D&D 5E Charm, the evil spells

[Hexmage-EN]

I recall reading a theory somewhere that the reason poison use was considered evil in D&D at one point is because it was drawing on older depictions of poison as primarily evil because it could be used by peasants to kill members of the upperclass.

Regardless, why is poison inherently evil to use when chucking flames and acid at people isn't?

 

[HammerMan]

I recall reading a theory somewhere that the reason poison use was considered evil in D&D at one point is because it was drawing on older depictions of poison as primarily evil because it could be used by peasants to kill members of the upperclass.

Regardless, why is poison inherently evil to use when chucking flames and acid at people isn't?

that is great, and I can see it...

 

[Mind of tempest]

I recall reading a theory somewhere that the reason poison use was considered evil in D&D at one point is because it was drawing on older depictions of poison as primarily evil because it could be used by peasants to kill members of the upperclass.

Regardless, why is poison inherently evil to use when chucking flames and acid at people isn't?

so it is more a non-lawful thing?

 

[Faolyn]

I recall reading a theory somewhere that the reason poison use was considered evil in D&D at one point is because it was drawing on older depictions of poison as primarily evil because it could be used by peasants to kill members of the upperclass.

Regardless, why is poison inherently evil to use when chucking flames and acid at people isn't?

Poison was almost entirely save-or-die in 1e, IIRC.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Poison was almost entirely save-or-die in 1e, IIRC.

Sure, but there were plenty of spells, like Disintegrate, that were SoD but not explicitly evil. My guess would be poison was "evil" to keep SoD out of the hands of low level characters. Also, probably because Gygax didn't want every non-undead dungeon to be "solved" by poisoning the water supply.

 

[Vaalingrade]

In fairness, plenty of superheroes have had dark arcs, not just the telepathic ones.

Yeah, the 90's exist and bad writing is universal.

 

[HammerMan]

Yeah, the 90's exist and bad writing is universal.

if you think the 90's were bad for dark characters I would hate to see what you think of the 2000's

 

[Vaalingrade]

if you think the 90's were bad for dark characters I would hate to see what you think of the 2000's

The 2000s was a rollercoaster, rapidly swerving between reconstruction and celebrating the joy and glory of heroes and then jackknifing into heroes fighting heroes, cannibalism, child murder, and just a general drunken bender of trying hard to be the ultimate pizza cutter (all edge, no point.).

But somehow the 90's were still worse just based on the shear saturation of of the dark and edgy stuff. Nothing was safe or unsullied. Throughout the 2000s, there were plenty of arcs and runs that were a safe haven at least for a time. Like when New Mutants: Academy X changed hands and when from a great book to 'We don't know what do do with these characters, so we literally blew up 23 child characters on a bus that was leaving the book forever in the first place.

Kind of depends on if you prefer living in the post-apocalyptical wasteland hiding from mutants and drinking sewage, or actively dodging the meteors but there's still canned food.

 

[Faolyn]

Sure, but there were plenty of spells, like Disintegrate, that were SoD but not explicitly evil. My guess would be poison was "evil" to keep SoD out of the hands of low level characters. Also, probably because Gygax didn't want every non-undead dungeon to be "solved" by poisoning the water supply.

True. Of course, only rare, certain people could use disintegrate and similar spells, while anyone could use poison (even if they risked poisoning themselves--Gygax really didn't want people to use it).

It was probably a combination of Gygax et al not wanting to PCs to solve every problem with poison, the SoD thing that everyone could use, and belief that "poison is a coward's tool!" that led to poison being evil.

 

[HammerMan]

I wonder how much 'balance' was built on the orginal players and DMs mindsets.