Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is killing something Good an inherently Evil act?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Zappo" data-source="post: 2214468" data-attributes="member: 633"><p>I don't think that even D&D morals have absolutes this simple. It depends on the circumstances.</p><p></p><p>Obviously, there are only limited circumstances where killing a celestial would not be an Evil act, even if it is not unconceivable. OTOH, there are plenty of circumstances where killing a fiend would not be a Good act - fiends killing each other in the Blood War, for example.</p><p></p><p>So, it is much easier for the murder of a fiend to be Neutral than the murder of a celestial. Killing a celestial out of hatred is undoubtedly Evil; killing a fiend out of hatred is arguably Neutral.</p><p></p><p>This asymmetry is due to the fact that killing is inherently Evil. Fairly often in D&D, and sometimes in the real world, there are circumstances that make it Neutral or Good - but killing by itself is an Evil action. There is an offset, so to speak. As a result, it is much easier for the murder of a fiend to be Neutral than the murder of a celestial. The Good you're doing (killing <em>a fiend</em>) can be offset by the Evil of the killing itself, and by your motivations. But if you kill a celestial, you're throwing Evil (killing) on top of other Evil (killing <em>a celestial</em>). It'd take some pretty weird motivations to offset that.</p><p></p><p>Whoa, I hope I'm not being too confusionary. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zappo, post: 2214468, member: 633"] I don't think that even D&D morals have absolutes this simple. It depends on the circumstances. Obviously, there are only limited circumstances where killing a celestial would not be an Evil act, even if it is not unconceivable. OTOH, there are plenty of circumstances where killing a fiend would not be a Good act - fiends killing each other in the Blood War, for example. So, it is much easier for the murder of a fiend to be Neutral than the murder of a celestial. Killing a celestial out of hatred is undoubtedly Evil; killing a fiend out of hatred is arguably Neutral. This asymmetry is due to the fact that killing is inherently Evil. Fairly often in D&D, and sometimes in the real world, there are circumstances that make it Neutral or Good - but killing by itself is an Evil action. There is an offset, so to speak. As a result, it is much easier for the murder of a fiend to be Neutral than the murder of a celestial. The Good you're doing (killing [i]a fiend[/i]) can be offset by the Evil of the killing itself, and by your motivations. But if you kill a celestial, you're throwing Evil (killing) on top of other Evil (killing [i]a celestial[/i]). It'd take some pretty weird motivations to offset that. Whoa, I hope I'm not being too confusionary. :D [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is killing something Good an inherently Evil act?
Top