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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tom Cashel" data-source="post: 469003" data-attributes="member: 321">I think we all know that under the D&D alignment system (which should be the only yardstick for a discussion like this), killing evil beings and creatures is what heroes do.  They might attempt to bring them to justice in the rare times they are captured alive, but mostly villainous beings are there to go down fighting.  The question is not whether it is evil to kill.  The whole game revolves around the combat rules, for Eris' sake.The question is HOW you go about killing evil.  If a paladin goes into the lair of a cabal of vile assassins and puts them all to the sword in combat, then that is an heroic and valorous act of self-sacrifice.  However, it is unacceptable under the D&D alignment system for the paladin to poison the water supply, or hire a wizard to drop cloudkills into the assassins' lair and behead them as they come running out.Chaotic goods and Neutral goods will have their own way of eliminating the assassins, possibly involving guile, trickery, or subterfuge.Too many people confuse their real-world moral compass and personal opinions of good and evil with what it says in the Player's Handbook.  If you can't back up your claims about alignment with a passage from the Core Rules, then it doesn't really have any bearing on the D&D alignment system, as published.Alignments are absolutes, and if that doesn't seem "realistic" enough, that's because alignment is just another rule in a very complex game system.  It's nothing whatsoever to do with real world ethics.</blockquote>

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