A Rebuttal to The "Hack" of Using Spells to Control Your Alignment

So, as we all know, Pathfinder now has rules in Horror Adventures that state expressly that casting spells with an alignment component can change your alignment. I covered this weeks ago in my Crunch post Horror Adventures Settles The Argument About Evil Spells and Alignments. However, as I've said before, absolutely no mechanic in gaming causes more vehement (and occasionally incoherent) arguments than alignment does. This was no exception. And the most common argument I heard for why this was a poor decision was that it meant spellcasters could now regulate their own alignment through the spells they used. Eaten too many babies? Don't worry, I'll just cast this good-aligned spell a few times, and there we go, back to neutral. Uh-oh, I used soul harvest as a way to get past a bad guy... guess I'll just use angel cuddle until I've been redeemed.

That's not how this works... that's not how any of this works...

Now, mechanically, that scenario (ridiculous as it is) is possible. However, by suggesting that's what players are going to do in order to somehow "game" their alignment ignores a lot of other facets.

Why This "Hack" is Pointless

In order for this sort of alignment maintenance to happen via spellcasting, it requires a spellcaster of a certain alignment to learn spells of an opposing alignment. If you're a good-aligned spellcaster, why would you learn animate dead, for example? And if you're an evil-aligned spellcaster, why would you learn celestial healing, particularly when infernal healing is an option? Perhaps a neutral spellcaster would know them both, and use them when appropriate, but why ensure that you cast an even number of good and evil spells? Because that's not, exactly, what "being neutral" means.

Seriously, this isn't a rhetorical question.

While it is possible for you to "atone" for your one evil spell with good spells, it's on the player to explain A) why the character would have spells from both ends of the spectrum, and B) why that character would feel the need to play one step forward, and one step back? Alignment is a meta concept, after all, which means that the characters are often unaware of where they sit on the spectrum without some form of highly-specific spell to tell them where they are.

More importantly, though, a player should ask why the character would even feel the need to bounce back and forth. Aside from the player's own, personal desire to fit squarely into a good or evil bracket that, as far as their characters know, doesn't even exist.

If a character is not a member of a class for whom alignment is important (such as a wizard, a magus, or even a bard), then there's no purpose to using spells to "cheat" the alignment rule that would make you good or evil for dipping your fingers into pools of liquid malevolence or beneficence. If a character is a member of a class for whom alignment is important (clerics, warpriests, inquisitors, etc.), then the question should be why would this person blatantly reach outside the alignment they're supposed to be maintaining to use tools that are outside their toolbox? This is particularly true for divine casters. Because while it's true that a good-aligned cleric could pray for spells with the evil descriptor, why would a good-aligned god grant those spells to them in the first place?

Roleplay Your Changing Alignment

The big question that playing footsie with your alignment by casting spells should ask, though, is what are the roleplay and story implications for that kind of flirtation? Does the wizard, who thought all magic was just a tool, develop a taste for true darkness? Does he begin relying on evil spells, even when he doesn't need them, just for the sickening rush of power? Will his reputation, and legacy, be twisted as he refuses to let go of his corruption?

Why did I change my seal? No reason, really.

The same is true from the other direction. What happens when the evil necromancer learns good-aligned spells in order to trick his opponents, but ends up seeing the light when he uses them too many times? Does he try to go back to his old ways, but the things he's done, and the person he was, are so revolting to him now that he can never understand how he once performed such awful acts without thought or care?

Lastly, it's important to note that a changed alignment doesn't wipe your slate clean as a character. For example, an evil character who, for some reason, becomes good-aligned through use of a good-aligned spell doesn't get to shirk responsibility for all the evil acts they may have committed. Their deeds were still done, and the enemies they made are still their enemies. There's also the question of what's going to happen when their masters find they've wandered off the proper alignment path. How hard will the character fight to maintain its new outlook on life when it knows that cult leaders, demon lords, and others have invested a great deal in them remaining evil?

Your alignment is an important aspect of your character, but it is not a get-out-of-jail free card. You can be good-aligned and still be wanted for crimes. You can be evil-aligned, and still find a way to never stray into illegitimate areas of the law. Finally, yes, you can alter your alignment by using good or evil spells... but the real question you should be asking yourself is what purpose does that kind of metagaming serve?

