Realignment: Lawful Good

     Let's start on the farthest side, the alignment that is quite possibly the most often mocked and misunderstood.

     Lawful Good.

     Commonly referred to as "lawful stupid," this alignment largely gets its reputation because of its association with paladins. The preconceived notion is that LG characters are goody-two-shoes who are incapable of independent thought. They just do whatever they are told (by throne or church or whatever authority figure might be relevant), and never give a second thought to situations where there might be gray-areas. Good is good and evil must be smote, and often a LG character's conceptions of what constitute "evil" are much broader than more "liberal" characters.

     While this is may be a valid way to play this alignment, it is by no means the only way. For starters, consider this: what is more important to you, Law or Good? I find this a good question to ask about any alignment, really. There are two parts, but are they equal? You could even think of it as shades of neutrality in either direction.

Plus, chicks dig all that chilvary crap.

     For example, let’s say Good is paramount. Maybe that means their Lawful side has some flexibility. This type of LG character would be within his/her alignment to, say, break a law that they feel is unjust, even though they still believe in Law. Or maybe they can justify that they will adhere to a “higher law,” rather than the one created by mortals. While this idea initially invokes the idea of religion, the point is that the definition of “law” is flexible. You could follow the law of your homeland (or race, or religion), even if it doesn’t jibe with the law of the kingdom you’re in. The “law of the wild” is even a valid choice; it may not seem like it, but the “natural order” still follows rules—even if that rule is survival of the fittest. Personal vows and commitments count as Law, too. A warrior who lives by a code of honor would not be unlawful in following their code, even if their actions seem to disrupt a normal sense of law. A LG samurai who has vowed to avenge his master’s death would not be doing anything against his alignment if he killed the murderer, even though the argument could be made that killing isn’t “good.” It’s a matter of interpretation. But really, law doesn’t have to involve any kind of official legislation or even a specific personal code of conduct. Remember that Law opposes Chaos. A Lawful person could simply be very rigid and disciplined, living by strict habits and routines. It might not even be a conscious choice; they’re just one of those people who have to do things the same way all the time.

     Which leads into the idea that maybe Law is more important than Good. These types of characters might border on Lawful Neutral because they are less interested in doing what is “good,” and more interested in preserving whatever law matters to them. They want to do good, yes, but that comes second to preserving structure and order. On the other hand, there’s plenty of justification in their mind. If they believe the law they are following is designed to do good, they might be willing to do things that are not ostensibly “good,” feeling that the ends justify the means. Remember, a person’s motivations and perspectives are relevant to their alignment. A misguided person who is trying to do good is still Good, even if it turns out their actions are causing problems in the long run. As another example: a wizard who makes potions for the Duke—and in doing so, raises money to help an ill friend—is doing good, even if it turns out the Duke is going to use those potions to help his army overthrow the rightful king. Of course, if the wizard finds out about this, he would have a moral obligation to stop dealing with the Duke (unless there were other circumstances which made the Duke seem like he’d be a more benevolent ruler than the king). That’s just one scenario that jumped into my head, I’m sure we can all come up with many more. Just because the game uses terms like “good” and “evil” doesn’t mean there’s not complicated areas in between. Keep that in mind when deciding what kind of “good” you want your LG character to be working towards.

     To sum up: there are plenty of gray areas even in a stereotypically two-dimensional alignment like Lawful Good. I think we’ll find with most of these alignments, playing around with just one of the two components of the alignment opens up a lot more possibilities for personality creation and roleplaying potential.