D&D 5E RIP alignment

[overgeeked]

By you.

It will by others.

I’m sure some people missed gender-based ability modifiers when they disappeared. Others missed race-based level restrictions when they disappeared. Others missed race-based class restrictions when they disappeared. Others still will miss alignment. The game keeps evolving. It will never stop. If it stops evolving, it will die.

 

[ccs]

That shouldn’t be a problem for you if you apply your own logic. Point B specifically.

It's not a problem for me. It's a problem for others.
I mean, if they'd read & understood the pages and concepts they'd not be upset with seeing an alignment listed for a creature. They'd know it's just (generally) the most common al. Of the creature encountered - like average HP.

I wonder if these people could've been mollifide by adding the words "Most common" right before Alignment on each stat block that wasn't of a specific individual? If only Wizards had spent another dime on ink....
Oh well, too late now.

And I've been applying B) since about the 1st week of Jan. '81 thank you.
Because as a child I read and, most importantly, understood the equivalent pages of my book at the time.

 

[overgeeked]

It's not a problem for me. It's a problem for others.
I mean, if they'd read & understood the pages and concepts they'd not be upset with seeing an alignment listed for a creature. They'd know it's just (generally) the most common al. Of the creature encountered - like average HP.

I wonder if these people could've been mollifide by adding the words "Most common" right before Alignment on each stat block that wasn't of a specific individual? If only Wizards had spent another dime on ink....
Oh well, too late now.

And I've been applying B) since about the 1st week of Jan. '81 thank you.
Because as a child I read and, most importantly, understood the equivalent pages of my book at the time.

People did understand it. That’s why it bothered them. Saying that entire races default to a given alignment, especially an evil one, is really kinda racist. Especially when those fantasy races are so often coded with real-world racist tropes.

 

[darjr]

What does the tweet say in the OP?

It’s a tweet with an image of a stat block without alignment.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I certainly never expected to see any Planescape products in the future. But then I didn't expect a Ravenloft setting so I guess I'm not exactly the Amazing Kreskin.

I guess we will find out in another couple of months when the previews of the new Ravenloft book start coming out. Will the creatures and Darklords in there who are obviously evil still be shown that way? Or is Strahd now just some poor, confused person who identifies as a vampire?

 

[Charlaquin]

It's not a problem for me. It's a problem for others.
I mean, if they'd read & understood the pages and concepts they'd not be upset with seeing an alignment listed for a creature. They'd know it's just (generally) the most common al. Of the creature encountered - like average HP.

I wonder if these people could've been mollifide by adding the words "Most common" right before Alignment on each stat block that wasn't of a specific individual? If only Wizards had spent another dime on ink....
Oh well, too late now.

And I've been applying B) since about the 1st week of Jan. '81 thank you.
Because as a child I read and, most importantly, understood the equivalent pages of my book at the time.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who fully understand that listed alignments are meant to be most common and still don’t like it. Let me decide what is or isn’t common in my own worlds, thanks.

 

[Hatmatter]

And NPC stat blocks. It'll also be absent from future character race writeups, per the UA. I don't think that leaves any other place for alignment to appear in official D&D content going forward, though feel free to correct me if you can think of one.

I think it's pretty reasonable to conclude that they're phasing it out.

It helps with laying out the philosophical dispositions of the Outer Planes.

 

[Charlaquin]

I guess we will find out in another couple of months when the previews of the new Ravenloft book start coming out. Will the creatures and Darklords in there who are obviously evil still be shown that way?

If a character is obviously evil, what exactly is lost by not putting the word evil in their stat block? Why not let the character’s behavior speak for itself?

Or is Strahd now just some poor, confused person who identifies as a vampire?

This is an absurd thing to say, on every level.

 

[darjr]

arguments about removing them from stat blocks ring like many other arguments

 

[overgeeked]

It helps with laying out the philosophical dispositions of the Outer Planes.

Just go back to the actually useful 4E versions instead of the silly alignment-based cosmology.