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Originally Posted by Nihtgenga
Good review Christopher. In many ways I got more out of it than the reviews that focused on it as a D&D setting.
Having said that, I am curious about it being a basic D&D setting with no alignment. How do Paladins and the like cope with a lot of their abilities being tied to being able to see 'evil' rubber stamped on people's foreheads?
For that matter, there are a lot of alignment specific spells in D&D? Do they become redundant in the setting?
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Hi Nihtgenga,
Keith Baker, the creator of Eberron, discusses alignment in Eberron among other topics in
this thread. He posts as Hellcow, and you'll have to scroll down a bit on the page. That part of the discussion of mechanics based, as certain things in D&D give off auras of good and evil. Basically he says that a person can be good and worship an evil god, and the level of their dedication to that god might influence whether they seem to be good or evil.
It's not so much that Eberron throws out the alignment system. It keeps that, as many spells and abilities in Dungeons and Dragons are based on alignment. Protection from Evil, for example.
What Eberron does is it throws out assumptions about alignment. Gold Dragons can be evil. Red Dragons can be Lawful Good and dedicate themselves to fighting evil. This is something we've seen at times before in other settings, but never as strongly embraced as it is in Eberron. Now when your character is exploring ancient ruins and encounters a Hideous Monster there's good reason to talk with it and no reason to assume that it's there just to kill you. It tones down the "hack and slash" aspect of the game a bit, I think, and helps to facilitate those players who like to view monsters and such as just other people who make good or evil decisions based on their own beliefs and values.
So, i'd say Paladins (especially of the Silver Flame) still have an important role. Paladins have a problem in any game where the DM lets the character Detect Evil / Kill. The fact of the matter is that the Paladin might be answering to an evil member of the clergy, and while the Paladin may sense that the person doesn't have a good heart the Paladin can't just swing his blade to resolve problems. Laws are important in Eberron. I can't imagine a more fun situation than a Paladin who *knows* there is corruption in the church he's working for, but can't confront it directly. How do you prove it? Most folk don't have adventuring classes, Paladins are rare, and how could another person know that you know that the priest's heart is corrupt? Once again Eberron throws out an irritating D&Dism and injects more believable situations that lead to fun and interesting roleplaying.