Dread Necromancer just turned Good by magic.

[Xgya]

The player doesn't mind his character basically joining his brethren in Goodness as part of their adventuring party, the party itself is pleased at his change of direction, but I wonder what would happen given that the class itself says "non-good characters only".

What happens to those class features? I figured he can't take any more levels in that class by RAW, but how else would the game handle the changes?

This is a small group, Gestalt game. He's a Cleric//Dread Necromancer. He got the Atonement quite easily, changed patrons and accepted his new role after the Helm basically zapped him into another worldview. (kids, don't just put strange helms you found inside a haunted ship on your head)

[JNAProductions]

RAW, they cannot take more levels. I don't think they lose existing features, but I'm not sure.

That being said... It's your table. Ignore that rule if it'd be more fun to let the player continue their existing progression.

[Tzardok]

The description of the class doesn't mention that any class features are lost if you don't fulfill the alignment restriction anymore, so they don't lose any.

[icefractal]

Well first off, you need to answer the question - is creating undead evil?
RAW, it is, but there's no good reason given for this in the fiction. So you can either decide "yes, it's evil" and create a reason for that, or you can decide "no, it's not really evil, it just has a bad rep because a lot of evil people do it".

In the former case, I would suggest trading out the Dread Necromancer levels, either all at once or spread out over some time. Maybe if the game is low-op and combat-light then having a bunch of almost-useless levels wouldn't hurt, but in most games it wouldn't work well.

In the latter case, I'd allow the class to keep progressing, because "undead creation is evil" seems like the only reason for it even having that requirement.

[RandomPeasant]

RAW, they cannot take more levels. I don't think they lose existing features, but I'm not sure.

Unless there's a general rule I'm missing, they're fine to take more levels. You can't become a Dread Necromancer if you're good, but you can keep gaining levels (just as you can keep gaining PrC levels if you've stopped meeting the requirements). You definitely don't lose any features, as there's no "Ex-Dread Necromancers" entry describing how that happens. In any case, there's certainly nothing that stops you from advancing your Dread Necromancer casting, so the character could simply PrC out and become a Divine Oracle or something.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Suggest he take the Loyalty's Reward feat from Kingdoms of Kalamar? He's head of an organization (that consists of undead, but still), so he qualifies for it. Loyalty's Reward allows you to make up your own feat, so just say he uses positive energy instead of negative to create loyal, non-mindless, deathless versions of whatever undead he otherwise would've made, based on positive energy, which take damage from negative energy and heal from positive energy (but are still considered non-living). Also have it push dread necromancer into being Good- (or Neutral-) aligned and reverse all the negative energy effects into being positive energy effects, and creating deathless is considered a neutral act, rather than evil (unless it's done for good or evil purposes, of course; it's just that the act itself isn't weighted in either direction).

[Lord Foul]

Prestige class time

[Thurbane]

They are one of those base classes that has reqs, but doesn't have an "Ex-Dread Necromancers" section.

Short answer - ask the DM.

Could be no effect whatsoever, could be inability to take any more levels, or could be a loss of all existing class features...

[Jervis]

The player doesn't mind his character basically joining his brethren in Goodness as part of their adventuring party, the party itself is pleased at his change of direction, but I wonder what would happen given that the class itself says "non-good characters only".

What happens to those class features? I figured he can't take any more levels in that class by RAW, but how else would the game handle the changes?

This is a small group, Gestalt game. He's a Cleric//Dread Necromancer. He got the Atonement quite easily, changed patrons and accepted his new role after the Helm basically zapped him into another worldview. (kids, don't just put strange helms you found inside a haunted ship on your head)

This tells me it’s time for him to find a Coutle temple in the forest

[MaxiDuRaritry]

This tells me it’s time for him to find a Coutle temple in the forestAlso known as "The Cuddle Temple."

[Particle_Man]

His familiar is going to be *so* angry! :smallsmile:

I second the idea of reversing the powers (cure disease and restoration, positive energy, create deathless rather than undead) and possibly changing some spells on the spell list. I wouldn’t even make the player pay a feat tax for it - just make the changes (in agreement with the character).

Alternatively substitute in levels of a souped up version of healer, perhaps?

[Xgya]

A few great suggestions here.

He's already started to see creating undead as a force that should be best kept under rather strict control (and I even let him animate his first Karrnathi Undead because he went and negotiated with the dead before raising it) and that happened BEFORE the alignment change, so giving him access to some special undead creation rules isn't entirely off the table.
The alignment switch made him go from Lawful Evil to Chaotic Good, so I figured he'd be even less likely to favor what he now treats as direct slavery.

At first I thought about giving him half the version of Warlock's The Dead Walk, allowing him to create temporary undead as a non-[evil] act because it doesn't bring forth a permanent source of evil into the world, removing the material costs as a tradeoff, and letting that work with even stronger spells like Create Undead but letting him have direct control over the temporary undead instead of being forced to use alternative means - effectively turning them into advanced versions of Summon Undead spells. Not entirely sure how that would affect balance, but the undead created by those spells tend to be close enough in CR to half the caster's level, which is also very close to actual Summon Monster spells. If I'm missing anything, I'd like to know now so I don't get nasty surprises.
Oh, and and I houseruled that, since summoned monsters cannot use summoning abilities, temporary or summoned undead cannot create spawn. Lore wise, that's because both acts require part of the creature's essence, and a summoned being's essence isn't really "there".

