D&D General Inherently Evil?

[Oofta]

Most importantly, if a corpse isn't an object, they can't be wielded as an improvised weapon and no one wants to live in a world without cadaver-chucks.

Exactly. And how, exactly, are you supposed to swing a dead cat if they're not an object?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Well, you can start swinging it while it's alive...

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's not something that is ever presented in the books. It's an interesting idea for worldbuilding, but not supported by the rules.

Not in 5e, no. It was explicitly the case in Planescape.

 

[Voadam]

I just did. They either are part of a domain or literally affect people/things based on alignment. Magics Circles hedge aligned creatures, the utterance spells hurt everyone not of an alignment. They interact with the target's alignment.

Except Death Watch. Deathwatch is drunk.

All 3e undead creation spells are aligned too.

And Bless and Curse Water are aligned spells which make holy and unholy water which is sort of alignment adjacent.

 

[Maxperson]

That's not something that is ever presented in the books. It's an interesting idea for worldbuilding, but not supported by the rules.

Yes it does. 3.5 DMG page 147, "Inner Planes: These six planes are manifestations of the basic building blocks of the universe."

From the 1e Manual of the Planes, "The outer planes are also called the Planes of Power since they are the homes of the most powerful extraplanar beings in the known planes of existence. They have a mixture of elements that supports a rich diversity of life."

From the 2e DMG, "Using the sphere analogy, outside of the Primes and the Ethereal planes are the inner planes, the primary building forces of the multiverse."

From 2e Planescape, "Eighteen, not four, is the correct number of Inner Planes to be found. These are the building blocks of all matter."

From the 3.5 Manual of the Planes, "Inner Planes: Also called planes of power, these realities are incarnations of the basic building blocks of the universe." and "Within the D&D cosmology, the Inner Planes consist of four Elemental Planes (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water) and two Energy Planes (Positive, the moving spirit of all life, and Negative, the force of decay and entropy)."

I just did. They either are part of a domain or literally affect people/things based on alignment. Magics Circles hedge aligned creatures, the utterance spells hurt everyone not of an alignment. They interact with the target's alignment.

Except Death Watch. Deathwatch is drunk.

I don't understand how you can think that it isn't evil to use spells that are literally evil.

Really pushing the 'good' in all senses of the word.

Not really. Food is good for you, unless you eat too much and become overweight or your stomach bursts. Water is good for you, unless you drink too much and die from it. "Too much of a good thing" does not in any way take away from the goodness of whatever it is, if taken in moderation.

In Dragonlance, being too good wraps around into persecution and authoritarianism somehow to the point that the Good thing for the gods to do is annihilate every man, woman and child living in the same city as the one 'too good' guy and ending society.

Gotcha. Yeah, the reasoning behind the Cataclysm always bothered me.

 

[tomBitonti]

That's not something that is ever presented in the books. It's an interesting idea for worldbuilding, but not supported by the rules.

I just did. They either are part of a domain or literally affect people/things based on alignment. Magics Circles hedge aligned creatures, the utterance spells hurt everyone not of an alignment. They interact with the target's alignment.

Except Death Watch. Deathwatch is drunk.

Really pushing the 'good' in all senses of the word.

In Dragonlance, being too good wraps around into persecution and authoritarianism somehow to the point that the Good thing for the gods to do is annihilate every man, woman and child living in the same city as the one 'too good' guy and ending society.

Not everyone was killed. At least (the remaining “true”) good clerics were whisked away to safety. And the society wasn’t good anymore. It had been taken over by hubris, and had other problems. The high priest‘s ultimate sin was to make demands to their god.
TomB

 

[Maxperson]

Not everyone was killed. At least (the remaining “true”) good clerics were whisked away to safety. And the society wasn’t good anymore. It had been taken over by hubris, and had other problems. The high priest‘s ultimate sin was to make demands to their god.
TomB

There's no way that there weren't still lots of innocents in that city when it perished. And so what if the Kingpriest and the good gods left? That wouldn't mean that the evil and neutral gods would leave. Let's Paladine and the others take their ball and go home. Just leaves it easier for Takhisis and the rest to have their way.

 

[Scribe]

There's no way that there weren't still lots of innocents in that city when it perished. And so what if the Kingpriest and the good gods left? That wouldn't mean that the evil and neutral gods would leave. Let's Paladine and the others take their ball and go home. Just leaves it easier for Takhisis and the rest to have their way.

Its been a very long time, but I believe that was due to a cosmic requirement to maintain balance, the gods enforced it on themselves.

 

[Voadam]

And so what if the Kingpriest and the good gods left? That wouldn't mean that the evil and neutral gods would leave. Let's Paladine and the others take their ball and go home. Just leaves it easier for Takhisis and the rest to have their way.

They were all gone after the cataclysm according to a divine agreement.

Takhisis eventually cheated and started off the draconian program and powering up her clerics in violation of that agreement to launch the whole dragonlance wars in a bid to conquer the world and have it be ruled by her clerics.

 

[Maxperson]

They were all gone after the cataclysm according to a divine agreement.

Takhisis eventually cheated and started off the draconian program and powering up her clerics in violation of that agreement to launch the whole dragonlance wars in a bid to conquer the world and have it be ruled by her clerics.

It doesn't make sense to me that she would agree in the first place. The shift towards evil due to the Kingpriest's hubris is to her benefit.