non interferring murder witness: evil or not?

[Kichwas]

Your character sees an individual being beaten to death in the street of a city he's visiting. The victim is of a race the PC despises, but is legally welcome within the city.

The PC knows just within a door to his side is a room full of armed men who can stop the incident and could easily hear a call for help, especially as it would take barely a moment to open that door and call in.

The PC just stands there and watches, until he is spotted by chance and the assailants flee. The victim dies shortly there-after.

Evil or not on the part of the PC?

What if afterwards, the PC tried to stabalize the victim? Does that change anything over letting the incident happen without even shouting out an alarm?

What if the PC was following the victim, and witnessed the entire event from start to finish?

 

[Piratecat]

Heh - I'm not touching this one with a 10' pole. I'll remind people to keep their temper and respect other peoples' opinions, though.

 

[Ackem]

Evil. Without question.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Your character sees an individual being beaten to death in the street of a city he's visiting. The victim is of a race the PC despises,

Despises why? Because they tend to be evil? Because they personally murdered his mother? Because one of them looked at him funny once? This is a bit too important for you to just leave it at "he despises them"

but is legally welcome within the city.

Ignore the whole legally welcome bit - it's only of importance if you're disputing law or chaos

The PC knows just within a door to his side is a room full of armed men who can stop the incident and could easily hear a call for help, especially as it would take barely a moment to open that door and call in.

Umm... who are they? Do they bear the PC any ill will? Or are they agents of the law?

The PC just stands there and watches, until he is spotted by chance and the assailants flee. The victim dies shortly there-after.

Evil or not on the part of the PC?

Error. Incomplete question. More information required. Try again.

What if afterwards, the PC tried to stabalize the victim? Does that change anything over letting the incident happen without even shouting out an alarm?

Error. Incomplete question. More information required. Try again.

What if the PC was following the victim, and witnessed the entire event from start to finish?

Error. Incomplete question. More information required. Try again.

 

[CyberSpyder]

^^-I don't think why he despises that race really matters, if he doesn't have any connection to the individual. As far as he knows, the person being attacked didn't do anything to deserve it - he just doesn't like that race. As far as I'm concerned, that doesn't affect the morality of the situation.

I'd say that's neutral, pretty much definitionally.

Coming to his aid would be a Good act.

Joining in on the attack would be rather obviously Evil.

So the in-between state, keeping out of things, is probably Neutral...

 

[Avarice]

Sounds like an evil act to me, though I could see it being considered neutral if the PC had reason to fear for his life as a result of calling for aid. Risking your hide for total strangers out of the goodness of your heart is a task best left to paladins and lunatics.

What if afterwards, the PC tried to stabalize the victim? Does that change anything over letting the incident happen without even shouting out an alarm?

That does muddy the waters a bit, but the first act is still pretty evil regardless. At least it would show the PC is capable of remorse.

What if the PC was following the victim, and witnessed the entire event from start to finish?

Oh yeah. Evil as sin.

This isn't to say good aligned characters might not commit an evil act like this from time to time, but if they don't try to make up for it in some way, they're probably not going to remain good. And of course, if the PC in question is a paladin, well...

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

This one's a darker shade of neutral.

A Paladin would probably need to atone, but he wouldn't be an ex-Paladin for it-- at least not the first time. A warning would be in order.

A pattern of this kind of behavior in a good character would start them to sliding, but it wouldn't make a Neutral character become evil without some other behavior.

 

[Saeviomagy]

^^-I don't think why he despises that race really matters, if he doesn't have any connection to the individual. As far as he knows, the person being attacked didn't do anything to deserve it - he just doesn't like that race. As far as I'm concerned, that doesn't affect the morality of the situation.

In most D&D campaigns, there are creatures which are wholly and utterly evil, creatures which are usually evil, and creatures which can be evil, depending on how they grew up.

It's generally considered to be acceptable to kill creatures of the first two types, especially if your previous encounters with them have inevitably ended in you getting the short end of the stick.

Then, of course, there's the question "why was he following in the first place". If he was, for instance, shadowing the target to find out what he's up to (because he believes him to be involved in the criminal underworld for instance), then leaping to his rescue is perhaps not the best way to accomplish that - it effectively means that you won't be able to shadow that individual again.

We simply do not have enough information to make a moral judgement.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Prepare yourself for a deluge of wild opinion!

Mind you, this is the most generic of the most generic situations that I'm responding to. As with most situations, it's easy to cast it up into a way that it could be constructed as good or evil within the constraints.

Your character sees an individual being beaten to death in the street of a city he's visiting. The victim is of a race the PC despises, but is legally welcome within the city.

The PC knows just within a door to his side is a room full of armed men who can stop the incident and could easily hear a call for help, especially as it would take barely a moment to open that door and call in.

The PC just stands there and watches, until he is spotted by chance and the assailants flee. The victim dies shortly there-after.

Evil or not on the part of the PC?

Not evil. Definately not good, but not evil.

What if afterwards, the PC tried to stabalize the victim? Does that change anything over letting the incident happen without even shouting out an alarm?

Yes. In the generic situation, trying to stabilize the victim nudges it a little up on the good axis.

What if the PC was following the victim, and witnessed the entire event from start to finish?

Not evil. Not good, mind you, but not evil.

In the generic, I see nothing inherently evil with it. He's minding his own business, and keeping himself out of trouble. I could see the above working for any neutral character on the good evil axis (except possibly lawful nutral). Of course, none of the actions (see earlier situaitonal criteria comment) strike me as something I'd expect out of a good character. In fact, I'd be surprized if a character who was played as good didn't do something about it.

 

[tburdett]

Is it evil for one country to declare neutrality during wartime when two or more other countries are killing each other by the thousands? If you do not define that as evil, I do not see how you could define this as evil.

My opinion is that this is the epitome of neutrality. He saw the activity taking place, decided that he wanted no part of it, and simply observed. Neutral.