D&D General A friend of mine has joined A 5E Dnd Group, has decided to play A Robin Hood Style character and wants to know what people think of his character

[AnotherGuy]

Sadly my mate thinking is that even laws that are both completely biased and totally corrupt are still laws and that someone that has to break such laws in order to give the poor the things they need to survive would be of Lawful Evil Alignment

Okay that would relate to Lawful or Chaotic not Good or Evil.
Generally there are two ways to look at it

1a. Lawful - abide by the laws and correct them through the system.
1b. Chaotic - do not abide to the laws because the system is corrupt.

2a. Lawful - abide by your personal code, nevermind the system that exists.
2b. Chaotic - your personal code is ever-changing, nevermind the system that exists.

By system I mean man-made rules, natural laws...etc
And remember there is Neutral, when one is not tied to the one (system) or the other (personal code).

You should probably determine which of the above (1) and (2) best suits the table, that way everyone is on the same page when defining their character's alignment.

 

[Immeril]

A lawful evil character would see a well-ordered system as being necessary to fulfill their own personal wants and needs, using these systems to further their power and influence.
Since Robin Hood breaks the law (albeit a corrupt one) in order to help the poor, this character would be neutral good. A NG character typically acts altruistically, without regard for or against lawful precepts such as rules or tradition. They have no problems with cooperating with lawful officials, but does not feel beholden to them. In the event that doing the right thing requires the bending or breaking of rules, they do not suffer the same inner conflict that a lawful good character would.

 

[aco175]

The character seems fine and not overpowered or anything. Dragon Magazine did a good campaign look at Sherwood and the Robin Hood game, I think back in 3e days. I think they had most of the 'outlaws' as Chaotic Good. I would be ok with that since they would be doing what is considered 'good' for the land, but not Lawful since they are not following the laws of the land. They believe the laws are evil in a kind of Bizarro world. Maybe when Richard is restored to the throne, they would be considered now LG.

Maybe the alignment on the paper is not the end all, but how the player plays it. LE is generally considered to act within the law but twist it to your needs, or to know when and where to commit bad things. I think LE is more like Darth Vader and Robin Hood is more Han Solo, but an evil Robin Hood could be a fun game.

 

[akr71]

I think it is more important what the table thinks, since he is playing an evil aligned character. In what way does the character plan to act out his evil and will that conflict with the party or its future goals?

Wondering about the alignment choice myself. Robin Hood needs a Sherriff of Nottingham or Prince John to push him to be an outlaw and history would paint them as the Lawful Evil axis in Robin Hood's story. Robins is more Chaotic Good, or Chaotic Neutral - steal from the rich, give to the poor., doing what he perceives as good, no matter the cost.

 

[JMISBEST]

I've just thought of something

Is it possible that in some situations, like this 1, theirs no right or wrong Alignment to assign a Pc or Npc,? it just comes down to a individuals opinion and different people could have different opinions on what alignment the same Pc or Npc should be

Here's a few examples from this thread

My mate counts him as Lawful Evil

akr71 would count him as either Chaotic Good or Chaotic Good

aco175 would class him as Lawful Evil

AnotherGuy would class him as either Lawful or Chaotic

If it were up to me the alignment I'd assign him would depend on what source he's based on

If he's based on Robin Hood as he is in The Disney Animated Movie I'd class him as Lawful Good

If he's based on how Robin Hood is in the books I'd class him as Lawful Evil

If he's based on how Robin Hood is in the TV Show from roughly a decade ago I'd say Lawful Evil in Series 1, Neutral Evil in Series 2 and Chaotic Good in series 3

If he's based on how Robin Hood is in the films I'd say Neutral Good

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Lawful Evil is really more of a "rob the poor to feed the rich" kind of alignment...

 

[GuyBoy]

Breaking obviously evil laws to help others is an inherently Good act. The Robin Hood legend is an example of this. As a more modern example ( but avoiding current politics) a person such as Sophie Scholl (and the other White Rose activists) were clearly Good, because they broke the laws of a tyrannical Nazi state which epitomised Evil.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If he's based on how Robin Hood is in the books I'd class him as Lawful Evil.

Have you read the D&D alignments system? It defines evil thusly:

• Evil implies harming, oppressing, and killing others. Some evil creatures simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualms if doing so is convenient or if it can be set up. Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some malevolent deity or master.

In any of the stories, is Robin Hood ever an oppressor? Is he without compassion or qualms? Does he kill for fun?

And lawful evil, thus:

Lawful evil​

Archetype: Dominator

A lawful evil character sees a well-ordered system as being necessary to fulfil their own personal wants and needs, using these systems to further their power and influence. Examples of this alignment include tyrants, devils, corrupt officials, undiscriminating mercenary types who have a strict code of conduct, blue dragons, and hobgoblins.

 

[CreamCloud0]

when you're dealing with alignment in campaigns i think IMO that there are two things that are essential to make sure it works smoothly:
1) that everyone at the table is working off a consistent shared definition of what each alignment stands for and
2) that alignment isn't relative/won't change depending on who is doing the judging
now that second point sounds like it might be a little tricky in your/their campaign world due to the world working off the church's corrupted assignments meaning they're going to be needing to constantly mentally rotate their own alignment meanings 90 degrees to fit the world's definitions.

 

[Tonguez]

My helpful comment - alignment sucks just ignore it. Robin Hood however is not evil, so if you must make him Neutral

For your stats I’d put Wis higher than Int

And Centaur language? I dunno if Robin Hood had that many conversations with Centaurs