D&D 5E Is he evil?

Do you know the difference between self-defense and the cold blooded murder of an enemy after a fight?

Yes and I know how to finish an enemy during a fight, just like I know how to strike an enemy down when he turns his back to flee. None of which is an Evil! act.

I can't think of a single one. Maybe you can point them out to me. I do see many that use LETHAL natural weapons, but that is not at all the same thing.

Sure, the most obvious one is Humans who have a lethal natural weapon called a Punch and/or Kick.
 

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It was a Chaotic Evil act. Afterall, the person intervened in the fight as part of his legal duty, had surrendered and was no longer a threat.

That being said, is one Chaotic Evil act enough to shift one's alignment entirely? I don't think so. In the real modern world such a person would likely have the law enforcement looking to arrest him after such an incident and it would be up to a judge or jury whether or not to convict. But in the D&D world, killing outside the bounds of the law seems far too common an occurrence for this to be the outcome.

Personally, I don't much care for alignment in general as a core set of principals and motivations could well see one acting in various parts of the alignment square as you become involved in various situations.
 


Yes and I know how to finish an enemy during a fight, just like I know how to strike an enemy down when he turns his back to flee. None of which is an Evil! act.

Too bad that's wrong.

Sure, the most obvious one is Humans who have a lethal natural weapon called a Punch and/or Kick.

Other than highly trained martial artists, and people who keep kicking while others are down, that's simply not true in real life. A punch of a kick that kills is highly accidental. Only a very, very low percentage of fights result in a death. D&D actually made it a rule that punches and kicks do almost no damage.
 

Wait. You seriously think that almost every law and punishment that has been made has nothing to do with societies morals? Holy cow.

Yeah, I believe that (assuming a functional society) the rules of our society need to be quite similar even if our morals diverged significantly. Look around the world. There have been many and varied moral codes throughout history. Yet legal codes tend to be similar on the major points.

Look at the ancient Mayans for example. They practiced human sacrifice which, from the standpoint of western morality, is an abhorrently immoral practice that demonstrates an absolute disdain for the inherent value of a human life. Nonetheless, murder was illegal in their society.

One can also imagine a society of machines with no sense of self preservation. These machines would likely find nothing immoral about destroying another machine, nor would they mind being destroyed. Yet, their society would likely have rules that a Bender unit can't just destroy a Calculon without a justification. Unless that Calculon unit is malfunctioning, it's likely performing a useful service to society (robot soap operas don't act themselves you know) and therefore its destruction is a detriment to this society in spite of the fact that there is nothing inherently immoral about the act.

Functional societies tend to have similarities in their legal codes because certain things are simply necessary for a society to function smoothly, morality or no. If you have to worry about your neighbor stabbing you dead for your wallet every time you leave the house, you will be a less productive member of society. Hence, murder is illegal, not because it is immoral but because allowing it disrupts society. It's true for us, it was true for the Mayans, and it would probably be true for my fictional robot society as well.
 

Yeah, I believe that (assuming a functional society) the rules of our society need to be quite similar even if our morals diverged significantly. Look around the world. There have been many and varied moral codes throughout history. Yet legal codes tend to be similar on the major points.

Look at the ancient Mayans for example. They practiced human sacrifice which, from the standpoint of western morality, is an abhorrently immoral practice that demonstrates an absolute disdain for the inherent value of a human life. Nonetheless, murder was illegal in their society.

One can also imagine a society of machines with no sense of self preservation. These machines would likely find nothing immoral about destroying another machine, nor would they mind being destroyed. Yet, their society would likely have rules that a Bender unit can't just destroy a Calculon without a justification. Unless that Calculon unit is malfunctioning, it's likely performing a useful service to society (robot soap operas don't act themselves you know) and therefore its destruction is a detriment to this society in spite of the fact that there is nothing inherently immoral about the act.

Functional societies tend to have similarities in their legal codes because certain things are simply necessary for a society to function smoothly, morality or no. If you have to worry about your neighbor stabbing you dead for your wallet every time you leave the house, you will be a less productive member of society. Hence, murder is illegal, not because it is immoral but because allowing it disrupts society. It's true for us, it was true for the Mayans, and it would probably be true for my fictional robot society as well.

First, you keep proving my point for me. Thanks. The Myan society felt that human sacrifice was not evil and that murder was. So they made laws accordingly. Society is what causes governments to make the laws that they do, not vice versa. Second, why stop at machines. Why not a society of Santa and his elves? As long as you're creating fiction to try and back you up, go big!
 

Other than highly trained martial artists, and people who keep kicking while others are down, that's simply not true in real life. A punch of a kick that kills is highly accidental. Only a very, very low percentage of fights result in a death. D&D actually made it a rule that punches and kicks do almost no damage.

I am not saying you are wrong because football players are very highly trained fighting machines but that dead Referee would beg to differ.
 

First, you keep proving my point for me. Thanks. The Myan society felt that human sacrifice was not evil and that murder was. So they made laws accordingly. Society is what causes governments to make the laws that they do, not vice versa. Second, why stop at machines. Why not a society of Santa and his elves? As long as you're creating fiction to try and back you up, go big!

Unsurprisingly, I disagree. To reiterate my point one more time, I think that the Mayans had to have laws against murder irrespective of their morality, because such laws are necessary for a society to be functional (which they were).

It also seems to me that my machine society argument was a well reasoned, albeit hypothetical, example and that you've resorted to ridiculing it because you can't refute it using logic. I could, of course, be mistaken. Do you have a counter argument that doesn't involve meaningless comparisons to "Santa and his elves"?

In any case, I feel the need to point out that this seems to be becoming a rather circular and pointless debate.
 

I am not saying you are wrong because football players are very highly trained fighting machines but that dead Referee would beg to differ.

More people die in showers and bathtubs than by fists. Flukes are flukes. Flukes don't turn fists into deadly weapons.
 

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