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Ok, I nearly always play Chaotic Good.
Its my alignment of choice!
However, its time for a change and I have been looking at playing something on the other side of the fence... Lawful Neutral!
Now, I have read the PHB and Pathfinder, but outside imagining Judge Judy, I was hoping to pick all your brains for some ideas!
Is anyone playing Lawful Neutral at the moment? Has anyone ever explored this alignment in any more detail?
Has anyone ever played Lawful Neutral and a cleric of Wee Jas?
Anyone?
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Ok, I nearly always play Chaotic Good.
Its my alignment of choice!
However, its time for a change and I have been looking at playing something on the other side of the fence... Lawful Neutral!
Now, I have read the PHB and Pathfinder, but outside imagining Judge Judy, I was hoping to pick all your brains for some ideas!
Is anyone playing Lawful Neutral at the moment? Has anyone ever explored this alignment in any more detail?
Has anyone ever played Lawful Neutral and a cleric of Wee Jas?
Anyone?
There are two schools of thought on this, at a minimum.
Lawful=organized, methodical, adhering to a standard of behavior that may or may not agree with the actual law. You see this more often with LE bounty hunters or mercenaries.
Lawful=the law is the law is the law. If you're staying in a town where the law requires the sacrifice of a newborn child every day at 6:30p, you see no issues with signing up to work as the local newborn collector, unless you're Lawful Good, in which the good will override the lawful.
You'll probably find that playing Lawful Neutral comes somewhere between the two. You'll shrug at anything that your paladin friends decry as "evil" or "righteous" because you don't really care. If you catch the rogue stealing, you'll only warn him once before breaking his fingers next time. Think Lawful Good, but with less heroism and less of a sense of humor.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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LN can also be the patron alignment of a supremely anal retentive individual.
I played one once, it was a ton of fun.
He basically had OCD, was obsessed with order and the exact wording of the law, etc. etc.
He made lists for everything and expected they be followed to the word.
That's an extreme example, but it was fun for a few games.
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Some interpretations of the Punisher or Batman could be seen as Lawful Neutral (others would disagree, as both characters break the law quite often, in pursuit of 'justice').
The Lawful character can be problematic only in the sense that laws are not objective. Your Lawful character may have grown up in a nice, progressive 'good' kingdom, and then find himself adventuring in a kingdom that is quite lawful, but allows slavery and has open churches to evil gods, where human sacrifice, under specific conditions, is allowed. Does he respect those laws, even if they are in violation of his own countries laws? A thorny issue for him, and if he doesn't recognize the rulers of that country as legitimate, he may decide that their laws are false and that he doesn't have to follow them (although he's unlikely to become a crazy street-preacher about it, being more likely to seek out a legitimate heir and join an underground resistance to bring 'the law' back to this land that he considers 'lawless,' no matter how *organized* it is in it's illegitimate state of affairs).
I've played a couple of Clerics of Wee Jas, always LN, since I'm not a fan of LE, and I generally avoided breaking *any* laws. When asked by other party members if I *really* respected the laws of the Pomarj or of Iuz, I responded, "No, but if I get killed for breaking their laws, I can't do anything to see that they are replaced by more *just* laws."
My Clerics of Wee Jas tend to choose Death and Magic as their Domains, so I didn't feel as 'gung-ho' over the Law thing as I would have had I also chosen the Law Domain, since I imagine that someone who chooses an alignment Domain is going to go to even greater extremes in observance of that alignment. They still were lawful, respecting first the laws of their church, second the laws of their home country, and third the laws of whatever land they happened to be a 'guest' of at the time.
Even if they didn't care for the laws in question, they would at least pay them lip service, and say things like, "The law is what separates us from the beasts. When a person recognizes that they have the *power* to do something, but recognizes that they may not have the *right* to do that thing, then the person is more than a wild animal, more than a savage ogre or a ravening ghoul, both slaves to their baser natures. It is in the restraint of our impulses and desires, through the observance of rules and laws, that we prove our worth, and prove our mastery of ourselves. Only those who have mastered themselves, who are capable of following the dictates of order and reason, are worthy to master others. The greatest militaries, the most successful crafting guilds and the most powerful churches are built on these precepts, as one must learn to follow and obey, before one understands what it means to lead and command."
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Make your own laws and stick by them.
By this I mean make your own personal guidelines, your own set of rules that governs your behaviour. Then follow them 100%. Your morals are ambiguous, so you can look upon 'good' and 'evil' acts with the same indifference.
One of your own rules could be to follow the rules of others, but that doesn't have to be the case.
