Alignment issues

[Some call me Tim]

My group has been discussing issues regarding alignment recently. This hypothetical has been posed and I'd like some outside opinion as food for thought.

Suppose that our party is in the wilderness on a mission to retrieve a widget that will be of great benefit to our town. It is vital that this widget be found. Our party runs across a group of evil humans who inform us that they plan to attack and pillage an orc village that is a few miles away.

Here is the question--are those members of our party whom are of LG alignment bound to stop this attack? Does it matter that the mission may be jeopardized by this intervention? Is a "good" aligned character jeopardizing his alignment by choosing to ignore the peril of the orcs? Does it matter that the orcs are evil? What if the member of the party were instead of LN alignment?

I won't even state my opinion on this, but there are wildly different views within the group on this matter. I'd love to see some discussion here.

 

[Drizzt Clone]

Do the archons try to prevent fighting between the fiends? No. You are by no means bound to prevent evil creatures from fighting amongst themselves.

 

[dcollins]

Alignment issues are more frequently discussed in the General Forum. Alignment is always up to the DM and how it fits into his campaign world.

By the core rules, I'd say "no". LG doesn't require behavior like this. The PCs are charged with a mission. And, orcs are evil, so destroying them is good. Only Paladins may have some rules-based twinge about wanting to destroy the NPCs because they are evil.

 

[Some call me Tim]

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum. I didn't realize.

Are good or neutral PCs always justified in attacking evil creatures even if those creatures do not appear to be looking for a fight? The idea of "just cause" has also been discussed quite a bit lately as well.

Alignment issues are more frequently discussed in the General Forum. Alignment is always up to the DM and how it fits into his campaign world.

By the core rules, I'd say "no". LG doesn't require behavior like this. The PCs are charged with a mission. And, orcs are evil, so destroying them is good. Only Paladins may have some rules-based twinge about wanting to destroy the NPCs because they are evil.

 

[Aaron2]

Does it matter that the mission may be jeopardized by this intervention?

I'd say that this is the most important things. If the "evil humans" are a bunch of wimps that can be slapped around for two rounds and be forced to stop, that's one thing. If its a large heavily armed group that could school the party, then the party can't be expected to do anything except give them a good talking to.

It also depends on what these orcs are up to. Maybe this particular orc village once spared the live of a the young prince when he got lost hunting a wild boar causing the king to swear that these orcs can live in peace under royal protection. Or, perhaps these particular orcs act as a buffer stopping the even nastier orcs from further way.

Aaron

 

[Aaron2]

Are good or neutral PCs always justified in attacking evil creatures even if those creatures do not appear to be looking for a fight? The idea of "just cause" has also been discussed quite a bit lately as well.

I don't think you'll ever get just one answer for this question. For me the question revolves around how you know that said monster is evil. If the monster has done bad things in the past and will probably do so in the future, it would be best to stop it now. Is Detect Evil good enough? I, personally, don't think so.


Aaron

 

[Some call me Tim]

Assume that the evil NPC humans are would be a challenging fight for our party and that we have no prior knowledge of any special status of the orcs.

However, I will agree that the examples that you gave may require action.

I'd say that this is the most important things. If the "evil humans" are a bunch of wimps that can be slapped around for two rounds and forced to stopped, that's one thing. If its a large heavily armed group that could school the party, then the party can't be expected to do anything except give them a good talking to.

It also depends on what these orcs are up to. Maybe this particular orc village once spared the live of a the young prince when he got lost hunting a wild boar causing the king to swear that these orcs can live in peace under royal protection. Or, perhaps these particular orcs act as a buffer stopping the even nastier orcs from further way.

Aaron

 

[Aaron2]

Assume that the evil NPC humans are would be a challenging fight for our party and that we have no prior knowledge of any special status of the orcs.

Since the PCs probably don't have threat-dar, they'll have to assume the NPCs are bad asses. In this case, I'd probably try to talk (or intimidate) the NPC out of their actions and, if unsuccessful, report them to the local authorities (who may be wondering about the cause of the recent orc reprisal raids).


Aaron

 

[DreamChaser]

I would say your morally best choice would be to send a warning about the human band to the orc villiage.

DC

 

[Sejs]

Easy answer - step back a moment and remove any knowledge of the respective groups' alignment and the answer kinda leaps out.

The PCs are looking for the Vital Widget of Villiage Saving in the wilderness where it's supposed to be located. While they're out and about, they come across a group of humans that mention that they're planning an attack on a nearby orc villiage. That orcs are evil is a known quantity. That's it. That's the long and short of it. Some guys, going to raid an orc villiage. Good luck, guys! Hope it goes well! You go show those orcs what for.

If the PCs don't also know that the raiders are evil themselves, they wouldn't even think of stopping them - rather, they'd cheer them on and wish them good luck.



Though it would be very prudent to warn the villiage that the PCs are working for that they've heard about a recent raid on an orc villiage 'round about yonder, and that they should be on their toes incase the orcs think that the villiage was responsible. And that should the situation come to a head, to tell the orcs that hey - we had nothing to do with it, it was some raider guys, not us.