Moral questions of a D&D world...

[Hida Bukkorosu]

I'm interested in people's thoughts on the morality of various implications of a world in which D&D style magic exists...

For example, a socially inept (low CHA) yet highly intelligent guy turns to magic, specifically the "Charm Person" spell in order to help with his datelessness. Moral or immoral?

How moral is capital punishment for murder in a world where restitution CAN be made for death? A world where the victim's loved ones can take a few thousand gold to the local cleric and have their beloved husband and father back?

 

[gfunk]

For example, a socially inept (low CHA) yet highly intelligent guy turns to magic, specifically the "Charm Person" spell in order to help with his datelessness. Moral or immoral?

Immoral. Use spells to buff you up like eagle's splendor.

Also, from a purely mechanistic point of view, you still have to make opposed Cha checks to convince her of something she would not ordinarily do. This may be very difficult.

How moral is capital punishment for murder in a world where restitution CAN be made for death? A world where the victim's loved ones can take a few thousand gold to the local cleric and have their beloved husband and father back?

Raise dead is quite expensive and you still lose a level in the process. However, it depends on the rationale for capital punishment. If it is an "eye for an eye" philosophy, then I think financial restitution is possible. However, if the death penalty is meant to remove a danger from society, then possible ressurection is not an issue.

 

[Piratecat]

Here's one I built an adventure around:

a king is killed, and his brother became king. Later, the king is raised. So... is he still the king?

The new king didn't think so.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Here's one I built an adventure around:

a king is killed, and his brother became king. Later, the king is raised. So... is he still the king?

The new king didn't think so.

You'd think that kinda thing would get all spelled out in the "Kingdoms for Dummies" book...

 

[Hand of Evil]

Everyone knows my soapbox, define evil and build world myth, so I will not say to much there but I do think there would be rules and taboos against it, call it the date rape drug of the D&D world, there would be enough worry by concerned population of miss use to make it an evil and immoral act as it should be.

As with raise dead spells you have the issue of law, as PirateCat said "Who, is the king" but also think of the knowledge that the dead hold, how many secrets can an evil cleric gather from raising the dead? Now, how much is it worth to keep that knowledge from the population?

Government bodies, the rich, power groups would work together to illegalize anything that could be treat to them, spells as charm and raise dead are just two.

 

[Dark Jezter]

For example, a socially inept (low CHA) yet highly intelligent guy turns to magic, specifically the "Charm Person" spell in order to help with his datelessness. Moral or immoral?

A socially inept yet hightly intelligent guy spikes his date's drink with rufies so that he can take advantage of her. Moral or immoral?

I think the answer is pretty clear.

How moral is capital punishment for murder in a world where restitution CAN be made for death? A world where the victim's loved ones can take a few thousand gold to the local cleric and have their beloved husband and father back?

The average commoner makes 1 silver piece per day. A raise dead spell costs 5,000 gp to cast. Only the very wealthy could afford to raise their dead loved ones, and they would also have to find a cleric powerful enough to cast raise dead. Clerics that powerful usually aren't hanging out in every local church.

 

[Henry]

It's called "sue for damages."

I think most can be handled through drawing simple parallels. In the case of murder and Raise Dead, it's more like paying for someone's hospital bill after aggravated assault. It still won't get you off of aggravated assault if they press charges. Now THERE's a weird image:

"Sir, do you wish to press charges for your murder?"

Basically, Murder now becomes a slightly higher aggravated assault, and Irreversible Murder is a new term for what we norms know as Murder.

 

[Ylis]

I'd say, in response to the morality question of the dateless wizard using Charm spells to get the ladies...it would really depend on his alignment. A lawful character would likely find this immoral, as it would be an "unnatural" bending of the will of another for selfish purposes. Chaotic characters, however, would likely NOT find this a moral issue. Neutral ones, of course, would kind of be on the fence about it.

As for the second issue, I would say, again, it would be an alignment thing. If the general alignment of the kingdom was Lawful, it would be an "eye for an eye" issue, where capital punishment would be expected. In a more Chaotic instance, he would likely be charged to pay restitution and buy the resurrection for the family. Neutral, could be either/or

 

[Umbran]

It's called "sue for damages."

IIRC, the appropriate term is "weregild".

It is perhaps importantto remember that in ages past,in some places (Britain and the Norselands come to mind, I think the Celts called it "ericfine") murder and grievous bodily harm were not quite so heinous a crime as they are today, so long as the perpetrator could pay the weregild. If you kill someone, or knock out a tooth, or maim a leg, you fork over the cash, and you're done.

The early British legal system was a nasty, tangled thing, and they were proud of the fact. So, the above is massivly oversimplified. Take it as a starting place.

 

[Squire James]

First of all, Charm Person is not the aphrodesiac everyone seems to think it is. It would "break the ice", but it's hardly a date rape drug. It gets the date started, but there's still plenty free will on the target's part regarding the end result. With this in mind, I don't think of this as an evil activity, but it's definitely "against the rules" and would be considered a chaotic activity. Something stronger like Dominate being cast for such purposes is clearly both evil and chaotic (casting Dominate for other reasons can indicate other alignment tendencies).

As for the "reversible death" issue, I suppose a murderer might purchase himself out of sentence by paying for the Raise Dead and paying some more to the victim in restitution for the crime and compensation for that lost level or Con point. It depends on how lawful the justice system is... a tight system of law would probably levy those fines and THEN execute the perp to prevent him from doing it again. A looser system (such as that of the Vikings) would call it even after the money was paid.