Well as a cleric I've got to be lawful, and if I was evil all my friends would beat me up, so good. :3
+1xXxJessicaxXx said:Chaotic Good becuase that's how I am in real life.
Paladins do my head in. >_>
Read Order of the Stick and compare the main character, Roy's Lawful Good to the paladin Miko Miyazaki's version of Lawful Good. Very different approaches. Miko tends towards Lawful Stupid in my book.Lyri said:+1xXxJessicaxXx said:Chaotic Good becuase that's how I am in real life.
Paladins do my head in. >_>
Good at whatever the cost.
Paladins who do shit by the book make me rage something fierce.
DnD is made to be malliable. There was a DnD book that detailed how you can deal with alignment and how the basic DnD alignment assumes what is good is good and bad is bad. Plus your example has to do with annoying players and a not forceful enough DM.Eacaraxe said:You know, as someone who's been playing D&D for over 20 years...not to drop a loaf on the alignment party, but D&D alignment sucks. It's overbroad, poorly worded, objective by metagame rule opposed to subjective by society, and overall poorly designed.
Back in, 2003 I think, I ran a midlevel "evil" campaign. One player rolled in with a drow cleric whose alignment was listed as "lawful good", just to make a point to a holy roller munchkin/rules lawyer who also happened to be in the game. When said rules lawyer lost his shit over an LG Drow Cleric of Lolth, he asked for a reading of the alignment system and the archetypal list of traits shared by the alignments:
Respect and reverence for authority: Follow the teachings of Lolth, and submit to the house Matron. Anyone who disobeys either is put to death, as per the demands of goddess and Matron.
Respect and obeisance to the law: Drow society is far more structured than most books and DM's play. To disrupt that structure is to disobey both the law and Lolth's will.
Desire to help society at large: The weak don't deserve to live, and should be put to quick death if they have no value as slaves. Through weeding out the weak and forcing those who can benefit society as slaves to be such, society is strengthened and its ultimate purpose furthered.
Kindness to others and mercy: A quick death is merciful in Drow society. To challenge others and craft conflict is to weed out the weak, which benefits society, and to strengthen and uplift those who are not weak is a kindness and benefits society. To challenge those in power, succeed, and most importantly not get caught, is also within Lolth's dictate and strengthens society by ensuring the most fit, rule.
Objectively, neutral evil. Yet, entirely within the purview of LG as relevant to Drow society, whereas an "evil" or "chaotic" character in that context would seek to undermine Lolth's authority and weaken society by allowing the weak to live freely. Said munchkin reluctantly ceded the point, and the Drow player relisted his alignment to NE as was his original plan before the argument that started the whole thing.
Side note, if you're playing a human sorcerer/pale master working towards becoming a lich, it's a Phenomenally Bad Idea to cheese off a female drow cleric who took a monster crapload of turning feats.
If I had to go for an old school FRPG alignment system, it would be Palladium's in a heartbeat, in which I prefer unprincipled and aberrant.