alignment change over time

[Briek]

Is it alright to create a character with say a NG alignment play the goodie for a bit and deliberatly RP them falling into the bad guy routine over a long space of time? i know you arent allowed to do that with paladins but with any other character it should be fine right? just RP the change over time, getting in with the "wrong" sort of people and bang hes evil. Just wanted to know if this is acceptable or not

[Raona]

This is a ticklish question in that doing so allows the character to access all the trainers and such normally reserved to good PCs, then do the same for all those normally reserved to evils. If there is any whiff of a hint that the true motivation for this roleplay is to take advantage of this, and create a superior evil PC, it would be problematic, I can say that with confidence. Short of that, it's above my paygrade to say.

To be more concrete: There has been a problem in the past with players creating NG pcs, waltzing them into Silverymoon, using it like a shake and bake bag, and then turning evil. Cases such as these underscore the potential problem with allowing what you are proposing - some may use it as an OOC tool for maximizing their evil PCs.

[Selveem]

Last I heard, you needed to clear things like this with the staff before allowing such a fluid motion. Your character's actual nature will overpower most influences, unless absolutely dramatic life-altering events occur.

[Gwain]

When it usually happens its through use of CN alignment, the abuse has mostly been someone using that alignment to gain access to areas reserved for goodly rp, then later abandoning that rp when the areas are exhausted. I'm mostly in agreement with Raona, that something like this is a very rare rp, probably costing a lot of kismet, which may not be granted.

[Mariela]

If that's your goal, long term... don't train things that are only availble to good characters. (ie: Don't become a ranger if you are going to go evil. They are just going to take it away from you anyways!)

I have had a few characters who I've applied for Alignment changes due to RP. It's not hard to get. But remember to avoid things that you wouldn't have as your new alignment. I went out of my way for a bit to train in only evil cities, ect. Avoiding some of the good and virtuous cities. Also, keep notes on your RP for your application. It's easier to do it if you have notes. Also, see if you can get people you RP's with opinions on the RP now and again. Permission slips from evil priests and heads of faiths are always good for those sort of things.

But yeah, it shouldn't be common. BUT if you try to do it..... COA! (Cover your Ass!)

[Kelemvor]

This is a personal opinion only and should not be taken as any kind of decision on a possible application.

This sort of thing strikes me as 'wrong' on a number of levels. The most obvious being that planning out an alignment change goes contrary to the way roleplay should work.

Creating a character and allowing them to be affected and perhaps changed by their IC interactions with the world is a good thing. Deliberately steering that character down a fixed path in order to achieve a known end result seems rather unimaginative.

Why not simply create an evil character at the start with that fixed path as their background?

IC actions and consequences shouldn't be forced, otherwsie people will always suspect an ulterior OOC motive even if you dont have one

[Lathander]

I agree with that Death guy.

[Briek]

right goodies stick to being good evils stick to being evil, got it.

[Belose]

And whatever happened to the good aligned priests knowing that good will always overcome evil and therefore try really, really hard to change their ways? And vice-versa for evils.. temptation and all that....seems to me like changing alingments can simply be done through Role Play alone. But you would need witnesses or logs to prove that ongoing RP could LEAD to alignment change......? Does this make any sense or am I just blowing smoke up various orifices?

[Gwain]

And whatever happened to the good aligned priests knowing that good will always overcome evil and therefore try really, really hard to change their ways? And vice-versa for evils.. temptation and all that....seems to me like changing alingments can simply be done through Role Play alone. But you would need witnesses or logs to prove that ongoing RP could LEAD to alignment change......? Does this make any sense or am I just blowing smoke up various orifices?

What needs to be considered here is the ooc versus ic. The idea is to roleplay the alignment you chose as properly as possible which means that you do not do it just to gain redemption. Something like that is rare, and should only happen after a long term roleplay. It should also be clear that the pc is not doing this switch to good or evil AFTER he or she has benefited from areas or trainers restricted to either alignment WITHOUT extensive imm approval. A lot of the time that is what taints this kind of rp or has made me wary of attempting such myself with one or two of my player characters. Often I find its better to just start a new pc with the intent to be good, evil or neither than it is to wreck my pc by changing huge aspects of his or her rp. I think the only time you could ever do this kind of rp is in conjunction of imm support through applications or imm generated rp embraced by the pc in question.