Can Lawful good ever be ruthless?

[Jupp]

Being lawfull-good doesnt meen you have to kiss the whole world good night. I play my L-G dwarven cleric of Moradin along the same line. My lawfull-good alignment is restricted to the dwarven race only and the the country/administration I serve. I do not care too much for any other races except I am being told by some higher station to do so because it would help the dwarves or my clerical order. And if someone else has to bite the dust in a way as you have described it, so be it.
Sure, you cannot go and be the evil guy as soon as you leave your territory but you dont have to help every granny over the street that is not of the same race or nation as you are. That's the business of the locals.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I really think that the alignments are so open to interpretation in given situations that it is hard to say if there is ever a right answer or a wrong answer within some parameters. To me, it sounds like protecting the royal family is a fine example of putting others before yourself but 'killing anyone who tries to stop you' is the crux of the problem. I guess maybe it should have read like this: "kill anyone (bad) who tries to stop you."

 

[DragonLancer]

From what you posted, I'd say that your order was fine. You alreayd know that the crew of the ship may well be pirates and evil too boot. If they were to try and stop you saving women and children you would be more than justified doing what you told your squire to do.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This is good role playing to me, the life of the peasent is worthless next to the blood, no one asked what the alignment of the royals was, protect and serve the empire and the empire is the nobles, this is a class based system.

Nothing wrong with this at all.

 

[fusangite]

Alignment is simply too amorphous and mutable a rule for us to come up with a standard based on the rules that differs from that of your GM.

 

[Gez]

You'd be fine in my game.

Stnadard Paladins hew closer to "Good" than "Lawful" I think.

Mine go just the opposite.

The example I gave of them was "Imagine the Jedi Knights, if they were led by Stannis Baratheon rahter than Yoda".

Mine depends on the religious order they follow, but they're rather standard. Most fallen paladin fell because they held Law higher than Good (and thus became Lawful Evil Blackguards). This is a known fact, so all save one paladin orders tell their members to err on the side of Good rather than away from it. One of them even allows NG paladins.

The exception are more devoted to Law and follow a god of trade, cities, laws, and overall civilization. Not devoid of mercy altogether, but they've that "just another brick in the wall" mindset that often make them seem heartless.

 

[reanjr]

Last session I gave my squire an order that has caused a little controversy. Most of the players in the game feel that a lawful good person would not have given this order that it was ti ruthless.

We are on a ship it is basically a privateer with strong leanings to being pirates. We already know some of the crew are evil. on board this ship is a royal family taken hostage in a raid on another ship. There is a woman and two children.

We came under attack from a white dragon. The order I gave to my squire was to protect the royal family and if it looked like the ship was going to sink to get them off onto a lifeboat and kill who tried to stop you.

We are just passangers. The royal family belongs to the same empire that I do and feel it is my duty to protect these innocents.

Was this order ruthless and not the act of someone lawful good?

I'd say it's D&D neutral, but logically good.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

That being said, my Paladin would have ordered the squire to protect the royal family, I would not have mentioned the "kill" part.

I'd side with Endur. I would not punish the paladin, but reminder them the GOOD thing would have been to say "Protect the family and dispatch anyone who tries to stop you. That could mean subduing, fighting, hiding from, etc. But I wouldn't punish the loyal paladin.

 

[BOZ]

we've got a guy in our group who got stuck at LG after an unfortunate incedent with a helm of opposite alignment (IIRC, he was N and not CE). he plays it as "EVIL MUST ALWAYS BE DESTROYED!" so, i guess it can be ruthless, as his character sees everything in black and white now.

 

[Mercule]

I don't see any problem with that from a LG standpoint. The LG character I played in RtToEE was much more ruthless.