I've got a question regarding the alignment of a future character.
(He'll be a Tiefling(infernal) Wizard, but that's largely unimportant)
I'm planning his personality as following:
- He doesn't concern himself with charity or general do-good-for-the-sake-of-good, if he can't benefit from it himself. (so he isn't good)
- But he also isn't ruthlessly trying to maximize his own power on the expense of everyone else. (so probably also not evil)
No problems till now, he is probably neutral on the good-evil scale.
- He only makes promises he can keep and always keeps those. The only reasons not to keep a promise, would be certain (or near certain) death, or because it's out of his power. (that would probably make him lawful)
- But he doesn't respect traditions in any way, except if there's a good reason he sees (e.g. tradition: putting a sheep a week in front of the dragon's lair, so he wouldn't come out and destroy the village). That's because most tradition he encountered shunned him from society. (This contradicts the lawful alignment somewhat)
- He usually keeps to the law, meaning, he pays his taxes and wouldn't steal, murder, deal with prohibited substances, but also uses the law to further his goals. (that would probably also make him lawful)
So my best guess for his alignment would be lawful neutral, but I'm not sure if he can be lawful, with this "tradition is crap"-attitude.
What do you think?
Every character will break the mold of tha alignment archetypes in one way or the other.
For me, both N (drifting towards LN) and LN (drifting towards N) would seem valid alignment choices.
However, 'usually' keeping to the law (as in, avoiding unecessary and counterproductive hassle) is not the same as accepting the law as your moral code... so I'd stick with N (drifting towards LN); your mileage may vary.