|
So,... one can change his or her PC's Alignment at the end of a particular Scenario, um, arbitrarily, right?
So after finishing my fourth Scenario, for example, I can inform the DM (when he's signing my Cert.) that I'm going from CG to NG and, uh what, he writes that down or doesn't really need to or what?...
Thanks.
|
I'd write it down so its documented.
Keep in mind if the alignment change makes it impossible to get certain deity and/or alignment specific abilities, you'll need to also purchase an atonement.
I.e. you are a NG cleric of Pharasma and want to become CG and worship cayden instead.
This is not spelled out in the guide, so expect table variation.
Also if you get an alignment change by doing an evil act, becoming evil, or accepting certain items/boons on chronicles, you can't Just change it back on a lark. You need an atonement.
|
I'd write it down so its documented.
Keep in mind if the alignment change makes it impossible to get certain deity and/or alignment specific abilities, you'll need to also purchase an atonement.
I.e. you are a NG cleric of Pharasma and want to become CG and worship cayden instead.
What happens to your deity-specific abilities (like domains) if you do this? Do you pick new domains and domain powers?
|
|
Talon, can we find that out for certain?!
.
.
.
In my case, the background for my PC is that he wants desperately to one day *be* a Paladin of Iomedae.
He feels the call.
He has the zeal.
He has absolutely no idea why Iomedae doesn't answer his prayers and bless him with Paladinhood.
He's Chaotic Good.
But as I play him, over the levels, I'd like him to gradually develop, grow from the pathetic lame-ass chaotic alignment to neutral good, and eventually Lawful Good -- the BEST alignment in the game, of course. (We all acknowledge the truism that everyone with a Chaotic alignment sucks, right?...)
And one day, I dunno what level but someday, my PC will become LG and start taking levels of Paladin.
(Rules-wise, crunch-wise, he'd only lose his ability to Rage if he has a few levels of Barbarian. Not sure if he'd be a Fighter or a Ranger or a Barbarian before he finally becomes a LG Paladin, but if it's Barabarian, he can't Rage ever again.)
|
|
W E Ray,
I have seen no rules regarding this... so it is one of those grey areas, however it is a change to your character which does have to be documented, as Andrew has pointed out. However if characters can freely change alignments, it removes some of the need for a atonement spell in the first place... thus the dilemma.
|
|
W E Ray,
I have seen no rules regarding this... so it is one of those grey areas, however it is a change to your character which does have to be documented, as Andrew has pointed out. However if characters can freely change alignments, it removes some of the need for a atonement spell in the first place... thus the dilemma.
I would say that the only times atonements are needed are:
1) If you want to return to your previous alignment because the change that happened is because of circumstances forcing a change on you. (i.e. you were turned evil because of evil acts or eating a wafer, you put the wrong cursed item on, or you were shifted one step toward evil for above similar acts and lost your ability to get some class abilities).
2) You are swapping alignments voluntarily, but doing so moves you far enough away from your deity that you can no longer worship that deity. So you need to change your deity to get your class abilities back. How this would affect your domains and what not is a question for a different thread (I don't know if the retrain rules from Ultimate Campaign cover retraining class abilities). If you pay for the very expensive atonement, I don't see why a swap of domains to the new deity's domains (only swapping out any that aren't on both deity's list) wouldn't come with the atonement. But that would be a home game ruling. In PFS, my guess is that your deity is locked after 1st level retrains are not allowed--although if you want to retrain all levels of cleric into cleric with different domains, that would be an option I'd allow in PFS.)
|
My Gunslinger used to have two levels of Paladin (of Sarenrae). After some time she didn't feel like she was capable of living up to the lawful code that was required, so I retrained those two levels into Gunslinger, and for flavor's sake switched her alignment to NG.
My Fighter, who devoutly worshiped Abadar, used to be LN. The problem, though, was that he's also Andoran. After breaking several laws in order to free slaves (on more than one occasion), I felt he was in his right to switch to True Neutral. After that I even took a couple levels of Barbarian to seal the deal.
I didn't feel that either of those required any official attention, so I just broke out the eraser and went to town.
My Magus, however, who worships Rovagug, has done a couple evil acts in his career. He even owns a few evil items, and travels with a CE Quasit as his Familiar. He's had to pay for a couple Atonement spells over the last year, but only because the Society threatened to kick him out if he didn't.
If it doesn't have any mechanical affect, and you have a decent reason IC to do it, I don't see why you can't. It's certainly not spelled out anywhere, at least.
|
|
Changing Alignments
Alignment is a tool, a convenient shorthand you can use to summarize the general attitude of an NPC, region, religion, organization, monster, or even magic item.
Certain character classes in Chapter 3 list repercussions for those who don’t adhere to a specific alignment, and some spells and magic items have different effects on targets depending on alignment, but beyond that it’s generally not necessary to worry too much about whether someone is behaving differently from his stated alignment. In the end, the Game Master is the one who gets to decide if something’s in accordance with its indicated alignment, based on the descriptions given previously and his own opinion and interpretation—the only thing the GM needs to strive for is to be consistent as to what constitutes the difference between alignments like chaotic neutral and chaotic evil. There’s no hard and fast mechanic by which you can measure alignment— unlike hit points or skill ranks or Armor Class, alignment is solely a label the GM controls.
It’s best to let players play their characters as they want. If a player is roleplaying in a way that you, as the GM, think doesn’t fit his alignment, let him know that he’s acting out of alignment and tell him why—but do so in a friendly manner. If a character wants to change his alignment, let him—in most cases, this should amount to little more than a change of personality, or in some cases, no change at all if the alignment change was more of an adjustment to more accurately summarize how a player, in your opinion, is portraying his character. In some cases, changing alignments can impact a character’s abilities—see the class write-ups in Chapter 3 for details.
An atonement spell may be necessary to repair damage done by alignment changes arising from involuntary sources or momentary lapses in personality.
Players who frequently have their characters change
alignment should in all likelihood be playing chaotic
neutral characters.
|
|
Thanks everyone,
Yeah, I still see it as I saw it in my OP -- I'll arbitrarily decide when I change my Alignment and let the DM know at the end of the Scenario, ask him or her to initial it on my Cert. if he or she really feels it is or is not necessary, and it's done.
Obviously, in some cases a PC rules-set will actually change: a Barbarian becoming Lawful, a Monk becoming non-Lawful, a Divine-build PC moving too far from the deity or Alignment -- but if the Player decides to go that route then there's nothing in the Core (and Society as far as I see) that says he can't.
If a Player wants his Monk to become Chaotic then he gets to arbitrarily say "He's Chaotic" and he's Chaotic -- and he just lost pretty much everything on his character sheet but, hey, it was his choice.
In my case would be a PC, probably all Fighter, who finally switches to Lawful Good and can take levels in Paladin. All I'd have to do is tell the DM that I'm changing Alignments and he or she can decide whether or not to initial that change on my Society Cert. I don't see how (in this case) it would really matter but let the DM decide.
I can see, on the other hand, that if the PC I create has a level or two of Barbarian in addition to the levels of Fighter when I finally decide to become Lawful Good, the DM has more of a reason to initial my Alignment on my Cert. since as of next Scenario my PC can no longer Rage.
