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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8329670" data-attributes="member: 6915329">I disagree because I think that would be far too easy to overlook. I think it also leads to a bit of laziness. Why not have all humanoids be neutral by default, and have specific settings decide whether they are good or evil in them?That would be Gygax. And a lot of other people as well.Well, it's been decades since I saw that film (I've only seen the first two), so I could be fuzzy on some details, but as I recall: Ripley was trapped. There was literally no place she could go without getting killed, and the general atmosphere of the planet was at least a bit toxic. She had no way of replenishing her supplies. She was in a kill-or-be-killed situation. Xenomorph eggs were literally dangerous from the get-go, since the facehuggers attacked immediately upon hatching and chestbursters (who, much like certain D&D monsters like mind flayers) kill the person they were using to incubate. The xenomorphs themselves appeared completely incapable of communication--I could be wrong, but I don't recall seeing anything like evidence of handicrafts, writing, or anything else that would indicate xenomorphs were sapient. Their vocalizations sound like animal noises, not like any sort of human language. They acted in all way like smart but very vicious predators. That had acidic blood. Ripley was trying to survive long enough to get off-planet.Compare to D&D, where the average party actively and deliberately enters an orc lair with the full knowledge that orcs are sentient beings simply to kill them and take their stuff. They can leave at any time they like, and would likely be able to get away without too much trouble. There's a good chance that they either know Orcish or have access to a spell like comprehend languages or tongues. It is possible to negotiate with, bribe, threaten, or ally with orcs. Orc babies are born through old-fashioned sex and don't require a host body to die for them to be born, and orc babies have to grow up just like human babies do. In other words, D&D orcs are exactly like D&D humans, elves, dwarfs, halflings, gnomes, etc., except that someone, way back when, decided their purpose was to be sword fodder for low-level PCs.If people like me don't bring Aliens up, it's because that has absolutely no similarity between them and D&D orcs.Intelligent creatures don't "decide that their brain structure" gives them anything. That's fine. You can find it useful. I just don't think it's as objectively useful as you think it is, especially since monsters have changed alignment between editions (orcs and Strahd have been mentioned; two other examples are dryads, who went from N to CG back to N; and mephits used to be N and are now NE) or don't do an adequate job matching the text (beholders are LE, despite being completely paranoid, unwilling to trust or ally with anyone they don't completely control except in those rare occasions when their personal madness allows them to see other beholders as extensions of itself rather than separate individuals, don't respect people of higher authority, and as of this edition, being born from dreams).And I think that, in general, it causes too many problems to be worth the small amount of benefit it gives--which is an extremely basic overview of how the monster might act.</blockquote>

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