Ok, then ... how WOULD the nine alignments deal with kender?

[Edena_of_Neith]

Hey there folks.
We all know about the Alignment Wars, but I'm not here to do battle in this thread.

Instead, I was hoping you'd give me your opinion about what a person of each of the nine alignments (thus, nine people, obviously) would do, if they:

Casually met kender for the first time.
Interacted with several kender after that.
Continued to interact with kender.
Were forced to interact with kender.

How would a lawful good react in the situations above?
A neutral good?
A chaotic good?
A lawful neutral?
A neutral?
A chaotic neutral?
A lawful evil?
A neutral evil?
A chaotic evil?

Or, a character without alignment as given in D&D, but who has an ethical standard that was set up in your home game (such as a paladin might have.)
A Home Game system of ethics, as it were.

Now, you might ask, what is a kender?
Kender are a race unique to the world of Krynn, which is the world of the Dragonlance Setting.

Adult kender are very much like human children in their behavior.
They are insatiably curious.
They are inquisitive to the extreme.
They are fearless - they are magically immune to fear, be it normal or magical fear.
They are extraordinarily talkative, and will talk without interruption until they fall asleep, if not stopped. Kender love to tell long stories about their adventures and relatives, and anything else they deem interesting.
Kender are afflicted by Wanderlust, which in young adulthood drives them away from home on adventures and trips, and they are not prone to homesickness or disorientation from travelling.
Kender are thieves, without realizing they are thieves - they will subconsciously, and very proficiently, thieve from anyone they contact, including each other. They will take shiny, beautiful, and otherwise outstanding things first (a brightly colored piece of glass will be taken over a bar of gold hands down.)
Kender are unaware of this theft, CANNOT be made to be aware of their thievery, and will react violently if accused of thievery ... most kender consider thieves to be very bad people.
Kender have a magical ability called Taunt, which is generally used on opponents: the insults and jeers of the kender force a Will Save, and if this is not made, the foe of the kender attacks the kender without employing wits, strategy, tactics, or using his head in any reasonable way.
Kender cannot become evil in alignment. Ever. If a magical device would somehow make a kender turn evil, instead the kender becomes catatonic. There is no recorded case of an evil kender anywhere in Krynn history.
Kender are EXTREMELY dangerous around spellbooks, scrolls, wands, staves, rods, rings, miscellaneous magical items, and the like: they WILL wish to activate these items, and activation is certain if the kender obtains one ... kender are rarely responsible (much less mature) in their behavior.

Tasslehoff Burrfoot is the most famous of all kender.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

I'm unfamiliar with Krynn but it sounds like it'd be *really* fun to play one of those things...

 

[The Forsaken One]

Edena you never shared with us what happend with the Kender who took off with the staff of Iuz in the 3rd IR, just curious

And I think ALL AL's would react BAD to Kender, exept maybe extreem LG as they are supposedly very comprehending and forgiving and understanding blabla... This kinda behavior is even madness to any respectable CN person.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Moe, here is how a kender would handle your scenario given above:

Player Character 1: I will open the door.
Kender player: I'll open it! I'll open it!
Player Character 1: Opening doors is dangerous. A dragon could be waiting on the other side.
Kender: A dragon?! LET'S GO SEE IT!
Player Character 1: Ok. You open it, then.
DM: So, you are opening the door, then?
Kender: Yes.
DM: There was a trap on the door. You set it off.
Kender: Oops.
DM: The entire party takes 25 points of damage.
Kender: Ouch. That hurt! Now, what's inside? Where's the dragon?! I want to talk to a real, live dragon!

Forsaken One, the kender who took off with the Staff of Iuz accidentally blasted quite a bit of the Greyhawk countryside with the Staff.
However, they soon found blowing things up to be rather boring, and they were afraid they'd hurt someone, so they left the staff sitting in the dark corner of an inn's common room.
They knew mages hung out in the dark corners of inn common rooms, and they felt that mages might be wise enough to handle the Staff and not hurt people with it, so they left it for a mage to find.
The Staff was, shortly afterwards, recovered by the minions of Iuz, who promptly took off with it to another world, and set themselves up as a power there.
A very frustrated and VERY angry Iuz was unable to get back his Staff, because he was too occuped with the 3rd IR to send anyone to challenge his upstart minions.
The kender who had the Staff of Iuz, are still at large, happily frolicking through the new Demiplane of Hope.

 

[Bonedagger]

I don't really think their actions would be dictated by their alignments but I'll bite. Here's what I think they would be more likely to do.


Lawful good: Try to help the kender with not upsetting its surroundings.

Neutral good: Try an help the kender with not annoying him.

Chaotic good: Threat the kender unfairly but friendly to adjust the kenders mistake.


Lawful Neutral: Constantly punnish the kender when he does something wrong.

True neutral: Punnish the kender unfairly when he annoys him.

Chaotic Neutral: Punnish the kender unfairly when he think the kender will annoy him.


