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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 3612623" data-attributes="member: 30001">Your thoughts are real things as far as I know (or at least I know mine are).  Also there's a detect thoughts spell, which suggests that the DnD game thinks they are real as well (and observable by others).  The DM doesn't know your thoughts, and that's the problem.  He's not really the universe though.You can change your heart and not act on it without being insane.  One example I can think of is an evil character thrown in jail that converts to good.  But he can't really do that if alignment is based on actions, because all he's doing is sitting on a dirt floor waiting to be let go.  In fact, if alignment is based only on actions, then what alignment is someone who has sat in jail for 20 years and thought about killing halflings the whole time but has done nothing?  What about someone who spent 20 years thinking about all the good things he wanted to do when he got out.  I agree that intent is a very difficult thing for a DM to judge in a player, but that doesn't mean that it makes more sense as an alignment system.  I think the rules have always had a strong component of potential/intent in the alignment system - and the conventional understanding of good/evil also has a large component of intent.  If not, then why aren't you evil only as long as you're actually performing an evil act?  (Edit: related question - why is summoning a fiendish ape to kill orcs considered evil if only the action matters?  How can a magic sword detect as evil if it actually can't do anything?  If you cast detect evil on a part of the Nine Hells, would it glow evil if it weren't sentient?)</blockquote>

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