Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="twofalls" data-source="post: 2146261" data-attributes="member: 23718">I'm not sure it will help, as folks here have very strong opinions on the subject matter at hand, but let me inject into the conversation my take on evil, and remind everyone again that these people are long times friends of mine and long time players. I see a lot of the same arguments being presented by new posters to this thread so I'd also like to encourage new folks who are interested in "voicing" in to actually read this, admittedly verbose thread all the way through before they restate what has already been said before them.There was NO Paladin in the game at that time, only a NG priest of Lathander and a fighter who wished to begin down the exhaulted path and was thinking of joining a holy order as a paladin. There were aslo a CG Elven Mage, a CG Dwarven Warmain, A CN Priest of Tempus, and  N pure fighter. The CN priest of Tempus is John, the war vet, who was not present at the session.In my game Alignment Detection spells only work on supernatural creatures. A gnome mage who happens to be a spellcaster isn't supernatural. A Gnome mage with wings, innate spell abilities, and who breathes fire is PROBABLY supernatural. Undead, Outsiders, Abberations, Dragons, etc are without question supernatural. So the option to cast Detect evil on the prisoners and then kill them based on that intelligence wasn't possbile, nor would it be acceptable only because no creature (with the general exception of those before mentioned supernatural critters) is unredeemably evil.Example: The party unknowingly hired a self serving CE ranger to guide them into the Stormhorn Mountians. He guided them into an ambush which they barely survived. (This was after the incident that started this thread.)  The PC's captured the Ranger after a chase and took him prisoner, disarmed him and forced him to complete the task they hired him for. They treated him with unsusual kindness while doing so (they didn't baby him, but in similar circumstances the Ranger would have killed them and the fact that they weren't taking vengence on hiim impressed him deeply). When he completed the task, it was decided that he would be released without pay and given a warning to change his ways or be branded an outlaw. The Priest of Lathander had been talking to him during their travels and showed him kindness and consideration to the point that the Ranger (who had never known such treatment) agreed to abandon his ways and even returned to Shadowdale (the PC's base of operations) and turned himself in, seeking guidence and Counciling at the Temple of the Morning Dawn. The PC's met him later in Shadowdale a changed man. He hadn't turned into a priest or gone all holy, but he had bought a plot of land and was trying his hand at farming. Evil isn't unredeemable.The two Zhent warriors are citizens of Zhentil Keep where military service is mandatory. The Vetran was a career man while the boy was a conscript. Neither had any choice about serving though the Vet had chosen to try to make something of himself in the military, so I guess you could argue that he was evil because he chose to remain in service. You could also argue that he didn't have many other options as it was his only proffesion... but whatever. The PC's didn't have time to get into deep background on either prisoner, but the players know me well enough to know that I have either studied or designed cultures behind the major players in my campiagns. Either way, neither one of them was unredeemable. It was asked several times what it was I had expected of the PC's... and I can't say that I had any expectations, only that I didn't at all believe they would slaughter them like farm animals. March them back to the Gnome village for holding? They didn't because it was a two day trip and they felt pressured for time. Keep them in bond and take them along, they were nervous about doing that because again, they were in a hurry. Tie them up and put them in the hunters shack until their comrade in armes found them? THAT wasn't even discussed. Any of those options would have been acceptable to me. Did I communicate that to the group? No. Should I have... yes, as an alternative to exploding on them in an email. I did actually wait two days before sending the email to calm down. When I wrote it I wasn't frothing at the mouth, but I was still quite upset. Lesson learned on that score.Okay, my take on evil. Enjoying the pain of others, disgregard for the sanctity of life, a willingness to harm others for spite/greed/lust/power/etc, or in the terms of the game a moral predisposition due to the nature of the being in question (see list in third paragraph). All this is getting rather academic. The original purpose of the thread was just to see if there was anyone else who agreed with me that what the PC's did was wrong, and I've recieved that answer, or if I was entirely out in left field. John Morrow, I haven't read your article, but I promise that I will and will PM you what I think of it sometime today.[Edited for spelling]</blockquote>

Verification