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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6738996" data-attributes="member: 92511">I think the question of interpretation here applies to the term "punishments", not "forcing."As a DM, a not inconsiderable part of my job is to generate and shape the world around the PCs to conform to the ramifications and consequences of the player's character's choices and actions. My personal preference is to have those ramifications take place and alter the world/reality of the PCs in ways that make sense...and are even largely predictable.That is the role of the DM at the table, a very large part of that role.To whit, in the hypothetical of the OP:The player chose to be a cleric.The player chose to be Lawful Good.The player chose all of the actions that lawful good cleric character took.The DM then decides, among other things, what the gods think of this [if anything], which effects the character's spellcasting and other abilities. How will the locals react? Is a mob going to run them out of town? Constables try to arrest them? Clerics of a rival temple try to capture and sacrifice them or use it to fuel a smear campaign against the cleric's deity and temple? And, ultimately, what the character's alignment needs to be changed to, if at all. All of that is the purview of the DM...assuming a table/game world is actually using alignment, has nosy/involved deities, etc...etc... No one is "forcing punishment" on the player...or even on the character! They are enforcing the consequences, the world's reactions, of those PC choices and subsequent actions.</blockquote>

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