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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1530199" data-attributes="member: 3146">About the alignment: I think LN is a perfectly fine swashbuckler alignment. Let's consider a few examples:Athos from The Three Musketeers: Utterly devoted to the King. Very traditional--lives by the old, traditional honor code of the duel rather than the new code that prohibits duelling. Turned his wife over to be executed when he discovered she was an escaped prisoner. Turned her over again when he discovered her in her new guise as the Cardinal's assassin. There's plenty of ways to describe him so that he sounds chaotic (see any of my posts on law/chaos axis to see why I think the axis is incoherent), but that description sounds rather lawful--even Lawful Neutral.Dartagnan from the Three Musketeers: Utterly devoted to the king. Again, abides by the society's traditional definition of honor. Devoted to a fililial duty of vengeance against the man who killed his father.Aramis from the Three Musketeers: Utterly devoted to the King. Again, abides by the traditional definition of honor. Later, swears his life into the service of the church.How about another: Will Turner from Pirates of the Carribean. Extremely disciplined. At least initially equates law and goodness (cf. the whole discussion of whether his father could be both a pirate and a good man--his initial answer was "no.") Very conscious of social roles and conventions. ("How many times must I ask you to call me Elizabeth" "At least once more Miss Swan.") Later in the movie, it could be argued that his alignment changed to neutral but he's as much of a swashbuckler in the beginning as in the end. His change of mind does not reflect a change in his style--fighting or otherwise.Captain Blood: Initially sold into slavery for upholding his oath as a doctor when it was inconvenient to him. Did not join the rebellion against the king despite being obviously sympathetic. After gaining the captaincy of the pirate vessel, behaves with honor and decorum in his treatment of prisoners. IIRC, refuses to attack English vessels. (Still a loyal citizen despite his exile and unjust treatment). Returns to the service of his country as a Privateer as soon as William and Mary take power in England.There's plenty of room to argue over the alignments of all of these characters but I think the summaries above are sufficient to show that one could create a swashbuckler who would be instantly recognizable as a swashbuckling hero in the genre and would be instantly categorized as lawful in D&D terms.Absolute loyalty to king and country coupled with a prickly sense of honor and respect for aristocratic priviledge (whether or not the character is an aristocrat) would be a good start.</blockquote>

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