D&D General Old School DND talks if DND is racist.

[Justice and Rule]

I dont think it is.

I think you clean up Volo's, and either we leave the rest alone as it pertains to setting specific definitions (FR Orcs != Eberron Orcs) or we have another layer of errata that sapient beings are not of a predefined monolithic alignment.

That's not a slippery slope, it's 'apply a patch to alignment'. IMO of course.

I misread what you initially wrote. Mea culpa.

 

[Mecheon]

That's not a slippery slope, it's 'apply a patch to alignment'. IMO of course.

I mean, you say 'patch', I say 'excise alignment's corpse from the rest of the game before it infects anything else'

 

[Mind of tempest]

I mean, you say 'patch', I say 'excise alignment's corpse from the rest of the game before it infects anything else'

that is perspective.

 

[Scribe]

I mean, you say 'patch', I say 'excise alignment's corpse from the rest of the game before it infects anything else'

/shrug

I like Alignment, its hardwired into Planescape and the Great Wheel to a degree I see no value in dropping it.

Changing how its applied to Prime lineages? Go nuts.

 

[Oofta]

I misread what you initially wrote. Mea cupla.

I really hope you made a typo and aren't expecting someone to put you in a harness.

 

[Justice and Rule]

I really hope you made a typo and aren't expecting someone to put you in a harness.

Damn it, this always happens when I'm posting and making dinner...

 

[TheSword]

I think that's an excellent idea! Let the DM decide the alignment of any given individual creature. Good thinking.

And the Great Wheel Comes crashing down.

You might not like the Planescape setting but it’s been a big part of the game for a very long time.

I don’t like the idea of jettisoning it without a damn good reason.

 

[Lanefan]

I think you’re getting the wrong end of the stick. When I write like, I mean “in a similar way”.

“John drives like Mike”
“Mary looks like her mother”
“Rob types like a computer wiz”
“Claire writes like Maya Angelou”

The fact that mindflayer bodies fulfill essential biological functions doesn’t mean they do it like people do. Otherwise 90% of living monsters would all fall in the same category.

Which is exactly my point: the categories and delimiters you're using are so broad as to include just about everything out there, which at best makes them kinda useless.

 

[Oofta]

I think that's an excellent idea! Let the DM decide the alignment of any given individual creature. Good thinking.

Which is what 5E says now. Unfortunately it's buried in text few people read.

 

[CleverNickName]

Re: a good-aligned lich...

In our game world there is a cult of necromancers. One of their edicts is that everyone has a destiny, and they must not let anything interfere with that destiny...including death. So it's not uncommon for their members to seek out means of extending their mortality until their destiny is fulfilled. The means of extending their mortality can, and often does, include undeath. Some of their high priests are liches, mummies, and vampires.

But are they evil? Well, that depends on what they consider to be "their destiny." Those who won't rest until they rule over the people of Wherever and slaughter all who oppose them? They certainly are evil. Those who will never rest until the war is ended and every child it orphaned is adopted? They are certainly not evil.