*snip*

Now d&d being a game where elder evils, dark gods, and vile spells are in play, I probably wouldn't support the rogue being evil for what ultimately amounts to tomfoolery in the big picture. His actions are somewhat evil perhaps, but probably not enough to have a smite evil work on him.

*snip*
Except... seeing as certain actions, and dogmas are partly what fuels some of these deities their powers, technically, by letting someone commit an act, you're letting them give power to a god's will. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating that Paladins start leading Prohibition era style raids against taverns and speak easies for people supporting a CN god of drinks and partying. But I am saying, that eventually, with repeat offenses, some anvils need to be dropped.

Now, I won't discuss about the dangers of Lawful Stupid, it's been discussed quite often. And before you can say Law and Order, I think many people here know the dangers of having Jack McCoy as your Paladin. ("I can break the law or code of ethics because their evil and I'm on the side of justice" is not the Paladin way). But discussions of Chaotic Stupid actions never ceases to amaze me, at the double standard between a Lawful Stupid character, and a Chaotic Stupid Character.

Far too often, especially with Chaotic Neutral, people try to cite the excuse "Well, it's my alignment, and I'm just acting my alignment" That is excuse number one when it comes to this issue.

Acting your alignment, does NOT make you immune to the reaction of your actions. It's not a "get out of jail free card" for doing morally questionable things. If you do such actions, a player should be ready for the consequences of their actions.

As a player, recently I had an incident in my party, where the party's sole Chaotic Neutral character, went off without warning the party what she was doing, and did something very stupid
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She Polymorphed self into a Black Dragon, move towards a city at top speed, trespass into the home and office of a major leader in the game's world council because she wanted to beat the rest of the party there first when all we were going to do was talk to him peacefully) This put not only her into hot water, but that of an NPC follower who she dragged along with her because the guards thought a dragon was attacking the town. A Good (Lawful or Neutral, I'm not sure) Cleric, in the party, as well as my self, an LG Fighter/Homebrewed knight style PrC with a code of conduct requirement that states I must make sure that reasonable laws are followed and to bring criminals to justice (preferably alive). We managed to argue on her behalf enough to have the sentence reduced to essentially a misdemeanor with a short bit of community service as punishment.

You'd think she'd be happy. And you would be wrong. Instead she basically decides to "play her alignment" and goes "to heck with your authority" teleports out of the court room, taking the NPC follower she already got in trouble before because of her previous actions, with her, even though the NPC got dragged into it by her. Now all of us good types hard work has been wasted, we look like fools and have to explain to the court that we didn't know she was going to do that so that we don't look like accomplices to these latest actions. End Result? Community service get's turned into her and the poor NPC victim (who's a young teenager) of her antics, into exiled from the lands we were in, with arrest on sight orders against them. (Lethal force authorized if they resist). And if arrested, they would spend at least 2 months doing hard time before being booted from the place again.

A few hours game time latter, she teleports back to the group after it leaves the city to finally go handle the quest the Council member we were trying to see in the first place, gave us. She shows up (polymorphed again into yet another creature, and polymorphed the kid as well for disguises. At this point, I finally had enough at these constant breaks of the law, and I had to tell the CN party member that she had to leave, and wait for us to get done our task in the area before she joined us again or that I would arrest her personally and hand her over to the authorities. The majority of the party agreed with me, and thus she went back into her exile to rejoin us after this quest.


And I've also had to drop an anvil, as a DM, on a particularly greedy CN Mercenary recently as well.
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The player, was a half orc mercenary, who was originally hired by a Good oriented Kingdom, for information on local orc tribes and habits that had been attacking caravans of innocents on the roads of the kingdom. Room and board (An unused dorm room of the kingdom's local military academy) was provided to them. However, the Half orc would constantly insult the guards, frightened a young servant of the royal family who had been sent to the dorms to provide a request of the kingdom, and food for the mercenary (All because the girl was following the instructions given to her by the king), when one of the two prince of the kingdom (a Paladin no less) confronted the Mercenary about this, the Half orc blew him off as well. Finally, a critical mission came in, asking the mercenary and the rest of the party to help search and rescue two academy students who had been captured by a local orc tribe, with a reward offered depending on how successful the mission was. The Half Orc mercenary kept demanding to be paid upfront. The kingdom refused, because the reward was A. not ready yet due to more focus being on initiating the search and rescue. B. The reward is based on the mission being completed, and it's total value being how successful it is.

After 10 minutes of trying to assure the character, and player, that they would be paid if the mission was at least completed but that right now the kingdom was focusing on trying to rescue the prisoners was a more pressing concern, the player kept on demanding that their character be paid up front.



This here, is where as a DM, I stop being nice to the player, and go "Fine, you want to be more concerned with your greed, rather than the safety of people who need to be rescued from orc raiders, you'll get your reward up front"

Remember folks, just because your a PC, still means that certain actions cause NPCs to shift from Neutral or friendly, to Unfriendly with poor decisions. Said player was "rewarded" with having their free room and board cancelled, the mission offer to that player was cancelled (meaning reduced reward for that player) and future request of services for the kingdom are no longer needed, with those who have had to deal with the mercenary, now hold zero respect for the mercenary.


In closing, it may be a game, but still from a Role play, and fairness aspect, don't let the more abrasive and annoying actions go unpunished to much.