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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5777350" data-attributes="member: 58197">Well, I don't really expect my approach to be adopted in 5E; a brand new alignment system isn't what you want when trying to unify the community. However, I don't feel like any of the traditional D&amp;D alignment systems serves any useful purpose. In theory, they could encourage roleplaying, but in practice I have never seen them do any such thing.Don't get too hung up on my &quot;great disturbance in the Force&quot; comment; that was just a throwaway Star Wars reference. My point is that, coming at it from a thematic/flavor perspective, I feel like a paladin's detect evil power should be about sensing supernatural evil rather than mundane. It always struck me as weird that skeletons and zombies* don't show up on a paladin's radar, but a callous and corrupt bureaucrat does. (Cue arguments over how callous and corrupt you have to be for it to count. That's another reason I don't like traditional alignment.)Likewise, a warlock whose power comes from a bargain with Asmodeus should be burned upon touching a holy avenger sword; not because the warlock personally is a bad person but because she is tainted by the essence of the Nine Hells. Light and Shadow alignments support such mechanics much better than the traditional Good and Evil.[size=-2]*In 3E because skeletons and zombies are neutral, and in 4E because paladin radar has been disabled.[/size]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5777350, member: 58197"] Well, I don't really expect my approach to be adopted in 5E; a brand new alignment system isn't what you want when trying to unify the community. However, I don't feel like any of the traditional D&D alignment systems serves any useful purpose. In theory, they could encourage roleplaying, but in practice I have never seen them do any such thing. Don't get too hung up on my "great disturbance in the Force" comment; that was just a throwaway Star Wars reference. My point is that, coming at it from a thematic/flavor perspective, I feel like a paladin's [i]detect evil[/i] power should be about sensing supernatural evil rather than mundane. It always struck me as weird that skeletons and zombies* don't show up on a paladin's radar, but a callous and corrupt bureaucrat does. (Cue arguments over how callous and corrupt you have to be for it to count. That's another reason I don't like traditional alignment.) Likewise, a warlock whose power comes from a bargain with Asmodeus should be burned upon touching a [i]holy avenger[/i] sword; not because the warlock personally is a bad person but because she is tainted by the essence of the Nine Hells. Light and Shadow alignments support such mechanics much better than the traditional Good and Evil. [size=-2]*In 3E because skeletons and zombies are neutral, and in 4E because paladin radar has been disabled.[/size] [/QUOTE]

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