What is the "best" alignment?

[satorian]

Satcharna, I think you might not be kidding. That worries me...

[kellbyb]

Obviously the best alignment is neutral hungry. Though chaotic angry is a close runner-up, as is sarcastic good.

[Coidzor]

Batman Alignment. All of the benefits and none of the drawbacks of every alignment simultaneously.

Best of all, cause all of the alignment arguments ever.

[Sir Garanok]

The one that best fits your true personality or the one you would like to be.

[Gracht Grabmaw]

Neutral good is probably the easiest to play, but lawful evil is by far the most fun.

[Bud the CHUD]

It depends on how you play. Some people say TN is for chumps but at the same time you can justify saving the farmer's daughter and then extorting him if you really wanted to. Or helping a slaver get back his best hoe and then stabbing him in the face cause he has more stuff than you.

I have been NE or TN lately because no one wants to take the reigns on the idea that a plan can be accomplished through less than reputable means so I get to stroll through the red tape.

[Fumble Jack]

The alignment that conquers your enemies, sees them driven before you and let's you hear the lamentation of their women.

Sorry had to. In all seriousness for me it's chaotic good. I always liked the good hearted rebel, granted I've played the full gamut alignments in different games but I always come back to Chaotic Good.

[pwykersotz]

The best alignment is the one where my car stops pulling to the left.

The best alignment is "Center".

The best alignment is Chaotic Purple.

The best alignment is with the Horde.

The best alignment is a dish served cold.

The best alignment is AMERICA.

[VoxRationis]

It depends on how you play. Some people say TN is for chumps but at the same time you can justify saving the farmer's daughter and then extorting him if you really wanted to. Or helping a slaver get back his best hoe and then stabbing him in the face cause he has more stuff than you.

I have been NE or TN lately because no one wants to take the reigns on the idea that a plan can be accomplished through less than reputable means so I get to stroll through the red tape.

That sounds like somewhere in the NE or CE part of the pool, pal. CN at best. True Neutral is preferring good but not sticking to it out of principle, not doing good and evil deeds in equal measure.

[Sylthia]

I had a friend who wrote Chaotic Bad on his character sheet.

I guess it's not quite Evil, but limits its unsavory activities to poor tipping and parking cars in a manner that takes up more than one space.

[Coidzor]

The best alignment is AMERICA.

I finally understood what Colbert was trying to tell us with his words to us so long ago... "I Am America (And So Can You!)"

[Necroticplague]

I.

Although Lawful Good also gets you four free wishes, which is two more than any Evil alignment gets. Hmmm.

Actually, BOVD has rules for sacrifices. With a good enough k: religion check or some factor-stacking you can get as many wishes as you want.sure, you can only directly get a wish once, but you can repeat Lesser Wish, or Greater Planar Ally demons that can use Wish. And you can bootstrap he proceeds by using some lesser rewards to boost your check for the big ones.

[pwykersotz]

I finally understood what Colbert was trying to tell us with his words to us so long ago... "I Am America (And So Can You!)"

[Thurbane]

Anyone remember back in 1E (and maybe even into 2E) when monsters (and presumably, players) sometimes had alignments like Lawful Neutral (with Evil tendencies)? Oh, such fun times!

[TheMonocleRogue]

I'd have to say Lawful Good. Be an optimist prime, not a negatron.

[enderlord99]

The "ideal" alignment, in my mind, is True Neutral tending toward both Good and Law, with a color component of primary-White, secondary-Red.

On the other hand, I consider myself True Neutral with a color component of primary-Blue, secondary-Red.

[Rijan_Sai]

I'd have to say Lawful Good. Be an optimist prime, not a megatron.

Sorry...that would have bugged me forever...

My vote would have to go to Chaotic Neutral.

Not the bat-s**t crazy Deadpool Chaotic Neutral that does things "FOR THE LULZ", of course. I hate that archetype.

No, that Chaotic Neutral I mean is calm, collected and careful. If Good and Evil are two sides of the same coin, then Chaotic Neutral walks up and takes that coin for themselves. They are the architects of their own destiny, living life on their terms, not the terms of a code, morals or a god.

Chaotic Neutral is the personification of Cause and Effect, they think long and hard about how the effects of their actions. Good and Evil don't, they see life as "It's the right thing/what I want to do and damn the consequences", which can get you killed very quickly. Chaotic Neutral does something because it's the most effective way to their goals.

They'll lie, kill and steal, sure, but they're just as likely to be truthful, merciful and altruistic. It really depends on what's the best way to their goals. "Best" not "Quickest" being the important part. Killing people who have what you want is quick, yes, but leaving a bloody trail of corpses is going to cause more rats and Weepers to get you into more trouble than you can handle. But if you can get what you want without trouble to yourself, then Chaotic Neutral will do that. Regardless of what "that" is.

