Good Characters taking Trophies

[LordOfCain]

So the party I am in, mainly of CG characters, only one neutral, me, are taking trophies, skins, horns, etc, from intelligent creatures. Additionally, they have a limited scrying orb keyed to one person and they let a caravan of ~15 people die because the person was in that direction and possibly in the caravan. Then they started sniping the winners and let the drivers die. Alignment?

[Necroticplague]

Taking trophies is actually a Good act, assuming they were dead first. It shows you respect the life of your enemies. If you simply left their bodies to rot, you disrespect their life by paying no attention to their death. Ideally, you'd do so by giving them a proper burial, but making trophies is an acceptable substitute if time is short.

As for that caravan situation: huh? not sure what you're saying there. So basically, they were looking for one dude, and only had a vague idea where he was, so they slaughtered everyone he was traveling with? That's probably evil, as it shows a blatant disregard for life.

[ZamielVanWeber]

This is a touch difficult for me to parse so forgive me if I get this wrong:

Trophy taking is fine as long as the enemy is dead before hand. One good prestige class (Vassal of Bahamut) requires you to take a trophy.

Letting people die who you can save is definitely not good, as is using other as meat shields.

I would never recommend an alignment drop for one action unless it is extreme, but if they have class features tied to being good a warning would probably be nice.

[INoKnowNames]

I'm not entirely certain I agree that "taking the skull of a dragon you killed and turning it into a trophy" can be substituted for "having to fight the dragon and then helping to properly take care of it's body afterwards", but I'll agree that such a thing doesn't peg me as Evil. A bit rude, maybe.

The second situation, in which the same group vaguely thought a target might be within a caravan, and decided to slaughter the entire bit of them? Oh no, yeah; someone's definitely got some 'xplainin' to do with their Gods.

[Red Fel]

So the party I am in, mainly of CG characters, only one neutral, me, are taking trophies, skins, horns, etc, from intelligent creatures.

As others have mentioned, as long as the creature is dead, it's not a problem. Grotesque, but not a problem. Now, if you killed an intelligent creature specifically for the purpose of collecting a trophy, that would be a problem, because that's murder. But killing someone and then deciding afterwards to take a souvenir, not as big a deal.

I played a CG once who actually ate enemies he killed. Had to make a few Fort saves along the way. Apparently Evil Outsiders carry nasty diseases. Who knew? Point is, if you can eat your enemies, you can certainly mutilate them a little bit. Unless you're a Cleric of a deity who promotes the p


Additionally, they have a limited scrying orb keyed to one person and they let a caravan of ~15 people die because the person was in that direction and possibly in the caravan. Then they started sniping the winners and let the drivers die. Alignment?

I have no idea what this says. I have no idea what it means. Let me see if I can translate it.

... Nope. I have no idea. Can you explain this part again?

I mean, if it's just a case of "They were spying on this guy, and they were too busy pursuing him to save a bunch of other people," that's not Evil, because failure to act when you're otherwise occupied isn't a sin. If it's a case of "They were spying on this guy, and he was with a bunch of innocents, and then they all got ambushed and we let the innocents die so that he would die," that's... Well, it's definitely a bit of a jerk move, but not quite the same as murder. If it's a case of "We found a caravan that was under attack, let the two sides duke it out, then swept in to kill off the winners and loot the place," well, that makes you scavengers. Not quite Evil, but decidedly non-Good.

Of course, if you killed off a bunch of innocents to get to the target? Definitely Evil.

[LordOfCain]

I mean, if it's just a case of "They were spying on this guy, and they were too busy pursuing him to save a bunch of other people," that's not Evil, because failure to act when you're otherwise occupied isn't a sin. If it's a case of "They were spying on this guy, and he was with a bunch of innocents, and then they all got ambushed and we let the innocents die so that he would die," that's... Well, it's definitely a bit of a jerk move, but not quite the same as murder. If it's a case of "We found a caravan that was under attack, let the two sides duke it out, then swept in to kill off the winners and loot the place," well, that makes you scavengers. Not quite Evil, but decidedly non-Good.

Of course, if you killed off a bunch of innocents to get to the target? Definitely Evil.
It's a case of they think a kidnapped girl might be in the caravan and monsters are attacking the caravan so they wait for ~5 turns and start sniping with a +1 distance frost longbow and advancing and then attacking with regular bows and plan to kill all survivors except for the girl if she is even there.

[EisenKreutzer]

It's a case of they think a kidnapped girl might be in the caravan and monsters are attacking the caravan so they wait for ~5 turns and start sniping with a +1 distance frost longbow and advancing and then attacking with regular bows and plan to kill all survivors except for the girl if she is even there.

So not only did they let innocent people get attacked without intervening, they slaughtered innocent people? On the off chance that whomever they might be after could be there?

That sounds to me like a textbook Evil act.

[LordOfCain]

FYI, I , the NEUTRAL player, wanted to help the caravan. Additionally, we had already peacefully encountered the caravan and actually been in one of the two carts. :smalltongue:

[Urpriest]

The trophy-taking isn't an alignment thing, it's a stylistic thing. Either it's part of the theme of the character (hunter-type, certain barbarians, etc.), or it's the players not realizing that they aren't playing in a video game and trophies don't do anything by default.

[TheIronGolem]

So not only did they let innocent people get attacked without intervening, they slaughtered innocent people? On the off chance that whomever they might be after could be there?

That sounds to me like a textbook Evil act.

Well, he did say the girl had been kidnapped. It's possible the other players were reasoning that the other people in the caravan were the kidnappers, and thus fair game. Still pretty dodgy, though, even if they're correct.

[darksolitaire]

I played a CG once who actually ate enemies he killed. Had to make a few Fort saves along the way. Apparently Evil Outsiders carry nasty diseases. Who knew?

Would succubus joke here be considered bad taste? :smallconfused: