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PC Alignment clash with a twist
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<blockquote data-quote="Tom Cashel" data-source="post: 172075" data-attributes="member: 321"><p>Well, that's a matter of opinion.</p><p></p><p>The "alignment system" is based on <strong>absolutes</strong>. For you to suddenly claim that good and evil are relative (i.e. committing evil acts for the cause of good equals a good act) is what cheapens the alignment system.</p><p></p><p>You've fallen prey to the classic misconception that real-world ethics and pragmatism have any bearing whatsoever on D&D.</p><p></p><p>Let me simplify it for you: you can't summon evil creatures to fight your enemies for the same reason Velm (NG Ftr/Clr) can't pick up an <em>unholy avenger battleaxe +3</em> and start cleaving the enemy. Using evil to reach your goal is <strong>evil</strong>, even if the goal itself is good.</p><p></p><p>Extrapolating your line of thought can justify absolutely anything, as long as the enemy is evil.</p><p></p><p>"Well, sure it's good to use poisoned weapons, because I'm using them against evil."</p><p></p><p>"Of course I can kidnap the baron's children and murder them. Because the baron is evil, and doing so will topple his regime."</p><p></p><p>Okay, I'm done. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes :rolleyes:" data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tom Cashel, post: 172075, member: 321"] Well, that's a matter of opinion. The "alignment system" is based on [b]absolutes[/b]. For you to suddenly claim that good and evil are relative (i.e. committing evil acts for the cause of good equals a good act) is what cheapens the alignment system. You've fallen prey to the classic misconception that real-world ethics and pragmatism have any bearing whatsoever on D&D. Let me simplify it for you: you can't summon evil creatures to fight your enemies for the same reason Velm (NG Ftr/Clr) can't pick up an [i]unholy avenger battleaxe +3[/i] and start cleaving the enemy. Using evil to reach your goal is [b]evil[/b], even if the goal itself is good. Extrapolating your line of thought can justify absolutely anything, as long as the enemy is evil. "Well, sure it's good to use poisoned weapons, because I'm using them against evil." "Of course I can kidnap the baron's children and murder them. Because the baron is evil, and doing so will topple his regime." Okay, I'm done. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE]
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