D&D 4E Alingment Impact on 4e

[hawkwing2k5]

Question what impact does alingment have in the 4th ed.
Prior editions it had effects on classes magic gods and magic items.

 

[Nikosandros]

As far as I can tell, alignment has basically no impact on the game, which makes me wonder why they kept it...

As a cleric or paladin, you might face restrictions on the deity at character creation, but later you could became chaotic evil and you wouldn't face any mechanical repercussions as a worshipper of Bahamut.

 

[Tale]

If it serves any purpose, it's mainly to let you know a bit about what you can expect from characters of the alignment. Nothing mechanical.

 

[darkadelphia]

YMMV, but I like the way alignment is handled now. It's there to serve as a focus to your character's world view at character creation, but PCs are free to react dynamically to the world around them. I've enjoyed watching the players in my game roleplay different expressions of their alignments as the situation changes around them in ways they may have felt unable to do in previous editions.

 

[Gloombunny]

One of the paladin paragon paths has a power that works better against evil creatures. That's pretty much it as far as rules effects of alignment go.

 

[Cryptos]

As far as I can tell, alignment has basically no impact on the game, which makes me wonder why they kept it...

As a cleric or paladin, you might face restrictions on the deity at character creation, but later you could became chaotic evil and you wouldn't face any mechanical repercussions as a worshipper of Bahamut.

Sacred cows and all that. The 4e backlash from traditionalists might have been even greater had they left it out completely.

I really like that there's no mechanical aspect to it, and I also (very much) like that divine powered characters aren't effectively acting with the tacit approval of their gods if they remain empowered, but rather that divine power derives from a sort of ordination ritual by a church or religious group and is not an endorsement of every divine character's actions by their gods. This allows for the political cleric or demagogue that is focused on worldly personal power and only chooses a god because that god is popular, a common enough character in fiction. Evil clerics of a good god make for excellent recurring villains, as they often have the support of people who are otherwise good or unaligned that the heroes are reluctant to face.

 

[BendBars/LiftGates]

Also, there's one rule in the DMG that calls on alignment (the only one, as far as I've seen). Sacred circles grant a bonus to attacks on anyone standing in them who has the same alignment as the god to whom they're dedicated.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

Thankfully, none

Now I can ignore alignment in my game without having to ban/houserule spells and abilities.

Seriously, Detect Evil has been banned in my table since forever...

 

[babinro]

Mechanically speaking, it has miniscule impact on the game. There are more exceptions that actually mention alignment rather than mechanics revolving around them.

However, alignment still matters just as much as it ever would have in a role playing sense. If you choose to use an alignment it gives you an idea of what gods you'd be likely to follow or align with...and what gods you'd likely conflict with. Essentially, alignment is one of those non-combat focuses on the game that apparently no longer exists in 4E according to some people.

 

[DracoSuave]

Alignment has been replaced with a section that outlines things that are actually more integral to your character's personality, how he reacts to things, what events have driven him, etc.

In otherwords, a deeper and more realistic view of the character, while retaining that 'We're the good guys, they're the bad guys, we must defeat them' of superheroic fantasy lore.