Trying to decide an NPC's alignment.

[Paseo H]

tl;dr - Can a girl who regularly resorts to brutal methods, even against the innocent, ever be good or neutral? I also want to avoid things that are too cliche, like brainwashing and insanity.

This is going to be long and rambling, so hold on.

Enter a new antagonist.

So far, here is what she has done:

1. Upon landing on the game's planet, she robs a bank, and to show that she is serious, she shoots the teller in the arm without warning. Eventually the customers find their nerve and try to restrain her. She fights them off effortlessly, except for one person who gives her some trouble before she manages to get away. She acts calm and apologetic most of the time.

2. Later on, she happens upon a purse snatcher. Her response? She fish-hooks him (he dies from the shock), and returns the purse to the lady he stole it from.

3. I plan to have her respond to an altercation between two guys at an arcade by doing grievous bodily harm to the aggressor.

Here's the thing...I don't want to make her evil.

Chaotic Neutral is becoming a bit overplayed too.

Is it possible for a neutral or even good person to routinely do this sort of thing?

Despite appearances, she is not sadistic or even vicious. In fact, in her heart of hearts she's a very sweet, kind, and tender young woman. It's just that she has a habit of choosing the 'swift and brutal' resolution to a conflict when it presents itself. And this didn't happen until after she underwent super soldier training. However I don't want it to be a typical "she was brainwashed" type thing.

[AstralFire]

That pretty much screams Chaotic Neutral at me.

NOTE: This is not Chaotic Stupid.

[HunterOfJello]

Could be Chaotic Good if the times she acts violently are all for the good of others and not for selfish purposes. She seems to lack restraint, but many or most adventures usually act as if they've never heard of the word.

[Sir Swindle89]

why are you throwing chaotic all over this? you haven't actually given much insight into her law/chaos spectrum.

[Paseo H]

Well, one characteristic I'm deciding on is that she might be blindly loyal to her commanding officer, viewing him as a second father, and deriving strength from 'serving something greater than herself.'

The reason she fish-hooked the purse snatcher was to 'make an example of him.'

I'm still working out why she decided to rob the bank but I think part of it is that her mission might involve causing some chaos.

[Weasel of Doom]

What system? Because d&d has pretty specific guidelines on alignment but you're talking about shooting so they might not fit.

Unfortunately, despite what you want, she sounds pretty evil to me. Possibly neutral but I don't really see good.

Robbing a bank and shooting an innocent person in the arm >> Evil

Fishhooking (something likely to cause very serious and permanent injury at the very least and death in this case) a petty thief is pretty unjustified and probably evil IMO but kinda depends on the circumstances

GBH on an aggressor in an altercation depends on the sort of altercation. Could be anywhere from good to evil depending on motive and how justified it was.

[Sir Swindle89]

Well, one characteristic I'm deciding on is that she might be blindly loyal to her commanding officer, viewing him as a second father, and deriving strength from 'serving something greater than herself.'

The reason she fish-hooked the purse snatcher was to 'make an example of him.'

I'm still working out why she decided to rob the bank but I think part of it is that her mission might involve causing some chaos.

"just following orders" mentality is LN or LE you might be able to get away with LN.

I assume you are useing d20 modern. Since every other modern setting game has a less black/white alignments system.

[Burner28]

tl;dr - Can a girl who regularly resorts to brutal methods, even against the innocent, ever be good or neutral? I also want to avoid things that are too cliche, like brainwashing and insanity.

Nope she can only be evil, though you might consider the act of robbing people to be chaotic though in contrast to some other people.

[true_shinken]

tl;dr - Can a girl who regularly resorts to brutal methods, even against the innocent, ever be good or neutral? I also want to avoid things that are too cliche, like brainwashing and insanity.

No, that's evil.

[Paseo H]

I'm not entirely convinced, but in the absence of a better reply to you guys, I'll operate under the assumption that she's officially evil.

