Archetypical alignment personalities.
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So, is it sinful to play an archetypical character? Righteous dictator! Holy avenger! Power hungry Necromancer! It feels to me like archetypes allow others to really flesh out their characters when confronted with such strong and slightly 2d personalities.
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rule has been since the server began… play your char your way because its not wrong
now expanding on the rule goes please research the char background /dogma etc to help flesh out the char to fit the setting
a malarite priest that hugs everything and plants trees would really be funny
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I actually enjoy characters who are (at least overtly) conforming to an archetype.
You might find out through experience with the character that they are a power-hungry necromancer because they have intentions of rescuing their loved one from the Wall of the Faithless, or a Crusading Hero who has committed a heinously sinful act and is unable to convince himself that he has done enough good to wash out the evil.
I am more concerned by characters who fly in the face of cultures presented in FR: goodly drow, sembians who love elves, evil halflings etc.
Or indeed, good tieflings / evil aasimar.Unless it is an app character though, we're not really going to meddle too much provided you RP the stats you go with.
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I actually enjoy characters who are (at least overtly) conforming to an archetype.
You might find out through experience with the character that they are a power-hungry necromancer because they have intentions of rescuing their loved one from the Wall of the Faithless, or a Crusading Hero who has committed a heinously sinful act and is unable to convince himself that he has done enough good to wash out the evil.
I am more concerned by characters who fly in the face of cultures presented in FR: goodly drow, sembians who love elves, evil halflings etc.
Or indeed, good tieflings / evil aasimar.Unless it is an app character though, we're not really going to meddle too much provided you RP the stats you go with.
THIS! Thank you Lizard! (You've been reading my blog/rant thread, haven't you? LOL) The alignment system exists for a reason, stereotypes exist for a reason. Drizzt was a on-in-a-million thing. I'm tired of seeing Drizzt look-alikes. Also consider: Law/Chaos defines (dictates?) behavior which can be readily seen, Good/Evil is defined by intent–and unless you have an uber-ESP crystal ball, you're not gonna know that. You can tell someone is lawful by the way they act, but they don't have EVIL stamped on their foreheads.
A Neutral-good Necromantic Druid, who perceives undeath not as an evil, unnatural perversion of life, but rather a way to save & give some manner of life back to those innocents who lost it too soon, or heroes who fell before their work could be accomplished (an actual PnP character I once played). Everyone accused him of being evil, but his every act and intent was to bring forth happiness to those who felt empty due to loss.
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How did… the druid keep his powers....
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How did… the druid keep his powers....
Multiclassing! That's the glossed-over answer anyway. The Wizard restrictions don't contradict any druid requirements. In reality, that campaign didn't last very long–but I brought it up to illustrate my point on alignments: Law-Chaos is perceivable via behavior; Good-Evil is not. IMO, the two axis should be considered separately. I'm not Lawful-Good, I'm lawful in temperament -AND- good in ideal.
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Good/evil is percievable by behaviour too though. I mean, if you animate the dead, or sell someones soul, or torture someone, even if it's in order to serve some greater good (somehow, dunno, maybe its some ritual that will destroy a demon or something… whatever), you were still comitting evil acts. Even if your intent is to do something good in the end, your still being evil to get there.
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Figure out what makes your character tick, then pick whatever alignment makes the most sense at the end. Archtypes are handy as a base, but there something you start with, rather than finish with.
IMHO the most fun evil, is evil that doesn't think of itself as evil, and I hate evil characters who are evil for the lols personally.
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It feels to me like archetypes allow others to really flesh out their characters when confronted with such strong and slightly 2d personalities.
To a certain extent every fantasy character is built upon an archetype. They are not real people but constructs we kitbash from personalities of literature, mythological or RL characters (which clearly are archetypes in this case).
But on a more constructive note, power-hungry necromancers or righteous paladins, while considered cliche by some, don't automatically make for dull 2d characters. While being a unique snowflake (like noble-hearted and rebellious drow ranger) doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a character with fleshed-out believable personality, as we all know.
Basically, the depth of your character's personality is only showing in interaction with other players, it doesn't stem from backstory or goals, he might even have none (although those help a bit).
The only reason archetypes get that much grief is because they are actually the most challenging ones to play. Exactly because that story has been told so many many times over and over, a mediocre storyteller is just too intimidated to try and find his own perspective. -
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Good read