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View Full Version : 3rd Ed What sorts of creatures most typify Law, Chaos, Evil, and Good?



Endarire
2021-03-12, 10:49 PM
Greetings, all!

For a future game, I intend to remove alignments for most creatures but I still want to keep the "alignment bane" weapon properties (Holy, Unholy, Anarchic, Axiomatic) and maybe also alignment-based DR. Assume all first-party and third-party (and second-party if it exists) 3.5 and Pathfinder material is available.

"Evil" Creatures
Demons, Daemons, Devils, Fiendish Creatures, Half-Fiendish Creatures, Giants, and Undead.

"Good" Creatures
Angels, Archons, Celestial creatures, and Half-Celestial Creatures.

"Chaotic" Creatures
Anarchic Creatures, some Celestials, Demons, Fey, and what else?

"Orderly" AKA "Lawful" Creatures
Axiomatic Creatures, some Celestials, Devils, Formians, and what else?.

Kelb_Panthera
2021-03-12, 11:22 PM
The four creatures that represent the archetypal alignments are:

Good: guardinals (I know.)
Evil: yugoloths
Law: modrons
Chaos: slaad

Each is the exemplar type of outsider for being the listed alignment on that axis and neutral on the other. Other outsiders are influenced by the other alignment axis and non-outsiders are influenced by the mortal needs and desires. Only these four are 100% the alignment they represent made manifest with no other influences.

Wrapping your head around any of their alien mindsets is a heck of a trip. With the guardinals and yugoloths you can kind of ape it by just not understanding the opposite end of the spectrum but trying to get into the headspace of creatures for whom collective action is alien (slaad) and for whom there is no such thing as individuality (modrons) is mind-boggling.

Archons, eladrin, demons, and devils (the four extremes) are -way- easier to grok, honestly.

Nifft
2021-03-12, 11:32 PM
"Chaotic" Creatures
Anarchic Creatures, some Celestials, Demons, Fey, and what else? Chaos Beasts
Elves
Bandits
Stronger Fey
Pirates
Insane Wizards
Gnomes


"Orderly" AKA "Lawful" Creatures
Axiomatic Creatures, some Celestials, Devils, Formians, and what else?. Modrons
Dwarves
Knights
Inevitables ("stronger Modrons")
Aristocrats
Differently Insane Wizards
Hobgoblins

Roninblack
2021-03-13, 12:18 AM
I notice no one has mentioned the titan as exemplifying chaos yet; also IMO giants aren't necessarily evil like demons and the like are, but that's more a DM thing I think

Bugbear
2021-03-13, 01:24 AM
Are you familiar with Planescape at all? They do a lot of this work for you:


You have 16 outer planes by alignment and each creature that lives there follows that alignment.

PoeticallyPsyco
2021-03-13, 01:34 AM
Stronger Fey

Actually, Seelie Court fey (or at least the Queen) are supposed to be closer to lawful. There's a lot of variation, naturally, but the further you are from Lawful Neutral the more likely the Seelie Throne is to kill you dead when you try to become Queen, and likewise with the Unseelie Throne and Chaotic Neutral. http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20021213a

Kol Korran
2021-03-13, 07:50 AM
Just out of curiousity- Why have you put Giants under "evil"?

Particle_Man
2021-03-14, 12:43 AM
Oh, if "undead" are under evil, I guess "deathless" could be under good, if you use Book of Exalted Deeds.

Tzardok
2021-03-14, 08:08 AM
Oh, if "undead" are under evil, I guess "deathless" could be under good, if you use Book of Exalted Deeds.

Or Eberron. Eberron has deathless too.

Particle_Man
2021-03-14, 10:21 AM
Also, if "giants" are listed, "Dragons" are also powerful entities, and since almost all of them have a diagonal alignment (LG, CG, LE, CE) will likely fall under one category or another.

You might also include anything with an "alignment aura", such as many clerics, paladins, etc., unless you want to keep this away from classes and more onto creature type.

Quertus
2021-03-14, 12:38 PM
In your typical campaign, the exemplars of _______ are…

Law: modrons (they follow the pattern, period).

Chaos: chaos beasts (they cannot even be bothered to maintain continuity of form).

Evil: humans (really, none of the "evil" beings will ever manage to match the evil that humans do to each other).

Good: none.

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If you go the planescape route, everything becomes a silly caricature, and you're left with humans as exemplars of Evil, and *all* the outsiders as caricatures of various alignments.

-----

If you go by what they're *supposed* to be, I think that others have this covered pretty well. I will add that Mariliths (and maybe other demons) are, in 2e, amazing examples of Chaos, because they will spontaneously turn Good, just to demonstrate how chaotic they are.

Endarire
2021-03-17, 06:31 PM
D&D (and some of its inspirational sources) consider Giants generally evil for various reasons. In 3.5, not all are (see Cloud giants as a counterexample), but enough are.

Particle_Man
2021-03-18, 04:29 PM
D&D (and some of its inspirational sources) consider Giants generally evil for various reasons. In 3.5, not all are (see Cloud giants as a counterexample), but enough are.

But in that case, wouldn't most entries in the monster manual with non-neutral alignments fit that criteria? Most orcs are considered chaotic and evil, most pixies considered good, most medusa considered evil, etc.