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<blockquote data-quote="Pillars of Hercules" data-source="post: 958061" data-attributes="member: 577"><p><strong>Ominous warnings</strong></p><p></p><p>You might consider some ominous warnings, particularly for the NG paladin. I figure his god or goddess would probably disapprove of some of the actions he's been taking, and might perhaps send signs of warning before he is finally made LG and loses his PrC abilities. </p><p></p><p>Perhaps he can't get spells one morning. Perhaps a creepy old man stops him and hassles him about his devotion to order over good. Maybe the old man presents him with a Law vs. Good dilemma, and when the paladin chooses, the man reveals himself to be an angel and either chastises or praises the paladin based on his choice.</p><p></p><p>I think the lawful stupid thing comes from the fact that our pop culture presently thinks rules are stupid and chaos is good. Think of commercials - "No rules. Just right." "Treat yourself," etc. Our heroes - usually renegades from a system that gets in the way of true justice - "I'll have your badge, [insert name of cop here]!" </p><p></p><p>In some respects, the essence of law is the willingness to delay or deny oneself gratification for some better result in the future, whether for ourselves or society as a whole. Most players reject rules and thus can't see the point of being lawful. You'll have to present some situation where the chaotic choice leads to suffering in order to show law in a good light. Think along the lines of the old saying "your rights end at the point where your arm hits my nose." Still, I find it's very hard for most players to get this.</p><p></p><p>That said, I agree with the posters that find alignment to be one of the big problems in D&D. Morality is just too slippery to fit into simple boxes. I think when we try to boil morality down into 9 discrete boxes in the game, we end up with cardboard caricatures of the 9 archetypes, and lawful stupid is the caricature for LG. Going much deeper than the cutouts usually just exposes the weaknesses of the alignment system itself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pillars of Hercules, post: 958061, member: 577"] [b]Ominous warnings[/b] You might consider some ominous warnings, particularly for the NG paladin. I figure his god or goddess would probably disapprove of some of the actions he's been taking, and might perhaps send signs of warning before he is finally made LG and loses his PrC abilities. Perhaps he can't get spells one morning. Perhaps a creepy old man stops him and hassles him about his devotion to order over good. Maybe the old man presents him with a Law vs. Good dilemma, and when the paladin chooses, the man reveals himself to be an angel and either chastises or praises the paladin based on his choice. I think the lawful stupid thing comes from the fact that our pop culture presently thinks rules are stupid and chaos is good. Think of commercials - "No rules. Just right." "Treat yourself," etc. Our heroes - usually renegades from a system that gets in the way of true justice - "I'll have your badge, [insert name of cop here]!" In some respects, the essence of law is the willingness to delay or deny oneself gratification for some better result in the future, whether for ourselves or society as a whole. Most players reject rules and thus can't see the point of being lawful. You'll have to present some situation where the chaotic choice leads to suffering in order to show law in a good light. Think along the lines of the old saying "your rights end at the point where your arm hits my nose." Still, I find it's very hard for most players to get this. That said, I agree with the posters that find alignment to be one of the big problems in D&D. Morality is just too slippery to fit into simple boxes. I think when we try to boil morality down into 9 discrete boxes in the game, we end up with cardboard caricatures of the 9 archetypes, and lawful stupid is the caricature for LG. Going much deeper than the cutouts usually just exposes the weaknesses of the alignment system itself. [/QUOTE]
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