hello fellow glasses-wearers, I have made a very important chart. tag yourself
[image ID: a moral alignment chart featuring simple drawings of different ways to push up one’s glasses. lawful good: pushing up the bridge with one finger. neutral good: pushing up the side with the wrist or heel of the palm. chaotic good: using something or someone else to push them up. lawful neutral: pinching both sides. true neutral: pinching one side. chaotic neutral: just throwing your head back. lawful evil: grabbing both sides at once with one hand. neutral evil: scrunching up your nose until they move up. chaotic evil: touching the lenses directly, in parentheses: “cannot be trusted.” end ID]
I’m revealing my past playing Dungeons and Dragons here (and my present playing Pathfinder), but of all the character alignments, Lawful Good gets the worst rap. “They’re boring,” “they’re goody-two shoes,” “they can never do anything clever!“ WRONG!!! Lawful Good is a great alignment. It gives a character great opportunity for conflict and when they triumph through the rules they can come across as brilliant. After all, what’s the more impressive accomplishment, tearing down a society to save it, destabilizing everyone’s lives in the processs or saving a society from within with minimal harm? In no order, here are my ten favorite Lawful Good Characters from all media.
Agent Dale Cooper - Twin Peaks
Dale Cooper is the sturdiest, most by-the-book law enforcement official you will ever see. He logs absolutely everything he does with his secretary, gets the local Sheriff’s approval before taking any steps, even when he doesn’t need to, and treats the town of Twin Peaks as a place under his protection rather than the den of vipers it all too frequently is. So why is he interesting? A large part of it comes down to Kyle MacLaughlin’s performance. Dale Cooper is a happy, joyful man. He is effervescent, enthusiastic and willing to see the best in everything. He has a weird spiritual side that seems to take power from coffee and love of Tibet. He is incredibly competent, but his methods are often very strange. But even if he seems insane, no one would deny that Cooper’s the best lawman they’ve ever seen. Cooper’s mere presence in Twin Peaks makes it a better place. His decency infects everyone around him, even the seemingly venal and corrupt Horne family. He is the best thing about one of the best shows to ever air.
T’Challa is an ideal monarch. As the King of Wakanda he has to weigh many important factors including the competing ideals many Lawful Good characters must always balance: the needs of those close to him vs. the needs of the greater society, the decision of when to deal out justice and when to grant mercy, the seemingly conflicting responsibilities of having to both decisively lead and also listen. It’s hard to think of a contemporary character who better embodies this kind of balancing act than T’Challa who, despite being new to the throne, leads judiciously, responsibly and with a willingness to listen. He expresses a strong preference for creating allies rather than enemies. He grants everyone respect until they prove they do not deserve it. He offers redemption to those who would choose it. We should all be so lucky to see this kind of leadership in these difficult and confusing times.
hello fellow glasses-wearers, I have made a very important chart. tag yourself
[image ID: a moral alignment chart featuring simple drawings of different ways to push up one’s glasses. lawful good: pushing up the bridge with one finger. neutral good: pushing up the side with the wrist or heel of the palm. chaotic good: using something or someone else to push them up. lawful neutral: pinching both sides. true neutral: pinching one side. chaotic neutral: just throwing your head back. lawful evil: grabbing both sides at once with one hand. neutral evil: scrunching up your nose until they move up. chaotic evil: touching the lenses directly, in parentheses: “cannot be trusted.” end ID]
The path to sainthood is a difficult one, requiring years of sacrifice, self-reflection and utter dedication to your holy path. Though sainthood is not the same as godhood, it does grant abilities to the saint that allow them to stay alive for longer to spread the word of their god.
“Saint” isn’t a creature, really, but a template that can be added onto any PC after level 6. Feels like that’s kinda early to get the holiness required to be a saint but whatever. It’s kinda up to the DM’s discretion whether you qualify for the template anyway, and it does essentially require you to sacrifice two levels of progression for the sake of power balance. But you do get a lot of abilities that are essentially free that make you really hard to kill, so there’s that.
