Nixing Alignments

[Ovinomancer]

I'm writing up a new campaign and wanted to nix player alignments. I don't have a problem with them in general, just want to open the doors a little. This does screw up some spells and abilities though. Can anyone help on adjustments to detects, protections, dispels, and auras. I plan to keep alignments for outsiders and spell descriptors. Some things are just good and some are just evil.

Thanks

 

[Crothian]

If you are keeping alignments for outsiders, then the protection spells and cirlces of protections should stay as is. They are stilkl useful against some very powerful creatures.

The big problem might be the detect evil of the paladin and the clerical spells. I'd just change this to detect enemies of their faith or code.

 

[Hiscores]

If you are dealing with a very religious setting with lots of deities (like Forgotten Realms) then you could make it "detect Deity" or "detect Portfolio." Maybe a "protection from Lolth."

Just an idea.

 

[Mach2.5]

I've had no problems ditching alignment since the 2e days. Spells/abilities like detect evil for example detect intent or rather, how someone is at the time the spell is cast. If the villain is having a little snuggle on the couch with his current love interest, the spell isn't going to show the guy as being evil. If they're snuggling up to watch a few executions on a lazy sunday, then it will.

Alignments tend to force some very 2 dimensional thinking, reinforced by the game mechanics that rely on them. By nixxing them, abilities like the paladin's smite evil mean that the paly isn't justified busing down the bad guys door, charging the throne room and bashing in his head with the justification that he was evil. Now, the paly has to actual try and catch the culprit in the act, or smite evil may just not work at all.

 

[Sejs]

Just change Detect Evil and the like to Detect Supernatural Evil.

So your paladin could ping Jimmy the Mass Murdering But Terribly Erudite Psycho with his evil detecting radar and he'd come up as negative. No supernatural evil there. Though some ranks in Sense Motive might be a good idea.

But if Jimmy the MMBTEP was the way he was because he was possessed by a demon - THEN he'd light up like a christmas tree when given a nice through detection sweep.


...then again, that's how I personally do Detect Alignment in my games normally. Lets you have actual like... politics and stuff without some magic type walking up and saying "you were thinking impure thoughts! smite smite smite!"

But yeah - keep the protection froms for outsiders, and the smites blights and aura for again, supernatural evil. Won't protect you much from an orc, but it'd still be the bee's knees when it comes to fighting Balepharon the Wicked, Lord of the Pit Of Touching You Where Your Swimsuit Covers.

 

[Ackem]

I made Alignment a Supernatural Taint. Outsiders have an alignment innately but no creatures native to the prime have one naturally. Mortals can, however, pick one up by consorting with Outsiders. For instance, a deal with a devil will taint a soul with pure supernatural Evil. A blessing from a Celestial will do likewise but for Good.

Joe the Sociopathic Mass Murderer Who Wears A Coat of Human Skin will not be effected by any alignment spells.

Bob The Shifty Trader Who Once Sacrificed To A Demon Inexchange For A Favor will though.

I also added some reduced effects to tainted Mortals, depending on their degree of taint. Someone whose only dabbled with Outsiders will always be considered to have made his Save and have only a 50% chance to be effected in any case. Deeper Acolytes of the Powers will recieve a +4 bonus to Saves and have a 75% chance to be effected. Only those whose souls utterly belong to the Outsider are fully effected.

 

[Zappo]

I am not sure that there is need to say it, but generally speaking paladins are not justified in smiting everyone that beeps on the evil radar, even with the current alignment system.

Getting back to the original question, the game mechanics work mostly well even if you just remove alignment and change nothing else. Just keep descriptors (which is what you wanted to do) and treat them as the alignment for mechanical purposes. Anything without a descriptor is considered "neutral" for what concerns the rules. The only problem here is that it makes clerics and paladins slightly less powerful, but not so less powerful that people wouldn't want to play them. There are plenty of [Evil] enemies, after all. If you want to enhance flavor, follow the suggestions of adding "detect faith" spells and changing the paladin's power to "smite infidel", or something like that.

 

[Mercule]

What I've done in my game is to ditch "alignments" and add in "allegiances" ala d20 Modern. The most common allegiances are Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, and Neutrality, but none are required. The effect of this is to minimize alignments without completely removing them. Now, the only people who show up on a "Detect [alignment]" spell are the ones who are pretty serious about their affiliation, which is to say the ones you probably don't need the spells to figure out, anyway.

It also makes Non-Detection a bit less suspicious because most people really don't have any alignment.

 

[Hjorimir]

I've ditched alignments within my campaign for those creatures 'Born of Tæün (Earth).' Those that are Born of... have souls (which replaces alignments) while outsiders still adhere to the alignment system.

This has profound impact on the cosmology and plots of the campaign where a soul is the most valuable thing in the Reality. It gives a specific, tangible reason for outsiders to be so interested in the goings on of the Axial Prime (as the prime material is called in my campaign).

In lieu of alignment, those with souls (which includes the PCs, incidentally) can obtain a 'Mien.' The four Miens are: Discord (Chaos), Grace (Good), Order (Law) and Taint (Evil). Divine casters, in particular, as well as those with Exalted feats have to remain concerned with their Mien in order to keep the ability to Channel the power of the god or entity they represent.

Lastly, I hold clerics (the ones that can actually cast spells) to the same high standards as I do paladins. It has never made sense to me why paladins represent their god's will any more than the clergy does.

 

[Hawkshere]

I suggest making alignment a Special Quality: (Ex) and only assign alignments to creatures as you deem appropriate. That way you can stick alignments onto certain monsters and outsiders while keeping most NPCs unaligned. I'd even go so far as to assign alignment SQ tags to PCs when appropriate, such as Paladins or Clerics with an alignment domain.

This way no spell or power changes are required.