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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 6763213">Allying with evil, practicing evil and generally being evil results in evil outcomes.EX: in my campaign, there is an incredibly powerful ancient spirit, with literally the power to grant you incredible power (he can grant 5 power points (it's a custom thing in this game), he can grant 5 levels, he can create castles out of nothing, etc...).  The players have not encountered him, but he asks little in return, only the retrieval of various artifacts which will set him free from his imprisonment.  His goal is of course, domination of all life on the world, including the players and if he finds them too difficult to dominate, he will destroy them.  He doesn't draw power from life, so he doesn't need you and he's well beyond the power of the players, especially if you give him all his artifacts and a new body.   [MENTION=6801202]pdegan2814[/MENTION] is correct, most fantasy revolves around accomplishing heroic deeds.  There is very little fantasy about a bunch of mercenaries out for personal power and glory.  You don't read Darth Vader's story, you read Anakin's story, and then Obi-Won's story and Luke's story.  You don't read Emperor Palpatine, Ursula or Jafar's stories.  And you don't accomplish heroic deeds by making deals with demons, or taking evil shortcuts; at least not on a regular basis.EX: the King's son is dying, he needs a new heart (for whatever reason).  The King's Wizard tells you that he boy can be saved with the Amulet of the Heart.  As you leave for the quest, you are approached by one of the King's Advisors, who tells you that you need to go on a long dangerous quest, but only need to bring the Advisor a healthy child and he will save the King's son.  Now, clearly the easy solution here is to kidnap a child or potentially buy a slave, give him to the Advisor who we can take a guess as probably going to do something nasty to the new kid in order to save the King's son.  We have no idea what effects either one of these things will have on the son, but being the genre-savvy folks that we are, we can probably guess that unless our DM is a jerk who's trying to screw us, the wizard who sends us on a quest for an amulet is likely the good option and the advisor is the evil option.   [MENTION=6777454]TheHobgoblin[/MENTION] Evil is generally easier in the short term, you're right.  But that's what you're missing: that it is only easier and more effective in the short term.  All the stories about people who used evil means to achieve power and get what they wanted?  That's the story of Jafar, of Sauron, of Palpatine, of every villain in every story you've ever read.  It tends to work out poorly for them in the end while the guys who did the good things, who followed the righteous path, who stayed true to their convictions get the girl, get the real victory and are regarded as heroes and champions for ages.The best you could possibly achieve through evil means is to essentially be the bad-guy of the next story.</blockquote>

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