A creature’s general moral and personal attitudes are represented by its alignment: lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, lawful neutral, neutral, chaotic neutral, lawful evil, neutral evil, or chaotic evil.
Alignment is a tool for developing your character’s identity—it is not a straitjacket for restricting your character. Each alignment represents a broad range of personality types or personal philosophies, so two characters of the same alignment can still be quite different from each other. In addition, few people are completely consistent.
When thinking of alignments, use a simple test: How would the character treat a stranger in trouble? A chaotic good person who sees a stranger being robbed would rush to his aid—a person in distress needs help. A lawful good character would move to take over the situation and see justice done. A neutral character might stand back and watch developments, acting as she sees fit on this occasion, and perhaps acting differently the next time. A chaotic evil character would join in, and perhaps try to rob both the victim and the robbers. A lawful evil character would hang back, waiting for the fight to end, and then take advantage for his own gain or that of his god or cult.
All creatures have an alignment. Alignment determines the effectiveness of some spells and magic items.
Animals and other creatures incapable of moral action are neutral. Even deadly vipers and tigers that eat people are neutral because they lack the capacity for morally right or wrong behavior. Dogs may be obedient and cats free- spirited, but they do not have the moral capacity to be truly lawful or chaotic.
Good characters and creatures protect innocent life. Evil characters and creatures debase or destroy innocent life, whether for fun or profit.
Good implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings. Good characters make personal sacrifices to help others.
Evil implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others. Some evil creatures simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualms if doing so is convenient. Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some evil deity or master.
People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent, but may lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others.
Lawful characters tell the truth, keep their word, respect authority, honor tradition, and judge those who fall short of their duties. Chaotic characters follow their consciences, resent being told what to do, favor new ideas over tradition, and do what they promise if they feel like it.
Law implies honor, trustworthiness, obedience to authority, and reliability. On the downside, lawfulness can include closed-mindedness, reactionary adherence to tradition, self-righteousness, and a lack of adaptability. Those who consciously promote lawfulness say that only
Chaos implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility. Those who promote chaotic behavior say that only unfettered personal freedom allows people to express themselves fully and lets society benefit from the potential that its individuals have within them.
Someone who is neutral with respect to law and chaos has some respect for authority and feels neither a compulsion to obey nor a compulsion to rebel. She is generally honest, but can be tempted into lying or deceiving others.
Occasionally the rules refer to “steps” when dealing with alignment. In this case, “steps” refers to the number of alignment shifts between the two alignments, as shown on the following diagram. Note that diagonal “steps” count as two steps. For example, a lawful neutral character is one step away from a lawful good alignment, and three steps away from a chaotic evil alignment. A cleric’s alignment must be within one step of the alignment of her deity.
| Lawful | Neutral | Chaotic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Lawful Good | Neutral Good | Chaotic Good |
| Neutral | Lawful Neutral | Neutral | Chaotic Neutral |
| Evil | Lawful Evil | Neutral Evil | Chaotic Evil |
Nine distinct alignments define the possible combinations of the lawful-chaotic axis with the good-evil axis. Each description below depicts a typical character of that alignment. Remember that individuals vary from this norm, and that a given character may act more or less in accord with his alignment from day to day. Use these descriptions as guidelines, not as scripts.
The first six alignments, lawful good through chaotic neutral, are standard alignments for player characters. The three evil alignments are usually for monsters and villains. With the GM’s permission, a player may assign an evil alignment to his PC, but such characters are often a source of disruption and conflict with good and neutral party members. GMs are encouraged to carefully consider how evil PCs might affect the campaign before allowing them.
Justice is all. Honor is my armor. He who commits a crime will pay. Without law and truth, there is only chaos. I am the light, I am the sword of righteousness. My enemy shall pay in the end. Right is might. My soul is pure. My word is truth.
Core Concepts: Duty, fairness, honor, property, responsibility, right, truth, virtue, worthiness
A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. She combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. She tells the truth, keeps her word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good combines honor with compassion.
A lawful good character at the extreme end of the lawful-chaotic spectrum can seem pitiless. She may become obsessive about delivering justice, thinking nothing of dedicating herself to chasing a wicked dragon across the world or pursuing a devil into Hell. She can come across as a taskmaster, bent upon her aims without swerving, and may see others who are less committed as weak. Though she may seem austere, even harsh, she is always consistent, working from her doctrine or faith. Hers is a world of order, and she obeys superiors and finds it almost impossible to believe there’s any bad in them. She may be more easily duped by such imposters, but in the end she will see justice is done—by her own hand if necessary.
Do the best I can. See the good in everyone. Help others. Work toward the greater good. My soul is good, regardless of how I look. Never judge a book by its cover. Devotion to the goodness in life does not require approval. Charity begins at home. Be kind.
