Would this be evil?

[Philotomy Jurament]

Not evil at all.

 

[LostSoul]

"Neutral" is a lack of action.

I wouldn't go that far. It's just the grey area. Like when I save my girlfriend instead of the bus full of kids. That's not evil but not good either. It is still an active choice on my part.

 

[buzz]

There is no mention that this is being done as part of reparations, the OP specifically says there is no reason but to further their punishment. Many people here are implying that the humilation is being done with the intent to teach a lesson, in that case I agree that it is clearly not evil, but I don't agree with the implied intent as the scenario is written.

I see your point, but I don't think there's a clear answer one way or the other unless we can see this in the context of actual play. Still, I'd think there would have had to be a very obvious "Why are the players still messing around with these NPCs?" situation for this act to fall anywhere near [Evil]. [Evil] is one of the extremes of the Alignment axes; a player's PC doesn't shift towards it just for a single act of dickweed-ness.

 

[buzz]

I wouldn't go that far. It's just the grey area. Like when I save my girlfriend instead of the bus full of kids. That's not evil but not good either. It is still an active choice on my part.

[Neutral] on either axis is defined in the rules as a lack of commitment to either descriptor, except in the case of a specific dedication to balance among all the axes, i.e., those PCs who "commit themselves philosophically to neutrality." A [Neutral] PC can be committed to something (like a girlfriend), just not to one of the Alignment descriptors.

The girlfriend vs. school kids is one of those Kobayashi Marou situations that's so inconclusive outside of a play context that I don't think it really points definitively to either [Good] or [Evil].

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I see your point, but I don't think there's a clear answer one way or the other unless we can see this in the context of actual play. Still, I'd think there would have had to be a very obvious "Why are the players still messing around with these NPCs?" situation for this act to fall anywhere near [Evil]. [Evil] is one of the extremes of the Alignment axes; a player's PC doesn't shift towards it just for a single act of dickweed-ness.

I agree that it isn't [Evil] in the sense that it is an act of great cruelty that should cause a shift in alignment, but I see it as a lesser evil that, if done repeatedly, could be a sign that a PCs alignment is shifting in that direction.

 

[buzz]

I agree that it isn't [Evil] in the sense that it is an act of great cruelty that should cause a shift in alignment, but I see it as a lesser evil that, if done repeatedly, could be a sign that a PCs alignment is shifting in that direction.

Yeah, there's possibility for a continuum here. If the player is consistently choosing these sorts of actions for their PC, it may be time for a sit-down.

 

[William drake]

No
Not evil, not even bad...

 

[Slife]

OK, I guess I read the original post a little differently. I'll emphasize the part again...

There is no mention that this is being done as part of reparations, the OP specifically says there is no reason but to further their punishment. Many people here are implying that the humilation is being done with the intent to teach a lesson, in that case I agree that it is clearly not evil, but I don't agree with the implied intent as the scenario is written.

Isn't one of the purposes of punishing them teaching them a lesson?

 

[jdrakeh]

killing is evil, but PCs do it all the time.

I hadn't ever thought of that, really, though you're absolutely right. If all evil were held against the PCs, most of them would qualify for 'mass murderer' status in more than a few humanoid cultures.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Search the news from sometime last year about what happened to some prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I'd say that certain forms of humiliation certainly can be evil.

This kind? No.

There's a significant difference between humiliation and anything like torture. Not suggesting anything regarding prisoners in Guantanamo, or say, Abu Ghraib is/was acceptible in some way, just that words mean things. Can humiliation escalate to worse behaviors and attitides? Sure. But then it's NOT mere humiliation. Humiliation =/ torture =/ evil. Certainly not as far as D&D is concerned.

Remember that you shouldn't draw too many parallels to real world philosophy and morality for D&D and alignment. Accurate modeling of real-world ideals is NOT what alignment is for. Not even close.