Do you use the Book of Exalted Deeds vision of Good? If so I'll readily agree we differ on our definitions of Good and that won't change. I simply can't agree with the BoED version of Good just as I think the BoVD trivializes what is truly Evil. I have to question WHY would Good value the lives of Evil? If they truly want to redeem themselves then they should need to convince Good of it, and then Good should be vigilant to help them on the path. And ready with a sword if they fail.
I use the
Dungeons & Dragons version of Good. Altruism, respect for life, concern for the dignity of sentient beings, personal sacrifices to help others, protecting innocent life. In D&D, being of Evil alignment doesn't make one non-sentient, non-living, or otherwise unworthy of the dignity and respect that is characteristic of a Good alignment. They value the lives of Evil beings because they believe such beings have the capacity for Good (the same way a devil may value the life of a paladin because a paladin has a capacity to fall and become a blackguard). They value the lives of Evil people because they value all life, and feel that all beings are worthy of dignity, even if they choose to use it wrong.
Dignity and respect won't mean you won't slay them if the need is there. It just means that you will not regard their mere existence as a need to slay them.
Evil people are still people...evil human beings are still human beings...and Good characters seem to have the view that simply making unfortunate choices doesn't invalidate the fact that you are a person, that you are a human being, that you can be otherwise. If there is the chance that you can be otherwise, a Good character wants you to be otherwise.
The sword is a weapon of necessity to a thoughtful Good character, not simply a tool. It has the power to unmake a person, to transform a human being into an inanimate object, it ends the chance for redemption and hurries you on to the judgment the universe has cosigned for you (for Evil characters, eternal punishment in the Abyss or Baator or Hades). While just, if there is any force in the world that will destroy your humanity and eradicate your sentience, it is the Lower Planes. Even the greatest Abyssal Lord lacks what even an evil necromancer-king has: the spark of sentience that allows them to reconsider their actions.
Redemption isn't something you apply for, to a Good character...it's something whose potential is inborn in your very nature. That's why life and sentience earns such respect and protection, that's why even an Evil life is worth trying to preserve. No one deserves the torments of the Lower Planes. And every sentient spirit has the chance to achieve paradise. It's a chance that everyone deserves, as often as they request it. The "cause" for Good characters is "everyone else."
That feeds into the self-sacrifice. Yes, a Good character wants to be a doormat. To be willing to die for your cause doesn't require much courage. Life is easy to spend. To be willing to be embarrassed, humiliated, hated, pitied, and to live with the messy burden of existence...that's true courage.
Now, these aren't *requirements* for Good. They're just the logical extreme of the philosophy. You can be Good and still suffer from pride, from wrath, from hundreds of sins of the body and mind. What makes you Good is that you struggle against them, not that you are totally free of them. Just as an Evil character may occasionally have pity on an underling, a Good character may trust his sword arm a bit too much. "Exalted" characters are the extremists, the ones who are almost entirely free of those hundreds of minor sins.
