How to play a lawful neutral character?
>>43939746
Like a lawful neutral character
>>43939771
/thread
Step 1) Have guns
Step 2) Stick to your guns
>>43939746
Keep shrugging and saying
"I'm just doing my job"
>>43939785
Correction:
1). Have gun
2). Will travel
A number of ways.
>Monk focused on inner perfection through strict ritual
>Knight who obeys his Lord's commands to the letter and adheres to a code of chivalry
>Wizard who is obsessed with the mechanical workings of magic and the world
Just make their primary moral guide take the form of some preference for order, without a strong urge to help or hurt other people.
>>43939925
No, that's Lawful Good
>>43939746
Pretty easy anon, just make them follow that a standard member of your race/country/religion/organization is "supposed" to follow to a tee
Think of WWII America patriotism where normal productive citizens with normal traditional family units were idolized to make a normal country full of productive law-following citizens. Or if you have a racial creator deity like Menoth then just have them be Old Testament tier Jewish.
>>43939925
what about:
1) Have gun
2) Walk softly
>>43939746
Judge Dredd. I am the law.
Grey Jedi style.
The nice thing about being Lawful Neutral is that the rules, whatever they are, make a lot of the hard decisions for you.
>This choice seems morally ambiguous.
>What do the rules say?
>Aha, interference in this matter conflicts with directive 3.
>But we could rescue this town!
>Nope, either the local officials handle it or the town's fucked. We can't get involved.
A good character might be compelled to get involved or at least have a crisis of conscience, but you're neutral. Good and evil are relative, and long term consequences difficult to gauge, but the rules are your constant.
>>43939746
Lawful Apathy.
You Obey and Stay out of the Way.
Someone tries to break the law, you let a LG deal with it. Someone takes your shit, tell a guard. Something is coming with a sword drawn, you [bold]Exercise your right to kill.[/bold]
You can also bore them to death with the Rules on how to properly pay ones tariffs in a country currently trying to embargo your shipments like the overly knowledgeable Lawyer your character is.
>>43939746
Follow the rules.
Ignore moral quandaries.
Perhaps the character used to be driven by a desire to do good, and they got screwed over as a result, and now refuse to sway from the letter of the law.
Perhaps they're a mercenary type of person who has always lived in moral ambiguity, and they're happy to let other people do the moralizing as long as they get paid for their work.
Perhaps they are obsessed with law, and believe that they must be absolutely neutral to avoid miscarriages of justice, and they trust the system they work within to function properly.
In the past, I've played a lawful neutral character by having a code of honor, but being unconcerned with questions of morality. So (for example), I have no problems demanding my cut of the loot, but I wouldn't stab someone in the back because I believe that's cowardly.
But the real answer is that rather than playing a "[alignment] character," you come up with a character's personality and ethics first, and after that assign an alignment to them that fits.
>>43940688
okay is that image yahtzee or is it someone else i can never work it out
>>43940688
so don't give a fuck
>>43941009
No~
Second to Last Sentence means your "By law" allowed to defend yourself. *With Violence*
Last sentence means you can play a:
Pathfinder: Oracle who spends his time Pestering his party with long winded speeches and generally rolls knowledge to bore his way past guards with lecturing.
[Fill in the rest yourself, It can be played as seriously as you want or just as a fucking Salary man.]
>>43941009
You could play any character that way, but it's generally more fun not to.
Maybe they're not immoral or without conscience, but they hold the law, or their own personal tenants, or the will of another PC or NPC that is their liege or even their god, far above anything else? There's a bit of internal conflict there, and they lose a bit of themselves with every hard decision.
>>43939746
Behave in a consistent and structures manner.
Attempt to repair or refine systems rather than replacing them.
Uphold your word and act with you cultures expectations of etiquette and dignity.
Look at the long term and big picture rather than instantaneous and minute results.
Remember, anarchy is dangerous, even more dangerous than tyranny. Those who think otherwise are probably naive... or closet maniacs.
Is the Valkyrie Lenneth lawful neutral?
>>43941863
No. She put her feelings first, several times. Well, depends what route/ending you consider canon.
Probably CG in a Law upholding job.
>>43939746
>>43940065
Are you implying Teddy was Lawful Neutral?
