D&D General I can't help it - every pure wizard I ever make has turned or will turn "evil" (even if only in my own mind).

[ph0rk]

1) Does this bother you?

Not really, other than (at times) it gets increasingly difficult to reason out why the character would bother to help the party with their problems. You can meta-game anything of course, and I decide what the character does after all, but it is an interesting tendency I've noticed.

Not every table is comfortable with characters being retired early (and that's fine), so sometimes that metagaming needs to happen. Not a big deal, I make the decisions. Sometimes those decisions involve create undead, infernal calling, or a planar binding/magic circle/summon greater demon medley.

 

[Alzrius]

This is such a common turn of events I try to plan against it with backstories and so on, but it never lasts. Some time around levels 9 or 11, they start turning to the dark side.

A pain I know all too well.

 

[LordEntrails]

Sounds like your issue is that you have a very limited view of what a wizard is / can be / should be / or what you want them to be. Broaden your view, envision a paladin with magic. Driven by a code of righteousness and/or pure love for others. Remove the selfishness from your character vision and they will have no reason to turn to evil.

Or don't and accept your vision of power corrupts.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Sounds like your issue is that you have a very limited view of what a wizard is / can be / should be / or what you want them to be. Broaden your view, envision a paladin with magic. Driven by a code of righteousness and/or pure love for others. Remove the selfishness from your character vision and they will have no reason to turn to evil.

Or don't and accept your vision of power corrupts.

yeah but thats hard... it's way easier to just let power corrupt (this is a joke)

 

[GuyBoy]

I play a pretty even mix of martials and casters, and my martials tend to be more grounded in local cultures and issues (and local morality; unless they're from somewhere else) while the casters can be less so - but none as detached as the wizards all tend to be.



Nope!

Perhaps I should explain, and I love the “I’m the Sword” references btw!
@TheSword and I have been part of a face-to-face group for many years, with he and I sharing the DM-ing.
He’s an awesome DM and player, but we have a running joke that his spellcaster characters always start as decent enough, but always slide inexorably towards the sinister. The incident with the blanket springs to mind or the cutting off of the thumb or Gaunty in general.
Whilst my own characters are, of course, noble, decent, upstanding and honest, and I have a bridge to sell you!

 

[GuyBoy]

PS cool thread.

 

[Shiroiken]

I'm TheSword! And my wife's TheSword too!

I have a response to this, based on the nickname of a friend and his wife, but might be considered NSFW:

Spoiler

TheSword and TheSheath?

 

[ph0rk]

Sounds like your issue is that you have a very limited view of what a wizard is / can be / should be / or what you want them to be. Broaden your view, envision a paladin with magic. Driven by a code of righteousness and/or pure love for others. Remove the selfishness from your character vision and they will have no reason to turn to evil.

Or don't and accept your vision of power corrupts.

I don't see why any such code would survive learning how to bend the multiverse to your will.

And, they don't all start selfish, in fact I've gone out of my way to give them reasons not to be but... dude, there's a multiverse out there! Also I can make copies of myself without free will to do things for me. And, of course, undead labor. See also: fireballs as war crimes. And how do we think the spirits we summon to die for us feel about it?

Also: yes, I too am TheSword (but I'm not, I'm a fork!)

 

[James Gasik]

I don't see why any such code would survive learning how to bend the multiverse to your will.

And, they don't all start selfish, in fact I've gone out of my way to give them reasons not to be but... dude, there's a multiverse out there! Also I can make copies of myself without free will to do things for me. And, of course, undead labor. See also: fireballs as war crimes. And how do we think the spirits we summon to die for us feel about it?

Also: yes, I too am TheSword (but I'm not, I'm a fork!)

Hm. So someone attempted to cast The Sword, then ph0rk was cast, copying it on the stack...oh sorry, that's a joke only someone who plays an obscure children's card game would get.

 

[Azzy]

I haven't had this issue, myself. The only wizard I played that went through an alignment shift became good. Fun character, that.