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Message: <blockquote data-quote="comrade raoul" data-source="post: 3748808" data-attributes="member: 554">This is mostly a response to the OP.I don't think this is a consequence of the cosmology, and I also don't think it's what the designers intended. It's easy to think that because "good" and "evil" are linked to different planar regions, and because they're deeply intertwined with powerful magical forces and the creatures those forces animate, they're just different kinds of planar forces without inherent moral status. They just start to feel like physical forces--a kind of magical equivalent to gravity or magnetism. And in that light they lose the significance you want them to have.One thing that adds to the problem is that a lot of the fluff tells you that the denizens of the upper planes are Good, but it doesn't show it. On the contrary, I find that often in D&D "Good" comes across as grim, sanctimonious, and authoritarian--they're only Good because they smite undead, instead of rebuke it, and talk grandly about Protecting Innocents, and get mad when you don't restrict your wanton killing to the right species.There are two responses to this--one response (the one I prefer) is to embrace the relativism wholeheartedly and run from a morally binary fantasy universe entirely in order to go for a rougher, grittier, but ultimately (I find) more humanistic world, in which the characters need to figure out what's right for themselves, rather than have some big planar authority give them the answers. (I also like this because I think pretty much all D&D adventurers act like selfish, bloodthirsty, and often judgmental types, and thinking of them as Good cheapens real goodness for me.) On this approach, things might still be objectively good or evil--but that objectivity is too complicated to be really embodied by warring planar factions.Another response, though--and one I think might work better for you--is to try to make the moral status of Good and Evil planar beings fundamental and palpable in them. On this approach, the fact that something is affiliated with the upper plans means that it is fundamentally good in a deep, essential, personal way--once you come in contact with an eladrin, say, you simply find, in your heart, that you're dealing with something Good--and if you're not hopelessly tainted with darkness, at least part of you rejoices in that. Your goal as a DM is to communicate that. Describe good planar creatures in a way that really delights your players: make them noble, majestic, and above all joyful and kind. Comparably, don't use fiends as faceless villains but give them a chance to be really horrifying. Thinking of C.S. Lewis, or other writers, might help. ("Is Talisid safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.")</blockquote>

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