Another quick alignment question

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What happens in a situation where there are two sets of laws in effect... For example. My cleric's deity (like most) won't tolerate his followers worshipping other deities. However, let's say in the course of adventuring my cleric winds up in a town/nation/whatever where there is an 'official' faith. If my cleric refuses to worship this god and is jailed for it, is he still lawful? He followed his god's law to the T, but broke the nation's law.
Other examples could be any case of particular actions being outlawed by the government while the church encourages them or vice-versa.
In short, is a character who breaks the law because it's 'against his religion' lawful?
 

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I have always taken "lawful" to mean abiding by a particular code. In some cases, it's the law of the land, but in others it might be a personal code of honor or the code of a church or guild. Our DM has asked for a statement of this kind of code from lawful players, so that he always knows what each character would consider lawful.

A common example is the mafia. Certainly not law-abiding in terms of federal or state criminal law, but arguably "lawful" in the D&D sense because it abides by an internal code.
 

A lawful character could go either way. In your particular case, it would depend on how strong a hold on the character the original deity has. A cleric or paladin would NEVER change gods because of local preference (you don't see paladins convert to Bane when walking into Zhentil Keep). Someone with an indifferent attitude towards gods might change to the local god if the god's not chaotic.

Yes, a lawful person can go to jail without an alignment change. It isn't exactly the character's fault if "his laws" don't match "their laws". This also explains how Mafia-like organizations can exist. In an evil society, the paladins might BE the Mafia!
 

pull up my soap box...

Basicly there are number of types of law, natural, church, city and state. Define your world myth, define what is evil in your games.

It is really up to the player and DM to decide which has jurisdiction. I would say that if it was decided that the open worship of said god was against the law, the player is guilty of a crime but not unlawful to his church. This is where lawful good becomes lawful bad, it becomes unflexable and you have see things as 'if you are not with us, you must be against us'. Think Spanish Inquisition, it is they who start to perform evil acts.
 

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