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Disguise undead (Spell Compendium 66) is a glamer that adjusts the touched corporeal undead creature to look like a similarly-shaped creature to an extent you decide, and also masks the undead creature’s undead nature, stating the following:

The spell also foils magical means of detecting undead. The subject of disguise undead detects as a creature of the type simulated.

Does this mean a mummy disguised as an astral deva (an angel with 12 Hit Dice) would have an overwhelming aura of good for the purposes of detect good spells? If it’s an evil mummy, would it also have an overwhelming evil aura (as appropriate for an evil angel), or only a faint evil aura (as appropriate to a non-undead non-outsider non-cleric with 8 Hit Dice)? No evil aura at all?

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Disguise Undead does not affect the Aura of the Mummy

Disguise Undead does not change the Undead's type, it only makes it look different when its type is observed.

The spell does not provide the abilities or mannerisms of the chosen form... A battleaxe made to look like a dagger still functions as a battleaxe.

Because the Undead is not actually changing type to a Celestial in the example, its aura does not change to being "Overwhelmingly Good," because the creature is still mechanically and fundamentally an Undead, and Disguise Undead does not change the mechanics of the creature.

Thus, it would have whatever aura suited the alignment of the undead.

If, however, the Undead was somehow polymorphed into a Celestial through some effect, like Wish, then it's Alignment would change because the creature was fundamentally changing type.

You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment.)

It would be becoming a Celestial instead of looking like one.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ No. This spell does NOT change the creature type. If you cast "control undead" for example on a disguised mummy the mummy is still a VALID target because the mummy is still an undead type creature. There is no type change. There is no alignment change. This spell simply give you immunity to detect undead and, because of this, you will be detected (with detect spells) as something else. But your type, alignment, class/creature abilities are unaffected. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mouza
    Oct 22, 2018 at 15:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Mouza Good spot, thanks. I completely missed that typo. \$\endgroup\$
    – SeraphsWrath
    Oct 22, 2018 at 15:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ No problem. I removed the -1 since you edited...does not understand why my answer has so much downvotes xD \$\endgroup\$
    – Mouza
    Oct 22, 2018 at 15:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Mouza While commenting on other answers for different answers is generally frowned-upon, I think the main issue is that your answer misses some stuff, namely, you say it only affects Detect Undead, but really, it messes with any spell or ability that would show what type the creature is, and also beats-around-the-brush a little. \$\endgroup\$
    – SeraphsWrath
    Oct 22, 2018 at 15:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ This is correct, but would benefit from a more detailed discussion of the nuances of detect evil (i.e. detect evil is, in fact, partially type-based and-- while the mummy certainly doesn't get the aura of the mimicked creature-- it's much trickier to suss out whether the detection spell uses the line for 'undead' or the emulated creature type when calculating percieved aura strength. \$\endgroup\$
    – Please stop being evil
    Oct 23, 2018 at 4:53
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Rule as written the answer is no.

The spell does not provide the abilities or mannerisms of the chosen form. It does not alter the perceived tactile (touch) or audible (sound) properties of the undead or its equipment. A battleaxe made to look like a dagger still functions as a battleaxe.

This spell also foils magical means of detecting undead. The subject of disguise undead detects as a creature of the type simulated.

The spell is simple: you have an horrible zombie as a cohort? With disguise undead you can "transform it" in a beautiful elf... ...but your "beautiful elf" will continue to sound like a zombie, smell like a zombie and move like a zombie.

EDIT: The only thing that this spell do is give the affected undead an immunity to detect undead since the mummy will be detected (ONLY detected) as something else. The mummy type is still undead. Everything that works on undead will work on mummy since the type is not changed.

Detect undead

So, in short, is useless if used on a zombie or generic mindless undead...it can be usefull on a vampire, or a mummy or a lich but keep in mind the undead will continue to be EVIL to detect alignment.

Ofcourse, since an intelligent undead is intelligent, and since usually an intelligent undead like a mummy or a lich possess levels in a spellcaster class (cleric or wizard for example) it's easy to bluff alignment and other things.

Undetectable Alignment

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Oct 23, 2018 at 6:32

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