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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3968840" data-attributes="member: 2067">No, it doesn't. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> It says that lawful people people respect authority, and that Law implies obedience to authority. Both are true. It also says that alignment is not a straightjacket, and that's true, too. The Paladin does respect the evil warlord's authority, but the evil warlord answers to a higher authority as well, in the Paladin's mind -- Good. They're both Lawful, but the evil warlord is guilty of not adhering to the True Logic or the Way Things Ought To Be, and thus isn't really adhering to authority himself, has no authority that he pretends to have (his commandments are meaningless because he shouldn't be in control), and needs to be punished for wrongly exerting authority. Just like a criminal in organized crime would have to be punished for violating the mundane laws of the world, this evil warlord needs to be punished for violating the Order of Existence. There's no conflict.Again, Law as an alignment is a cosmological concept, one that stretches beyond the mortal world. The authority that a Lawful character respects isn't a person's authority -- it is a cosmological authority, a power beyond the mortal world. Just like a Good character isn't nice to goblins, a Lawful character doesn't obey every law. Telling the truth respects this authority and keeping one's word respect the authority of cause and effect, and of clarity. Language is a specific thing, it defines the world, and so it's use, in a Lawful kind of mind, must be to specify a thought.If they need to tell lies or break his word according to the greater force of Law in the universe, then they can. As the PHB says, alignment is not a straightjacket. It's a description of actions. Yeah, this is why they exist, but given around 30 years of history, they've kind of become a monster of their own. They are definately a D&Dism, but they're not exactly about Order and Entropy anymore, and they do add an interesting dimension to the game. Maddening how? Sounds kind of like a fun campaign to me. <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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