Law and Chaos

[Jeff the Green]

I would hesitate to say Chaos is inherently whimsical. It can be, of course, but that's not the defining feature. The defining feature is a combination of whim and pragmatism: they do what works to achieve what they want, and are unafraid to change their plans in a pivot so tight it leaves a nickle and four pennies when performed on a dime, if needs be. Lawful people will adhere to agreements and rules even to their personal detriment, or the detriment of their goals, on the principle that their chance will come. Chaotic people will not; if they abandon a goal or personal benefit, it is because they have something that, in the moment, they want more. Lawful people perform a check against their code and any rules or agreements into which they've entered. Chaotic people perform a cost-benefit analysis.

That isn't to say cost-benefit analysis is exclusive to Chaos; far from it. Lawful people tend to do it long ahead of time and stick with it, however, even if the factors have changed. There is a time and place to change one's mind, and the heat of the moment usually isn't it, for Lawful types.

This makes them reliable in ways Chaotics are not. But it also makes them vulnerable in ways Chaotics are not. It's a trade-off.

That's just a function of mortals being incapable of the purity of alignment an exemplar shows. The Paladin strives for the perfection of the Celestial Hebdomad, but will never achieve it. The chaotic creature follows their whims, but the process that produces their whims has a measure of order to it.

A chaotic good ranger leading a band of outlaws resistance movement isn't going to have the whim to pack up and leave or betray his fellows or become a pacifist, but he might be seized by the urge to participate in the sheriff's archery contest or sneak into the evil prince's castle just to see his beloved. A Lawful Good paladin leading the same group might have these urges once in a while (since, again, he's not an exemplar), but he wouldn't act on them.