How Good can Evil be?

[Voadam]

Read the description of Detect Evil again. Unless the advisor is a cleric or has the outsider type, he will only detect as a faint or weak source of evil no matter how evil his acts are until he gains near epic character levels. Can the players justify acting against such a minor source of evil without incontrovertible proof?

Being PCs, they know how detect evil works, so they will know his minimum non cleric level and the binary knowledge of whether he has an evil alignment or not. So "minor" evil is not a significant consideration.

 

[Hand of Evil]

My soapbox What is evil in your games; cold-blooded murder, life stealing, dealing with Outsiders, Orcs, Mind Control, slavery, whorship of a non-standard god, etc...he detects as evil but to what level and just what makes him evil?

 

[jdrakeh]

So, is he evil, because he's purely selfish, or neutral, maybe?

Technically, the very realistic manner in which you've described this chancellor is somewhat at odds with the D&D alignment system which allows only for very specific pre-defined moral codes. This character falls into the cracks between those codes, leaving you in the position of having to choose a not-quite-right-fitting moral code from the book and justify the inclusion of your character's inclusion under its rather rigid heading (something that afew people have already done in response to your initial post). Alternately, you could just decide that alignments in D&D actually have very little to do with how a character acts as opposed to how they may advance mechanically (something that thousands of D&D players have been doing for years). Really, those are your two available choices (aside from dumping alignments altogether).

Is your character evil? Yes. Is he a type of evil that is well-defined by D&D? No. Is there an OGL product that handles alignments in a bit more realistic manner? Yes (in fact, I'm sure that there are probably lots of them). Unfortunately, my memory sucks and I can't think of where I read about an expanded alignment system for D&D (something akin to Palladium's alignment system, IIRC). At any rate, if you can locate such a supplement, your choices expand quite a bit without having to compromise your character concept.

 

[Errant]

... he realizes that the best way to get a good deal out of the kingdom, is if the kingdom is fairly prosperous and healthy. He has a team of assassains/secret police to quietly deal with "problems" but for the most part the things he does for the people is generally good.

He just hates the adventurers because they bring with them chaos that disrupts his plans, and makes his life harder. But as long as they can be useful to him, he won't try to kill them.

So, is he evil, because he's purely selfish, or neutral, maybe?

I'd say it depends on how he kills off those that threatens his plans. Does he send his assassins around to kill the individual quickly & quietly? Have them kidnap the troublemakers for days of torture just so 'they know' who they were messing with? Have them kill the troublemakers, their families and everyone they're known to have spoken to or spent time with?

I think purely selfish is neutral. Selfish and enjoys dominating or inflicting pain on others ,he's evil. Selfish, sadistic and he's made bargains with demons to secure his power and position, he's really evil.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Good- Halle Berry

Evil- Cat Woman.

I mean if there was ever something more evil than Catwoman (Halle in catsuit notwithstanding), I don't know it (Highlander 2 doesn't EXIST I Tell you).

Thus Good can trully be frightenly Evil, but it takes a Hollywood Studio Executive to do it.

Edit:

I appear to be suffering from moral dyslexia. I gave you Good being Evil (like Shakira in her new video), when you wanted Evil being Good (like Simon Cowell giving someone a compliment).

Evil- Ummm, Slave Labor?
Good- Cheap Sneakers?

Nope, that doesn't sound right.

Evil- Martha Stewart. Wait; that's the Slave Labor thing again.

Evil- Ummmm Yankees?
Good- Anna Benson? (No, that's the Mets).

Evil- Hmmmm.... How about the Women's Lingerie!
If anything was ever designed by an evil, sadistic mastermind, it would be G-strings, Corsets, Underwires, High Heels, Push Up Bras & stuff with more buckles than the entire cast of Pirates of the Carribean.

Good- I'll leave it at (Victoria's Secret Catalogue). It'ssss Gooooddddd. Until we catch morris weaing it. Then it becomes evil again. Or Gary Gygax. or Ed Greenwood. or Monte Cook. or Sean Reynolds (wait, he might not be so bad, he's Neutral in a Whalebone Corset with a blood red G-String & feather boa).

But Greenwood & Gygax mud wrestling while dressed in brazillan cut Metallic Purple G-Strings and Starfish Shaped Pasties is evil. I'll leave that as the final image to butn itself itno your brain. (The Gasping, the groping, the thrusting, the hands sliding all over broad, pasty buttocks. Beards caked with mud, immense beelies the only thing preventing one from giving the +6 Wedgie of Sharpness to the other).

 

[Funeris]

Emerald Press is currently working on an Alignment supplement. I think Green Ronin put one out a few months ago (although not exclusively about alignment like Emerald Press). Crothian did a review of the Green Ronin book (hopefully my memory is working and I'm not just talking out my A$$).

But I'm dead on about the EP supplement (I am working on it )

 

[Henry]

The example villain sounds like classic Lawful Evil "power behind the throne." It doesn't mean he should be stabbed on the spot by the paladin - it means the paladin should watch him more carefully and look for an oppotunity to replace him with someone capable, but much more good-aligned (at least neutral) than that. A paladin wouldn't randomly slay him just because - at the best, you could throw the country into disorder for a time - at worst, you could destabilize it if the actual king or his next "good" regent is a foppish dandy who is not skilled at government administration. Good is only minorly served with dispatching the evil minister - the greater good is served only if a minister of both good character and skill replaces him.

 

[jmucchiello]

Also, the advisor may not see himself as evil. However, you might consider giving the advisor an item to mask his alignment and other detection spells on him. Thus, the PCs will have to figure out whether he is evil or not. I suspect that in a world with detect evil spells, at least some percentage of people will hide their alignment auras.

Make "King's Advisor" a state office with a miter or cape or something. That item masks auras. The characters can check his aura outside of court and he detects as evil. In court, with his item of office, he doesn't detect as evil.

Even he doesn't know the item masks his aura. It's just an item that's been used for the advisor office for a while.

 

[Seeten]

The DM wants the guy to detect as evil. Not to mask it.

 

[domino]

The DM wants the guy to detect as evil. Not to mask it.

Exactly. If nobody knew he was evil, there would be no conflict. In that direction, at least.