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<blockquote data-quote="DreamChaser" data-source="post: 1841787" data-attributes="member: 1190">Not according the the basic concept of D&amp;D.&nbsp; Evil is evil.&nbsp; Good is good.&nbsp; Etc.&nbsp; This is, in fact, the foundation of The Book of Vile Darkness and the Book of Exalted Deeds.&nbsp; While there is always room for introducing moral relativism into the&nbsp; game, it is not be any means the default.&nbsp; And really, if you're going to be morally relativistic, everyone comes out, on a cosmic level, neutral.On the idea of a grid...I have tried this and in general I found that I, as the DM, was the greatest flaw in the system.&nbsp; I would forget to assign points to the scale, I would end up creating the NPC grids arbitrarily, etc.&nbsp; Add on to this the problem of different interpretations of the same act, and the system becomes even more complex.Take the idea of assassinating by poison a despotic (and evil) ruler to keep him from starting a war with a good kingdom leading to massive deaths in both lands.&nbsp; A player might choose this course of action thinking it is chaotic (poison and assassination are against the law) but good (you are killing an evil being and saving lives).&nbsp; The RAW (both in the PH and BoED) however are clear that this is a chaotic and evil act.&nbsp; --&gt; Assassination is evil (thus assassins must be evil)--&gt; Poison use is not good (thus the rules against Exalted characters using it)--&gt; the ends do not justify the means (which is the reason that the archons, eladrins, and guardinals do no commit infanticide on the young of the demons, devils, and yugoloths...or on the children of evil mortal species).&nbsp; The idea that some good may come of an evil act is not justification. In the above example, the death of the despot could end up leading to war as the good kingdom is blamed or a civil war of succession.&nbsp; Often despots are using force to keep control of areas that would descend into chaos if they were not there and removing them requires a long term plan and a gentle hand.Anyway, this whole ramble is to indicate that using a grid system (or tracking alignment at all for that matter) can lead to conflict, requires a clear set of rules about what is good and what is evil (the BoVD and BoED help with this a great deal), and it takes a great deal of attention from the DM.DC</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DreamChaser, post: 1841787, member: 1190"] Not according the the basic concept of D&D. Evil is evil. Good is good. Etc. This is, in fact, the foundation of The Book of Vile Darkness and the Book of Exalted Deeds. While there is always room for introducing moral relativism into the game, it is not be any means the default. And really, if you're going to be morally relativistic, everyone comes out, on a cosmic level, neutral. On the idea of a grid...I have tried this and in general I found that I, as the DM, was the greatest flaw in the system. I would forget to assign points to the scale, I would end up creating the NPC grids arbitrarily, etc. Add on to this the problem of different interpretations of the same act, and the system becomes even more complex. Take the idea of assassinating by poison a despotic (and evil) ruler to keep him from starting a war with a good kingdom leading to massive deaths in both lands. A player might choose this course of action thinking it is chaotic (poison and assassination are against the law) but good (you are killing an evil being and saving lives). The RAW (both in the PH and BoED) however are clear that this is a chaotic and evil act. --> Assassination is evil (thus assassins must be evil) --> Poison use is not good (thus the rules against Exalted characters using it) --> the ends do not justify the means (which is the reason that the archons, eladrins, and guardinals do no commit infanticide on the young of the demons, devils, and yugoloths...or on the children of evil mortal species). The idea that some good may come of an evil act is not justification. In the above example, the death of the despot could end up leading to war as the good kingdom is blamed or a civil war of succession. Often despots are using force to keep control of areas that would descend into chaos if they were not there and removing them requires a long term plan and a gentle hand. Anyway, this whole ramble is to indicate that using a grid system (or tracking alignment at all for that matter) can lead to conflict, requires a clear set of rules about what is good and what is evil (the BoVD and BoED help with this a great deal), and it takes a great deal of attention from the DM. DC [/QUOTE]

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