>>43942176
Well, he wasn't necessarily good. He let Korea get buttfucked by Japan when at the time America had a treaty with them guaranteeing protection from just such a thing.
Be a champion of the status quo. Try to so the most good for the most people, but feel entitled to make the decision on what is good for them.
>>43942373
Exactly. A paladin might listen to both sides of a story before they make a judgement, to make a compromise or some such if no obvious better choice comes up, but you will not. You'll look at the situation, check the rulebook, and make a decision - or you'll only wait for one person to speak.
Like Neutral but you probably wont bend the rules even if you think you can get away with it.
I am the Law and the Law is not mocked.
>>43939746
By being neutrally lawful.
>>43941863
I think you are looking more for Hrist.
>no one posted this immediately
Goddammit /tg/, you're supposed to be better than this.
>>43945143
>me in charge of posting the right image
>>43945158
That's Chaotic Neutral moreso than Lawful.
>>43939746
>>43940086
>>43941898
>>43939746
As a lawful neutral character you need to find a set of laws or codes that you abide by which don't need to have been created with the intention of being good.
This code be the local law of the land (which might be evil), the law of a god (of any alignment), or my personal favorite "captains law".
Captains law can be defined as the rules created by whoever you believe the leader is and the best part is you can believe yourself to be the captain regardless if this is true or not.
Honestly LN is the easiest alignment to play because pretty much any possible course of action can be easily justified.
>>43940688
>namefagging
> /bolding
lurk
the
fuck
moar
>>43940589
>Picard
>Lawful neutral
>>43940086
>implying Dredd isn't lawful good
>>43945413My hands are clean of Samefagging, can you say the same?
But /tg/ how do you play a true neutral PC?You can't
>>43945809
You can, He's currently the BBNG of my campaign.
>>43945809
Sounds pretty easy. The character just doesn't have any strong ideals or attitudes that leans towards good, evil, chaos, or law.
They aren't really a total dick, but they don't really bother with actively trying to improve the lives of others. They would probably follow the law without grumbling when it was convenient enough, but they would hold no particular respect for it.
Plenty of characters are probably close enough to True Neutral without even realizing it.
You are an extension of the law. Never make it personal towards either extreme of well-being.
Any rule-breaking is dealt in chronological order. If the peasant refuses to pay the tax because the lord's illegal business has been tampering with their harvests for the past year, the lord's crimes are dealt with first. Depending on how rules are validated when enforced by the corrupt, the peasant may either be free to go or be punished anyway to give his original defiance meaning.
>>43945936
Exactly. Play a peasant. Who cares who the king is, who cares what's going on, just live your miserable little existence farming without any thought for what else is going on. "Tyranny or honor?" is not a question for you to ask. Pay your tithes and taxes but honestly who cares about respecting the kings woods.
The end justifies the means - to a degree.
>>43946011
You could also be a mercenary or soldier just doing his job for the money. It's not that hard to do.
Killing monsters for pay seems pretty neutral to me.
>>43945587
He's not. The law is the law, no exceptions. I think he sent one woman to an isocube for 2 weeks for kissing him after he saved her from either a robber or a rapist.
>>43940783
This guy gets it. Honestly I come up with the alignment when I've figured out everything else about my character, and if this is the sort of mentality that comes up, then he's lawful neutral.
I think bounty hunters, city watch, inquisitors are all good examples. But the lawful alignment is not exclusive to those who work for the law.
>>43945809
I've always wanted to play a militant true neutral.
A guy who believed that outside forces acting on the material plane were what were causing problems in the world.
He wouldn't be violent about it, if he didn't need to be. But if he ran into an outsider, he'd do his best to get them off the Material plane. By removing outside influences on the plane, he'd believe he could make it a much better, and safer, place to live. He'd be just as opposed to a Necromancer(who's bringing in a lot of negative energy into the plane and should be stopped) as he would an inevitable seeking to punish someone(Such lawful creatures are attempting to impose their own plane's nature onto the material plane) or an angel seeking to protect someone(If the threat is mundane, then the people of the plane itself should help. If the threat is from outsiders, then he'd help then angel remove it, and then tell the angel to get off his plane)
>>43946200
>Le edgey atheist: the character
What you are describing is chaotic neutral.
>>43939746
You know any normal brave citizen is lawful neutral.
