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4th edition - Alignment
Once more unto the cut
Okay, time to look at the new alignment system of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
Alignment seems to be a victim of the "simplify" part of the design. The alignment system familiar to so many players from all the way back to 1st edition is no more. Well, half of no more.
The only alignments available are Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil and Chaotic Evil.
Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil are what you'd expect if you're remotely familiar with the old alignment system. Lawful Good is all about upholding the law, and helping those in need, and generally being a pain in the ass to party members who aren't Lawful Good and would rather spend the night at a nice inn rather then hunting down those evil goblins right now. Chaotic Evil is all about destruction and chaos, and so forth. Good and Evil are similar to the old Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil, but not exactly the same. Good characters will help others, but they don't feel an absolute obligation to follow the law 100% of the time. Evil characters are all for tyranny and the oppression of others as long as they get some benefit out of it. After all, what's the point of being evil if you're the one being oppressed? :P
And Unaligned is for people specifically don't make a choice. They might be people who don't want to choose a side, or believe themselves to be above such concepts of morality. Yes, technically, I suppose that could mean a sociopathic character could be unaligned.
What does alignment mean in 4th edition? Well, Clerics have to choose a Deity that is compatible in alignment. Good cleric must choose a good aligned god. (Not a Lawful good deity, a good deity. Yes, it appears to matter like that.) Lawful good clerics must choose a Lawful good aligned god. Same with Evil or Chaotic Evil clerics. A deity that is unaligned (yes, there are unaligned deities) can have clerics of any and all alignments, and an unaligned cleric can follow any deity.
Paladins have to follow similar rules for picking a deity, but their alignment has to match the deity they wish to follow. But they can also be any alignment now. Yes, you can have unaligned, evil and chaotic evil Paladins. (But they would have to follow unaligned, evil or chaotic evil deities, respectively.) - Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morinon for pointing out that I goofed that up.
Other then that.... alignment doesn't seem to mean a lot. I haven't seen any class-based powers that do more or less damage based on the alignment of the target, nor does there seem to be any weapons in the Player's Guide that are like the 3rd edition aligned weapons. And spells like Atonement (or whatever it was called) don't seem to exist any more.
All in all, some good changes here, some bad changes. I'm not really going to shed a tear for the Chaotic Neutral alignment, as every PC I ever saw who had that was a raving jackass about being random and anarchic. (And seeing as how that was roughly 40%+ of the old RPGA Forgotten Realms bunch of dicks, I'm really not going to miss it.)
Okay, time to look at the new alignment system of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
Alignment seems to be a victim of the "simplify" part of the design. The alignment system familiar to so many players from all the way back to 1st edition is no more. Well, half of no more.
The only alignments available are Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil and Chaotic Evil.
Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil are what you'd expect if you're remotely familiar with the old alignment system. Lawful Good is all about upholding the law, and helping those in need, and generally being a pain in the ass to party members who aren't Lawful Good and would rather spend the night at a nice inn rather then hunting down those evil goblins right now. Chaotic Evil is all about destruction and chaos, and so forth. Good and Evil are similar to the old Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil, but not exactly the same. Good characters will help others, but they don't feel an absolute obligation to follow the law 100% of the time. Evil characters are all for tyranny and the oppression of others as long as they get some benefit out of it. After all, what's the point of being evil if you're the one being oppressed? :P
And Unaligned is for people specifically don't make a choice. They might be people who don't want to choose a side, or believe themselves to be above such concepts of morality. Yes, technically, I suppose that could mean a sociopathic character could be unaligned.
What does alignment mean in 4th edition? Well, Clerics have to choose a Deity that is compatible in alignment. Good cleric must choose a good aligned god. (Not a Lawful good deity, a good deity. Yes, it appears to matter like that.) Lawful good clerics must choose a Lawful good aligned god. Same with Evil or Chaotic Evil clerics. A deity that is unaligned (yes, there are unaligned deities) can have clerics of any and all alignments, and an unaligned cleric can follow any deity.
Paladins have to follow similar rules for picking a deity, but their alignment has to match the deity they wish to follow. But they can also be any alignment now. Yes, you can have unaligned, evil and chaotic evil Paladins. (But they would have to follow unaligned, evil or chaotic evil deities, respectively.) - Thanks to
morinon for pointing out that I goofed that up.Other then that.... alignment doesn't seem to mean a lot. I haven't seen any class-based powers that do more or less damage based on the alignment of the target, nor does there seem to be any weapons in the Player's Guide that are like the 3rd edition aligned weapons. And spells like Atonement (or whatever it was called) don't seem to exist any more.
All in all, some good changes here, some bad changes. I'm not really going to shed a tear for the Chaotic Neutral alignment, as every PC I ever saw who had that was a raving jackass about being random and anarchic. (And seeing as how that was roughly 40%+ of the old RPGA Forgotten Realms bunch of dicks, I'm really not going to miss it.)
no subject
Thanks for the correction.