How does one make that stand out in a world full of villains? With loads and loads of characters already, pretty soon all these "blindly loyal special agents" and "whiny evil but for a good cause type extremists" start to run together and become less distinct.

[hamishspence]

The best way to stand out in a world full of villains, is to only prey on the villains, and Not harm the innocent.

Play up Evil Deeds though (against the villains) and you can have a pretty interesting antihero.

If the Powers Of Evil only care about the doing of evil deeds, not about whom the deeds are done to, they might offer such an antihero more power- thus, they end up committing more evil deeds (worshipping fiends or evil gods, casting evil spells)

toward the ends of "Protect The Innocent".

[Sir Swindle89]

I'm not entirely convinced, but in the absence of a better reply to you guys, I'll operate under the assumption that she's officially evil.

How does one make that stand out in a world full of villains? With loads and loads of characters already, pretty soon all these "blindly loyal special agents" and "whiny evil but for a good cause type extremists" start to run together and become less distinct.

From my count it's really only 3v4 or 3v3 on wether she's evil or neutral. "evil when you need to be" is one of the possible interpretations of neutral.

[hamishspence]

"minor evil for the sake of others" is more Neutral's thing.

Evil for personal gain though (robbery with violence) is closer to Evil.

[Burner28]

"just following orders" mentality is LN or LE you might be able to get away with LN.

I assume you are useing d20 modern. Since every other modern setting game has a less black/white alignments system.

But you won't be able to get away with LN if said order involves doing blatanly evil acts towards the innocents, such as kidnapping or mugging.

[Paseo H]

Well...

She would reserve her most brutality for people who are actually doing something wrong (like the thief or the aggressor at the arcade).

In the case of the bank robbery, she shot the person in the arm and was genuinely apologetic about it, saying that it was to show that she was serious. And when the people tried to restrain her, she didn't do more than needed to fight them off (mainly they were 1 hd civilians).

I'm still working out why she was robbing the place though. Either she didn't need the money and it was just part of some larger ploy, or she did need the money but was only going to take from those who could afford to lose it.

And yes, I know that non fatal shots are a discredited trope, and that a person could still die from shock just from being shot in the arm or leg. I'm treating it as an acceptable break from reality.

[Burner28]

still, she shot said innocent person, which definetly qualifies as an evil act. said NPC as you noted showed willingness to be brutal even towards the innocent, so... still Evil

[hamishspence]

The line between "justified Paying Evil Unto Evil" which is a common trait of CN and CG characters,

and "excessive Paying Evil Unto Evil" which is a trait of certain more sinister antiheroes (Dexter from Darkly Dreaming Dexter springs to mind) can be a pretty blurry one.

[Burner28]

okay the thing to separate your character from the other evil people is to actually have her get some positive results from her evil acts. Feeling some actual remorse also works and you should probably have her not thinking that her actions are justified, though she may think that her actions are necessary( thanks for pointing out the mistake, OP)

[Paseo H]

EDIT: Okay.

Well, not quite sure how she could justify "fish-hooking a purse snatcher" or "breaking the wrists of a tough guy at the arcade" as 'wrong but neccesary,' except perhaps as a deterrent to others.

[hamishspence]

Affably Evil is when the villain is capable of extreme niceness, alongside also being ruthless enough to do quite severe Evil acts:

Affably Evil

[Paseo H]

Yeah I'm reading it over again. Honestly I'm finding even that overplayed now, but I guess it does fit. Basically, it's what happens when you indoctrinate a sweet young woman into a brutal "don't be afraid to commit neccesary evils" mentality.

[Paseo H]

So, any other ideas on how to make your characters more unique?

[Callista]

Hey, evil characters don't have to kick puppies. They can be quite likeable. This sounds like one of those cases--when it's expedient to hurt people, she hurts people, but she doesn't go out of her way to do it and she doesn't treat people like crap if she doesn't get anything out of it. She's not strongly evil, but you won't go wrong putting her down as CE, with true neutral tendencies.