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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Morris" data-source="post: 4232085" data-attributes="member: 87">As I stated when introducing my own alignment system the problem with "good" and "evil" is they are not values - they are judgments.The problem quickly magnifies once real values are brought into play.  Someone who values nature will call the callous destruction of habitat 'evil.'  Some call killing for any reason 'evil' while others hold that mitigating circumstances count and self defense (usually) makes things ok.  Giving a beggar money seems good - but by enabling him to continue begging aren't you doing an evil thing to him (if begging didn't work he'd get a job).I realized this pitfall in Good/Evil based alignment systems a long time ago and only moved away from them reluctantly - prior to that time I'd written several essays defending the old 9 point alignment system.  So I moved to an alignment system of interlinked value pairs.Very brief version: (Long version <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=226548" target="_blank">here</a>)Gold - represents Order and community.  Opposed by Red (Chaos) and Silver (Individualism)Blue - represents Logic and Artifice. Opposed by Green (Nature) and Red (Emotion).Silver - represents Individualism and Death. Opposed by Green (Life) and Gold (Community)While the system has antagonistic and sympathetic relationships I could expound several pages on - the key to the system is that these alignments are non-exclusive (why that is so is beyond the scope of this post). An individual can possess the self-contradicting alignment of Gold/Silver.  Indeed, these five base alignments can form 41 possible combinations, which is a far greater depth and scope than this new 4e system could ever hope to deal with and well beyond the capacity of the two axis 9 point alignment system.The fun part though is these alignments call each other evil all the time - but in truth it's the actions the possessors of the alignment choose that earn or discredit those labels. Each alignment can be the hero, each can be the villain, each one doing this though in their own way.The beautiful part of this arrangement is it offers no real guarantees. Detect Alignment may reveal the subject's nature - but it will not disclose their intentions, disposition, or most importantly whether they are a friend or foe.  At the end of the day alignment systems with Good and Evil involved fail because of this one truth - they are a cop out for players since they provide absolute "friend or foe" detection. While the DM can harry this somewhat at the end of the day the solutions to this problem are kludges only.To elaborate - If you detect a subject has a Silver alignment (more properly a "Sodran" alignment - silver is merely the color of their aura under the scrutiny of the spell) you know that they hold individual rights above most all other concerns. From this you know they are likely to be greedy, acquisitive and very likely to want to profit on whatever they provide to you in some manner - perhaps without even consciously intending to.  However, you don't know if they respect the law (Sodreans *tend* not to, but many are willing to because working within the law is easier and more profitable). Most importantly you don't know if they are evil - you may feel their greed and selfishness (or selfish tendencies) makes them evil from your point of view, but that's a subjective call for your character. Objectively the alignment grants you no insight into this question.</blockquote>

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