D&D 5E Would You Rather Have a LE or CN party member?

[Sword of Spirit]

If Chaotic Neutral is played correctly as a free spirit with a normal respect for life (as described in 3e's still superior descriptions of alignment), I'd rather have the CN. If played as CE and claiming I'm neutral because I hand out candy after murdering people, I'd rather have an honest CE.

LE can work fine as a PC if they have a strong bond with other party members and are light on the evil.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Give me a Lawful Evil character over a Chaotic Good one, any day of the week. The true enemy of humanity is disorder.

That's with Chaotic Good, mind you. Chaotic Neutral has no such redeeming qualities.

 

[MNblockhead]

In real life, CG and probably CN over LE.

In my games, I think I would take Lawful Evil over any chaotic variant based on how those characters are usually played.

I've come to believe there is only one true chaotic alignment in D&D and that is chaotic annoying.

 

[Ancalagon]

A LE character may kill a fellow party member because they said a bad word about their liege and saying anything bad about The High Goomba is punishable by death. Nothing personal of course, but the rules are the rules.

Is the LE character a law enforcement official that has been given power of judgement and execution? Probably not? So is that lawful? No

A jerk player will make any alignment annoying.

A LE type will often use the system to get themselves ahead. They won't kill a fellow party member "just because they broke a law". That's asinine. They understand the value of allies.

 

[Oofta]

Is the LE character a law enforcement official that has been given power of judgement and execution? Probably not? So is that lawful? No

A jerk player will make any alignment annoying.

A LE type will often use the system to get themselves ahead. They won't kill a fellow party member "just because they broke a law". That's asinine. They understand the value of allies.

Huh? That makes no sense. If LE always followed the law we'd never have gangsters. LE opponents that are in a lawful country would never do anything illegal. Vampires would have to turn themselves over for trial after every meal.

Lawful means you follow a set of rules. Maybe those rules were set by a just government, maybe they were set by Asmodeus. That LE character could be a torturer who really loves their job but follows the code of the Yakuza. There is no reason to think a lawful person will follow the laws of the local government if they don't believe that local government has authority over them.

As to whether a PC values allies, that's a personality trait that has little to do with alignment. A chaotic person may be the most loyal person ever to someone who has proven their value. A LE person my execute a lifetime friend because they were ordered to do so by someone with a higher rank in the assassins guild. Have you never seen a movie, TV show or story where the spy/assassin/agent was told to kill someone they loved to prove their loyalty? It's a pretty common trope that the good friend turns around and kills their buddy because they learned something or did something they shouldn't have.

People that play disruptive characters will do so no matter what the alignment box says on their character sheet. I just don't get the hate for chaotic characters. I'd rather have Conan the Barbarian or Robin Hood on my team than Josef Mengele (the Nazi who tortured/experimented on prisoners at Auschwitz) or Al Capone.

 

[BookBarbarian]

LE can work fine as a PC if they have a strong bond with other party members and are light on the evil.

And CN can work fine as a PC if they have a strong bond with other party members and are light on the psychopathy

 

[Oofta]

And CN can work fine as a PC if they have a strong bond with other party members and are light on the psychopathy

Because obviously neutral characters are psychopaths but evil people are law-abiding do-gooders who would never hurt anyone they know if doing so was illegal as long as they are lawful evil.

Sorry for the sarcasm ... I know jerk players tend to play jerk PCs and they sometimes justify their behavior by labeling their PC as CN when really they are CE and just want to see the world burn. I guess they've never played with anyone who played a LN PC (well, really LE) who screwed over the party on a technicality. Or ever watched a mob movie where the hitman kills their buddy while saying it's "nothing personal, just business".

Vampires are lawful, that doesn't mean they won't drain you dry if they get hungry.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I know jerk players tend to play jerk PCs and they sometimes justify their behavior by labeling their PC as CN when really they are CE and just want to see the world burn.

I hear of this happening, but with my players who have never played older editions it certainly hasn't happened for us.

I guess "creatures follow their whims, holding their personal freedom above all else. Many barbarians and rogues, and some bards, are chaotic neutral." just hasn't lead any of my players down that path.

 

[Oofta]

I hear of this happening, but with my players who have never played older editions it certainly hasn't happened for us.

I guess "creatures follow their whims, holding their personal freedom above all else. Many barbarians and rogues, and some bards, are chaotic neutral." just hasn't lead any of my players down that path.

If I remember correctly the 2E PHB is the one that was the worst. It was something along the lines of "A chaotic neutral character may switch sides in battle just to see what happens." You know what happens? If the PCs win, they either kill the CN character or boot him from the party. If the bad guys win, they reward the PC by killing them last.

Come to think of it, the last guy who played that way was the same guy who thought he was a werewolf. In the very first encounter, some thieves shot at the group and then tried to flee out a window. He ran up to help them escape. He was quite shocked when they attacked the guy with the party that had been hired to stop them ran forward with arms outstretched yelling "let me help you". Nobody else was surprised.

In any case, I'd rather have Han Solo on my team than Palpatine.

 

[CleverNickName]

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