Changing Alignment in Steps

[elbandit]

Howdy!

One of my players has a neutral good Dawarf and wants to migrate over to Lawful Good. I checked the DMG and they make referance to Alignment steps but I cannot find a listing of exactly the order Alignments go in from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil.

Anyone have an idea?

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Seems to me that there is only one step in between Lawful Good and Neutral Good...

Neutral is in the middle--- Chaotic - Neutral - Lawful... the dwarf is only taking one step... so, doesn't have to be an incremental process... it is pretty simple to go from Neutral to Lawful... not quite as easy to go from Chaotic to Lawful... but, because he's only changing one aspect of his alignment, don't think that there needs to be much in the way of changing in "steps." (would be different if he was going from, say, True Neutral to Lawful Good, though..)

What is the reason the dwarf is shifting? Did he have an awakening of sorts? Dream, vision... that sort of thing?

 

[AuraSeer]

There's no particular order. Steps along the Law/Chaos axis are entirely distinct from steps along the Good/Evil axis. All that's required is that you take the right number of steps; you can do them in any order that makes sense for the particular character.

For instance, consider two NE characters who both transitioned to LG. They each had to make one step toward Law and two steps toward Good, but they needn't have done it the same way. Each took the trip in a manner that made sense for his own personality and circumstances:

1. NE -> LE -> LN -> LG
   This character decided to start obeying the laws of the land to the letter, purely to avoid punishment. (LE) In studying legal texts, he became more interested in the law itself than in the selfish purposes he had previously intended. (LN) Eventually, he came to understand and accept the principles behind the laws, which were intended to make society a better place for all beings. (LG)
2. NE -> N -> NG -> LG
   This character was once a powerful villain, but after being confronted with the results of his actions, he renounced his evil ways. (N) In an attempt to make up for the harm he caused, he dedicated his life to helping others. (NG) To prevent any backsliding into his old habits, he took up a rigid and demanding code of morality. (LG)

See, that's two entirely different ways to reach the same result. You could fill a library with descriptions of the various ways to make alignment changes.

Of course you don't need anything complicated for your dwarf PC. He's only one step away from LG, so all he has to do is make the one transition along the Law axis; you can't get any simpler than that.