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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wombat" data-source="post: 1114318" data-attributes="member: 8447">I think all of this is leading back to a major point.IF Good, Evil, Law & Chaos are absolutes.And IF we can Detect such alignments easily.Then why NOT lock up all who are Evil?This is why I find D&D alignments very weird.  They want to have it both ways -- moral greys and absolutes simultaneously.If Detect Evil detects an Absolute (Real Evil) then there must be a singular and true measure of what is Evil.  Thus if anyone falls into that camp they are Evil, without question.How well does D&D really measure "Good-for-the-moment"?  It doesn't.  There are absolute constructs of Good and Evil, of Law and Chaos.  Yet players want the flexibility to alter from time to time.  This doesn't really fit the base constructs of the world as given in the game books.To me this is pretty much a binary choice:  either alignments are Absolutes or they are not.  If they are, then there needs to be set definitions of what constitutes Good, Evil, Law, Chaos and these rules do not alter (which seems pretty Lawful, if you ask me).  If, conversely, there are competing ideas about what constitutes Good, Evil, etc., and there are sliders on the scale, then how do items and spells that work with Good, etc., actually function?  "Hmm," sez the Holy Avenger, "He gave only 8% of his treasure to the temple, but he is supposed to give 10%, but he did help that little old lady find her lost grandkids, but he did tell some lies to get past those guards, but he did tell a joke to make the little girls smile when she thought all was hopeless -- I guess he rates as Kinda Good... Maybe I should turn off half my functions for him."Okay, that may be a flippant example, but I don't think it is far off the mark.That is why I do away with alignment and alignment-based items, spells, etc.  Yes, it makes the world a little murkier, but in the end it feels more correct.</blockquote>

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