Would would be the most interesting "alignment parabola" to play?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Basically, I was thinking about different character hooks, and thought about making a character that shifts along the alignment chart as if following a parabola.

This can be done in 8 ways.

1) Start lawful good, follow a curve through lawful neutral, hit an apex at neutral evil, and then follow the curve back through chaotic neutral and finally chaotic good.

2) Start lawful evil, curve through neutral evil, apex chaotic neutral, curve back through neutral good, end at lawful good.

3) start chaotic evil, go through chaotic neutral, apex at neutral good, back through lawful neutral, and end at lawful evil.

4) start chaotic good, go through neutral good, apex at lawful neutral, back through neutral evil, and end at chaotic evil.

5-8) the reverse path of 1-4.

Basically, what kind of character growth concepts can you guys think of that follow one of these paths? What kind of realistic events and thought processes can you use to justify these kind of major character changes?


All seem interesting. HOwever, in my opinion:
-Most pathfinder narratives seem to portray PCs as the heroes, so redemption (from evil to good) seems more fitting to the stories that tend to be told (but this is highly table-dependant).
-Vertical development (on the good-evil axis) seems more reasonable, as I see no reason while you need to be evil while on your way from CG to LG (z.B.), while being chaotic as you go from LE to LG seems more reasonable.
-Talk to your GM. What kind of play does he prefer? What alignments is he most confortable with his players playing? What kind of story does hie have in mind for this campaign? All of this will certainly help.

Then again... while it's certainly OK to plan your character development, so it isn't too abrupt and it allows you to plant seeds for the change in your backstory, I think what you have in mind could turn out too structured. You could find yourself in a place where you're like "regarless of what happens with the plot, I'll start playing fast and loose with the laws, and in 3 levels I'll begin to saw maythem without concern for personal gain". Think ahead, have an idea in mind for your character, but allow yourself to react to what happens in the story.


Potentially Jamie Lannister may have gone through one of these things. Game of thrones spoilers here:

He may have been a cool guy back in the day, he did kill the mad king and all. Perhaps chaotic good at that time? Then later he's more protective of his family, attempts to kill Bran to save them. Chaotic neutral. Later, he kills a dude in the Stark camp rather brutally for his own skin's sake. Neutral/Chaotic evil. Later on he loses his hand, feels regret for his actions, and learns valuable lessons from his interractions with Briene. Lawful Neutral. As far as I can see right now he's trying to shoot for Lawful Good.

He's the only character I can really think of right now that made this kind of transition. And maybe Darth Vader also.


Sounds like a bad idea for an actual campaign. The alignments themselves have a ton of wiggle room inside each one - trying to show a distinct difference between each is going to lead to silly actions IMO.


My best 'parabola' was a fighter. He started as LN, was forcibly 'enlightened' to Neutral by a book on the 'wisdom of balance', and finally atoned back to LN when I got sick of how terrible this 'balance' was, and realized it was up to him to bring order to the world.

Shadow Lodge

Efreeti wrote:
-Vertical development (on the good-evil axis) seems more reasonable, as I see no reason while you need to be evil while on your way from CG to LG (z.B.), while being chaotic as you go from LE to LG seems more reasonable.

As Domestichauscat pointed out, Fall-Redemption arcs exist. I'm not sure about Redemption-Fall but I could see that happen if the character was redeemed because of a particular thing and that thing was then harmed or imperiled - or it they were redeemed by a person who then betrayed them.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

how bout you just don't use the alignment system and come up with an actual hook?

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