Core Concepts: Benevolence, charity, considerateness, goodness, humaneness, kindness, reason, right
A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them.
Neutral good means doing what is good and right without bias for or against order. neutral good character does anything he can, and works with anyone he can, for the greater good. Such a character is devoted to being good, and works in any way he can to achieve it. He may forgive an evil person if he thinks that person has reformed, and he believes that in everyone there is a little bit of good.
My soul is good, but free. Laws have no conscience. Blind order promotes disorder. Goodness cannot be learned just from a book of prayer. Compassion does not wear a uniform. The smallest act of kindness is never wasted. Repay kindness with kindness. Be kind to someone in trouble—it may be you who needs kindness the next day.
Core Concepts: Benevolence, charity, freedom, joy, kindness, mercy, warmth
A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society.
A chaotic good character can seem unpredictable, giving alms to an unfortunate outside a church but refusing to make a donation within. She trusts her instincts and could put more stock in the words of a beggar with kind eyes than the teachings of a harsh-looking bishop. She might rob from the rich and give to the poor, or spend lavishly for her own joy and that of her friends. In extreme cases, a chaotic good character may seem reckless in her benevolence.
Chaotic good combines a good heart with a free spirit.
A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs her. Order and organization are paramount. She may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or she may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government.
Lawful neutral means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot.
A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos (and thus neutral is sometimes called “true neutral”). Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character probably thinks of good as better than evil—after all, she would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, she’s not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way.
Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.
Neutral means you act naturally in any situation, without prejudice or compulsion.
A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn’t strive to protect others’ freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those others suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as he is to cross it.
Chaotic neutral represents freedom from both society’s restrictions and a do-gooder’s zeal.
Lawful evil characters believe that law and structure mean power and safety. In their view, a strict, systematic hierarchy enables outcomes impossible for a single individual, so they seek power and security by positioning themselves advantageously within such systems. They may operate according to strict personal codes—private ethics or creeds that may not align with an observer’s concept of morality—but more often choose to operate within (and take advantage of) the framework of the society around them. Many are quick to cite their law- abiding natures when defending their actions. A lawful evil character cares about tradition, loyalty, and order, but not about freedom, dignity, or life. He plays by the rules but without mercy or compassion. He is comfortable in a hierarchy and would like to rule, but is willing to serve. He condemns others not according to their actions but according to race, religion, homeland, or social rank. He is loath to break laws or promises. This reluctance comes partly from his nature and partly because he depends on order to protect himself from those who oppose him on moral grounds.
This alignment is particularly appealing to those who want to get ahead and don’t care whom they hurt, yet who also want to maintain a sense of self-righteousness or don’t want to open themselves up to unnecessary risk. Lawful evil characters may take great pride in never breaking their word—and thus rarely make promises—and are invariably methodical and organized in their machinations. Some lawful evil villains have particular taboos, such as not killing in cold blood (but having underlings do it) or not letting children come to harm (if it can be helped). They imagine that these compunctions put them above unprincipled villains.
Some lawful evil people and creatures commit themselves to evil with a zeal like that of a crusader committed to good. Beyond being willing to hurt others for their own ends, they take pleasure in spreading evil as an end unto itself. They may also see doing evil as part of a duty to an evil deity or master.
Lawful evil represents methodical, intentional, and organized evil.
Lawful evil characters are often surprisingly good at working with others, as long as doing so suits their agenda. Their organized minds excel at spotting ways to make a situation work for them, and they usually recognize that most systems require give and take between the various components. They tend to honor at least the letter of their agreements, and many lawful evil characters are capable of a cold self-discipline that lets them rein in unproductive traits when necessary.
At the same time, lawful evil characters who see weakness in their companions are often quick to capitalize on it, making them potential liabilities in combat. They may be unwilling to risk themselves for a cause or partner, or to bend to group decisions if they feel doing so places them at a disadvantage. Self-interest is the driving force for most lawful evil characters—even minions.
Lawful evil characters appear on every rung of the social ladder. Some seek desperately to climb the ladder, dreaming of doing unto others what has been done to them. Others feel smug superiority toward the less fortunate and enjoy abusing their power and privilege. Following are some common lawful evil personality archetypes.
Despots: Destined to rule—at least in their own minds—despots seek to impose their will on those around them. Obedience is often not enough; a despot requires total submission. Despots are capable of collaboration and even subordination within a larger structure, but they usually get resentful if they don’t climb the ranks quickly enough, and they seek out opportunities to give orders instead of taking them. Rarely, despots actually enjoy sharing power with like-minded souls; more often, their alliances are of convenience, and a pact’s stability depends on whether the despot’s goals are being met. While all despots believe themselves to be great leaders, not all are; dark tragicomedy abounds when incompetent despots achieve even a small measure of power. If you are a despot, you:
Code: Your commands are law—and woe betide those who disobey.
