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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Damon Griffin" data-source="post: 1745715" data-attributes="member: 3568">Is it?  Okay, at the risk of thread drift, let's see how far...Good characters and creatures protect innocent life. Evil characters and creatures debase or destroy innocent life, whether for fun or profit.Robyn does not destroy innocent life; he will occasionally kill someone over whom he has a temporary advantage, such as someone who is magically held or otherwise "helpless", but in all such cases these are people who represent a clear and present danger to his life, the lives of his fellow party members, or the lives of innocent people he's expected to defend for some reason.  He doesn't kill for fun or profit, he kills to achieve the party's goals (most recently, to rescue two clerics scheduled to become human sacrifices in a demonic summoning ritual.)  I respect our cleric's right to hold the opinion that "helpless = innocent" for these purposes, but it's not an opinion I share, and that fact doesn't place me in conflict with the above definition of Good."Good" implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings. Good characters make personal sacrifices to help others.By this portion of the definition, Robyn is not as Good as a lot of people, but still falls within the parameters.  Respect for life does not have to imply a total commitment to a code vs. killing.  Such a code would be insane given his background."Evil" implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others. Some evil creatures simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualms if doing so is convenient. Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some evil deity or master.Let's save some time and acknowledge that Robyn commits the occasional evil act.  He doesn't do it often, doesn't do it just because it's convenient, and doesn't take pleasure from doing it.  He'll do it when he feels the situation calls for it and it is likely to be effective.  His thoughts on this are more or less "The end justifies the means, IF other means are either unavailable or unlikely to be effective."  That may not be a shining example of high morality, but it's not evil, either.  People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others. Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships. A neutral person may sacrifice himself to protect his family or even his homeland, but he would not do so for strangers who are not related to him.Here again, the definition specifies "the innocent" as potential victims, and "strangers" as people unworthy of aid.  Robyn does routinely aid people he doesn't know, and cannot regard those who make attempts on his life as innocent.  So while he may be moving in that direction, I don't see Neutral as the best description for him.Lawful characters tell the truth, keep their word, respect authority, honor tradition, and judge those who fall short of their duties. Chaotic characters follow their consciences, resent being told what to do, favor new ideas over tradition, and do what they promise if they feel like it.Robyn follows his conscience, not those of others.  His ethical set is built to a large degree on his background, where most of his neighbors were of the "Kill the elves! Take their resources!" variety."Chaos" implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility.People who are neutral with respect to law and chaos have a normal respect for authority and feel neither a compulsion to obey nor to rebel. They are honest, but can be tempted into lying or deceiving others.Robyn claims the freedom to act as he sees fit.  His tactics and methods reflect adaptability to situations and flexibility of response.Robyn still sounds Chaotic Good to me.  He's not a paragon of virtue, to be sure.  But every alignment covers a range of behavior, not one of nine rigidly defined personality types.</blockquote>

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