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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tsyr" data-source="post: 820894" data-attributes="member: 354">Levels aren't the most "realistic" way to represent character advancement, but they work. As levels stand, loosing a level robs you of skill, martial prowess, ability to resist diseases, withstand injuries, duck out of the way of a fireball, spells (possibly), strength, inteligence, dextarity, constitution, wisdom, or charisma (possibly), knowledge of how to perform a feat (possibly), etc. Basicly, when you loose a level, you get stupider. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Now, to me, that sounds silly for someone reconsidering their stance on life.Your view. I would say I'm keeping to the spirit of the law moreso than you, actualy... I don't believe alignment is intended to be a stick to beat the players over the head with, myself.Yeah, Groan is right. When did I ever say that my ratio was standard, or common, or whatever? Stop putting words into my mouth, for crying out loud. That's not the first time you've done that. All I said was, dispite what it sounded like you were suggesting, I don't have players switching alignments all the time (every 2-3 sessions, I think you said?). And I hardly consider a monk shifting from LN to LG, and a ranger shifting from N to CN major alignment shifts, or anything. Just further refining the character they wanted to play.No, not really. The foundation of my stance on the matter is that I don't feel the DM has the right to control what a player does anymore than most DMs already do, myself included. The fact that alignments aren't critical to the game (A point I maintain) is one thing I use when I'm forced to defend my view, but it's not the foundation of my arguement. Mmm-hmm. And for a certain *type* of fantasy, you are correct. If you want spells like Detect/Protection from Alignment, you need to have alignments in the first place. Of course. And I still have those spells, by the way. Well, sort of... magic is a bit different in my world, but they are still basicly there, in some form. As well as damaging spells for alignments, and similar. Alignment is actualy a fairly major part of my game world... The entire mythos behind magic, and many of the races and monsters, the gods, the other planes, etc, all revolves around the Astral Souls of beings... which are, among other things, heavily influenced by the alignment of the being in question.But see, I feel that to actualy *have* heroic fantasy, the possibility needs to exist for corruption to evil to be a valid option. Like I said before. If Bob the Paladin knows that he can't really let those children die to save his life, he wont try. He'll try to work within the boundries of the conditions you have gave him. He might do admirably, he might not. If Bob the Paladin knows that if he lets that evil mage finish his Soul Suck Spell of Doom on those little children, that by the time the mage is done, his friends will be there to help and assure a victory, but also knows that he can save those children, if he risks his own life, THAT is heroic fantasy, to me. Bob the Paladin shouldn't make his decision based on "Ok, I'm Lawful Good, so since I'm Lawful Good, I have to.... and I can't....". Bob the Paladin should make his decision because it's what he feels his character would do. And if the player of Bob the Paladin decides at the last minute that Bob the Paladin is a coward and lets those children die, well, that's life. People change. People crack under stressfull situations. Bob the Paladin will have to live with that for the rest of his life... At the very least he would have to atone, via a major quest for his god, for the deaths of those children. He could also very well loose Paladin status, forever. That's moral dillema. That's facing the consequences of your actions. That's the type of game I want. Not "Oh, I have to be Heroic, because that's what my character sheet says."</blockquote>

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