Evil Subtype issue

[liquidformat]

So looking over the description of evil subtype and thinking about it logically, why aren't creatures such as evil outsiders healed by negative energy and damaged by positive energy by virtue of the evil descriptor?

It seems to me perfectly logical that creatures created on the negative evil planes would be made of negative energy and be harmed by positive energy.

[Segev]

So looking over the description of evil subtype and thinking about it logically, why aren't creatures such as evil outsiders healed by negative energy and damaged by positive energy by virtue of the evil descriptor?

It seems to me perfectly logical that creatures created on the negative evil planes would be made of negative energy and be harmed by positive energy.

While there is often a correlation, there is no causal connection between the inner planes of Positive and Negative energy and the outer planes of [Good] and [Evil]. Creatures with the [Evil] subtype are not undead by default, and undead are healed by Negative energy because it's what animates them, not because they're Evil.

[frogglesmash]

Positive and Negative energy are associated with life and death, and are typically only correlated with good and evil due to that association.

[doctor doughnut]

Negative Energy and Evil are different. Negative Energy is not ''Evil". The same way Life is not Good and Death is not Evil.

Or to put it another way: [evil] subtype folks are made of EVIL, not ''negative energy".

[hamishspence]

More "imbued with" than "made of" - it's possible, via a Savage Species ritual, to gain the Evil subtype without changing your actual alignment. And the subtype can be replaced with a different one using the same ritual.

[KillianHawkeye]

Most creatures with the Evil subtype are alive, and thus interact with positive and negative energies the same way as all other living creatures.

[DrMotives]

The most common spells that use positive & negative energy, the cure spells and the inflict spells, have no alignment tags at all. These energies are just tools; completely neutral by themselves.

[hamishspence]

That said, there's some alignment association, at least for clerics.

A Good cleric gains the ability to spontaneously cast Cure spells, and an Evil cleric gains the ability to spontaneously cast Inflict spells. Using Turn Undead (channelling positive energy) is considered a Good act, and using Command Undead (channelling negative energy) is considered an Evil act.

So even if the energies themselves are unaligned - there's a tie between Good and Positive, and a similar tie between Evil and Negative.