Character Mid-alignment crisis
I'm having an alignment crisis with a character of mine and I was wondering if the community here could help. I'm fairly sure my grasp on the alignment system isn't 100% but I'll try to provide as much as I can. If needed I can try to give more if more information is needed.
-Will gladly accept working along with evils, but won't trust them and kill them if he catches them doing anything evil*
-Believes evil can be done for the benefit of good
-Respects laws but often hates them and will break them without a second thought if he feels it's necessary
-Will perform evil acts to do good
-Despises Lawful Good Characters, viewing them as "too good"
-Can see the difference between good and evil, but only prefers good a little more
-Will generally only help others if it aids him too
-Prefers to follow a persons actions and words rather than alignment
-Generally tries not to harm anyone who he thinks doesn't deserve it, but will harm others if he thinks it's necessary
He is mostly a caster of dark or forbidden arts, but is in this field because he is researching from experience, then attempting to teach others how to protect themselves from said arts.
-Will gladly accept working along with evils, but won't trust them and kill them if he catches them doing anything evil*
-Believes evil can be done for the benefit of good
-Respects laws but often hates them and will break them without a second thought if he feels it's necessary
-Will perform evil acts to do good
-Despises Lawful Good Characters, viewing them as "too good"
-Can see the difference between good and evil, but only prefers good a little more
-Will generally only help others if it aids him too
-Prefers to follow a persons actions and words rather than alignment
-Generally tries not to harm anyone who he thinks doesn't deserve it, but will harm others if he thinks it's necessary
He is mostly a caster of dark or forbidden arts, but is in this field because he is researching from experience, then attempting to teach others how to protect themselves from said arts.
1
Comments
The closest you can hope for is True Neutral, leaning towards evil.
The way I see it, on the good/evil scale: good = helping others; evil = not caring if you harm others; neutral = not going out of your way to help but avoiding causing harm.
On the law/chaos scale: this is a bit trickier. People often believe it's just about obeying laws, but I read somewhere that there's more to it than that. Its also about acting with honour, keeping your word, preferring structure and respecting legitimate authority. Too many people treat chaotic as cool (seeing it as "angsty rebel who doesn't care what society thinks") and lawful as stupid, but the idea shouldn't be to make lawful into a flaw. Both can be flaws, and both can have merits.
A chaotic person won't necessarily break a law just for the sake of it, he might still follow the laws simply because to do otherwise will invite punishment that he can do without. Meanwhile, lawful doesn't mean stupid; a lawful person might still break a law if he considers it to belong to a corrupt authority. Also, a chaotic person should not generally be trusted to do anything since he has a reputation for not keeping his word.
So basically, law = being honourable, refusing to lie, cheat, or use underhanded tactics, keeping your word and respecting legitimate authority (within reason), sticking with traditional styles/methods, etc; chaos = doing whatever you feel is necessary (or convenient) even if it involves stabbing somebody in the back, willing to lie and cheat, doing things that are different to the norm, and not caring if people trust you or not, etc.
Almost makes me think I should try to add more information about him. Again, I'm sure my grasp is not 100%, but I thought being evil had more requirements. I did a test on him over the weekend, ( http://www.easydamus.com/alignmenttest.html ), I'm not following this as definitive, but his results where as follows: http://puu.sh/cpufZ.png which matches what my friend thought as he agreed he'd be Chaotic Neutral.
I did play him as a True Neutral on NWN2 and let his actions change his alignment and he bounced all over the place, though he never touched any evil or lawful alignment, he bounced around NG, CG, TN, CN and it never stayed the same for long.
Generalized descriptions of alignment serve as a good guideline for where a character falls in the spectrum, but they shouldn't serve as a straight jacket. If you feel your character concept fits a Chaotic Neutral or True Neutral alignment and you can make that clear to your DM or "role play" it successful in the computer game you're playing, then it's the right alignment.
Originally this character was Chaotic Good as I thought that suited him best. But when I learned more about I realised, as our friendly, wandering, indulgent old man did, I was tripped up on the first hurdle and realised he failed to qualify as any of the good alignments.
He'd do as much evil as he thinks is necessary, but does draw a line between what is "good" and what is "evil". I would imagine that any act was evil enough to shift his alignment into evil he would refuse to do it or find a less evil alternative.