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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PhantomNarrator" data-source="post: 3463465" data-attributes="member: 39649">Really? 100%? Well, you are entitled to your opinion, even if it's wrong. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Tell me, if D&D was so mediocre, why hasn't another game come along to knock it off its perch? Thirty years later, people still seem to prefer D&D. There must be more behind that than simple nostalgia. Plenty of people first discovered the game with 3.0/3.5, after all; does nostalgia factor much for them? But perhaps you just meant the alignment mechanic is mediocre? That would be a much more tenable position.Can alignment be mishandled? Yes, of course - it is a qualitative, not a quantitative mechanic, therefore some things must necessarily be open to interpretation. However, it is not meant to restrict, it is meant to define the ethical boundaries of a character, and this it does admirably, albeit in broader strokes than some care for. Just like people find it hard to change aspects of their personality, characters should adhere to their alignment as a guideline to behavior. Consistently disregarding alignment should result in alignment change, after several notices from the DM.You don't want to be limited by morality or the constraints of society? Fine! Then play one of the morally loose alignments! CN is usually the amoralists alignment of choice - they can avoid the danger of detect evil, while still being free to mostly act as they want. But to say that alignment is "useless" is just wrong. Society has standards - you can go against those standards, but don't be surprised if there are unpleasant consequences sometimes.That said, I think you can get rid of the alignment system without too much trouble, but this will have a cascading effect on spells, monsters and certain classes you need to be aware of. I personally don't think it's worth the trouble. Besides, alignments as cosmic constants are almost iconically D&D. I would argue alignment is what gives D&D that high fantasy flavor, as opposed to the grubby low fantasy moral ambiguity of more sophisticated fantasy games.</blockquote>

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