Questions tagged [alignment]

For questions primarily centered around ethical and moral alignments in game systems. Please note that questions about "what alignment is [person/act/society X]?" are off-topic due to subjectivity; see this FAQ for more details: https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5357/are-questions-about-alignment-on-topic

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Can a Good-aligned 'Necromancer' cast the Animate Objects spell on a bunch of corpses?

Is there anything stopping you using Animate Objects, with or without Permanency, to affect a bunch of corpses? If so, what? And would that qualify as an Evil, Chaotic, or Neutral act? Have you ever ...
user2754's user avatar
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21 votes
12 answers
13k views

How do you adjudicate what alignment a PC's actions are?

We have a group of three characters: The lawful good paladin (acolyte), the lawful good fighter (soldier) and the chaotic good druid (criminal). All try to help NPCs in need, won't fight between ...
Toomuchsheep's user avatar
82 votes
13 answers
42k views

Can a Black Dragon Hatchling be raised to be good? Or is it inherently evil?

The following came up during my campaign: The characters got their hands on some Black Dragon eggs. The PCs put out the thought that if they got the eggs to hatch, they could raise the dragons to be ...
Iajitsu's user avatar
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29 votes
6 answers
44k views

Is there a spell or effect that reveals or identifies alignment?

I am looking for an effect that you can cast on a creature or character to reveal its true alignment. As long as it reveals true alignment, I don't care if it's a single target effect, a zone effect, ...
Robert's user avatar
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39 votes
4 answers
35k views

Can a demon or devil be redeemed?

In Chapter 4 of the Basic Rules or PHB p. 122, under "Alignment in the Multiverse", it says: Alignment is an essential part of the nature of celestials and fiends. A devil does not choose to be ...
Nemenia's user avatar
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18 votes
8 answers
6k views

Is casting the spell Blood Transcription an evil act?

A player of mine in a recent game of Pathfinder was playing a Lawful Neutral Magus and was about to drink blood from a fallen spellcaster to get his prepared spells for the day by using the spell ...
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50 votes
11 answers
24k views

Can I be a follower of an evil god and not be evil?

I'm playing a warlock, a follower of the old god Cthulhu (chaotic evil). My character is chaotic neutral, and has been doing some not-so-neutral things (in my opinion). My patron god is a big part of ...
Premier Bromanov's user avatar
50 votes
6 answers
17k views

What rules say that summoning undead is evil, and what rules say why?

My question is: Where can I reference the RAW as to (1) that summoning undead is always an evil act, and (2) why summoning undead is always an evil act? Some of the players in my game keep coming up ...
Wolfman Joe's user avatar
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48 votes
17 answers
69k views

Can a D&D Necromancer be of a good alignment? [closed]

I've been considering creating a good-aligned necromancer, but I'm not sure if it's realistic from a role-playing perspective. Is there anything inherent in necromancy that would require someone to be ...
Jane Panda's user avatar
20 votes
2 answers
22k views

Are there Race/Alignment restrictions for classes in the PHB?

I'm looking through the PHB and I notice that none of the Classes explicitly state an Alignment or Race limitation. There is flavor text, but there is nothing that looks like a rule. I see some stuff ...
Michael Stum's user avatar
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32 votes
2 answers
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Is there an iconic monster or creature for each alignment?

In my D&D 5e game, I have a custom cosmology, and I'm currently working on a concept for an afterlife plane where any sentient creature who enters is sorted by alignment and guided to the ...
Robert's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can a Half-Dragon's alignment change from their dragon's alignment type?

Is it possible for a Half-Dragon's alignment to change from their dragon's alignment type? For example, if a blue Half-Dragon (Lawful Evil) had an alignment-affecting spell cast on them, or was bitten ...
Fanrir's user avatar
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58 votes
2 answers
9k views

What happens to a Devil when its alignment is forcibly changed?

According to PHB 122, in the section entitled Alignment in the Multiverse, for most creatures, "alignment is a moral choice." Myth says good-aligned gods created the races that are free to choose to ...
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43 votes
8 answers
36k views

How can I roleplay my evil character properly?

I have started playing as an evil character in a group of neutral and good characters. We are traveling in a caravan through an undead-ridden world. No teleportation or plane traveling possible. We ...
Discipol's user avatar
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38 votes
10 answers
11k views

How can a GM justify changing a player's alignment?

Lately, in one of my campaigns, I've been having problems with a character who everyone agrees is acting out of alignment. Everyone, that is, but him. The problem, of course, is that he's playing a ...
Zach's user avatar
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28 votes
5 answers
104k views

Is there anything preventing a Lawful Evil Paladin?

The concept With the vanishing of alignment restrictions on Paladins in 5e, I have been toying with the idea of a (PC or NPC) Lawful Evil Paladin. My particular image is of a Noble background Paladin ...
Dale M's user avatar
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23 votes
4 answers
11k views

How can we change the alignment of our black dragon hatchling?

