Quote Originally Posted by JNAProductions View Post
So let me ask you this-you clearly have to think before using poison. Do you have to think before stabbing someone to death? Because again-that's something D&D adventurers do ALL THE FLIPPING TIME.
Well. I'm talking about morals, not gameplay.

But in my experience, the question of whether combat is moral or not very, very rarely comes up in RPG's. In general, the situations are pretty black and white, you have to fight the evil people because they're going to take over the world to the detriment of all the good people (and most of the evil people too).

Outside of gameplay, I'd say that manifold reasons exist to make the application of force necessary. Let's say adventurers are something akin to freelance police. In the real world, police are regularly required to assert some form of force to ensure the security of most people, at the expense of a few. This is entirely in it's case: Moreso, it really doesn't require you to think about it, or to justify it.

Now, you will note that police do not use poison, and that when they use various forms of crowd control - be it an irritant like tear gas, water cannon, or a taser, it's generally quite fiercely debated.

If they use tranq darts, there'd be open rebellion.

Because poison is evil. Even if non-lethal.

Now please note that it's an imaginary example. But it serves to illustrate the line between what we're totally ok with - and what we're not. And that's based entirely on ... intuition. Gut feeling.

Clearly, you might disagree with my conclusions. But I'm quite convinced myself =)

@Glyphstone: The line is often slightly blurry. Is it ok to use police as a reference - or should I have used, say, Adeptus Arbites instead?

Quote Originally Posted by Cazero View Post
So the question "why is poison Evil" is not only legitimate, but also crucial.
Yes, I agree. Only I'd argue that poison is evil because we feel so, intuitively. That's sort of my core point here: There is no deeper logic to it. Homo mensura, the world is as we see and/or make it, and human opinion isn't tied to strict rational underpinnings.