How extreme are the alignments, really? Does Chaotic Evil mean "deranged psychotic killer who hates the world" or "self serving guy who doesn't like rules"? Does Lawful Good mean "zealot who will give his life readily if it saves someone innocent" or "nice guy who helps the poor and pays his taxes"?
>>44167287
Alignments are dumb and people who play with them are even dumber.
There's your reply.
>>44167287
The alignments shouldn't describe entirely the personality of a character
If it does, you're using alignments wrong
>>44167287
Alright first yes, alignments bad, thread bait, have you tried not playing dnd, etc.
But if you insist on using alignments, they're going to be pretty damn broad, so yes the deranged psychotic killer is will probably be chaotic evil, but so is the self-serving guy
>>44167287
"Deranged psychotic killer who hates the world" is not necessarily evil in the first place, seeing that with being deranged, he's lost contact with reality and isn't really that much in control of his actions.
>>44167287
Extremes. Nearly every single person is True Neutral or Unaligned.
It's like 40k chaos shit. Slaanesh doesn't care about the slightly kinky sex you have. You need to be needing to snort spacemethcocaine offof a dead prostitute's crack that you murderfucked to death just for your next fix.
Being a nice guy is good, but it doesn't make you Good.
Really, all alignment does is ensure a divine caster can't deviate too far from their god's ideal without repercussions, and lets clerics ping each other.
>>44167287
alignments are a religious deal. a large part of LOTRs attraction was that everything in its world can be measured as morgoth's influence or lack thereof.
alignments are a polytheistic take on the same idea. it's not about your personality, but your purpose. every atom in your body, mind and soul is supposed to be aligned on this axis.
>>44167287
You do realize that your character is your own and actions decide the alignment, not the other way around... right?
>>44167287
Alignments is the most useless system that D&D ever gave birth to. It is responsible for more player infighting, party break ups, broken campaigns and overall completely wasted time than anything else.
It is the only system that actively encourages players to fight amongst themselves, something that should NEVER be encouraged in a game that is based on a group of people cooperating to have fun While at the same time it adds nothing to the game besides being a limiting barrier for certain things.
It is basically NO FUN ALLOWED incarnate.
>>44167591
>"Deranged psychotic killer who hates the world" is not necessarily evil in the first place, seeing that with being deranged, he's lost contact with reality and isn't really that much in control of his actions.
I choose to respond to you because your post is only thing worth discussing in this Bait Thread.
>"Deranged psychotic killer who hates the world" is not necessarily evil
This is wrong.
I will explain.
First:
In order for there to be Good and Evil, there must be a line between them.
To make my point, let’s assume that eating live human babies is on the Evil side of that line.
Let’s also assume that a “Deranged Psychotic Killer” is largely not in control of his actions.
In fact, let’s make DPK an average guy who Lex Luthor shoved an electrode into his brain, against his will, to make him that way, for reasons.
So DPK now wants to eat babies and actively pursues the eating of babies.
He has the choice to kill himself to stop it, but does not do so because he would rather eat babies.
Let’s also assume he actually manages to eat a few before being shot to death.
The fate of his eternal soul is a matter of some debate.
I would hope he would be forgiven and if he were a D&D paladin, I would not have made him fall, as his ability to choose to be Good has been removed from him.
However, while he is walking the earth, as a DPK eating babies, he is an active force of Evil.
He is crossing the line of Evil, committing Evil acts without remorse because he is incapable of it.
If a malfunctioning robot actively pursues Evil actions, it is an Evil robot, even it is made of meat or even if the robot is powered by an innocent human soul trapped inside.
Technically, there is a theoretical possibility of creating a “DPK who hates the world” and yet never crosses the line between Good and Evil (presumably killing wouldn’t necessarily cross that line in that possibility), but that is clearly not what OP meant.
>>44167613
>all alignment does is ensure a divine caster can't deviate too far from their god's ideal without repercussions
Why not just leave that to DMs discretion?
>>44168175
Is a wild animal "evil" because it mauled a few children.
>>44167319
why are the people who whine about alignments all the time always the ones who don't even how they're used? it's comparative. You check it next to some else's when it's relevent to an action, interaction, or in a few cases class and deity features. You don't constantly consult your alignment on shit where it's not relevant any more than you constantly consult your Strength score for rolls not using strength.
>>44169654
Because they believe it hinders roleplaying. They stick to their alignment like glue instead of guidelines and believe the system is what causes it. I've even had a character not work because alignment. LG Dwarf Cleric because the rest were murderhobo/con-artists and a omniphile. I just told the DM I need to make a new character.
>>44170031
Forgot to add alignment in my characyers veiws his character wouldn't put up with that crap. So the system didn't do anything me just not how the game was going to go.
>>44167287
You're as dumb as a brick of hammers.
>>44169570
>Is a wild animal "evil" because it mauled a few children.
If "mauling children" qualifies as crossing the line between good and evil, then yes.
That would be an Evil Dingo.
>>44167287
The way I figure it, alignments can be extremely flexible. Hell, you could probably make a "nice guy who helps the poor and loves the world" be Chaotic Evil if their methods are sufficiently twisted.
>>44170076
>>44170031
>They stick to their alignment like glue instead of guidelines and believe the system is what causes it.
So much this.
>>44170031
>I've even had a character not work because alignment
Just curious, do you now think you could have made the character work?
I am a firm believer that you can make any alignment work together well.
Although, making a character that would be actively ruining the fun of the other players would be a dick move.
>>44172928
>I am a firm believer that you can make any alignment work together well.
