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Is a coup de grace an evil act?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bauglir" data-source="post: 2490699" data-attributes="member: 6982"><p>IMO killing another sentient being is always an evil act but to varying degree.</p><p></p><p>The measuring stick I use for the good/evil alignment is based on the importance the character places on himself and on others:</p><p></p><p>A totally evil person is therefore completely self serving, and cares nothing for others.</p><p>A totally good person is entirely selfless, <em>always</em> placing the wellbeing of others before his own.</p><p></p><p>Therefore a totally good character would always fight with the minimum force required (subdual damage), and only when absolutely necessary to protect life.</p><p></p><p>However a totally good character is a logical extreme, and would not represent any realistic character, even a paladin.</p><p></p><p>Good characters routinely kill evil characters in any D&D setting, usually in mortal combat, and while this is an evil act, it is an extremely mild evil and not likely to result in an alignment shift unless this is all they do. If you do nothing but kill in the name of good then eventually it becomes more about the killing and less about the good..</p><p></p><p>Deliberately killing a helpless opponnent when you have an alternative is IMO a significantly stronger evil. The decision is essentially to take his life, because it improves your chances (note: desirable: yes, necessary: no) which is selfish. You could have disarmed him and/or tied him up. The coup de grace is simply more convenient.</p><p></p><p>Hence if a good character were to do this IMC I'd tell them they feel a bit guilty about it afterwards. If they made a policy of doing such things they would slip to neutral faily quickly.</p><p></p><p>What would superman do? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bauglir, post: 2490699, member: 6982"] IMO killing another sentient being is always an evil act but to varying degree. The measuring stick I use for the good/evil alignment is based on the importance the character places on himself and on others: A totally evil person is therefore completely self serving, and cares nothing for others. A totally good person is entirely selfless, [i]always[/i] placing the wellbeing of others before his own. Therefore a totally good character would always fight with the minimum force required (subdual damage), and only when absolutely necessary to protect life. However a totally good character is a logical extreme, and would not represent any realistic character, even a paladin. Good characters routinely kill evil characters in any D&D setting, usually in mortal combat, and while this is an evil act, it is an extremely mild evil and not likely to result in an alignment shift unless this is all they do. If you do nothing but kill in the name of good then eventually it becomes more about the killing and less about the good.. Deliberately killing a helpless opponnent when you have an alternative is IMO a significantly stronger evil. The decision is essentially to take his life, because it improves your chances (note: desirable: yes, necessary: no) which is selfish. You could have disarmed him and/or tied him up. The coup de grace is simply more convenient. Hence if a good character were to do this IMC I'd tell them they feel a bit guilty about it afterwards. If they made a policy of doing such things they would slip to neutral faily quickly. What would superman do? :) [/QUOTE]
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Is a coup de grace an evil act?
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