Handling a (semi-)subjective alignment world. [3.5]

[DarknessLord]

One of the ideas I'm toying with for a campaign world is a world where alignment is determined by your god, or if you don't fallow a god, your own beliefs. Which is all fine and good but there are a few other things I'm still struggling with.

Does it upset mechanical balance? The fact that virtually every enemy will be evil, because they're your enemy? Or the fact that the Paladin can not only commit atrocities with out falling if they're the will of his deity, but also has "detect enemy" at will now?
And what about the people/deities who endorse evil/neutrality should I label their alignment as what they endorse, or should I label what they endorse as good, because it's better then other outlooks (by their standards)?
Also, when it comes to turning/rebuking and alignment based classes, I'm thinking it relates more to if it's something the deity supports or not...

[Andras]

A few things do get kind of screwed up if you just leave them as-is, like Detect Evil. You'd have to retool quite a bit if you want it to have mechanical effect. For example, how would a Magic Circle Against Evil spell work with things covered in it who have different faiths/creeds? Additionally, there would hardly be any evil characters on either side of the fence.

Also, a lot of spells and abilities that are commonly described as evil would be very unused by anyone (For example, you wouldn't have Smite Good unless you're built for betrayal )

[DarknessLord]

I get what you're saying, one thing I don't think I made clear is that other people's alignment's are subjective as well.
If god A is at war with god B, God A's minions would register B's as evil, and themselves as good, with detect evil...

As for the magic circle, that's a very good point, I think it would make most sense to go with the caster's perception...

And yeah, a lot of evil things would either be re-tooled as either a bad guy, whose thinks his alignment is good, or the very rare "lol, I'm evil"...
In the first case, they'd get smite evil, and their enemies would registrar as evil...
If the deity endorsed the practice they could get some re-tooled thing out of the BoVD and still be "good".

[Morty]

You could make a chart showing who are evil according to every particular religion, but that seems like a lot of work. But no matter if you do this or not, paladin's Detect Evil can be replaced with a bonus to Sense Motive that'd be bigger when dealing with hostile faiths. Turn/Rebuke Undead would be simply whatever's more appropriate to the particular deity.

[DarknessLord]

I like the bonus to sense motive...
And I could add detect evil to their spell list...
Yeah, that'll work...

[valadil]

I like the idea that each religion gets a different opinion on which other religions are evil. Problem is that it does pigeon hole anyone who doesn't worship the same god as you.

What about instead of detect evil, you did detect heathen? It wouldn't say if someone was good or bad, just that their religion is different and let the character draw conclusions from that. It might also help to define some groups in the pantheon. Like, if Pelor, Heironyus, and St. Cuthbert were in the same group. That way a pally of Pelor would see Cuthbertites as allies instead of heathen. Something like this might also work with magic circle/protection etc.

[AKA_Bait]

I like the idea that each religion gets a different opinion on which other religions are evil. Problem is that it does pigeon hole anyone who doesn't worship the same god as you.

What about instead of detect evil, you did detect heathen? It wouldn't say if someone was good or bad, just that their religion is different and let the character draw conclusions from that. It might also help to define some groups in the pantheon. Like, if Pelor, Heironyus, and St. Cuthbert were in the same group. That way a pally of Pelor would see Cuthbertites as allies instead of heathen. Something like this might also work with magic circle/protection etc.

That's a good idea. "Detect Unrighteous" or something similar. You detect the aura of power around a person and if it's source is opposed to the one you are drawing on it pings.