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday entry. Hopefully it helps some folks who've been grappling with this issue, and it stops some arguments at your tables. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then drop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to make a small donation. Donate at least $1 a month, and there's some swag in it for you! Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter yet, well, why not start today?

Corruptions (And Power) in Horror Adventures

For those folks who don't know me, and who have not dug too deeply into my archives, you should know I'm a horror lover. In case my recent Jason Voorhees Pathfinder character conversion didn't give it away. Nothing makes me more eager to show up for a game than the knowledge that zombies are going to be terrifying, dreams are going to be gateways to outer worlds, and somewhere on my character sheet I'll need to track my character's sanity and mental disorders.

This is my spa.

So, when Horror Adventures came out, I was all but bouncing on my toes with excitement. Not because I feel that every, single game needs to be an homage to the Old Ones, but because it promised to be a tool box full of nasty, awful things that I could use to make some of my darker character dreams come true. And that it would clarify certain arguments we've had over the years, as I covered in my last Crunch topic Horror Adventures Settles The Argument About Evil Spells and Alignment.

I was not disappointed.

Let's Talk About Corruptions

The stand-out mechanic for Horror Adventures is corruptions. Detailed on page 14, corruptions are awful malignancies that can twist characters out of true, tempting them with dark paths, and rewarding them with terrible gifts if they choose to succumb instead of fighting. It is, in a real way, showing that certain types of power stain and corrupt those who choose to use them.

The way a corruption works is that there is a precipitating event keyed to a certain type of corruption. This event can happen any time during the character's lifespan, including at level 1. When you first acquire the corruption, and every other level after it, you gain a manifestation. These manifestations are powers that represent how advanced your corruption is, and each one comes with a unique stain that makes it progressively difficult to hide what you're becoming. They're sort of like "free" feats, in that they get more powerful as you increase in level, but the drawbacks that come with stronger manifestations can become crippling in certain circumstances.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

For example, say you gain the vampirism corruption. You could gain the Fangs manifestation, which allows you to grow fangs as a swift action, and grants you a bite attack. However, it also means that you have to drink enough blood from a sentient creature in order to inflict at least 1 point of Constitution damage every day, instead of every week. That would be the stain. Alternatively you might gain the Devil's Horns manifestation from the hellbound corruption, which gives you unnatural horns, and a gore attack. In this case the stain is that you have horns that cannot be hidden, and which people recognize as unnatural. They also show up in whatever form you take, even if you're polymorphed. As you progress through your corruption, you add more manifestations, until you eventually have the full complement of the corruption's abilities.

It's important to remember that it's not all fun and games, though. You see, in addition to the stains that come with your powers, each corruption has a certain trigger. When you act in certain ways, and perform (or fail to perform) certain actions, then you need to start making saves in order to halt the corruption's progress. You begin at Stage 0, and every time you fail a save, you progress to the next stage. These progressions typically come with an alignment shift, as well as other penalties. If you fail the save 4 times, you succumb to the corruption completely, and are relegated to the position of NPC. It's also possible, if you get to the source of the corruption, that you can remove it from your character. This provides an interesting question; is your love of power greater than your sense of self?

Now, it's entirely possible to gain the maximum number of manifestations (9, since you can only have one every two levels) without ever leaving Stage 0. But it's important to ask yourself how long you can play with fire before it seriously starts to burn.

The Forms of Corruption

There are 11 different corruptions, and each one offers its own, unique powers. While you can technically gain two corruptions (under very special circumstances) you're typically limited to one. Which means you need to choose which corruption you feel is most appropriate for your character and concept... unless, of course, you trust your DM to roll a 2d6 and hand you whatever comes up?

Which is a terrible plan, by the by.

When choosing which corruption to add to your character, there are several questions you need to ask. The first is how you acquired it, and when you're going to start adding levels of it? The second is how you plan to avoid increasing the stage of your corruption, even while you add additional manifestations? The third is whether your corruption is something you're embracing, or something you're trying to fight against (and possibly to remove entirely)?

On the one hand, every corruption has a way to remove it. On the other hand, a corruption is a source of genuine power for those it afflicts. Just as the character may be torn about embracing or fighting a corruption, so the player may hem and haw about whether to keep the manifestations for the sake of their power, or trying to cure them in order to eliminate the risk they pose.