Lawful Evil: Kill the kender

Neutral Evil: Kill the kender

Chaotic Evil: Kill the kender


Guess that's about it.

[Edit: Note that the ones who would have the most easy time around the kenders would be chaotic and evil people.]

 

[Thyrkill]

Here's how I would see it:

Lawful good:
The LG person would patiently tolerate the Kender's nature and antics (forgiveness is divine). He would also try to correct and change the Kender's ways, gently admonishing him for his behavior.

Neutral good:
The NG person would get along with the Kender and realize that it's not really the Kender's fault. He would try to steer the Kender away fron mischief and more than likely would pay for damages out of his own pocket.

Chaotic good:
The CG person would tolerate the Kender's mischief until the first time it got them in trouble. He would then part company with the Kender and be on his own separate way.

Lawful Neutral:
The LN person would not be able to tolerate the chaotic and unlawful nature of the Kender. For the good of society, he would lock the Kender up or banish them (not that that would do any good).

True neutral:
The N person would understand that the Kender are part of the balance but would find them too chaotic in nature. He would not hesitate to "remove" the Kender if he was upsetting the order of things.

Chaotic Neutral:
The CN person would be able to truly appreciate the Kender's nature, his complete freedom and lack of regard for man-made laws. Yet, he would not hesitate to kill or eliminate the Kender if he got in his way or upset him in any way.

Lawful Evil:
A Kender has its uses. A LE person would use the Kender to sew chaos and misdirection. He would more than likely hire the Kender (through a third party) to "look into" something dealing with the LE person's enemies. If that failed and the Kender was causing difficulties, the LE person would have a hired goon wipe the Kender out.

Neutral Evil:
By his nature, the Kender would rub the NE person the wrong way. Then the NE person would take the unsuspecting Kender into a dark alley and slit his throat.

Chaotic Evil:
The CE person would slaughter the Kender upon meeting him...and probably the person that introduced them as well.


That's my take on it anyway.

Matt

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

LG: Kill the kender
LN: Kill the kender
LE: Kill the kender
NG: Kill the kender
TN: Kill the kender
NE: Kill the kender
CG: Kill the kender
CN: Kill the kender
CE: Kill the kender.


But maybe I'm just biased.

 

[Nightfall]

As the Sage of the Scarred Lands, Evangalist and part time Herald, I would ensure the sudden demise only because kender infestations have to be put down harshly.

 

[Vocenoctum]

LG: Find some extra dimensional paradise in which to trap him, for the good of society.
NG: I see this as more of the forgive anything, reconcile type.
CG: Ditch the Kender as soon as possible.
LN: Imprison him.
TN: Imprison him
CN: roll 1d8 and consult another alignment.
LE: Slave pits
NE: flay him, then draw and quarter
CE: kill him quickly, before he speaks again!

I've had a couple Kender's in groups I DMed before, and they weren't played as the book kender were portrayed.
They were very curious, but didn't possess the complete disregard for others that most Kender have. For a lot of people, Kenders are simply an excuse to play an ammoral type that will steal anything under the premise that they don't consider it stealing...

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Well, I cannot really say how the alignments in general would deal with a Kender. Alot of how the Kender is treated by a given person can often come down to the imagination of the person. What I can do is tell you how I would have my character react to a Kender based on the assumption that my character is of the given alignment.

LG: A Lawful Good Kender would try to keep the kender from harming its self or others. To that end, it would either lecture the Kender, or incarcerate it for a short time.

NG: A Neutral good character would probably realize that the Kender is not being malicious. Such a character would warn others in advance of what the Kender may do, and how best to deal with it.

CG: A Chaotic good character might tolerate and befriend the Kender for a while, but he would also have to tell the Kender to shut up quite often. A CG character would tolerate the kender until it managed to get someone hurt or caused too much property damage. At that point, he would demand that the Kender go away.

LN: A Lawful Neutral type would most likely complain to the Authorities about the Kenders harrassment and theft, and demand its property back.

TN: In all likely hood, a TN character will leave a Kender alone as long as the Kender leaves it alone. The character may befriend one, but neither will the character put up with the Kender endagering its self.

CN: A CN character wil laugh at those the kender is pissing off, and yell and scream and the Kender when the Kender does something to him.

LE: A Lawful Evil character would say "Hey, that big guy over their with the sword and the scarred face; He killed a dragon once, and he loves to tell people about it. He even has a Dragons Clay in his pocket. I am a very boring person, but I bet you would have lots of fun talking to that guy!"

NE: The Neutral evil character would stay away from the Kender. But if the Kender became a nuisance, he would kill it.

CE: The chaotic evil character beat the kender. He would knock its teeth out, break its arms, legs, fingers, and most importantly its jaw. After that got old, he would then cut off the kenders hands and cut out its tounge. Finally, he would set the Kenders Topknot on fire and let it run away screaming into the night.

END COMMUNICATION