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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 3333496" data-attributes="member: 3146">I would tend to say that you cannot be a good coward. Courage is the form of every virtue at its testing point and a coward who does not have courage will not have the other virtues either--at least not for long.Is a single act of cowardice sufficient to define a person's alignment? When I'm the DM, that rather depends upon the act of cowardice and the kind of cowardice displayed. (A different kind of courage is required, for instance, to charge seemingly difficult odds than to sacrifice reputation to do the right thing. And choosing death over evil requires another kind of courage as well; moreover, the various kinds of courage do not always coincide. The world is replete with people who would stand with Leonydas at Thermopylae but who would not ascend to the headsman's block with Sir Thomas Moore and there are also people who would endure execution for the truth but who will not endure scorn).I guess I'm convincing myself of your argument now. I'm obviously employing a definition of courage that is not remotely limited to martial courage. I will, however, maintain that an apparently good person with the capability to fight evil but who, when push comes to shove, does not do so, is either no longer good or was never good in the first place. That's not to say they're necessarily evil--neutral is probably the most likely answer as D&D defines alignments. But not good. Could they then become good later? (Or, perhaps demonstrate that they were really good all along even though they didn't look it at that particular point?) Sure. But in that case, I would expect their other actions to be consistent with a person who would fight evil even if the situation and capability never came up again. (If it did never come up again, how would you know? IRL, or in D&D, we wouldn't short of supernatural revelation--such as a detect good spell (which is in pretty short supply IRL)).</blockquote>

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