Ugly (or low Charisma) = evil?

[Testament]

Gosh, I just had a mental image...

"Lantern archons appear as floating balls of light that glow about as brightly as a torch."

"Will-o’-wisps can be yellow, white, green, or blue. They are easily mistaken for lanterns, especially in the foggy marshes and swamps where they reside. A will-o’-wisp’s body is a globe of spongy material about 1 foot across and weighing about 3 pounds, and its glowing body sheds as much light as a torch."

"Hi! I'm a lantern archon - Heironeous sent me. Don't go that way - go this way!"

-Hyp.

I kneel before your evil.

That said, on the topic I have one word to say. Bishonen.

Elaboration: Take a look at all the FF games from VII onwards. The villain is always good looking. When I run, appearance doesn't have anything to do with alignment.

 

[Storyteller01]

I've pretty much had to go against stereotypes out of nesseccity. If I follow them, the party figures out early on what's going on. If I twist things, I maintain the suspense.

 

[John Morrow]

I don't think we need to assume the opposite extreme to challenge a particular preconception or trend. I believe it goes without saying that veering into the "everything is completely the opposite of what it looks like" would be a juvenile approach to the dilemma. What I was proposing (but probably failed to communicate) was to encourage a bit more complexity, or at least not to hinder it. In some cases what you see is what you get. In other cases nothing is as it seems. In most cases it's a lot of both. The challenge for the characters (and perhaps their players) is to judge each situation on its own merits and then take appropriate action.

All I was warning against was the heavy-handed juvenile approach. But bear in mind that D&D has things like alignment for the same reason Westerns used to put white hats on the good guys and black hats on the bad guys. Sometimes a more simplistic way of telling good from evil is desirable.

The funny thing about Darkness in Legend is that I don't think he's portrayed as monstrous in the sense of him being a big, strong, brainless brute.

I was thinking more about the henchmen. Fair point, though.

In a way this does argue against my original point (which I'm OK with), and this brings to mind that it is not the presence of a correlation between evil and ugliness, but failure to make evil subtle, pervasive, and tempting as well as repulsive that doesn't agree with me.

Oh, I'm all for that.

 

[S'mon]

Well, my favourite villain is Graz'zt, the extremely handsome six-fingered pimp-daddy of the Outer Planes. I've always had a soft spot for good-looking villains, whether demon princes, cambions, drow or humans. I guess the good guys tend not to be truely ugly, because good is attractive - a good dwarf will look homely where an evil dwarf with the same facial features would be ugly. But good-looking villains are more scary.

 

[Eli-kun]

Kobolds are cute.
I've never seen any correlation between appearance and alignment. My character with the highest charisma is neutral evil.
My character with the lowest charisma is chaotic neutral.

 

[Voadam]

Gosh, I just had a mental image...

"Lantern archons appear as floating balls of light that glow about as brightly as a torch."

"Will-o’-wisps can be yellow, white, green, or blue. They are easily mistaken for lanterns, especially in the foggy marshes and swamps where they reside. A will-o’-wisp’s body is a globe of spongy material about 1 foot across and weighing about 3 pounds, and its glowing body sheds as much light as a torch."

"Hi! I'm a lantern archon - Heironeous sent me. Don't go that way - go this way!"

-Hyp.

I did not realize until you posted this and I looked them up in the srd, but they do speak.

"Will-o’-wisps speak Common and Auran. They have no vocal apparatus but can vibrate to create a voice with a ghostly sound."

Wierd. The only one I ever encountered never spoke a word, it just blasted at the pcs.

 

[AZNtrogdor]

It would be funny if being ugly and evil was also true in real life...

the judicial system would be just a couple gay guys deciding if someone is ugly or not! LOL

 

[Nifft]

Paladins are good and high-Charisma.

Blackguards are evil and high-Charisma.

-- N

 

[Gez]

Beauty is the instinctive ways of telling what is good from what isn't.

A beautiful man or woman is one that is healthy, and thus suitable as a mate or associate. A beautiful deer is yummy food.

Of course, this isn't fool-proof (wolfsbane are pretty, tasty-looking berries), but more often than not, it works.

There's a natural tendancy to be attracted by what is beautiful and to shun what is ugly. It's part of the way we think.

Which means it's always great for symbolism -- and symbolism is the stuff stories are built on.

 

[DonTadow]

I usually don't associate charisma with looks. I think its a misconceptions. I can't tell you how many ugly people I"ve met whom are very charismatic (most of the time that is all they can go on).

On the reverse, i've met a dozen sexy or cute people whom can suck the life out of a room. I let my pcs set their descriptions and roll with it.