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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sundragon2012" data-source="post: 2553648" data-attributes="member: 7624">It seems that some DMs are applying modern psychological and developmental theory to their "evil" aligned creatures. This manner of thinking states that if you raise em' right, they'll be upstanding. Well, human psychology puts the lie to that argument when three siblings raised in a healthy home become very different people both morally and ethically. Now, maybe one or two may have moral values very similar to the parents, while the other(s) have very different outlooks, values, and overall character.Now lets translate this into the gulf between completely different species. There is no reason to believe that creatures listed as usually evil do not have a fundamentally different psychology that humans. Now there may be and I am sure are, similarities, but to make them nearly exactly the same as humans IMO is foolish and is a personal preference that is demonstrated nowhere in fantasy literature or in the game itself.Amongst humans, great evil is abnormal.Amongst elves and dwarves, great evil is an utter abberation.Amongst orcs, goblins, hill giants, etc. good is an abberation.Amongst evil dragons, beholders, illithids, etc. good is nearly utterly non-existant.See a pattern here anybody?The baseline for humans is that for humans and the factors that make humans so philosophically versatile is because of HUMAN psychology that creates human cultures.The reason elves and dwarves are the way they are due to elven and dwarven psychology that creates their cultures.Those races tending to evil are the way they are because of certain intrinsic traints of their own psychology that creates their cultures. Then toss in that their are gods who are actively working to keep things the way they are in most settings, you have a recipe for a reliable, if not completely exact, baromter of what to expect from a given race. Things are nowhere near so simplistic as "those poor orcs, if only they were raised with love and care they would all turn out just like sweet, loving human children." Hell, human children don't turn out full of light and sunshine even if raised in a loving environment. Why do we assume orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, drow, etc. would?The exception is never the rule and just because some extremely tiny fraction of a given race turns out good despite the probabilities otherwise is no argument against an intrinsic wickedness in a given species.Chris</blockquote>

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