Dorian Lancaster, lost, devastated and wasted

[Sir_Chivalry]

I have a character and a problem.

First the character...

Dorian Lancaster
Ranger 6/ Death Delver 1

He used to be a soldier, fought for many years out in the middle of no where, fighting back goblins, orcs, giants and later fiends. He almost went crazy from the stress, and took up drinking and smoking a pipe to calm his frazzled nerves. Eventually he tried to kill himself by ingesting a vile poison, and was cured and nursed back to health by his platoon's cleric. And it turns out the cleric is a beautiful half-elf named Miranda.

They were married during his sick leave, but inevitably Dorian and Miranda get called back to duty, and unfortunately get separated during a major battle. When the dust clears, Dorian finds Miranda lying dead with an arrow in her back, slumped over a dying comrade, her holy symbol in hand.

Now, ten years later Dorian has gone back to the booze and his pipe. Suddenly one day he is called out to join an adventuring party by an old friend of Miranda’s, and he decides it might be time to leave the tavern before old age sets in. He is now 35.

That's the character, so now the problem.

When I took several alignment quizs, he keeps coming out as Chaotic Evil. And there is a paladin in the party. But it's not Chatic Evil as in demon rending, orcs slaughter Evil, but he seems to be more of an apathy kind of guy. Is there a way to work this out for the paladin's code?

[LibraryOgre]

If he's simply apathetic, go with True Neutral... he doesn't actively hurt people, or go out to break the law, he just does what he does because he doesn't care. Explain your reasoning to the DM.

[Bag_of_Holding]

I'll say Neutral, they go both ways



edit: ninja'd?

[Sir_Chivalry]

edit: ninja'd?

what does ninja'd mean?

[Dhavaer]

what does ninja'd mean?

Someone already posted the same thing.

[Ominous]

what does ninja'd mean?

Someone else has posted the same thing you're going to post between the time you hit the reply button and you finished your post.

Edit - For example, Dhavear just ninja'd me.

[Bag_of_Holding]

what does ninja'd mean?

Ninja'd means when two people posting the same (or basically the same) reply consecutively, and in that case the one whose post is chronologically behind the other person is said to be 'ninja'd'. Or this is my understanding of the term.



Edit: Aaaaarrrrgh! Double Ninja'd!!

[Tallis]

LOL, this should be renamed the ninja thread...

As for the character: the reasons behind his actions are important. I agree with the others, his reasons are neutral, so he is neutral. If he starts being actively and unnecessarily cruel, that would be evil. The paladin probably won't like him, but there's no reason he couldn't work with him.

[Falconer]

It means...wait, no. The last thing I need right now is to get ninja'd 3 times! (That wasn't funny, was it? )



Anyway, from your character's history, he hardly seems chaotic evil at all. You should probably either
A) Go True Neutral, 'cause they can lean either way (Gaaaah! Ninjas! The horror!)
B) Take a bunch more horribly time-consuming quizzes, and if it still comes out as CE, just fudge the results
C) Go with your gut. If you feel this guy simply isn't Chaotic Evil, it doesn't matter for crap what the quizzes say. Otherwise D&D would be a video game, which doesn't involve imagination much at all

[Magnor Criol]

I couldn't say for sure, of course, because I don't know what tests you took, but such alignment tests are often more apt to give alignments along the extremes than neutrals, simply because it's easier to class things that way. So that could be why they're coming up CE.

The real determinant is yourself. There's no reason you should be making you alignment decision from what the some bits of online quiz-code tell you. They could be good ideas, but if you don't feel that he's CE, then he's not CE.

And for what it's worth, I'd agree with the others - he's TN if I ever heard of one. He sounds like he's simply given up on other things; he doesn't wish malice on others, but he won't strive for good much, either. He's TN, with a good chance of changing over the course of the campaign, probably, as various actions might stir in him his old passions and emotions.

[Learnedguy]

I've always been in the opinion that unless you're actively being evil, the paladin should just shut up and keep it to himself

Of course, you'll probably have to endure many morality speeches

[Sir_Chivalry]

It's not that I don't want him to be chaotic evil, it's that it causes problems for the paladin and my DM (Who is the only player to ever play an evil character in my game). I like the idea of challenging myself with playing an evil character , but I'd need to be sure he's evil, and I can’t assume that.

It would probably be better to play him true neutral

Oh, wait, my DM said that I don't have to write my alignment on my sheet! Not the best of ideas, but hey, I can be whatever.

Still should probably be true neutral

[Zenos]

It's not that I don't want him to be chaotic evil, it's that it causes problems for the paladin and my DM (Who is the only player to ever play an evil character in my game). I like the idea of challenging myself with playing an evil character , but I'd need to be sure he's evil, and I can’t assume that.

It would probably be better to play him true neutral

Oh, wait, my DM said that I don't have to write my alignment on my sheet! Not the best of ideas, but hey, I can be whatever.

Still should probably be true neutral

Neutral Evil and good at hiding it? Maybe the paladin puts up with having your character in the team to try to change your ways?

[Demented]

Alignment is about actions, not about your backstory.

Nothing in your backstory tells anything about what the character does, besides suicide, so he could very well be any alignment. If you're all about apathy, then he's definitely neutral.
After all, it's not like the guy's going to go around killing innocents for cheeseburgers, right?

[Sir_Chivalry]

I've decided on CN. I'm just going to avoid the evil.

Thanks guys