Is there a reason as to why the Assassin's alignment restriction was removed?

Philhelm

Originally, the Assassin was restricted to Evil or CN alignment; in the EE version, Assassins can be of any alignment except for LG (like a normal Thief). I initially thought that this was a bug, but it has never been "fixed." Was there ever a reason given for this change?

Caradoc

I don't have an answer to your question per se, but this is an intresting topic. Imo being an assasin doesn't mean that you have to be evil or chaotic. For instance its not that difficult to imagine a lawfull neutral assasin.

I mean most assasins aren't intrested in good or evil. For them it is a job and they may have a certain kind of code they follow. Like in the movie Leon. When Leon is teching his trade to Mattilda, he says "never women or children." For him its all about honour and following a code of some sort. For him it is a job and a way of life.

One part of that code is that Leon is not just willing to surrender when police officers surround the building and is no shy of killing cops (although some of them were dirty, but I doubt that those swat guys were all dirty).

Philhelm

Really, it's all about honor when it comes to contracted killing.

I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment, but it is a strange change nonetheless. I do think it would be a hard sell to push for an Assassin to be of good alignment though.

Another thing that bothers me is that Thieves cannot be of LG alignment.

CamDawg

Just to doublecheck, I just broke my my vanilla BG2. Assassins have always had the same alignment restrictions as normal thieves--everything except LG. There was a bug that multi-classed thieves were restricted to non-lawful alignments, but that was fixed a long time ago in everything from Baldurdash through the EEs.

Philhelm

@CamDawg The first character I played in the originally released BG2 was a pure Assassin, and I explicitly remember wrestling over whether I wanted to play LE or CN, and lamenting that I couldn't be LN. I'm pretty certain that there was originally such a restriction to CN, LE, NE, or CE alignment. I don't think that you're making stuff up, but was it something that was eventually changed through a patch, even back in vanilla BG2?

Aerakar

I think Rogue Rebalancing mod added the alignment restrictions back for assassins. Did you used to use that mod (not sure if it works now with SoD and patch 2.0)?

I also recall at one time way, way back when there was an alignment restriction that was removed in a vanilla game patch. But over a decade makes the memory hazy.

Philhelm

I haven't used any mods, but I also haven't played an Assassin in a long time (10+ years). I think that you must be right about it being a vanilla patch. CamDawg probably referenced the newer, patched, single disc instead of the original, six CD set, as I am certain the restriction existed at some point. My mistake was in assuming that the change was made in the EE version.

I still wonder why the change was made.

PartyLikeANinjaStar

I think it very believable for assassins to be good alignment. Being aman assassin doesn't mean you kill anyone you're told to kill. Most adventurers already make a living killing evil people. Why not a good aligned rogue getting paid for it?

Grum

PartyLikeANinjaStar said:

I think it very believable for assassins to be good alignment. Being aman assassin doesn't mean you kill anyone you're told to kill. Most adventurers already make a living killing evil people. Why not a good aligned rogue getting paid for it?

Couldn't help but think this.

"I need to hire the services of a man who knows how to kill and how to keep quiet about it afterwords."

"You need look no further. But I only kill those who deserve the kiss of my blade. Tell me, what has this mark done to deserve this fate?"

"You want to know why? Well, I'm paying you a thousand crowns for his head. Is that not reason enough?"

-Crosses arms-

"Alright, fine. He slept with my wife and bribed my caravan guards to desert, leading to a great loss of goods."

"I don't know. I suppose that does sound pretty bad..."

"Did I mention that I was paying 2,000 gold for his head?"

"He won't outlive the week! He will pay for his crimes!"

Jarrakul

Personally, I find lawful assassins more plausible than chaotic assassins. A contract killer isn't gonna get very far in life if they don't honor their contracts. Obviously that doesn't explain the apparent change in alignment restrictions, but I'm certainly not complaining about the current version.