Five Alignments?

[Mercule]

There are 5 Alignments: Good, Lawful Good, Evil, Chaotic Evil, Unaligned. Among the gods I did not see any evil or CE listed.

WTF? Why LG and CE but no CG or LE?

I have a feeling this is going to be one change that fries me. I have always hated the BS that LG was more good and CE was more evil than the others. Personally, I'd be more inclined to call the domineering LG and the unthinking CE less extreme than the others, if I had to make a call.

Can someone who has seen the books at least say that LG isn't Good++ and CE isn't Evil++? I can wait for details. I'm just suddenly very concerned that WotC was passing the bong while working on alignments.

 

[Nymrohd]

Meh Neutral Evil is the true evil. Demons and devils are child's play against loths.

 

[Xethreau]

I think that five alignments works a lot better for a PoL setting that nine alignments do.

Anybody ever read Lord of the Flies? If you have, I rest my case.

 

[mrtomsmith]

Curses! Ninja'd! I'll try to merge my post into this one:

So, according to the sneak peeks, alignment is in 4e, but it's a simple linear spectrum: LG, G, un, E, CE. Simplifying it like this disturbs me. One of the great things about D&D, one of the things that really opened my mind when I read the books as a kid, was the open spectrum of morality. Lawful Evil is a great way to define a truth about the world that opens up a wide variety of interesting roleplaying scenarios.

I'd been fine with the earlier rumors of minimal alignment in 4e, as I respect the difficulties of making alignment work in a RPG environment. Players don't abide by their character's alignment, and they shouldn't really be forced to. Having books or cosmology full of LN and LG beasties doesn't really help in a game where combat and conflict are key. But if you're going to minimize it, don't remove the best parts.

So yes, I'll be house ruling it in my campaign. But I feel bad for all those 10 year olds who aren't going to get their worldview expanded like I did.

My name is Tom, and I'm Chaotic Good.

 

[Kvantum]

Meh Neutral Evil is the true evil. Demons and devils are child's play against loths.

Exactly. Demons may corrupt your body, devils your mind, but it takes a 'loth to corrupt the immortal part of a person - their soul.

The changes to alignment are another of the many, many reasons I'm not playing 4e. Some of the mechanical changes make sense, and maybe even a tiny bit of the fluff, but it's way more bass-ackwards changes than ones that make sense, at least from my POV.

 

[Tervin]

This a change that I don't like, from what is known so far.

Ok, I don't really like alignments at all, but this a change from a bad system to something a lot worse, it seems.

 

[Tervin]

I think that five alignments works a lot better for a PoL setting that nine alignments do.

Anybody ever read Lord of the Flies? If you have, I rest my case.

I think I interpret either the Golding's book or the alignment system different from you. And I really don't think a PoL setting means less use of something like LE or CG. The secret freedom fighters in the evil empire having only a few safe havens left... ?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

If that's true I think it's Stupid.

How can players not "get" CG, it's a very straightforward alignment. The alignment of "rebels with a cause", just like how LE is also very straightforward as the alignment of fascist tyrants.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Someone on RPG.net suggested an (alternative?) take of this:

Good - pure, altruistic, saintly good.
LG - social goodness, moderated by the society and the laws.
Unaligned - getting along and minding your own business
CE - petty, selfish evil, without an overarching motivation.
Evil - pure, metaphysically motivated evil.

 

[Korgoth]

WTF? Why LG and CE but no CG or LE?

I have a feeling this is going to be one change that fries me. I have always hated the BS that LG was more good and CE was more evil than the others. Personally, I'd be more inclined to call the domineering LG and the unthinking CE less extreme than the others, if I had to make a call.

Can someone who has seen the books at least say that LG isn't Good++ and CE isn't Evil++? I can wait for details. I'm just suddenly very concerned that WotC was passing the bong while working on alignments.

See, I think that true Goodness implies Law (though not vice versa). So I would tend to see "Chaotic Good" as "sorta good".