In my previous post, I presented the conclusion of my argument for what I call “alignment dualism” – the view that alignment in Pathfinder actually consists of two entirely different but mysteriously related attributes, which I call “metaphysical alignment” and “moral alignment.” Metaphysical alignment is the more-or-less empirical notion whose best analogs are physical forces like mass or electromagnetism; moral alignment, on the other hand, is a broad shorthand label for the beliefs, actions, worldviews, and general moral fibre of a character or creature. And while normative and descriptive concepts don’t normally have any causal interactions with one another (i.e., they can’t directly affect one another in any real way), moral (normative) and metaphysical (descriptive) alignment can actually have some mutual impact, in a vague and mysterious way that currently lacks any truly definitive explanation. So while we now have greater conceptual clarity on the nature of alignment, it’s not like every problem has been solved.

But the purpose of this post is to show that while that last little loose end on my proposal of alignment dualism might be a problem for just a straightforward metaethical theory, it’s actually helpful to those who are primarily interested in playing Pathfinder games or creating characters involving interesting, rather unorthodox approaches to alignment and morality, while still being within the rules-as-written (RAW). Specifically, I want to offer a few examples* which actually rely on accepting alignment dualism, and particularly the implication that alignment is not synonymous with morality, even though both are important to Pathfinder.

Scenario/Campaign Hook #1: The Alignment-Link McGuffin

If we accept alignment dualism, we know that metaphysical and moral alignment causally affect one another, even though descriptive and normative concepts normally do not have such effects. We just don’t know how this works. Well, say some amoral or delusions-of-grandeur-having scholar discovers an arcane object which serves as the literal, magical focus of that link – as in, this green gem or whatever is the reason (via magic) that casting animate dead for whatever reason can make you morally evil, and why modestly feeding the poor enough will cause you to ping for detect good. Only by virtue of this little alignment-link (make it a place, object, whatever) do these actually interact…so what happens when he starts to mess with it? All of a sudden, he can cast Evil spells without it making him morally evil…and he can commit secret murders and other evil acts without his metaphysical alignment changing, allowing him to go under the radar of goody-goodies who might be snooping around people’s alignments. Maybe he plans to destroy the alignment-link McGuffin entirely, with untold possible consequences: would this undo the connection between metaphysical and moral alignment entirely, so that people can cast spells of any descriptor without worrying about how it would affect them, and alignment detection spells/effects would no longer tell us anything about the morality of the target creature? Or would some other insidious effect actually obtain? Our intrepid heroes, who recognize the importance of the link in alignment dualism, will have to stop this baddie, or risk finding out!

Scenario/Campaign Hook #2: The Reversed Alignment-Link Dungeon

In this situation, something is drastically wrong in the normally quiet seaside temple town of Pioustown (please come up with a better name of your own if you’re going to use a scenario like this one). Priests of the goodly gods are being discovered committing heinous acts day in and day out, while unimpeachable do-gooders are finding themselves losing some of their divine abilities and even running afoul of paladins wantonly using their detect evil ability. What’s going on here? Well, after some initial investigation, our heroes discover that there is some force in the caves below the town reversing the direction of flow between metaphysical and moral alignment. That is, evil acts tend to give you a Good alignment aura, casting spells with the Evil alignment description tend to make creatures behave more gently and justly, etc. The consequences, of course, could be rather dire, and it’s up to the heroes to explore the caverns and solve the problem…but with this “alignment reversal field” only getting stronger the further down they go, how will they address the usual moral issues faced by adventurers when the actual effects are the opposite of what they intended? Will the goodly cleric kill baby rabbits to continue being able to cast Good spells? Will the paladin give up her ability to Smite Evil rather than commit morally evil acts? It’s up to the players to face these dilemmas, and the GM to figure out how well their problem-solving goes.

Character Idea #1: The “Evil” Paladin

Years ago, a young paladin hastily slew an innocent street urchin with a heart of gold, just because she picked up an Evil presence emanating from a strange gem the youngster was carrying. For her misjudgement, not only did she lose her powers and face long periods of painful soul-searching and atonement in order to gain them back…but that strange Evil gem somehow implanted itself on her heart and can’t be removed without killing her, giving her a strong aura of metaphysical Evil despite the humility, gentleness, tolerance, and righteousness she demonstrates as a person, having grown through her experiences. The problem, of course, is that she now has tremendous trouble dealing with other paladins and their ilk, since she generally pings Evil to them. This gives her even more reason than the average paladin to treat moral questions carefully and thoughtfully and not to jump to conclusions, since she has to spend so much time convincing others to behave similarly. Incidentally, I feel like this general character concept could really sit anywhere on the entire spectrum between tragic and darkly funny.

Character Idea #2: The “Alignment-Break” Inquisitor

This one might be tough to pull off without too much metagaming, but I still think there’s something here…Imagine an inquisitor of Nethys, god of knowledge and reason, who has actually come to recognize, in-universe, the conceptual viability of alignment dualism. Incensed that the moral and the metaphysical are not synonymous, his particular passion is for uncovering and exposing/correcting/destroying those who try to find and exploit loopholes in the break between metaphysical and moral alignment. He’s even grumpy about highly devout and charitable souls who happen to be low-level and so do not have a discernible alignment aura (to say nothing of low-level evil creatures, the focus of much of his hatred). This one I feel might be a bit of a one-trick pony, or at least playable largely for laughs…but the notion intrigues me nonetheless…

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for right now. What I’m really interested in, though, is seeing what kind of crazy stuff all of y’all might be able to come up with that either incorporates or specifically takes advantage of alignment dualism, at least in a conceptual way. I’d have a lot of fun hearing about any game-making or game-breaking ideas!

*Several of these examples were spurred by discussion with /u/gfzgfx on Reddit, regarding earlier posts in the recent Understanding Alignment series.