Templates and Alignments

[K-kun the Insane]

I recently created a pathfinder race for a character from an old story of mine but have now rediscovered templates. Adding the Half-Fiend template to a Dayborn Dhampir seems to fit just as well as, if not more than, the new race. However, I don't understand the Alignment portion; is that the only possible Alignment? My character is a good guy, helping people (perhaps grudgingly makes him more chaotic neutral), so when the template says "Alignment: any evil", I wonder if going with a created race is the proper choice.

[CampinCarl9127]

Yes, if you acquire that template you have to be one of the three evil alignments. Wielding the power of fiends is a distinctly evil thing to do. If you go by RAW, you have to be evil to have the half-fiend template.

[K-kun the Insane]

Is it evil to be born? Does being the son of Asmodeus automatically make you evil? Even if it does, can an evil character change alignments?

[kestral287]

Fiends are evil by their innate nature, so generally yes, you would be born Evil (insofar as a newborn can have any alignment at least), being the son of Asmodeus would make you evil, and becoming not evil would be exceptionally rare and hard to pull off. For a regular character it's easy, for a Fiend not so much. I believe all of the Pathfinder books with settings information name one 'redeemed' fiend (there could be more, but I don't know of them).

[K-kun the Insane]

How then, do you suggest making a character based off of someone like Inuyasha?

[kestral287]

K-kun the Insane wrote:

How then, do you suggest making a character based off of someone like Inuyasha?

Inuyasha himself? Abyssal Bloodline Bloodrager. One could play with a Fiend Totem Barbarian instead but the themeatic gains of the Totem are much weaker for Inuyasha in particular.

Bloodlines are honestly among the easiest ways to swing this; either by making a Bloodrager or a Sorcerer or taking the Eldritch Heritage feats.

Tiefling would be the secondary choice; they have no alignment restrictions. Of course, in your plans you would then need to slot in the vampiric aspect and be right back where you started, since the Vampire template also specifies evil.

The third choice would be to simply role-play that way and ignore that there are no mechanics behind it. That tends to be the simplest way to resolve backstory concerns.

[Jeraa]

CampinCarl9127 wrote:

Yes, if you acquire that template you have to be one of the three evil alignments. Wielding the power of fiends is a distinctly evil thing to do. If you go by RAW, you have to be evil to have the half-fiend template.

Not really. The book also says:

Quote:

Alignment, Size, and Type: While a monster's size and type remain constant (unless changed by the application of templates or other unusual modifiers), alignment is far more fluid. The alignments listed for each monster in this book represent the norm for those monsters—they can vary as you require them to in order to serve the needs of your campaign. Only in the case of relatively unintelligent monsters (creatures with an Intelligence of 2 or lower are almost never anything other than neutral) and planar monsters (outsiders with alignments other than those listed are unusual and typically outcasts from their kind) is the listed alignment relatively unchangeable.

The alignment listed doesn't mean you have to absolutely be that alignment, with no choice in the matter. It just means that the vast majority of that particular monster type is of that alignment.

It also says that "outsiders with alignments other than those listed are unusual and typically outcasts from their kind", which implies that there are certain members that have alignments different from others of their kind.

It is entirely possible to have a non-evil half-fiend. It is just that the majority of half-fiends are evil.