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Message: <blockquote data-quote="coyote6" data-source="post: 3970648" data-attributes="member: 1225">For me, "militant neutrality" only makes sense if the two forces being balanced aren't good and evil per se, but rather the forces of good and the forces of evil (e.g., the celestials vs. the infernals). Then you can argue that if all that was around were the celestials and their mortal minions, they would begin to inflict their ever-more exacting ideas of what is "good" and "proper" on other beings (and, by D&D's alignment rules, start sliding away from "good" and into "neutral" or "evil"), and generally otherwise be bad for everyone. Then you can get into "balance" -- it isn't that you want more cruelty in the world, you just don't want the guys preaching kindness to be the only guys in power (because if nothing else, having a monopoly on power would probably be corrupting). ***I would prefer alignment be exactly what it says: a declaration of what side you're aligned with. Having "Alignment: Good" would mean you were literally on the side of the angels; it would not mean that you were necessarily a very good person. You might be too judgmental, prone to being doctrinaire, and/or overzealous; hell, you might be a right bastard. Alignment would just be a cosmic badge attached to your soul, effectively; it doesn't necessarily say anything about who you really are.Then you can have more interesting characters without having to worry about whether they're really "good"; they're aligned with good because they say they are, and because the rest of "good" hasn't repudiated them. Then you can have the Priest King of Istar being Alignment: Good, and still a corrupt tyrant, and you can have Mordenkainen's militant neutrality be a sane idea.IMO, it feels more realistic.And it still allows you to have straightforward good vs. evil, too. Gray areas wouldn't be a requirement; you could have a world where being a vicious bastard automatically revokes your good alignment "badge".</blockquote>

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