Since it’s come up in the character creation section of Chapter One of the Core Rulebook, I thought I’d talk about alignment in the game now. Some of this article ties into the Gamemastery Guide that I haven’t talked about yet. That book has the variant rule on alignments that I use as a basis for my own.
History
In the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons, there were three alignments: Law, Chaos, and Neutral. Law covered good, civilization, and all that jazz. Chaos was evil, destruction, and other such things. Gygax and co pulled this idea from various pulp-era fantasy stories and things like Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson (as was the paladin class I believe). It was very simplistic and worked enough and is still used in a lot of media today. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, most young adult stories, and many more types of stories all use the same Good vs Evil alignment system.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons added the system of nine alignments spread out between the extremes of Good and Evil and Law and Chaos still used in modern versions of D&D. Except for that minor detour of 4th edition where they went back to a five point alignment system first used in one of the Basic Editions of D&D.
Alignments in Pathfinder 2e
The description of what is good, evil, law, and chaos in the
Core Rulebook is one of my favorites in any RPG book I’ve read. It’s concise
and clear and makes it easy to apply to the character idea you have in your
head when you make your character.
 |
| Image courtesy of Paizo, Inc. |
Lawful is about valuing consistency, stability, and
predictability over flexibility while a Chaotic alignment values flexibility,
creativity, and spontaneity over consistency.
That is what I mean by clear and easy to apply to a
character concept. Reading those, you should be able to have a solid idea of
where your character falls on the alignment grid.
I really like these descriptors.
In Use
All that said, alignments are a relic of old Dungeons & Dragons that should have been dropped a while ago. They're a nebulous barometer of personality (supposedly) but are usually ignored at the drop of a hat when it suits the player's goals. This is exacerbated by the fact that (and rightly so) the books say that the alignments aren't hard and fast rules on how a character acts at all times. They are a wishy-washy "rule" that is primarily fuel for arguments and internet memes.
I wasn’t using alignments in my 5e game before I switched to Pathfinder 2e and many other fantasy RPGs don’t use them at all.
In D&D 5e, they are completely superfluous and the game requires only the smallest of changes to continue to function. 5e’s personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws are a better character identifier than alignments.
But this isn’t about D&D 5e, this is about Pathfinder Second Edition.
I kept alignments in when we started playing, despite my original intent to remove them as I had before in other d20 based systems. Paizo built alignment into the actual mechanics of Pathfinder 2e, so I didn’t want to upset the apple cart without having played the system enough to know what I’d be messing up. Also, one of my players was playing a champion and alignment is kind of essential to that class.
For those who don’t know the rules, the only creatures that can be damaged by alignment-based damage are those of the opposite alignment. Fine. That makes enough sense. There are also a few class feats, spells, and magic items that speak to a creature’s alignment. Any Neutral based caster of Divine Lance gets hosed, but it’s fine.
Breaking Point
I had finally had enough of the rules as written when my players were traveling in the jungle, met an explorer/adventurer who is of an evil alignment, but it’s only because he gives very little thought or care to the safety of those he travels with and is a glory hound. He's also willing to blow up an ancient temple because it conflicts with the story he’s already published back home about the region. He did warn the party to stay back because the area was dangerous and didn’t want anyone to get hurt when he destroyed this obvious forgery put in place by less scrupulous explorers. So not all bad.
That dude is affected by good damage, would detect as evil, and have other issues. The same issue carries over to a merchants who are fine with cheating his buyers. They're not even remotely evil with a capital "E". I brought it up with my group and we eventually came to what we're using now.
One last thing before getting into what I use in my games; like D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e already instituted something that works better than the alignment system for determining how a character should act (and is more concrete because of the specificity of the rules) – anathemas. Not all the classes have them (nor should they), but many do and they are things that your character will not do without a VERY good reason and there are usually mechanical repercussions for breaking them. This is enough.
How I Use Alignment
Alignment represents fundamental forces of the universe that
shape the outer planes and extraplanar beings that exist there. These pure
forces filter into the prime material plane and give bits of those forces to
the beings that live and die there, but they are diluted and mixed to the point
that most mortal creatures do not exhibit enough of one alignment to have one.
