Question about Celestial Sorcerers and Spells with the Evil Descriptor

[shaxberd]

I'm new to Pathfinder Society, and I'm not sure how castings spells with the Evil descriptor works. I know you can cast them if you're Neutral in alignment. Is that still true even if you're a Sorcerer with the Celestial Bloodline?

[Quandary]

It matters mostly for Clerics/Oracles/etc, Divine Casters can't cast Alignment descriptor spells opposed to their own Alignment.
(I honestly don't know why it's not based on your own Alignment AND your Deity's,
by RAW a TN Cleric can cast any Alignment descriptor spell even if their Deity is Good and the spell is Evil, for example.
Casting that spell is an Evil act (in that example) and pushes their Alignment towards being incompatable with their Deity,
but as long as the balance of their Alignment is within 1-step, they can continue casting Evil descriptor spells
that are supposedly being powered by the Good Deity they worship. Weirdness.

Anyways, that doesn't apply to Arcane Casters in any way, they aren't prevented from casting Alignment spells opposed to their own Alignment. And in fact, Celestial BL Sorcerors can be Evil Alignment if they wish to be.

Theoretically casting Evil descriptor spells is an Evil act, and will push your Alignment towards Evil,
but exactly how that balances with other actions, or how many castings it would take to shift to Evil
even if you are doing absolutely nothing else and are otherwise wholly True Neutral is not specified,
meaning it's just up to GM adjudication how your Alignment shifts, with Evil descriptor spells just one aspect,
if you're doing other Good acts (mundane actions, or casting Good descriptor spells) it could very well balance out.

I don't think anybody's Alignment will get shifted to Evil just for casting Evil descriptor spells in PFS.
(where becoming Evil means your character is retired from PFS play)

[lantzkev]

basically only clerics worry about evil/good when they cast.

for everyone else it's how you're using it and it's descriptor.

[Jeff Merola]

Quandary wrote:

It matters mostly for Clerics/Oracles/etc, Divine Casters can't cast Alignment descriptor spells opposed to their own Alignment.

(I honestly don't know why it's not based on your own Alignment AND your Deity's,
by RAW a TN Cleric can cast any Alignment descriptor spell even if their Deity is Good and the spell is Evil, for example.
Casting that spell is an Evil act (in that example) and pushes their Alignment towards being incompatable with their Deity,
but as long as the balance of their Alignment is within 1-step, they can continue casting Evil descriptor spells
that are supposedly being powered by the Good Deity they worship. Weirdness.

That's not true, actually.

Clerics wrote:

A cleric can't cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own or her deity's (if she has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaotic, evil, good, and lawful descriptors in their spell descriptions.

[Nefreet]

HERE is the FAQ on the matter.

FAQ wrote:

Does casting evil spells cause an alignment infraction?

Casting an evil spell is not an alignment infraction in and of itself, as long as it doesn't violate any codes, tenents of faith, or other such issues. Committing an evil act outside of casting the spell, such as using an evil spell to torture an innocent NPC for information or the like is an alignment infraction. For example: using infernal healing to heal party members is not an evil act.

[shaxberd]

Thanks. This is all pretty much what I thought. I just wasn't sure if the Celestial Bloodline Sorcerers weren't somehow held to a higher standard like Clerics.

[Quandary]

Thanks Jeff, I was confused because the Spells section itself only mentions the Cleric's own alignment.
I don't know why they just didn't state the full rule directly rather than paraphrase only half of it.
The relevant sentences in each section are pretty much the same length, so just pasting in the full rule wouldn't be any longer.
Even the second sentence of "Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells" could be folded into the same sentence
just by dropping the "spells of an alignment" and "spell opposed to her moral and ethical beliefs" bit,
and cutting right to the chase by barring "spells with an alignment descriptor opposed to her or her deity's own alignment".