Was V's act evil? (Probable spoilers!)

[Vegepygmy]

Lets say that 500 of the black dragons killed were definitely evil and absolutely going to come after V and his family. 500 weren't, and probably weren't even bad people. What then? Is there a numeric tipping point?

Assuming just for the sake of argument that it is never evil to kill an evil creature...killing even 1 innocent non-evil creature in order to kill 999 (or 999,999,999) evil creatures would still be an evil act.

It might be wonderfully beneficial to the world as a whole, but it's unambiguously Evil according to D&D morality.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

If this thread has taught me anything, it's that some people will go to any length to claim that PCs aren't allowed to commit evil actions - because apparently even when they do, it's just redefined as somehow being good.

 

[Gunpowder]

Casting Familicide is an evil action because the spell has the [Evil] descriptor.
It was personally designed by an evil necromancer, she would have had throw in the evil just to keep up appearances.

 

[RefinedBean]

because apparently even when they do, it's just redefined as somehow being good.

Well, I'm not claiming this was a good act, by any means. It was definitely a neutral act.

This is OotS. This is D&D rules, and thus D&D morality. If you mess with a thief's family, the thief will stab you in the back, and maybe twist the knife.

If you mess with a high-level magic user's family, you end up having your family messed with. Your ENTIRE family.

Fair's fair. Maybe V's defense went a little far, but it was, in the end, merely a defense. No evil in that, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Derren]

Fair's fair. Maybe V's defense went a little far, but it was, in the end, merely a defense. No evil in that, as far as I'm concerned.

With this reasoning you can justify any sort of genocide or ethnic cleansing everywhere as "It was just defence. The might have attacked me in the future"

Also, don't forget that V started this thing, so according to you what ACB did was totally justified and fair as V messed with her family first.
That means if the ABD would have succeeded in killing Vs family and bind the souls then this would not have been evil.

Hey, if you kill good creatures, they go to an eternal afterlife of bliss, but if you kill evil creatures, you condemn them to an eternal afterlife of horrible evil existence. So killing evil creatures is kind of evil always, but killing good ones is sorta good...

Considering what the ABD says when V raises her as undead it doesn't sound like that she comes from a very horrible place.

 

[hagor]

No-brainer for me: evil.

To be more precise:

E-V-I-L

I honestly do not understand the people who see this as something different.
Alignment of "victims": irrelevant
The act, the intent, the means: Evil

Hagor

 

[MarkB]

Do you feel that his action was evil because of its motivation, or do you feel that it would have been evil even if his motivation was otherwise?

Lets say that 500 of the black dragons killed were definitely evil and absolutely going to come after V and his family. 500 weren't, and probably weren't even bad people. What then? Is there a numeric tipping point?

Even if all 1,000 of the dragons were evil, this would still be an evil act.

An Evil alignment is not an all-purpose "all morality bets are off, go ahead and slaughter me" badge - it means only that the creature in question is predisposed towards selfish, unkind actions. An evil creature - even a black dragon - might go through its entire existence without ever commiting acts so vile as to require a death sentence, even under medieval-style penal codes. Killing someone just because you know they're not a nice person is unambiguously evil.

 

[roguerouge]

Put me down in the camp that

a) he cast a spell with an [evil] descriptor;
b) the intent was revenge as well as self-defense;
c) what about that half-dragon guy?;
d) once used, it will tempt and corrupt V, as V will find excuses to start using the spell again and again to solve problems;
e) you can't be that cold-blooded without it coming back to haunt you, as repression of all empathy and feeling simply doesn't work long-term;
f) it's not like V has even had the ability to offer a feeble apology to a grieving mother even before the dragon mother's plan was unveiled;
g) he just ramped up the arcane arms race, which has dire consequences as well;
h) the spell requires the hubris to believe that you know what ultimate fate creatures deserve even though you've never met them.

The "EVIL" stamp comes out and its red ink stains the character sheet indelibly.

 

[roguerouge]

Why does this always happen to the black folks? Can't a black girl catch a break in the white elf's world?

 

[roguerouge]

Couldn't V have resolved this problem, by, you know, getting the dragon child raised?