Alignement

[Jack Daniel]

To people who read the post before voting in the poll: just vote already!

 

[The Serge]

Lawful implies all of these, although one person's form of Lawful may be more influenced by one of these aspects than the other.

 

[Merlion]

I dont believe in or care about the Law/Chaos alignment axis.

 

[Zappo]

Lawful IMO doesn't necessarily imply anything of this, though a Lawful character may have any or all of these traits. I think that you can't pick an alignment and decide how the character should behave... there aren't just 9 human types after all. There are... well, about 6 billions currently I guess. What you can do, is picking a character and decide which alignment suits him. An injective function, if you wish.

As for the poll, I picked honor and ethics because I think that's a good signal that someone may be Lawful.

 

[Kesh]

Lawful simply means the character follows a strict code of conduct. What that code involves should be worked out between the player & DM before hand.

 

[ced1106]

None of the above. Lawful implies some sort of organization and planning. Lawful Evil is a pretty simple example. Just look at any (ahem) dictatorship or tyrannical government.

If you're asking about Lawful Neutral behavior, or even "can an Paladin act this way", I'd vote in the poll.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Nifft]

IMHO what Lawful means is: "The good of the Many outweigh the good of the Few".

Chaotic means: "The history of the world is the history of the Great Individuals who rose above the Herd."

I see good points in both, so I'm probably Neutral on that axis.

-- Nifft

 

[ced1106]

IMHO what Lawful means is: "The good of the Many outweigh the good of the Few".

Isn't that Good behavior? I thought Robin Hood, for example, was Chaotic Good, because he fought for the good of the people, but only by taking on the Sheriff, who'd be Lawful, given that he represented the government.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Nifft]

Isn't that Good behavior? I thought Robin Hood, for example, was Chaotic Good, because he fought for the good of the people, but only by taking on the Sheriff, who'd be Lawful, given that he represented the government.

Not necessarily. Consider:

"The good of the Roman Society outweighs the minor evil of slavery."

"For the good of the ethnic majority, we must eliminate some specific ethnic minority."

Those are very Lawful (and very Evil) mindsets.

-- Nifft

 

[Zappo]

I don't think that "Lawful" is so easily defined. While some lawful evil types could see what they do as "evil for some in order to have good for many", I think most of them know they do it just for personal power and gain.

I think discussions about how a character of an alignment behaves are useless... there are far too many radically different personalities that all fit in the same alignment.