| MysticLights |
1. Pathfinder: No. In my opinion, good and evil are a measure of how you value yourself compared to others. Chaos and law are a measure of how you value hierarchy and structure, outside yourself.
Real Life: No, but a soft no. This is because of perception, and the fluidity of perception in the real world. Yes, Pathfinder can have this same fluidity, but it is more hard set and written what each axis entails. In real life, it's a judgement call.
2. Pathfinder: Yes, Divine beings being a key point to that effect. However, within normal parameters of a campaign that doesn't have these immensely powerful and absolute creatures, no. When I use to play 2nd edition our table had a saying "a beholder child is still a child" implying that the young don't deserve to die without their own chance.
Real Life: No. No good deed is entirely selfless, life lesson by Joey from Friends, and no bad deed is without some merit or justification. That last point can be contested of course, but that is my personal view.
3. Pathfinder and Real Life: God no. Context is everything when determining how good or evil something is. I think you can make a snap value judgement on whether or not something is good or evil, but the degree is always subjective to context. Minor SPOILERS for the video game The Last of Us, but would you consider the ending to make Joel evil? He halted a possibility for a cure for selfish reason. He saved a young cure. Both those statements, in my opinion are on opposite sides of the good-evil spectrum but encompass the same act.
4. No, but a soft no. You are playing a character, you are not your character and your character is not you. That being said...
5. Yes. I play wish fulfillment characters and thus my characters often are influenced by my own values. Other times getting into the head space of someone you don't understand can be difficult. Plus, what we value as good and evil impacts how we behave as our characters, even if they have a different alignment form us. I think requiring money to preform a service is neutral, while my friends thinks it is lawful. Our characters behave the same way, expect we refer to our alignments as different. It's all about how we interpret in some cases.
6. Pathfinder: No. This is debatable based on what alignment model one subscribes to. I'm of the model that it is a spectrum. If you commit 100 good things, and 1 evil thing you're not unequivocally good or evil. You're on a spectrum. It also depends on the degree of evil/good. Is your good that you donate a dollar every month to the poor and the evil that you kill a family every once and a while? You're more evil than good here.
Real Life: Hard no. See question 2 "no bad deed is without some merit or justification." Whether that be a messed up childhood, or a traumatic event leading to an evil break, there is always a reason. one evil act does not cancel out a million good ones.
7. Depends what you mean by accurate. That it is more than one act? Yes, that matches Real life more so than it being just one act. It puts good and evil on a spectrum instead to tight ropes. In real life, you may be a good person your whole life... Until your child is killed in a car accident your husband blames you far, causing the collapse of your entire life. And then maybe drinking while driving doesn't seem too bad, you run over a cat that you did not notice oh well, owning a black market gun is not bad, throwing a rock at a child seems down right pleasant, stealing from a grocery store feels somewhat good, holding up a bank seems like a good option. None of those acts, except maybe the last one, would make you evil on there own, but they build a pattern of ones willingness to commit evil deeds. That's when one becomes evil. I think, though, the key difference in real life and pathfinder evil is that it is a lot easier to commit what are considered evil acts in Pathfinder, shifting the scale constantly. Whereas in real life, to have an alignment change requires an almost full change of mental thinking.