A typical creature in the game world has an alignment, which broadly describes its moral and personal attitudes. Alignment is a combination of two factors: one identifies morality (good, evil, or neutral), and the other describes attitudes toward society and order (lawful, chaotic, or neutral).
Good behavior is typified by kindness and selflessness, while evil is associated with selfish ego and cruelty. Lawful behavior involves following rules and working within a system, while chaotic behavior involves disruption of the established order.
When these elements are combined, nine distinct alignments define the possible combinations.
Descriptions of the nine alignments exhibit the typical behavior of a creature with that alignment. Individuals might vary significantly from that typical behavior, and few people are perfectly and consistently faithful to the precepts of their alignment:
Alignments and Creature Behavior
A
creature's alignment provides a clue to its disposition and how it behaves in a roleplaying or combat situation. For example, a
Chaotic Evil monster might be difficult to reason with and might attack characters on sight, whereas a
Neutral monster might be willing to negotiate.
The alignment specified in a
creature's stat block is the default. Not all creatures follow the exact templates of their kind.
Some
creatures can have any alignment. In other words, you choose the creature's alignment. Some creatures' alignment entry indicates a tendency or aversion toward law, chaos, good, or evil. For example, a Berserker can be any chaotic alignment (
Chaotic Good,
Chaotic Neutral, or
Chaotic Evil), as befits its wild nature.
Many creatures of low intelligence have no comprehension of law or chaos, good or evil. They don't make moral or ethical choices, but rather act on instinct. These creatures are
unaligned, which means they don't have an alignment.
Alignment in the Cosmos
For many thinking creatures, alignment is a moral choice. Humans and other mortal species can choose whether to follow the paths of good or evil, law or chaos.
However, alignment is an essential part of the nature of immortal
Outsider Spirits. A
Devil does not choose to be
Lawful Evil, and it doesn't tend toward lawful evil, but rather it is lawful evil in its essence. If it somehow ceased to be lawful evil, it would cease to be a devil.
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