Ok, so just to clarify, are you guys saying you want just the main character to have an alignment that is affected by their actions?
Because I am not getting a clear idea of exactly how you want alignment to be used in these walls of words.
Who would see alignment? How would they see it? Would people react to it? How is it separate from reputation?
Originally Posted by CJMPinger
There is a (very) small list of mechanics that do care about Alignment, and in general its just a nice piece of role playing and a tie to the original system.
Reputation is something that is developed outwardly through the character's actions and affects how people perceive them. It's something that changes from person to person and from faction to faction. While you may have a great reputation with the peasants of a nearby town because you saved them from a goblin attack, the thieves' guild in Calimshan a hundred miles away will likely have no idea who you are and may try to rob you if you're in their territory.
Alignment is not visible to most people or creatures in the game, and is not a descriptor that most other entities can use to determine who the character is. If you consider it purely as a tool for character development, It is something that the player, the DM and in the case of a CRPG like BG3, the game itself can use to determine the character's moral outlook and guide their actions. It is meant to be a spectrum that changes based on the actions of the character. When someone takes actions that are contrary to their alignment, then it shifts in the direction of a different alignment. If they take enough actions that do not fit their current alignment, then it can change. Players can use this to recognize who their character is becoming, and if they decide that it's not who they want to be, they can try to make changes in their character's behavior. The DM or the game can use this as a tool to guide the player if what they're doing may have effects which are counter to their interests. If you haven't played Pathfinder: Kingmaker, I highly recommend giving it a look as a great example of how this can work in a CRPG.
As for the setting itself, the multiverse has real, tangible alignment-based creatures and organizations, as well as entire planes of existence that are made for specific alignments. If you happen to travel to one of those planes, the inhabitants can detect your alignment and will react to you accordingly. This is a pretty decent list of the planes that provides the alignment for each:
Traveling to a plane that contrasts with your alignment can have serious consequences. The planes are one of the more interesting aspects of D&D if you'd like to read up on them, and alignment is fundamental to how they work.
So yes, for multiple reasons, I think alignment is very important. Not only to the main BG3 campaign, but for any potential content that comes later, official or otherwise. This video from Mike Mearls (one of the lead designers for D&D) may help as well:
