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<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3471861" data-attributes="member: 18280">Let me expand.&nbsp; I once played an evil wizard who was, by nearly any standards, the most moral member of his party -- he didn't expect pay to do his duty, and he believed in protection of the helpless (LE) even though he thought victimizing the strong was perfectly acceptable.&nbsp; IOW, while he might murder the Lord Mayor, he wouldn't cheat the Lord Mayor, or even accept recompense for helping the Lord Mayor if he believed it was his civic duty.&nbsp; Yet there was no question that he was evil -- he proved it all the time.In D&amp;D, some acts that are defined as evil, such as killing, are necessary and often laudible from a moral standpoint.&nbsp; This is not different from the concept of &quot;sin&quot; vs. &quot;evil action&quot;.&nbsp; Every god in my campaign views certain things as sins, although often these are not otherwise &quot;evil&quot; or anti-alignment actions.&nbsp; The God of War, for instance, demands that his stalwarts not flee the field while their companions fight.&nbsp; Doing so isn't evil, but it is a sin in that god's eyes.(And, yes, these &quot;sins&quot; are spelled out ahead of time.)Likewise, &quot;killing&quot; might be considered an evil act in D&amp;D (based off my reading of the SRD, at least), but I doubt any good character would change alignment for killing the red dragon attacking the village....or that any good deity would punish a character for so doing.RC</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 3471861, member: 18280"] Let me expand. I once played an evil wizard who was, by nearly any standards, the most moral member of his party -- he didn't expect pay to do his duty, and he believed in protection of the helpless (LE) even though he thought victimizing the strong was perfectly acceptable. IOW, while he might murder the Lord Mayor, he wouldn't cheat the Lord Mayor, or even accept recompense for helping the Lord Mayor if he believed it was his civic duty. Yet there was no question that he was evil -- he proved it all the time. In D&D, some acts that are defined as evil, such as killing, are necessary and often laudible from a moral standpoint. This is not different from the concept of "sin" vs. "evil action". Every god in my campaign views certain things as sins, although often these are not otherwise "evil" or anti-alignment actions. The God of War, for instance, demands that his stalwarts not flee the field while their companions fight. Doing so isn't evil, but it is a sin in that god's eyes. (And, yes, these "sins" are spelled out ahead of time.) Likewise, "killing" might be considered an evil act in D&D (based off my reading of the SRD, at least), but I doubt any good character would change alignment for killing the red dragon attacking the village....or that any good deity would punish a character for so doing. RC [/QUOTE]

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