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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 296977" data-attributes="member: 172">You are stuck on old 1e and 2e definitions. Like things like class/level restrictions, there is a good reason many nonsensical bits of the system were left behind.Why is poison evil? It kills people? So do fireballs and swords. Just as with those items, in the realm of D&D, it's not the tool that is evil, it is the actions and intentions behind the use of those tools.Of course assassins are evil. They kill people for money. And poison is a convenient way to kill well protected targets with guile. But just because it is a good tool for assassins does not make it "evil."And to show a clear counterexample, the poison spell does not have an evil descriptor. A good divine spellcaster can use it. The protector of the sacred glade can call upon the power of the snake spirit to defend the glade from being overrun by evil... no prob!So much for good evil. Now to law.First, the SRD section on law. Law implies "trustworthiness". Okay, good enough. That plays into what I was saying about the sneaky knight a while back... secretly poisoning his enemy does not show trustworthiness or honor.But if you are a monk who lives close to nature and your monastery is in danger of being overrun by barbaric hordes, it's not the same situation. Plain shuriken are not a weapon you use against charging hordes. There is no guile there. The monks can and will use whatever means necessary to defend themselves.It is a typical assumption that a lawful character like a monk or paladin lives by a code that would prohibit certain activities that are looked down upon by the essence of the code. And I would expect for a paladin, poison would be one of them. But for a monk? Not necessarily.All that a monk's lawful state implies is a life of rigor, living their life by certain strict tenets. Those tenets may or may not include anything referring to poison. Their code is much more likely to concern themselves with diet, touching dead creatures, and which way they sit when they eat.There is NOTHING implicit about poison that should be considered to be inhenerntly evil or chaotic.</blockquote>

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