My fiance is running a campaign and the players have the opportunity to obtain a wyrmling black dragon. Now black dragons are chaotic evil, but the monk of the group believes that it shouldn't be ...
Keith's user avatar
  • 541
19 votes
3 answers
7k views

Is negative energy (or channeling it) necessarily evil?

I'm building a Lawful Neutral cleric of Abadar, and picture her channeling negative energy as "Abadar's rebuke of the unjust". In my case, she'll use the Rulership variant channeling rules, cutting ...
Jeff Fry's user avatar
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17 votes
6 answers
33k views

Are there official guidelines for a DM to change the alignment of a player's character?

Most players in my game chose various forms of Neutral for their character's alignment. However, in time, I notice that two of them are showing very clear signs of actually doing surprisingly good ...
Vadruk's user avatar
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12 votes
9 answers
22k views

What is a good way to explain the difference between a Chaotic Neutral character, and a character who is just crazed? [closed]

When I first started playing with a group of completely new players, one of the first things I did was to explain the alignments as best I could at the time. When describing Chaotic Neutral, my exact ...
Zach's user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
9k views

Are Paladin Tenets Subjective?

In the 5e rules as framed (not based on your own personal philosophy or opinion), are Paladin tenets, like the Oath of Vengeance's Fight the Greater Evil, meant to be subjective or objective (or is ...
user3735278's user avatar
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6 votes
5 answers
12k views

Can I play an evil character without letting anyone but the DM know? [duplicate]

Basically, my character would be evil in secret until she could do a huge emotional betrayal and try to kill everyone. I'd have to lie to my friends and make up two separate character sheets if I did ...
Layla's user avatar
  • 573
33 votes
12 answers
22k views

How to deal with a Chaotic Evil player character as a player [closed]

I am taking part in a campaign supposed to be a normal hero adventure. One of our players, who is a first timer to DnD and never really claimed an alignment at the start of the campaign, has pretty ...
Ramirez77's user avatar
  • 754
33 votes
8 answers
25k views

How can I play a lawful rogue? [closed]

I wanted to try something new in a Pathfinder campaign, so I created a lawful good cleric/rogue. Problem is, I have no idea how to play a rogue as lawful, due to this: From the PRD: Life is an ...
h313's user avatar
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23 votes
10 answers
13k views

My novice players slaughtered some NPCs out of hand. Do I write this off as a learning mistake or show them the consequences of actions?

I have two roleplaying newbies in a 5th edition D&D campaign. I started them at level 1 to prepare them for joining some more experienced players for a level-4 campaign in the near future. The ...
speciesUnknown's user avatar
19 votes
6 answers
7k views

How much greed is too much for a Chaotic Neutral character? [closed]

I have recently started GM-ing a new group of players, most of them are unexperienced. One of the players is a Chaotic Neutral Rogue. This description of Chaotic Neutral mentions that such character ...
MMM's user avatar
  • 629
18 votes
5 answers
18k views

Should a paladin's alignment align with the alignment of their deity?

I gave one of my players a handout of the major Gods in Faerûn as I am running Storm King's Thunder pretty soon. My player wants to be a Chaotic good paladin and is not interested in any of the ...
Boldemort's user avatar
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16 votes
8 answers
3k views

How do you keep PCs from killing each other when 1 or more is evil?

I'd like to run a more mature themed campaign, along the lines of game of thrones. In that story, several of the main characters have an evil alignment. I'd like to do something similar to this ...
Quest Kick's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
18k views

Can a cleric of an evil god use healing spells?

I'm new to D&D and started with 5e. I was reading through the cleric class and it says that it's main purpose is to heal the party, but they also that they are chosen by a deity or god or they ...
Husky's user avatar
  • 1,109
13 votes
2 answers
5k views

Can a true neutral character cast spells affected by alignment?

Is a true neutral character restricted by alignment from casting a spell that is, say lawful or chaotic, or can he/she cast a spell no matter if its affected by an alignment. (A lawful character can't ...
Ze Demon Pyro's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
5k views

Will using a wand of Infernal Healing turn me evil?

Two sessions ago, during our weekly Pathfinder game, my bard almost kicked the bucket. She got saved in time by the other players, but it was really close. So afterward, our (LN) inquisitor approached ...
HideAndSeek's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
5k views

What does "one step away on each alignment axis" mean?

I'm looking at the improved familiar feat and it says that, does that mean if I'm a LG character I can pick a familiar who is LG, NG, LN, or N?
IAmNew35's user avatar
  • 129
10 votes
1 answer
6k views

Does a Divine Soul Sorcerer's alignment affect their choice of Divine Magic affinity?

The Divine Soul Sorcerous Origin from Xanathar's Guide to Everything (page 50) has the class feature Divine Magic at level 1. It allows you to pick a "free" extra spell based on having an &...
NathanS's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
4k views

Running a "Chaotic Evil" PC in a morally ambivalent group?

