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Message: <blockquote data-quote="merwins" data-source="post: 7585937" data-attributes="member: 6829883">I find this an interesting perspective to explore. Does this mean there is no opportunity for true redemption or corruption? You can only change a sentient thing's behavior, but not its nature? Obviously, when you're discussing the idea of "souls" this may extend beyond magic items to characters as well. I'm not particularly interested in your real-life attitudes, just the in-game ones. With that focus, I would point out that with such a black-and-white perspective of the intrinsic nature of reality, a lot of fantasy stories have the potential to break down, especially as we (as readers or viewers) identify with characters in a story. I haven't thought about it deeply enough, but I'm not sure you can even support "shades of gray" beyond external behavior. In other words, every good act by an evil character would have an evil purpose, and vice-versa. Of course, if I view a sentient magic item as a tool, perhaps I could teach it to act less evil, whether or not it's true nature remains evil. I.e., over time, I would expect a lawful good paladin to be able to "teach" a soul-sucking sword to not eat its victims -- just kill them. But it would still WANT to, and be driven to. It stays evil, but it tries to behave "good." The paladin is a good influence and role model.EDIT: My bad... missed the "force" part. I guess this assumes that paladin or cleric prayers are a method of "force." We could all throw up our hands and say that since alignment is an in-game construct, divine influence can manipulate it. But it's more fun to think about. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/ponder.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":hmm:" title="Hmmm    :hmm:" data-shortname=":hmm:" /></blockquote>

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