Neutral alignment

[SorvahrSpahr]

I sometimes wonder if neutral alignment should be removed and replaced with “unaligned”.

hmm that would be less confusing. I like it

 

[pressedcat]

I thought that's what neutrality was; taking neither side, remaining unaligned

 

[Quasqueton]

I thought that's what neutrality was; taking neither side, remaining unaligned

Yes. That's why I suggested changing the name to be more explicit/clear.

Quasqueton

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I sometimes wonder if neutral alignment should be removed and replaced with “unaligned”.

No, because there is, as I like to visualize it, an additional axis to the Neutral position.

There's Active Neutrality, and there's Passive Neutrality.

Passive Neutrality fits your "unaligned" description - it's someone who honestly doesn't care about Law or Chaos, or Good vs. Evil. Those particular forces just don't enter into that person's philosophy.

Then there's Active Neutrality, which views a balance of the extremes as a "good" in and of itself - that the best outcome for all involved occurs when there's a yin-yang equality to that particular axis. For instance, an Active Neutral on the Good-Evil axis would view Supreme Good winning out as being just as bad as Supreme Evil winning out. To him, there must be altruism and self-sacrifice to give people hope, as there must equally be self-service and exploitation to give people something to strive against. Only when the two are in balance can "real progress" happen.

Similarly, too much Chaos in the world causes the breakdown in all social order, while too much Law causes stagnation. Neither is a desirable goal.

 

[Starglim]

The evil act was done for an evil reason. The good act was not done for a good reason. Thus, the character's alignment shifts towards evil (as Kragar00 and Nac Mac Feegle already pointed out).

 

[billd91]

One good act doesn't balance out one evil act. That, I think, is a poor way to look at alignment. It's not a question of balancing the books as much as it's a question of the general tendency of the character. As such, there's no need for being exact, just mindful of the general picture of the character.

Personally, I always cringe when a DM declares a character evil because of one nasty thing they've done. They never do the same if an evil (or neutral) character performs a good act do they?

 

[RonYon]

I believe that casting an Evil spell is codified in the rules as an evil act.
I dont think that the same can be said for casting a good spell.
Besides, donating the money you mugged someone for to a begger doesnt make up for the mugging.

That being said, I think that performing evil acts to acheive a good end makes one nuetral.

If you are resisting the equivalent of Nazi occupation, and in the process you perform acts of terror(remember what Ronald Reagan said"One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter"), acts of a criminal nature(steal food to feed your resistance army) , or maybe you neclace a few informants(Tire filled with gasoline around their neck...), well, acording to official D+D morality, you aint Good.
Now, if you are just doing this stuff cause yah can, and not to resist the forces of evil, then you are probably Evil yourself.

 

[Soulsong]

If you do good, because you want to do good, thats good.

If you do an act "percieved as good" to balance an evil act, thats evil, your commiting evil and expecting to get away with it on the karmic balance of life by commiting a good act. But your not doing good because you want to, your doing it as a sort of bribe on the universe.

I was leaning this way, but this take on it fully convinces me that Active Neutrality is either unaligned and schizophrenic or it is actually evil.
I now fully support labeling "NN" as "Unaligned" to be more clear as someone recently posted.

 

[RigaMortus2]

I'd suggest changing "Neutral" to "Selfish" because that's basically what it's all about. Whatever YOU want to do, whatever YOU feel is right.

 

[Question]

I dont know, that seems more like NE to me, doing whatever you want for the benefit of yourself.