Minion: The world is a dangerous and confusing place, filled with overwhelmingly powerful entities. Thankfully, sometimes those beings take lucky souls under their wings, offering protection, purpose, and perhaps permission to indulge aspects of oneself that society otherwise prohibits. Whether the patron is a god, monster, nation, or mortal, the minion knows that loyalty and perfect service—no matter how distasteful or depraved the command—are the best ways to rise in the ranks and achieve comfort and security. Minions may take pride in their service or comfort in the fact that any responsibility for their actions ultimately lies with their masters. Total devotion is a small price to pay for the gifts these dark masters offer. If you are a minion, you:
Code: Be an obedient and useful servant, and your master will take care of you.
Swindlers: Swindlers accumulate power through indirect means. By using deception and manipulation, and by exploiting the systems they inhabit, they gain personal advantage. Their most common method is brokering deals and contracts that seek to extract the maximum commitment from others while giving as little away as possible themselves. While driving a hard bargain is not itself evil, swindlers specifically prey on those at their most vulnerable, abusing the legal system and doing their best to exploit (or create) weakness. Loopholes and plausible deniability are a swindler’s bread and butter, and most have legitimate business concerns to augment their extortion and entrapment. Often charming, always cunning, swindlers are experts at using people’s own desires against them. If you are a swindler, you:
Code: Anyone who shows weakness deserves to have it exploited.
Neutral evil characters care only for themselves, and do whatever they think they can get away with. They place no stock in the ability of laws or codes to protect them, and thus don’t bother to follow them. A neutral evil character sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. She has no love of order and holds no illusions that following laws, traditions, or codes would make her any better or more noble. On the other hand, she doesn’t have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has. In some ways, neutral evil is the purest form of evil, unburdened by any other tropes or tendencies. Whether a neutral evil character has chosen to practice evil for its own sake or—more often—simply has no empathy for others, the result is the same: cold, unfeeling cruelty.
Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies. Those who care nothing for others or the pain they cause, or who strive toward such indifference, are drawn to this alignment.
Neutral evil represents pure evil without honor and without variation.
Neutral evil characters embody pure selfishness. That singleminded dedication to themselves typically makes their inner lives very straightforward. Many strongly neutral evil characters are emotionless and affectless, sometimes to a terrifying degree, which further focuses their mental resources on getting what they want, and can make them experts at whatever interests them. If their lack of inhibition manifests as admirable boldness and fearlessness, they may become master infiltrators and manipulators.
Neutral evil characters are not necessarily enthusiastic murderers—it’s so messy and causes so much potential trouble—but they rarely have qualms with the deed itself. They are fundamentally interested only in themselves and their own dark desires and tastes. Other people are insects, tools, toys, or simply objects in their way. Following are some common neutral evil personality archetypes.
Annihilists: Nothing matters. Entropy and chaos have created a world where nothing lasts, nothing means anything, and even the greatest works or truths will fall to dust and obscurity in the blink of an eye. You know that those who claim otherwise do themselves and everyone else a disservice, and you cannot abide anyone who perpetuates society’s great lies of love and meaning. Instead, you choose to reveal their willful ignorance by furthering the cause of destruction. The world offends you, and thus you will bring it down. If you are an annihilist, you:
Code: Everything crumbles. Who are you to argue with that?
Narcissists: Narcissists see meaning and beauty in the world—but only when they look in a mirror. For narcissists, the world truly does revolve around them: whatever makes them unhappy is a tragic injustice, and whatever pleases them is theirs by divine right. Narcissists can be genuinely bewildered—or homicidally enraged—by suggestions that anyone else’s concerns take precedence over theirs. The narcissist differs from the lawful evil tyrant in that he has no particular need for power or authority, so long as all his whims are catered to without question. It’s only when those whims are denied that the true, uncaring evil of the narcissist rears its bloody head. If you are a narcissist, you:
Code: The universe knows what you want, so what does it expect when it doesn’t it give it to you?
Psychopaths: Psychopaths are individuals who, for whatever reason, are unable to feel empathy and remorse, leading them to indulge in uninhibitedly antisocial behavior. A psychopath may or may not understand that others have feelings, but either way is unable to relate to other creatures. Other people are objects to them—sometimes amusing and sometimes useful, but always disposable. If you are a psychopath, you:
Code: Do anything you want. Anything.
A chaotic evil character does what his greed, hatred, and lust for destruction drive him to do. He is vicious, arbitrarily violent, and unpredictable. Chaotic evil characters live at the mercy of their own toxic passions. Their goals and methods may change on a whim, and they often crave novelty and variety in their lives. If a chaotic evil character is simply out for whatever he can get, he is ruthless and brutal. If he is committed to the spread of evil and chaos, he is even worse. Thankfully, his plans are haphazard, and any groups he joins or forms are likely to be poorly organized. While still capable of planning, chaotic evil characters may have a hard time with patient, long-term scheming, preferring immediate satisfaction and direct action.