Their party is currently much more invested into building a grounds of operation than actual adventuring, mostly because the first part of what was supposed to be a dungeon crawl involved cleaning an old fort of its inhabitants, and they decided they'd just restore and keep the place.
The character itself has been a Cleric out of combat (though he has a few long-lasting buffs active, he's been spending most of his spells on divinations and construction magic), and a Dread Necromancer while in combat, using negative energy and debuffs to help his allies.

I'd rather not introduce positive-energy undead if I can avoid it, given that the Dread Necromancer himself would still very much be an undead Necropolitan that's not, his class features might clash.

As far as the setting goes, negative energy isn't inherently evil. Creating undead definitely is.
I think I'll have the player think of creating undead as the [evil] act it is by comparing it to cold-blooded murder. E.g: "So you need someone to guard your door. Would that be worth murdering somebody over it?"

[Jervis]

Also known as "The Cuddle Temple."

Ok my setting now uses an adaptation of Rainbow Servant called Fluffy Servant, they serve celestial cats with the Kaiju template. They now give the Good, Cat, and Chaos domains.

[Particle_Man]

Not all undead are evil. Could he specialize in good undead (some ghosts, for example)?

[Gruftzwerg]

By RAW a Dread Necromancer (DN) still has all abilities when he turns good. But any use of Creating Undead is still an evil act.
When he distances himself from creating those he could remain "good" but not gain any levels in Dread Necromancer anymore.

From here you have 2 options (by RAW):

1) pick any non-evil PRC and ignore the DN abilities

2) Legacy Champion (loses up to 2 caster level but gets you the DN abilities)
The Legacy Champion has no alignment restrictions and IIRC the alignment restrictions of the former class don't carry over.

[ShurikVch]

From the "Shades of Death" article (Dragon #289):

The White Path
Without a doubt the most unusual spellcasters, good necromancers are very few and far between. They live apart from more mundane societies, knowing that only a few people can grasp the complexities of the necromantic arts enough to see beyond their capability for evil. Good necromancers prepare spells to heal their undead allies, and they often spend enough time with intelligent individual undead creatures to get to know them. They never use undead simply as expendable shock troops or walking trap detectors. As rare as good necromancers are, rarer still are the ones who don't wince a bit when one of their creations falls.
Other good necromancers study the art as a part of the "know thy enemy" philosophy. These are the ones who are near fanatical in their need to seek out and destroy the evil necromancers who abuse their powers. They fight fire with fire to bring evil to its knees.
Lawful Good: Lawful good necromancers are usually militant, dedicated to stamping out those who use Necromancy for evil deeds. Rather than count on a vast horde of lowly skeletons, they create a few undead troops, empowered by as many spells and enhancements as they are capable of casting. These spellcasters move with their undead allies, bolstering and supporting the creatures with spells and items. The undead of a lawful good necromancer are often organized in military-like groups, with commanders reporting to the necromancer and relaying orders to the lower level adjutants.
Neutral Good: Neutral good necromancers range from comical to insane. They often employ undead servants for mundane tasks, such as chopping wood or hauling goods. Neutral good necromancers realize that many of the physical hardships that the living must suffer through can be done easily with undead workers, and they often forget or ignore the many unpleasant attributes of undead. Digging latrines, dredging swamps, hauling massive stone blocks for the temple, all are jobs that can be done swiftly and easily with the proper work force. Neutral good necromancers aren't afraid to send their minions into battle, as long as it is in order to help out someone in need. They don't go looking for trouble, but they don't mind settling it. They view undead as tools and resources.
Chaotic Good: Chaotic good necromancers are the ones most likely to treat their undead as boon companions. Treating their creations with fairness and equality, they form a band of well-trained, well-behaved undead adventurers. Only a few bands such as this have ever existed, but the benefits of undeath cannot be overestimated when you are hunting down vampires, medusae, or other powerful monsters. Undead following the tutelage of chaotic good necromancers have, from time to time, branched out to fight evil on their own, merging with evil hordes and destroying them from the inside. These close-knit groups of intelligent undead surrounding chaotic good necromancers are truly a force to be reckoned with.
Embrace the White Path!.. :smallwink:

[rel]

If the player is wants to play a good necromancer then lean into that, strike the alignment requirement from the class (my standing advice for all alignment, organisation, relationship and racial restrictions anyway) and continue playing as normal.

If you want a good dread necromancer who can continue to level I suggest the 'evil' necromancer:
The 'evil' necromancer is an undeniably good person. They help the needy, oppress the wicked, enjoy life, look out for their party and are very much the moral compass of any group of murder hobos they travel with.
However, due to their constant use of magic labelled as 'evil' by the gods the necromancers alignment quickly switches to and remains evil.
The necromancer isn't usually bothered by this but probably sees the prescribed alignments handed down by the gods as a divine scam and probably has some spectacular rants on the subject.