Chuffy Lickwound

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Organized Play Member. 2 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Organized Play characters.


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Grand Lodge

At risk of going over something that was already discussed, I read through 3 pages before giving up on reading the rest as there's a lot to read.

Someone brought up the question of, would a Necromancer that casts evil spells be considered evil?
The example given questioned WHY he was summoning the undead. If a necromancer uses evil spells to protect and do good, why is he taking the hit to Evil? In the universe this makes sense, the source of necromancy is indeed Evil as stated, but limiting characters in such a way is actually a pretty foreign concept in videogames and especially the successful MMOs currently on the market. You see this in WoW constantly for instance, allowing players to play with more mechanics is more interesting than tethering these mechanics to a certain style of play, which is why they started to give more classes and specs abilities that were once exclusive to their counterparts.

The question then fairly goes on to what would work mechanically? This IS a computer based videogame, measurements are needed if the system is going to be automated. Well, I'd suggest, as heavy-handed and blunt it may be, to allow an in-game mechanic that a player chooses which represents their ethical reasons. Perhaps a character can choose to carry a holy symbol on their outer appearance, their choice of deity would be a clear indication of their intentions and reasons for acting in certain ways. (I recognize the major problem with this, I'll hopefully be able to address this in a moment)

Or, let's be a little more mortal about it, a character could pledge themselves to an in-game association or belief system. These associations don't necessarily need to be present and powerful and reflect in game, but similar to how Cavaliers have orders, a character can pledge themselves to an association which strives to do good despite their methods.

What would this ultimately do? My idea would be that these systems buffer the smaller alignment changes (such as small deeds or some evil/good spells) and reduce the effect they have on a character's real alignment. A character that pledges themselves to Good, yet casts necromantic spells, will still take steps to becoming evil, but with moderation he can slow or cease the progress while still playing as a necromancer.

Now, this does basically spit in the face of how alignment is measured even when not seen, the divine audience. Obviously a Good deity will note that using evil magic is not Good. Not going to sugar coat it, this will require quite a bit of lore-bending or lore creation to get around, or at least it will if you're going to bring the gods into it at all. Lore-bending and retcons are bad, especially if you're trying to make a world immersive and last I checked that's the goal of a sandbox MMO driven by players. But since we've already tweaked how death works, as all players are marked by Pharasma you could create reasons for why intentions are more important than the opinion of the divine audience.

Now, I would like to talk about this more, bring up other examples and the like, but I'm rambling as it is. So the:

TLDR: Evil/Good Traits and actions COULD be negated by player intention as shown through their choice of in-game mechanics, such as declaring why they are doing something by wearing a certain item or pledging to a group that holds a set of rules and restrictions upon them. Alternatively, as PFO characters are already abnormal from normal characters in Golarion, lore could be expanded upon that allows them to change their allignment based on their intentions and choices rather than their means and methods such as Evil/Good magic.

I'll be back to tweak this and read responses as I'd gladly read any, but I have to wake up so bright and early it isn't bright, just early.

Grand Lodge

My only "concern" about certain races being unavailable at the onset would be with name reservations. Let's say you want to reserve a name for a Half-Orc or Halfing, do you have to make a placeholder with a race that is available? Or is the name you chosen simply reserved on your account until you choose to use it?
Other then that, my only hope would be that all races are available at the point where character progression is more solid and starts to matter. I'd hate falling behind other crowdforgers because I wanted to play a race that wasn't initially available