For some, spreading chaos and destruction is a deliberate goal, yet more often chaotic evil characters are those who simply don’t care whom their desires may hurt. They may see a certain nobility in their refusal to be bound by any conventions or creeds, or they may simply indulge their greed, hatred, and lust with no thought to the consequences. They may be emotionally or mentally unstable, letting their inner turmoil and turbulence spill out uncontrollably into others’ lives. Yet, they need not be insane—their savagery can be deliberate and intentional, unleashed in carefully directed and rationed bursts. Serial killers, demon cultists, arsonists, dangerous hedonists, and others lured to atrocity by passion are drawn to this alignment. Typically, chaotic evil people can be made to work together only by force, and their leader lasts only as long as he can thwart attempts to topple or assassinate him.
Chaotic evil represents the destruction not only of beauty and life, but also of the order on which beauty and life depend.
Some chaotic evil characters have coherent philosophies or ideas that guide their actions. However, many—if not most—are driven from within by strong, usually poisonous and unpredictable emotions. Below are some of the more common chaotic evil personality types.
Devotees: Just as some people find solace in upholding order and justice, some swear allegiance to their opposites—the chaos and entropy that eventually grind everything to dust. Whether these devotees are antipaladins, cultists of demon lords, or those who simply feel that the world deserves to be burned down, devotees seek to foster chaos and evil not just for personal gain, but for chaos and evil’s own sake. Some believe that the world must be destroyed in order to be rebuilt into something better, or see themselves as a necessary part of an eternal struggle—for light requires darkness to give it contrast. More often, they devote themselves out of a desire to gain power from an evil and chaotic entity, or to impose revenge on a world they feel has wronged them. If you are a devotee, you:
Code: Chaos is the true nature of existence, and it will eventually reclaim its own, so you help it along.
Furies: Furies are driven by a rage so consuming that it can never be satisfied. For some, this rage is birthed from a truly horrific past—perhaps one in which they suffered at the hands of another fury. In other cases, it is caused by disgust or despair ignited after witnessing too much depravity. In still others, the cause is simply a sense of stymied entitlement, or even a natural disposition untempered by reason. Not all furies are immediately identifiable as such—some bank their anger, burning slow but hot, and can conceal their temperaments and their actions, corrupting and undermining rather than rampaging. They may find justifications for their rage in the failings (real or imagined) of others, or they may not feel a need to justify themselves at all. Regardless of their motives, a festering, white-hot fever of rage is at the heart of all they do. If you are a fury, you:
Code: If you hurt them, they must have deserved it.
Hedonists: To evil hedonists, nothing matters except personal pleasure, and it’s only natural and right to grab as much of it as they can. Any consequences are secondary, if they are considered at all. Classic evil hedonists live in the moment and take what they want by force. These are the people who burn down a city because their hands are cold, or kill a family just to steal their horse. While other personality types may have a greater sense of entitlement, hedonists are characterized by their unwillingness to restrict themselves unnecessarily—and to a hedonist, all restrictions seem unnecessary. If you are a hedonist, you:
Code: Because you felt like it, that’s why.
Alignment is a tool, a convenient shorthand you can use to summarize the general attitude of an NPC, region, religion, organization, monster, or even magic item.
Certain character classes list repercussions for those who don’t adhere to a specific alignment, and some spells and magic items have different effects on targets depending on alignment, but beyond that it’s generally not necessary to worry too much about whether someone is behaving differently from his stated alignment. In the end, the Game Master is the one who gets to decide if something’s in accordance with its indicated alignment, based on the descriptions given previously and his own opinion and interpretation—the only thing the GM needs to strive for is to be consistent as to what constitutes the difference between alignments like chaotic neutral and chaotic evil. There’s no hard and fast mechanic by which you can measure alignment—unlike hit points or skill ranks or Armor Class, alignment is solely a label the GM controls.
It’s best to let players play their characters as they want. If a player is roleplaying in a way that you, as the GM, think doesn’t fit his alignment, let him know that he’s acting out of alignment and tell him why—but do so in a friendly manner. If a character wants to change his alignment, let him—in most cases, this should amount to little more than a change of personality, or in some cases, no change at all if the alignment change was more of an adjustment to more accurately summarize how a player, in your opinion, is portraying his character. In some cases, changing alignments can impact a character’s abilities—see the class write-ups for details. An atonement spell may be necessary to repair damage done by alignment changes arising from involuntary sources or momentary lapses in personality.
Players who frequently have their characters change alignment should in all likelihood be playing chaotic neutral characters.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
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