I think the reason Neutral gets the shaft is because of how hard it is to play a neutral character on any access. Most campaigns are going to expect the PC's do something self-sacrificing, and Neutral characters have a harder time of it than evil characters.
As for Alignment causing a lot of contention, part of that is we're trying to use a 21st-century mind-set to look at what can be, at best, a renascence time period, and at worst something from ancient times.
And before anyone goes and worries about my mental state, murder is right up there with rape in my list of crimes that can't be easily forgiven.
Anyway, back on topic.
I think most of what can be said about the repercussions of casting Infernal Healing on a Paladin has already been said. So what if the person receiving it was a gnome or an Aasimar? Or any other being that is born from nature or descended from the blood of angels?
To be fair, I agree with both Ashiel and Gauss.
And Guass, how did I know the Dev you were going to quote was SKR even before I opened the link?
SKR is a BIT more vocal and and rigid in his interpretations/rulings...so I knew it was going to be an SKR quote. Not that I disagree with his views, but it does put him in the extremist category for that type of thing (especially good vs. evil)
"Killing people/things" is not necessarily "evil". It boils down to the intent behind the action.
a police officer tells a man with a weapon to put it down, he will not, the situation becomes such that the officer must fire his weapon to defend life and limb of either himself or another innocent, the man is killed. This is not evil.
Adventurers rush into a room beat everything down and take all their stuff because they are trying to build a castle and need to "gain loot"..... Evil? Most would say so.
Adventurers were asked to clear the old mines to the north of the goblin menace who have been plaguing the local townsfolk, There are plenty of eye witness accounts of the goblins raiding and killing and stealing, the town is in dire straits due to the problem with the goblins. the Adventurers even meet an advanced group of goblin scouts by an outskirting farm as they witness them stealing a cow, killing a horse and a dog and setting a home on fire.
The adventurers track the goblins back to their lair, defeat them and take their stuff as spoils. Not evil.
Hurting animals or people to see what would happen, to gain power or control, and for sheer amusement, evil.
Punching a bully in the nose and telling him if you see his face around here again, his nose isn't the only thing that is gonna get broke, not evil.
Back to the issue at hand:
The spell.
The recipient can FEEL/SENSE the evil from the spell. It heals 1 HP every 6 seconds. This takes a bit of time, especially if the paladin/cleric we are talking about was unconscious.
This would be like tricking a catholic into going on date with gay man masquerading as a female, or slipping alcohol into a mormons virgin daiquiri. Does it hurt this person physically? No. IS it going to royally tick him off when he finds out and/or emotionally/spiritually be offended? You betcha!
Will it cause this person to lose face in his religion and or lose powers? No. the act wasn't willing (the mormon didn't know there was alcohol in the drink, the catholic didnt know he was on a date with a homosexual transgender person and the Paladin didn't chose or ask to be healed by dark magic)
So in the case of the CN sorcerer who heals his paladin buddy with Infernal healing, by his view he saved a mans life, get over it.
The Paladin sees it differently.
this is a difference of opinion and alignment, these moral issues SHOULD exist in game.
Can the Paladin jump forward and beat the CN sorcerer down for defiling him with the dark magic? No. It wasn't the sorcerers intent to do harm. the Paladin knows this, he just greatly disagrees with the method, and probably will distrust this man for quite some time.
IN my games, casting evil spells IS an evil ACT. I agree with SKR in this.
However, if a caster possessed devil blood for a spell component, 1) how would i know what he's got and 2) my sword might be covered with devil blood....
"HOW did you get that!" isn't a realistic question....
Erm remember room 44a? Yea the floor is covered with it now....mmmk?
I think the reason Neutral gets the shaft is because of how hard it is to play a neutral character on any access. Most campaigns are going to expect the PC's do something self-sacrificing, and Neutral characters have a harder time of it than evil characters.
As for Alignment causing a lot of contention, part of that is we're trying to use a 21st-century mind-set to look at what can be, at best, a renascence time period, and at worst something from ancient times.
And before anyone goes and worries about my mental state, murder is right up there with rape in my list of crimes that can't be easily forgiven.
Anyway, back on topic.
I think most of what can be said about the repercussions of casting Infernal Healing on a Paladin has already been said. So what if the person receiving it was a gnome or an Aasimar? Or any other being that is born from nature or descended from the blood of angels?
Specifically creatures with an aligned subtype may have an alignment that is different from their racial subtype (which is due to their origins not outlook). Unless it specifically hurts creatures of X alignment or X subtype then it would make them appear evil for a while just like anyone else.
For example:
Chaotic Subtype: This subtype is usually applied to outsiders native to the chaotically aligned outer planes. Most creatures that have this subtype also have chaotic alignments; however, if their alignments change they still retain the subtype. Any effect that depends on alignment affects a creature with this subtype as if the creature had a chaotic alignment, no matter what its alignment actually is. The creature also suffers effects according to its actual alignment. A creature with the chaotic subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any weapons it wields are chaotically aligned (see Damage Reduction, page 299).
Bolding and italics are mine for drawing attention to certain things here.
If you have an Angel who you cast Infernal healing on it heals them and makes them detect as evil for a bit. If you have an Evil angel and you hit them with unholy blight they suffer damage for being from a good plane of existance, and said angel would also suffer from holy smite for being evil themselves (yeah, you can have Lucifer as a villain if you desire).
If it doesn't say it does, then it doesn't. That's the golden rule of this system (which is why the system is so modular).
I agree Ashiel, Alignment is a major source of contention. :)
- Gauss
Heh, sorry Gauss, I missed your reply. Yeah, it is. It's actually the reason that during one of my online campaigns I dumped alignment entirely for anything not mechanically nailed to it (which is when I realized just how little it actually means to the game). But the funny thing is, I didn't do it due to contention between PCs & GM, but between PCs and PCs. XD