So I've been running in a Shadowrun group for a while now and my character served as the group's only moral compass. He got killed in a rather dissatisfying string of events, but now it's time to whip ...
Kyle Willey's user avatar
  • 12.7k
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

Chaotic Neutral Alignment and Greed

Could you have a chaotic neutral character, who in a public setting appear lawful good? Saving people, turning in bad guys, following all of the laws of an area to a T, if he knew that by doing so it ...
Michael Downey's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
727 views

Is it possible to count as Evil for the purposes of qualifying for a feat?

Changelings have the Racial Emulation feat to let them count as other races for qualifying for things. Goliaths and Half-Giants have Powerful Build to let them count as Large in several circumstances. ...
Elliot's user avatar
  • 2,670
2 votes
2 answers
313 views

Is the alignment of children specifically mentioned anywhere?

Is there a rule that says what humanoid children have as an alignment? I know that, barring a specific exception, the general rules of alignment would apply. Animals have a specific mention in the ...
Ciacciu's user avatar
  • 348
73 votes
6 answers
21k views

What's the deal with alignment languages?

In early D&D, there was the concept of an "alignment language." The original "little brown book" D&D says only: Law, Chaos and Neutrality also have common languages spoken by each ...
rjbs's user avatar
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39 votes
3 answers
13k views

How to deal with a Murder Hobo Paladin?

Our party has a Lawful Neutral Oathbreaker Paladin that has been very much a murder hobo from the beginning. We have been able to keep him in check in most cases but in our recent session he went off ...
RoomNoSenpai's user avatar
36 votes
9 answers
8k views

Can a DM tell a player if/when they act or roleplay in a manner that isn't their alignment?

I'm a very new DM, and I've played three games in total with a new group each spanning about thirty minutes (Role playing games aren't appreciated where I live) . One of my characters is a Chaotic ...
Chris Williams's user avatar
30 votes
11 answers
6k views

Should the players accept the point of view of the GM about alignments or the other way around?

I want to run a good alignment campaign in D&D 5e with my friends, but we are not even at session 0 and we already have a major disagreement. I usually GM tabletop RPGs that are not D&D, ...
O.B.E GM's user avatar
  • 301
25 votes
3 answers
3k views

Has a god ever changed alignment?

Is there an example of a god changing alignment in the published lore of D&D settings? I'm brainstorming for a future campaign and want it to revolve around a Good or Neutral god of knowledge who ...
dukerasputin's user avatar
24 votes
6 answers
7k views

Is Coup de Grace on sleeping and bound opponents an evil act? [closed]

So I was recently participating in a Pathfinder Society game. Our ship was attacked and boarded by pirates. First thing that happened was one of our party cast sleep, and succeeded in putting four of ...
aslum's user avatar
  • 9,012
23 votes
2 answers
3k views

Does any lore text explain why the planes of Acheron, Gehenna, and Carceri are the alignment they are?

Acheron is between pure law and lawful evil; Gehenna is between pure evil and lawful evil; and Carceri is between pure evil and chaotic evil. But this seems wrong to me. It seems to me that Acheron ...
Mr Blue's user avatar
  • 373
22 votes
8 answers
3k views

Would the alignment of a character with multiple personality disorder change? [closed]

A character has a certain alignment that in general defines how he acts. With multiple personality disorder or other similar disorders (maybe bipolar disorder with severe depression/severe mania), ...
Khaal's user avatar
  • 3,942
22 votes
2 answers
1k views

Can my evil pirate character remain evil under the new Adventurers League rules?

I am trying to make heads or tails of whether or not my character can remain Lawful Evil under the current rules of Adventure League. I first scribed the character to be Lawful Evil in Season 7 where ...
MivaScott's user avatar
  • 40k
22 votes
4 answers
5k views

Why are Dragons "Always X" alignment?

As per this question and the answers provided therein, Dragons are of the "always X" alignment. Which means... Always: The creature is born with the indicated alignment. The creature may have a ...
Zibbobz's user avatar
  • 9,660
22 votes
4 answers
7k views

Is Good or Evil alignment based on the perception of the creature? [closed]

Let's say there is a forest gnome named Treeloff. Now Treeloff is one of the kindest, most innocent people you will ever meet; however, one day that all changed. You see, Treeloff loves the forest ...
Matt's user avatar
  • 1,081
20 votes
2 answers
5k views

History of the Alignment System

Who created the alignment system? Was it Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson (D&D)? Or David A. Hargrave (Arduin)? Or perhaps Michael Moorcock and Paul Anderson? Where did it come from? In what ...
J.R.'s user avatar
  • 201
17 votes
5 answers
8k views

How do you make a character's alignment change in-game?

I want to change the alignment of my warlock drow in game from neutral evil to neutral good. Can you just change it? Do you have to have a monster change it? Can I make the reason because of the ...
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