Alignment and Fiendish/Celestial Blood

[Metallian]

I was wondering if the following would be a good idea:

"All characters with Infernal/Celestial blood are treated as Evil (if they have Infernal blood) or Good (if they have Celestial blood) for the purposes of Divination Spells, magical effects, using magic weapons, etc."

I think it's "kewl," because you can have tragic Tiefling heroes, never trusted because "Detect Evil" says they are evil, and you can also have evil Aasimar nobles bathing in the blood of virgins, yet above suspicion because everyone thinks they are Good.

It also fits conveniently with my idea (for my campaign) that all nobles in the known world have Celestial blood. This explains why the Clerics of a predominately good society would tolerate "noble privilege," even when the nobles are selfish and evil. Pure-blooded nobles would be more or less above suspicion, and spilling the blood of a noble would be a horrible crime (since you're basically spilling the blood of angels). It also gives us an easy explanation as to why nobles/royalty who are usually low-level regular joes (instead of Wizards, or mightly Clerics, or whatever) are usually the rulers of these fantasy societies.

Of course, this would probably cause some rather serious problems for the character in question, especially good Tieflings/Half-Fiends. I imagine life would be hard for such characters. On the other hand, they'd have access to weapons and items that "normal" Good characters would be denied.

Is there a good way to handle this? I basically want to have Good characters with Fiendish blood appear evil to Paladins, and be able to use evil weapons to fight the forces of darkness on their own terms. (and vice versa with respect to Celestials) Perhaps I should be more specific about which situations cause the character to be treated as their "blood's" alignment? Perhaps the ECL should go up or down? Or is this just too messed-up an idea? Any suggestions?

The Metallian

 

[Tiberius]

Wow! That's a great idea! Consider it stolen! <YOINK> You might want to have a sliding scale for the spell-overriding blood, though. Something like "if you commit X heinous acts, or achive level Y as a paladin, then the blood is overridden." It would make little sense if a 20th level aasimar cleric of Nerull (who would, according to the spell, register as overwhelmingly evil) register as good due merely to a bit of celestial blood in him. If he were a half-celestial or half-fiend, then I could see the strength of the blood overriding his actions with respect to the divinations, though.

-Tiberius

 

[RogueJK]

It also gives us an easy explanation as to why nobles/royalty who are usually low-level regular joes (instead of Wizards, or mightly Clerics, or whatever) are usually the rulers of these fantasy societies.

Easier than the age-old "Because 20th level Archmages have better things to do than deal with the petty troubles of the townspeople" explanation?

 

[Metallian]

Re: Re: Alignment and Fiendish/Celestial Blood

Easier than the age-old "Because 20th level Archmages have better things to do than deal with the petty troubles of the townspeople" explanation?

Yep.

I never liked that explanation. Sure it makes some sense, (in the real world, scientists never rule anything) but in a quasi-medieval setting, one would expect personal might to go a long way. Especially when (unlike in, say, Ars Magica), magic is not considered sinful or inherently objectionable in some way.

Why hire adventurers to track down rare spell components or relics when you can just command them (or your army, or your personal guard, or a sufficiently large number of commoners) to do it instead?

High-level PCs often have the desire to become rulers, why not NPCs?

Hmmm.....I now have a disturbing premonition of this thread turning into a discussion of high-level characters as rulers, instead of about finding unintentional game-breaking flaws in my Fiendish/Celestial blood idea....

The Metallian