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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bret" data-source="post: 575375" data-attributes="member: 713">The lawful person should attempt to work within the law.Most of the stuff I'm writing here assumes that the laws are LG or LN, trying to protect the society. A LG character in a LE environment had better have several ranks of barrister and Knowledge: Religion to help guide him. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" />Here is an example from one of our play sessions:We were in a town hunting down a slaver, smuggler, and thief. We had a number of records showing the involvement of a local mage with this person. It implicated the mage.My paladin and the wizard (who was the other LG character in the group) went to the local authorities. We waited as a writ was created against the mage,  and then were given permission to serve the writ. We captured the mage, brought him to the local law, and turned over the equipment he was carrying. The person at the office gave us a chance to just take the items (saved him paperwork), but we once again asked what the local law was on such things.A CG could have just broken into the mage's home, may have slain the mage, and definately would have just taken the items.The LG personality should attempt to live within the strictures of the law. A just law is written to benefit the society. It is the greatest good for the many that should concern the LG character. If an individual suffers, try and find a way within the laws to seek mercy. Do not act above the law.To take the example of breaking into a house, if the character has no authority (current day police do), he should still break in and stop the sacrifice. Then he should turn himself in to the local law, explaining his reasons for breaking the law and accepting the punishment. In most cases, the punishment is likely to only consist of a slap on the wrist. The thing is the character should not consider himself above the law, they must be willing to face any infractions they make and accept the consequences. Not doing so sets a bad example.In my opinion, a personal code is not lawful behaviour. It is called a personal code for a reason, it is individual to the person who holds it. A LG character may have a code of conduct, but it is one that a group or society has created. It isn't something that is unique to the character. This is much more like a chaotic's behavior than a lawful behavior.Now, back to the question of how to not be lawful stupid:There is nothing about LG that prevents a strategic withdrawls. Entrapment may or may not be acceptable means of proving someone has criminal tendancies. The idea would be "you can't cheat an honest man." The LG character doesn't have to be naive, they can reasonably expect all sorts of dirty tricks from their opposition. Although they would never use a poisoned weapon, there is no reason they can't plan for someone using such means against them.The LG character should be willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of society, but that doesn't mean they are constantly seeking ways to throw away their lives. It is only under extreme circumstances that this should ever come up, and they should be sure that it will serve the good of the society because it means they will not be there to protect others the next time something crops up.</blockquote>

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