Zeevico
2007-11-07, 07:59 AM
Hi,
I was wondering about this for a possible homebrew campaign I'm a-thinkin' up. The 'detection' spells--specifically Detect Evil/Good etc. If you've got a campaign whose theme is subterfuge and concealment, a first level spell can be your undoing. What's a rogue, fighter, or anyone else without access to "undetectable alignment" to do? A first level paladin can find sift out potential villains at will. Now he may not catch them all. There are Neutral, possibly even a few Good villains out there. But the mechanics and the law of averages still stand--most evil characters, whatever their class, just don't have easy access to "undetectable alignment."
A possible solution is to take out alignment from the system together. This seems a bit drastic. A good limitation would be to provide for alignments for:
- Very high level clerics, druids or paladins (e.g. levels 15-20)
- Outsiders
- Undead
- Other creatures whose very nature means that they have a strong divine link to an aligned plane.
Thus most humanoids don't have an alignment.
The drawback is that the paladin is nerfed. His smite evil and detect evil abilities are now near useless. His Code of Conduct requires him to avoid evil characters. Now he will need to use his own good judgment in order to weed out those ne'er-do-wells.
My vague thoughts on rebalancing the Paladin without these skills are--
--Bump up his class skills to 4 per level.
--Intimidate, Gather Information, Spot and Listen are class skills.
--Bonuses to Sense Motive checks and/or Spot checks against Forgeries and/or Disguises.
Other classes are complicated somewhat by this change, but these changes are not so significant, or so it seems to me (as a person relatively new to D&D, in that I haven't played too many games). The alignment restrictions placed on bards and barbarians seem off-colour to me. They restrict player choices and don't add much to the flavour of either class. I'd take them out of normal games regardless. Monks can, if they wish, have special codes of conduct related to abiding by the law (or whatever suits their monastery, I suppose).
Another suggestion made by someone on the Dragon Avenue forums on this same topic is to allow Protection from Evil/Good spells to work based on the circumstances, rather than on alignment per se: by casting Protection from Law, one might gain bonuses against town guards. I don't think it's workable, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to see them.
Lastly, any general criticisms of the efficacy of the "no alignment" house rule, suggestions as to alternative means of balancing the paladin with the rule in place or other comments are welcomed.
I was wondering about this for a possible homebrew campaign I'm a-thinkin' up. The 'detection' spells--specifically Detect Evil/Good etc. If you've got a campaign whose theme is subterfuge and concealment, a first level spell can be your undoing. What's a rogue, fighter, or anyone else without access to "undetectable alignment" to do? A first level paladin can find sift out potential villains at will. Now he may not catch them all. There are Neutral, possibly even a few Good villains out there. But the mechanics and the law of averages still stand--most evil characters, whatever their class, just don't have easy access to "undetectable alignment."
A possible solution is to take out alignment from the system together. This seems a bit drastic. A good limitation would be to provide for alignments for:
- Very high level clerics, druids or paladins (e.g. levels 15-20)
- Outsiders
- Undead
- Other creatures whose very nature means that they have a strong divine link to an aligned plane.
Thus most humanoids don't have an alignment.
The drawback is that the paladin is nerfed. His smite evil and detect evil abilities are now near useless. His Code of Conduct requires him to avoid evil characters. Now he will need to use his own good judgment in order to weed out those ne'er-do-wells.
My vague thoughts on rebalancing the Paladin without these skills are--
--Bump up his class skills to 4 per level.
--Intimidate, Gather Information, Spot and Listen are class skills.
--Bonuses to Sense Motive checks and/or Spot checks against Forgeries and/or Disguises.
Other classes are complicated somewhat by this change, but these changes are not so significant, or so it seems to me (as a person relatively new to D&D, in that I haven't played too many games). The alignment restrictions placed on bards and barbarians seem off-colour to me. They restrict player choices and don't add much to the flavour of either class. I'd take them out of normal games regardless. Monks can, if they wish, have special codes of conduct related to abiding by the law (or whatever suits their monastery, I suppose).
Another suggestion made by someone on the Dragon Avenue forums on this same topic is to allow Protection from Evil/Good spells to work based on the circumstances, rather than on alignment per se: by casting Protection from Law, one might gain bonuses against town guards. I don't think it's workable, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to see them.
Lastly, any general criticisms of the efficacy of the "no alignment" house rule, suggestions as to alternative means of balancing the paladin with the rule in place or other comments are welcomed.