You don't necessarily have to force other people to behave. There is still something like intensity of your alignment.
>>43946200
Soooo this guy?
>>43939746
tommy lee jones in The Fugitive
>>43939746
>Lawful
Not the same as law-abiding, we're not talking about the laws of man, we're talking about being consistent and having a set of rules for yourself.
>Neutral
Unlikely to choose sides or make choices based on moral obligations or strong emotion, more likely to act based on common sense, the greater good, or to maintain balance.
So. Your character makes a point of trying to be impartial and care less about who's in the subjective right or wrong, and more about what likely outcome your actions will have. You'll some times seem cold hearted and some times altruistic, but your motivation is never enmity or love for the people involved.
>>43940589
Picard is Lawful good as they come, fool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjJN08uqt70
>>43945252
Dredd is Lawful Law
>>43947052
Everyone assumes he's Lawful Neutral because someone decided to post him as LN in these alignment threads and no one has ever given an example otherwise in picture form for those not familiar with the character.
>>43941361
This captures it best, I think.
Law/order and morality/"good" are ultimately closely related, even when lawful action is "immoral" or "good" action is unlawful. The development of goodness and morality is a byproduct of the development of law and stability, and it is subject to mutation as a society develops, as evinced by the history of social ethics and philosophy. The crux of the matter as it applies to lawful neutral characters is that law and order are a discrete and largely unambiguous objective, even when the specifics of laws may change; "good" and "evil", on the other hand, may often be relative, and as said are most certainly mutable. A lawful neutral character will almost certainly believe themselves to be good, and will align themselves with good people far more than "evil" ones, but this "good" is simply the perception of the importance of civilisation and structure, not any hard adherence to an arbitrary moral conviction. Lawful neutral characters are not liable to be selfish, either; a perception of the benefit of society revolving principally around self-benefit even at the expense of others is generally the mark of lawful evil, whereas someone lawful neutral will often place the well-being of a society and law above themselves or even those that they care about. They may even recognise the necessity of chaos and destruction and those aligned with such things, but they will dislike the anarchist that believes in freedom for freedom's sake, the short-sighted villain pursuing pleasures and desires at the expense of societies, the crusader that destroys ordered systems in the name of his convictions (perhaps even spreading more "evil" than "good", in the long run), and even those that short-sightedly turn sets of laws into the moralities driving the convictions of the crusader.
Lawful neutral is perhaps best expressed in the same manner that Buddhism expresses the importance of detachment, of separation from life's blinding tendencies.
What alignment would you call a familial patriarch who looks out for him and his. Not exceptionally ambitious, patriotic or altruistic but very much in tune with and protective of 1 his clan and 2 his families assets ie businesses, lands, estates, etc. to the point of being willing to threaten violence and underhand tactics to those who plan on subverting his domain
>>43947435
Chaotic Good.
>>43947493
IF AND ONLY IF: He does this for his families interests and protection because he cares.
He is EVIL LAWFUL: If he murders these people or does this because it'd be a hit to his Power or Sense of Power.
He's Neutral if he's only doing this to keep appearances of authority in spite the fact he doesn't care either way what may happen and doesn't want to really be involved.YOU SEE, THIS CAN EASILY TURN INTO A MULTITUDE OF ALIGNMENTS!
Please give more info or not.
>>43945445
>>43947052
>>43947115
First, read the fucking file name.
Second, it's the concept of obeying the prime directive that is lawful neutral.
>>43946200
Chaotic Neutral.
True neutral isn't just having an agenda to force "balance"
>>43947719
>>43939895
this
>>43945870
What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or was he just born with a heart full of neutrality?
>>43948534
Wanting to be a politician. <-THIS
[Spoiler]In seriousness, he's uplifting the heroes while paying bad guys the means of achieving their aims so they can defeat them.
Always supporting the Heroes as a benefactor until they become synonymous with said organization. Then undermine all their achievements by cheapening their value by making them symbols of his new Revolution to bring down nobility and establish a Communist Country. All without telling them this.[/spoiler]
>>43948710
Damn me and my need to need to Capitalize all the wrong letters!
>>43948534
Was waiting for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussCHoQttyQ
>>43939746
Punish lawbreakers regardless of intent. Murder? Arrested. Stealing to feed family? Jailed.
