D&D General Why do people like Alignment?

[nevin]

Alignment is an Ideology. You'll never stop people arguing over whether it s right. Whether it's done right or whether paladins and clerics and other worshippers should suffer consequences.

but as an addendum to the post you were disagreeing on. I do think it would help a lot if WOTC would add sections for gods and Patrons on what they expect from the various orders of their worshippers. Gods in the D&D aren't all powerful or all knowing so it could be one gods definition of what a CG order of rangers should do is different than anothers. Codes of conduct for the orders and general worshippers would go along way towards letting the players know what was expected of certain alignments by dieties. If they choose to have one. If not does it even matter? That's the real wierd thing about alignment. I don't have a solution but it really is only significant if your character has a god or patron.

 

[Lanefan]

Perhaps we should take a minute and look at the modern Commune, then?

Commune​

Level 5 Divination (Cleric)
Casting Time: 1 minute or Ritual
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (incense)
Duration: 1 minute
You contact a deity or a divine proxy and ask up to three questions that can be answered with yes or no. You must ask your questions before the spell ends. You receive a correct answer for each question.
Divine beings aren't necessarily omniscient, so you might receive "unclear" as an answer if a question pertains to information that lies beyond the deity's knowledge. In a case where a one-word answer could be misleading or contrary to the deity's interests, the DM might offer a short phrase as an answer instead.
If you cast the spell more than once before finishing a Long Rest, there is a cumulative 25 percent chance for each casting after the first that you get no answer.

That's not far from what I've done to the 1e version over the years.

You get one question per 2 levels (rounded down). Each question can only be answered with yes, no, maybe, unknown, or a number.

And I have the same clause re the deity's interests occasionally allowing for a short phrase answer.

Edit to add: and when you've cast one, a full in-game week must pass before you can cast it again. (we had to put this in to stop high-level PC Clerics from casting Commune outside every suspicious door found in an adventure)

 

[Lanefan]

I was speaking of augury; I thought that was the spell being used? I guess I got confused.

If commune is the spell in question, you can only cast it three times a day (normally) anyway, and that, too, has the built-in "random chance to just get no answer" effect that would make casting it four times in a given day pretty damn pointless.

So, for real, even if you managed to get real lucky and get all four castings in a single day without failing the secret check...twelve questions. Twelve questions, is making a "servant" out of your deity? Seriously? That's all it takes. Twelve questions.

Maybe the gods do need to be taken down a peg, if they throw a hissy fit over something so utterly ridiculous.

There are a near-infinite number of worlds in the Prime Material, never mind what's on other planes. On a lot of those worlds are Clerics to Deity X capable of casting Commune. Even if each of those Clerics only casts Commune once a year, Deity X is going to spend a far-too-great percentage of its time doing nothing but answer questions posed by mortals, often mortals who are too lazy or too timid to find the answers out on their own via other means. Oh, and let's add further to Deity X's workload by throwing in the many devices and effects that grant communes or commune-like effects to that deity.

So yes, if you're casting Commune it had better be for a good reason in the eyes of the answering deity.

 

[kermit4karate]

There are a lot of things people assume about D&D that I don't personally think they should, so...controversy or not, maybe some assumptions merit being questioned.


So if the host says "Get the hell out of my house" and nobody else can host, that's it? Again, seems kinda funny to me that the GM's role is essential but the host's role isn't.


Not the way people speak about it around here.


As always, you make this advice without considering the social cost of doing this.

It is no simple matter to nope out of a game. That has a social cost. Sometimes a steep one. Given people talk so extensively about the "social contract", you'd think this would be even the teeniest, tiniest bit included in their discussions of it. It never, ever is.

Leaving is a form of breaking the social contract--and leaving first means you're the one in the wrong. Yes, I have seen this happen. Yes, it is incredibly, monumentally frustrating. No, it is not some weird aberration that never occurs except in bizarro circumstances.


Not in my experience!


Because putting your money where your mouth is has a substantial social cost, and people often quite rightly fear paying such a cost.

I'm fine when people call out or have to leave early to pick up their kid from dance or soccer practice. People have lives, and regardless of the effort I put into the game...it's still just game night.

Disappointing sometimes? Sure. Also
inevitable? Yup, that too.

 

[Maxperson]

There are a near-infinite number of worlds in the Prime Material, never mind what's on other planes. On a lot of those worlds are Clerics to Deity X capable of casting Commune. Even if each of those Clerics only casts Commune once a year, Deity X is going to spend a far-too-great percentage of its time doing nothing but answer questions posed by mortals, often mortals who are too lazy or too timid to find the answers out on their own via other means. Oh, and let's add further to Deity X's workload by throwing in the many devices and effects that grant communes or commune-like effects to that deity.

So yes, if you're casting Commune it had better be for a good reason in the eyes of the answering deity.

Yeah. I don't think a lot of people realize that the D&D multiverse contains every official setting ever made and ever will be made, as well as every homebrew setting ever made or will be made. People love to reuse gods, so the gods that have appeared in official supplements have made appearances in a great, great many settings. And that doesn't include those gods who are known in another setting by a different name, but are the same god.

Gods are very busy at all times.