Chaotic Neutral isn't out to make the world a better place nor is it out to commit atrocities. It isn't out to make the world conform, hell, it isn't even out to destroy the system and plunge the world into anarchy. Chaotic Neutral is out its mark on the world by any means.

Wow...
This is far greater then I would have been able to come up with, though it aligns with my views on CN as well.

...not that "BSC Deadpool" isn't fun sometimes!


Though I tend to see CN as something like this as well...


But yeah...Chaotic Neutral, with occasional swings up to Chaotic Good.

[SinsI]

The more freedom - the better. Nothing is as free as CE.

[SimonMoon6]

Being evil has negative consequences. There is a *base* class designed with the ability to detect evil, in the hopes of destroying evil. If you're evil, the forces of good want to wipe you out. Whereas, the forces of evil are generally pretty chill towards "good" people (as long as those good people aren't attacking those forces of evil); good people are just easy suckers to exploit to evil people, whereas other evil people are actually competition. So, in short, nobody likes evil, but everybody likes or tolerates good (or neutral). So, non-evil wins on the good/evil axis.

One base class requires you to be any lawful alignment. Another requires you to be lawful as well as good. Two base classes require that you be non-lawful. So, that's pretty much the same, except non-lawful people have slightly more freedom among their class choices (since they don't *have* to be good). So, non-lawful wins on the law/chaos axis.

So the best alignments are CG, NG, CN, and TN. But of those, CG is the least beneficial, since there is a base class that it can't join that the other three can. So, that limits us to NG, CN, and TN.

And (as others have mentioned), when dealing the "protection from" line of spells, nothing affects TN. So, that's clearly the best alignment.

But what about the Word spells? Eh, that's just rock paper scissors anyway. You will always be vulnerable to at least one of those spells (unless you gain immunity to all of them), so it doesn't matter; your enemy will always have the one that hurts you.

[StoneCipher]

LN

"I don't care what you do, as long as you went through the proper channels to do it."

[Shining Wrath]

Anyone remember back in 1E (and maybe even into 2E) when monsters (and presumably, players) sometimes had alignments like Lawful Neutral (with Evil tendencies)? Oh, such fun times!

They darn near do that for Tieflings in 5e; described as not-evil but "many of them wind up there" and having "chaotic tendencies", the best I can figure is either CE with CN tendencies, CN with CE tendencies, NE with TN tendencies, or maybe TN with CE tendencies ....

[Phelix-Mu]

Anyone remember back in 1E (and maybe even into 2E) when monsters (and presumably, players) sometimes had alignments like Lawful Neutral (with Evil tendencies)? Oh, such fun times!

I do like the third element in the descriptor, because it can indicate that, if there is a minor habit of deviation in an individual, where their tertiary inclinations lie. Like a LG monk who occasionally binges on alcohol, drugs, and whatever, but not because they are evil, but as a form of release from their otherwise strict mentality. That would be LG (chaotic tendencies), making it clear that the monk may gradually shift toward NG (problematic for a monk), but doesn't need to if they are conscientious about the ramifications of their need to unwind.

I see the nine alignment types as being a very, very, very shorthand for all of the myriad psychological and behavioral patterns of an individual, along with their accumulated past actions. So what the sheet says next to alignment is just the shallow end of the pool, and things get much more interesting the deeper one ventures.

[Teapot Salty]

Neutral good is easiest on the GM...

[gooddragon1]

Neutral Good

Nominated. You can do almost anything you need to do to achieve the most optimal outcome. However, you can act as you feel if you don't want necessarily the greater good. You know that as long as you've done good and you tried your hardest that you've done good all the same.

[Esprit15]

True Neutral, if you are aiming for "Basically good, but not going out of his way." Neutral Good for the previous guy's nicer friend who pets the puppies and does to out of his way to help people.

Lawful Evil though is a fun one. As other people said, do what is needed when it is needed to meet your ends. Do you need to work with good people to work your way into the good graces of a noble or two? Very well, if that's what it takes. Do you need a rivaling town taken down a peg? Can do. Prisoner refusing to talk? Come on, torture is practically cliche for your alignment.

Lawful Evil has all the advantages of being Evil (not having to give a damn about other people), but has the self control to be restrained if it must be. Chaotic Evil gets resentful of order (and thus has no long term plan), and Neutral Evil isn't committed. Lawful Evil can play with the other alignments for a time as long as they can still work towards their greater goals (though a lot of bluffing and hiding their alignment may be needed).

[Curbstomp]

In terms of play... I'll play almost any alignment other than CE and NN. But... in terms of who I'd want my friend to be, LG. No question. I would want an honorable, honest, good person as my friend and/or adventuring companion.