They are all alignments and none.
Mechanically speaking, most mortal creatures do not have an
alignment. Only aberrations, astrals, celestials, elementals, ethereals, fey,
fiends, monitors, and undead are guaranteed to have alignments. These are all
creatures that are built from so much of those fundamental forces that they
have no real choice in how they act. Their personalities are mostly hard-coded
into their very beings. This isn't to say that there are no exceptions to this
rule, such as when a were-creature is suffering from their Moon Frenzy ability
or a Wendigo. The connection between those two things are creatures under the
effects of curses, so the curse is flooding their body with a fundamental force
of the universe (evil usually).
What this means for my game is that alignment-based damage
is like any other damage type for the most part, but there are only two
alignment damage types – Radiant and Entropic. A creature without an alignment
is affected by both damage types. Creatures with alignments are only affected
by the damage types that are the opposite of their alignments. Lawful Neutral,
Lawful Good, Neutral Good, and Chaotic Good are all immune to Radiant damage
and suffer damage from Entropic (and have weaknesses if they are weak to Evil
or Chaotic per their stat blocks). Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil, and
Chaotic Neutral are all immune to Entropic damage and suffer damage from
Radiant (and have weaknesses if they are weak to Good or Lawful per their stat
blocks).
There are a few roll-down effects this change causes. Any
spell, feat, item, whatever that deals alignment damage uses the rules I’ve
established above, but any of those things that specifically calls out only
effecting a creature of a certain alignment (such as the additional damage on
the champion’s Blade of Justice), the creature actually needs to be of that
alignment.
The Champion’s Cause must be chosen from any of the
alignments allowed for their deity's followers (if the follower itself doesn’t
have an alignment) and their Aura of Faith feat affects allies who worship
non-evil deities.
For the alignment damage runes, there are only Good and Evil
runes (could be renamed to Radiant and Entropic. Their critical hit special
effects lose the Reaction requirement. The once per day and needing to be
targeting a creature of specific alignments is enough of a limiting factor on them.
Only clerics or champions can use or create alignment runes without suffering
the adverse effects, but only if their deity’s alignment matches the rune in
question (LN, LG, NG, & CG for Good, LE, NE, CE, & CN for Evil). This
might get extended to oracles as well, but I haven’t read enough of the oracle
yet to make a decision.
Some spells need a slight tweak. So far I’ve only found
three. Detect Alignment works as written if the creature has an alignment. If
they don’t, it doesn’t detect anything unless they are a champion or cleric. In
that case, it detects the alignment of the deity they worship. Litany Against
Wrath triggers when a creature deals damage to a non-evil creature. Finally,
Divine Decree effects all non-allies in the area.
There might be other things that could come up, but in over a year of play with a cleric and champion in my group, these are the only issues that have arisen so far.
Summary
If you want to run Pathfinder 2e the way I do in terms of
alignment, here’s the breakdown:
- Only two alignment damage types - Radiant and Entropic. Radiant takes the place of Lawful and Good damage types while Entropic takes the place of Evil and Chaotic damage.
- Only Aberrations, Astrals, Celestials, Elementals, Ethereals, Fey, Fiends, Monitors, and Undead have alignments and are affected only by alignment damage of the opposite of their alignment
- Almost everyone else doesn’t have an alignment and is affected by all alignment damage types.
- If an effect specifically calls out only applying to creatures with a certain alignment, the creature must actually have that alignment
- Champion Changes
- You choose a Cause based on any alignment that the deity allows for its followers.
- Aura of Faith affects allies who worship non-evil deities.
- Alignment Runes
- Only Good (Radiant) and Evil (Entropic) runes exist. The critical effect is a once per day Free Action vice Reaction. You have to be a Cleric or Champion of a god whose alignment matches the rune to create or use the rune without suffering the negative side effects of the rune.
- Spell Changes
- Detect Alignment: If the creature has an alignment, the spell works normally. It only detects an alignment of an unaligned creature if the creature is a Champion or Cleric – the alignment of their deity.
- Litany Against Wrath: The spell can trigger when a creature deals damage to a non-evil creature.
- Divine Decree: The spell affects all non-allies in the area.
Comments
Post a Comment