Think about it like a monk (character class). A monk follows the rules of their monastery, nothing more, nothing less.
Cheers!
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Some interpretations of the Punisher or Batman could be seen as Lawful Neutral (others would disagree, as both characters break the law quite often, in pursuit of 'justice').
Punisher i think is LN but he dis regard ANY law that gets between him and the villains hehunts, but his discipline is one of the strongest, Batman can't be interpreted in this alignments... he istoodisciplined and has his own code (this might make him LN) but he also works in the edge of law for the welfare of everyone... he will not pump someone who steals food, buthe will pummel someonewho steals money for drug (more NG for me)
best example... Judge Dread... "I AM THE LAW!" at least atthe beguinning of the movie... he sees no white or gray or balck, just the "letter of the law"
we had a dwarven cleric LN, he will not pursue anything without, butonce having it he will go toextremes to deliver "justice" ohh he loved St Cutberth and pummel peoples head... his god asked for divine punishment and he obligued
any way, i like Set's depiction of law, its pretty good exposed.
Following laws is one way how to express a lawful alignment. But obeying the rules or not does not make a character lawful or chaotic.
I'd say organized crime, at least as an organization, is almost always lawful, and probably most high ranking members as well. And braking laws is their business.
I once plaid a fighter in a duo of Kelemvor temple knights, and we played them to be very rigid when it comes to rank and authority. Unless they belive their supperiors to be betrayers to their ideals, they accepted almost any order, as long as it was not outrightly evil. Also, they rarely debated with people not sharing their oppinions. If they had authority regarding the matter at hand, a descision was made and it was expected that everyone accepts it.
They were very organized and professional, but a bit burocratic when it came to questions if someone was allowed to do something or not. Though they would not let offenders go out of pitty or speak against their supperiors if they thought they might be a bit too harsh, they stood firmly for the protection of innocent people and would not tollerate undeserved punishments.
Their hearts were not easy to move, but they did have one. ;)
A samurai is also an archetype of LN.
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Another interesting way to define law and chaos is civilized vs. uncivilized.
This is not to say that uncivilized peoples do not have laws. It is more, if you are from a civilized background - you are more likely to follow urban laws and follow urban cultural norms and adhere to societal striations. Whereas, those from outside that culture are not looking to do that. The tribal warrior is as likely to speak with any man from the city and give him the respect due based on their abilities as opposed to their station. King or pauper, both are men whom are equal, only those within the cultural norms of the society know exactly how each should be treated.
Assistant DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterson) from Law & Order, seasons 5 - 16.
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I would play a Lawful Neutral character as someone who works toward the greater good (as defined either by himself or a society in which he wholeheartedly places his trust), and who is willing to do absolutely anything to attain that greater good.
I think The Operative is a great example of this, as is Jack Bauer.
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Contributor
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"The law is what separates us from the beasts. When a person recognizes that they have the *power* to do something, but recognizes that they may not have the *right* to do that thing, then the person is more than a wild animal, more than a savage ogre or a ravening ghoul, both slaves to their baser natures. It is in the restraint of our impulses and desires, through the observance of rules and laws, that we prove our worth, and prove our mastery of ourselves. Only those who have mastered themselves, who are capable of following the dictates of order and reason, are worthy to master others. The greatest militaries, the most successful crafting guilds and the most powerful churches are built on these precepts, as one must learn to follow and obey, before one understands what it means to lead and command."
Set, this is really well-written and I love it. Bravo! May I use this for an NPC or something in one of my campaigns?
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Set, this is really well-written and I love it. Bravo! May I use this for an NPC or something in one of my campaigns?
Absolutely. Once it leaves my skull, I no longer own it. Glad ya like it and thanks for the bravo!
I did a really great speech once from a priestess of Loviatar that had a good-aligned party nodding and saying, 'Yanno, she makes more sense than *my* god...' Sadly, I didn't write it down, so it's lost.
Make your own laws and stick by them.
By this I mean make your own personal guidelines, your own set of rules that governs your behaviour. Then follow them 100%. Your morals are ambiguous, so you can look upon 'good' and 'evil' acts with the same indifference.
I "second" this idea. I'm playing a LN dwarven fighter that was initially based on John Wayne's character in "The Shootist".
Wayne's character in that movie is an aged gunfighter with the motto: "I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." Those that break this code quickly get shot. He doesn't shoot anyone in the back though.
Set down on paper a set of personal rules, a code of honor, if you will. Then NEVER violate it. What is allowed in that code might be viewed as good or evil; doesn't matter your character is Neutral. The only "wrong" is breaking that code.