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

[Micah Sweet]

I does seem odd that these problems with the idea of soul coins apparently never occurred to WotC, given how very concerned they are with not offending anyone or putting players in a position where a moral choice has to be made.

 

[TiQuinn]

I does seem odd that these problems with the idea of soul coins apparently never occurred to WotC, given how very concerned they are with not offending anyone or putting players in a position where a moral choice has to be made.

I gotta be honest - I’ve seen a few things that make me think they’re asleep at the wheel over there in editing these adventures.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Alignment was never completely objective, since it was determined by potentially fallible third parties.

Know Alignment was fallible?

 

[Seramus]

Know Alignment was fallible?

The supernatural forces that judge your actions and determine what your alignment is are fallible.

I think they tried to explain it away as greater planar forces above even the gods at one point, but it's basically just a handwave for the DM to make judgement calls.

 

[Scribe]

You may have just ruined all future alignment debates. That is a great construction.

They are not the same though, Law/Chaos itself can be a goal. We just have to go back to Moorcock.

Its fine if one doesnt believe or like, or care about, the 2 axis here, but Good/Evil and Law/Chaos are not tied.

I does seem odd that these problems with the idea of soul coins apparently never occurred to WotC, given how very concerned they are with not offending anyone or putting players in a position where a moral choice has to be made.

Its an adventure in Hell, its not like its going to be fluffy rainbows like Witchlight.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They are not the same though, Law/Chaos itself can be a goal. We just have to go back to Moorcock.

Its fine if one doesnt believe or like, or care about, the 2 axis here, but Good/Evil and Law/Chaos are not tied.



Its an adventure in Hell, its not like its going to be fluffy rainbows like Witchlight.

Sure, but they asking PCs to engage in morally questionable (at best) acts to participate in one of their signature hardback adventure paths. Can you think of any other adventures for WotC 5e where that was the case? I really think it simply didn't occur to them.

 

[Scribe]

Sure, but they asking PCs to engage in morally questionable (at best) acts to participate in one of their signature hardback adventure paths. Can you think of any other adventures for WotC 5e where that was the case? I really think it simply didn't occur to them.

There just wasnt enough of an outcry to make it matter. The adventure was released in 2019, social media didnt completely lose its mind till 2020.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They are not the same though, Law/Chaos itself can be a goal. We just have to go back to Moorcock.

Unfortunately, Moorcock isn't really part of the current conversation in fantasy nowadays. ("Nowadays" meaning "since Ronald Reagan was president.")

While there are definitely games where the battle between Law and Chaos is a thing -- Dungeon Crawl Classics and Shadowdark, for instance, to say nothing of Black Sword Hack -- but for most D&D play, it's all about Evil and Good.

 

[Tonguez]

I don't see how soul coins and slavery are analogous. Owning slaves would always be evil because you are choosing to keep them in that state when you have the power to instantly set them free by just saying the word.

But then maybe I'm misunderstanding how soul coins actually work - if a character finds a soul coin, can they release the soul back to its previous state? I was under the impression that once a soul is in the coin, it remains there and a character can't just easily free it. If I have that wrong then I would change my answer.

physically destroying the coin or casting remove curse will release the soul (and cause a coin to rust).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

physically destroying the coin or casting remove curse will release the soul (and cause a coin to rust).

In that case, destroying coins en masse is the obviously morally correct choice to make, once player characters become fully aware of what the coins are.