Well, that's all for this week's Crunch topic. Hopefully everyone is just as excited about using these corruptions as I am! If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron today. There's free stuff in it for you, too, as long as you pledge at least $1 a month. Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter yet, now would be a great time to start.

Horror Adventures Settles The Argument About Evil Spells and Alignment

Anyone who's played Pathfinder (or any of its close relatives) knows that alignment causes more arguments than almost anything else in the entire game. A big part of why this happens is that no one agrees entirely on what's right, and what's wrong, and that leads to some serious head-butting. Especially because, as I pointed out in Absolute Good, Absolute Evil, and Alignment in RPGs, your character's opinions about whether an act is good or evil doesn't actually change whether that action is good or evil. Alignment is a meta-concept, and just like how characters are unaware that the watch commander has five levels of rogue, they're equally unaware that what they consider a correct, right, or socially acceptable action might, in fact, be evil. Because we, the people outside the game, are the ones who deem what is and isn't good and evil.

And, as is mentioned in the rules themselves, final arbitration of what constitutes a good or evil act, and something significant enough to alter your alignment, rests with the DM.

Of course you can do that. What was your alignment restriction, again?

Casting Evil Spells Is, In Fact, an Evil Action

One of the more divisive arguments surrounding alignment has been the use of spells that come from the other side of the axis. For example, how many times can a good character create undead minions before the inherent evil of the spell sinks into his soul? In the past, we had no answer to this question, so people instead focused on arguing that it's the intention of the spell rather than the spell itself that should be judged. Players argued repeatedly that raising the dead in this manner was only evil if you used them for evil ends; if you had your zombies and skeletons protect the innocent, or fight off greater evil, then you should get to maintain your good alignment.

Unfortunately, page 110 of Horror Adventures disagrees with those who hold this position.

No, Steve, I don't care if they're building an orphanage. You're violating their bodily autonomy.

The sidebar on this page makes it abundantly clear that the alignment descriptor of a spell isn't just flavor; it has actual effects on those who regularly use them. So, if you're a good-aligned character, but you just can't resist those evil spells, you won't be good-aligned much longer. In-character you may feel that what you did was justified, and that wielding fell powers is perfectly all right in the service of a greater good, but mechanically you are going to lose your good alignment.

How fast? Well, if you are casting these spells in relatively quick succession, then two is all it should take to move you from good to neutral. Three or more spells is all it takes to move you from non-good to outright evil. Generally speaking, the more time you wait between these spells (time that can be used in meditation, or just re-aligning your own internal beliefs and motivations), the more those numbers reset to zero. If a spell requires the sacrifice of a sentient being, though, that is an evil act, and typically shifts the caster's alignment straight to evil.

Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 gp.

Evil, is Evil, is Evil

A thing that should be stressed when it comes to the rules is that when an act is described as inherently evil, there is no wiggle room. The existence of angels and devils means that good and evil are not just opinions in this game; they are facts. Regardless of what you as a player think, or what your character thinks, there are forces in the universe that have decided what is, and what is not, an evil act. Those who commit those evil acts, regardless of the reasons they had for doing it, are still stained by the inherent evil of those acts.

And it goes the other way, too. Inherent goodness infects evildoers, guiding them out of the shadows and into the light. Good, is good, is good, in those circumstances.

And chaos is... chaos?

The key word in these statements is the word inherently. Evil magic is, by definition, evil. It does not matter why you put your hand in it, you are still tainted by it. There are very few actions that are listed as inherently good, evil, lawful, or chaotic. Most things that a character does will be open to interpretation and discussion with the DM. However, if the book expressly lists a given action as evil, then committing it is still an evil act.

You cannot maintain your lawful good alignment if you sacrificed an infant on an altar of the Old Ones. No matter how many lives you saved by doing it.

This week's Crunch post was a little short, but I have a feeling it will generate a lot of discussion among my readers, and their gaming groups. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, and keep content like this coming your way, then you should stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. For as little as $1 a month you can help me keep doing what I'm doing, and earn yourself some sweet swag in the process! Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter yet, why not start today?