, attempt to get certian information, summon another, then another, then rest... you get my idea.

[DollarPhil]

You think that necromancer PCs need more advantages? If  anything, PCs who are against necromancy need some perks.  The Pallid Mask is rather moribund right now (hah) and EfU:A has often suffered from a lack of advantages for Good PCs.

[OldPortOutcast]

Active Pallid Maskers who actually fulfill their duties get such huge advantages against Necromancers and Undead.

Anyhow I'm against this as it would generally call for more Neutral Aligned Undead in the module, and that's not necessary given that Necromantic NPCs are usually in control of them and offer so much more interesting conversations.

[Garem]

Great idea for a DM to use in plots and such but, even as a big fan of necromancy and its role in EfU, I'm not sure this should be scripted or anything like that.

[Nihm]

I do not refer to things they summon themselves, but to rare npc undead which would ignore others but occasionally be able to say something coherent to the right pc.
 
Pallid Mask gets their own quest with alignment restrictions, an undead conversation would be perfect to introduce an evil-only quest.  Steward and stargazer pcs get their own private conversations for various hints, afaik, so this would be similar to that as well.

[Drakill Tannan]

In that case, i agree.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

...


So you think their own quest somehow makes up for the fact you get to customize your own summons? That somehow app only subraces and specialty classes get their own survival tools also does?

This is best kept to the realm of DM interactions.

[Drakill Tannan]

Remeber how i've ranted before that in the realm of questing you cannot be a villan in 95% of the quests? That 5% being missing children, and in the rest, you fight evil creatures, and kill evil creatures, and that's it. an act that in the twisted D&D morality, is somehow good.

Evilness should be seen in quests too IMO.

See tom, your pirate's quest suggestion was awsome mostly because of this. We need quests only evil and neutral PCs would do, so evil doesn't necesarily mean ganking other people, and could offer some casual, player cooperative evil fun.

But IMO Nhim, think of the quest you have in mind, and mention this is the way to obtain it, and make that a suggestion.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

The pirate quest wasn't evil or neutral. It was chaotic oriented, I can easily imagine NG, and CG characters doing it.

To be honest, most people wouldn't make quest sendings for the, "Let's kill the tower filled with celestials protecting an evil artifact to loot the building."

Cliche'd quests are quests people will avoid.

Edit: This is about Nihm's suggestion, anyways. I am not gonna hijack this thread. I am just saying that this has potential, but not in the form it's presented.

[DollarPhil]

Remeber how i've ranted before that in the realm of questing you cannot be a villan in 95% of the quests?

Rather than looking at the enemies, look at the setup, the loot, the environment, and the PC population. Most of them can be framed as Fighting valiantly against monsters/Looting ruins/Bloody Violence depending on your PC.  It's impressive design in that there's usually lots of reasons to do a quest. If you want to be Evil you can summon undead/demons, Intimidate the quest giver, make everyone sign up to follow your orders or die... EfU:A has always had a vast number of Evil PCs and necromancers without trying.  Incidentally, the Evil equivalent of Longest Night is Imps Part II, which is massively favourable to Evil PCs in the loot. Or mugging drunks, which falls under Non-Good.

@OPO
Yes, but the Pallid Mask is a specific and Lawful DM faction, and necromantic gear's freely available. It is also rather lifeless. Considering an entire House now promotes undead, the Conclave tolerates undead, the Stygians legalised undead, it's little surprise as there's not many places where you won't be outnumbered in trying to follow your goals. It's a pity the PCs trying to move it to the Docks died/quit.

[Drakill Tannan]

Rather than looking at the enemies, look at the setup, the loot, the environment, and the PC population. Most of them can be framed as Fighting valiantly against monsters/Looting ruins/Bloody Violence depending on your PC.  It's impressive design in that there's usually lots of reasons to do a quest. If you want to be Evil you can summon undead/demons, Intimidate the quest giver, make everyone sign up to follow your orders or die... EfU:A has always had a vast number of Evil PCs and necromancers without trying.  Incidentally, the Evil equivalent of Longest Night is Imps Part II, which is massively favourable to Evil PCs in the loot. Or mugging drunks, which falls under Non-Good.

Rescue the children
Protect the farmland
Hunt dow what attacks the farmland
Cleanse the mortuary
Rescue the granary
Kill the orc invading army
Kill "X" random -evil- humanoids causing distress to the humans

...

Is it really just me who can't see anything evil with any of these?

"Rawr, i just rescued the little girl and protected the city from an invasion, but i'm evil 'cause i did it for gold".

[Cerberus]

"Rawr, i just rescued the little girl and protected the city from an invasion, but i'm evil 'cause i did it for gold".

As was said already, what would you like to call the quest?
 
Instead of rescue the children let's call it Goblin's Dinner. Or instead of cleansing the mortuary perhaps we should call it Necromancers wish list... It's not about the name of the quest or even what the quest giver may want, it's about what the evil PC's heart is realy after. You think if the evil PC said I'll go help find the children but I'm not going to bring them back I'm going to eat a few and experiment on the rest that the quest giver would say "ok fine, I'll reward you well for that when you're done."
:???:
 
Oops... Highjacked thread...
I feel the only undead that should be talking are those worthy of DM attention.

[EfUA_undercover]

Evil kills evil constantly, likely a lot more often than good does, Drakill. The forces of evil aren't a happy club who meet every day for tea, they fight what they want and they take what they want, that is what makes them evil. Kill your enemies horrible, take goodies along and animate the dead on 'good' looking quests and you make said quest evil. It's not like you need a evil quest to be evil!

Anyway, back to topic, because this isn't what the original post is about: I think it is unneeded to add such options, even when I don't count in the numerous options necros have yet. If you rock out you'll get the attention needed to pursue this things on other ways.