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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Slapzilla" data-source="post: 3782226" data-attributes="member: 52781">Looking at the length of the OP tells me that the idea of moral relativism in the alignment system is a big ol' headache.  But...If you are willing to create a template for each religion and create filters through which the divine magics of each will work, then more power to you and I'm interested how you do it.  It just seems too unwieldly to me.  I think, in the game, good, evil, law and chaos are just as real as air, earth, fire, and water.  One can smite evil, therefore it is, in absolute terms, a real and measurable thing.  It has a quantity and a quality that can be recognized and separated from the whole, and if neccessary, targeted.  A system that removes the quantity and quality can be difficult to implement.  An Arthurian Knight who can Smite Viking makes some sense but you lose some of what makes the Paladin cool.  Would the Knight of Odin be able to Smite Dwarf, or Giant?The fervor of the zealot compared to the dispassionate but true believer compared to the one who only goes to church on the two extremely high holy days of the year adds three levels of 'believer' to the mix and maybe you've bitten off a huge mouthful.  A kindly priest may heal an orc for free while an arch-conservative may only heal wounds obtained on church sponsored infidel smashing crusades, and then excommunicate the kindly priest.  You get into who is right and who is wrong and the subjective nature of each threatens to unbalance things otherwise carefully balanced.I think the answer lies in expanding the notion of alignments and fitting the religions within the expanded notions.  If a Paladin of Tyr and an Arthurian Holy Crusader met, surely they would get along well enough and any real debates would be just that, debates.  They may be inclined towards jousting as a means to test measure and resolution but with no hard feelings.  A druid of any bent may think the whole mess is foolish with all the proving by combat and all.  Orcs and Loki followers may agree on a deep visceral level on the whole destruction thing but without threats and coersion would they ever team up?My point is that these things work themselves out and if you use the alignments as one of many filters, it is a tool for you.  I agree that the pseudo-Celtic and the pseudo-Christian and the Dwarves will not see eye to eye, but these are natural filters.  Coming up with a codified system beforehand makes sense to avoid seeming arbitrary in decisions and is to be applauded.  My advice is 'simple is best'.The other bottom line is will your players think this added level of 'realism' to be fun, or a stupid drag getting in the way of monster bashing?</blockquote>

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