D&D 5E Is trafficking in soul coins ostensibly evil?

[Ruin Explorer]

If you're coincidentally coming across them and trading them.. it's walking the line.

It's not really walking the line if you're trading them to beings you know are evil and it's 100% definitely crossing the line if you're trading them to being you know they will (or even believe they might) destroy the souls.

I don't know that it is out of character for such an alignment. I mean the souls are dammed either because they were bad people or because they made a deal with a Devil. From a Lawful Neutral point of view isn't this what they deserve?

Worth noting similar arguments were made for forcing people into slavery because they got into debt or the like - even when the people who created the situation which got them into debt were those who then enslaved them. And I have little doubt that many of the Devils people do deals with helped to engineer the situations which caused the deals to be made.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

At the absolute minimum, I would expect any person claiming to be "good" to feel extremely guilty about interacting with soul coins in any way other than breaking them to free the soul inside. Certainly, using them as actual straight-up currency would be abhorrent and only undertaken in utter desperation, e.g. "we absolutely NEED this artifact in order to save the lives of hundreds of innocent people, and we've tried every other option except soul coins."

Lawful Neutral? Yeah, I can totally see the coins being seen as a distasteful but tolerable form of currency. Any Good alignment, though, I as a player would feel at least extremely annoyed if I was strong-armed into a situation where I absolutely had to deal only in soul coins, it would definitely feel like a betrayal of the character's morals and principles.

 

[Staffan]

Hmm. Yes, dealing in soul coins is distasteful and likely evil. But that brings up the question: is the construction of an afterlife where evil souls are condemned to eternal* torture not then inherently evil? I mean, is being forged into a coin any worse than what's already happening to them in Hell?

* For certain values of eternal.

 

[TiQuinn]

I am playing a hell-focused high level campaign and most of the party is Good aligned (mostly Lawful Good in fact).

I am a Lawful Neutral character and I am the one using soul coins the most (essentially the treasurer). While using soul coins does have an immoral feel to it, I don't know that it is out of character for such an alignment. I mean the souls are dammed either because they were bad people or because they made a deal with a Devil. From a Lawful Neutral point of view isn't this what they deserve?

Thoughts?

I think that none of the party would want to use soul coins but when push came to shove and things got desperate, the LN character would be the first one to rationalize using them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am playing a hell-focused high level campaign and most of the party is Good aligned (mostly Lawful Good in fact).

I am a Lawful Neutral character and I am the one using soul coins the most (essentially the treasurer). While using soul coins does have an immoral feel to it, I don't know that it is out of character for such an alignment. I mean the souls are dammed either because they were bad people or because they made a deal with a Devil. From a Lawful Neutral point of view isn't this what they deserve?

Thoughts?

I have to agree. That's the system in place, and a LN character is strongly inclined to follow the system.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Alignment is a personality trait, it has no objective function. So the answer is, do your players feel guilty doing it?

I would say the answer is: do your PCs have an issue with it? If the players do, that should have been established before the campaign started, and this might not have been the right adventure for them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Hmm. Yes, dealing in soul coins is distasteful and likely evil. But that brings up the question: is the construction of an afterlife where evil souls are condemned to eternal* torture not then inherently evil? I mean, is being forged into a coin any worse than what's already happening to them in Hell?

* For certain values of eternal.

Sounds like it's time to re-watch The Good Place.

 

[ECMO3]

The REALLY EVIL thing is to destroy those souls as fuel for your hell-vehicle like in DiA :'D

We are past DIA, but I was the one who did that when we were riding hell-vehicles.

If you're coincidentally coming across them and trading them.. it's walking the line.

Which is what I should be doing as Lawful Neutral ....

 

[Scribe]

IIRC the Nine Hells is LE aligned. If your character is LN and he’s following the “law” of the Nine Hells then I’d say no.

Yeah this. LN is the "Technically Correct" Alignment, so I would say its fine.

 

[ECMO3]

I think that none of the party would want to use soul coins but when push came to shove and things got desperate, the LN character would be the first one to rationalize using them.

That is pretty much the situation.