Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Alignment modifier, etc.

- about the DnD universe:
Just to be sure: In 5E the outer planes and dieties are still tied to an alignment?

- about computer games:
I prefer the way how BG3, Disco Elysium or The Witcher games do it compared to old DnD games.
You chose to do something and these actions have consequences, thats it. There is no alignment displayed when you chose something.
The game can give tags to you because of your choices and it can show you these tags or not.

I agree that actions define your alignment, not the other way round.
good example: Any char can chose to poison an importent NPC and your alignment moves towards evil if you do. Good clerics or paladins may get problems with their god.
bad example: Having evil alignment is a requirement to be able to poison someone.

Response to Piff and Madscientist:

I can agree that actions should define alignment; however, once alignment is defined, the choices you make should open up alignment-based options and changes to both gameplay and dialogue options. If you are accustomed to killing innocents, you should have more opportunities in dialogue to harm innocents in different ways (give everyone the option, but reward roleplaying with unique options). If you are accustomed to defending the weak and vulnerable, you should receive benefits in combat specifically when you are defending the weak and vulnerable, etc.

Edit: For example, Larian dramatically improved backgrounds when they made them more than just stat bonuses; having little quests throughout the world based on your background is a good way to interface roleplaying and gameplay. There are racial tags in dialogue, and racial bonuses in combat and rolls. Classes determine both your combat and your dialogue. Your cumulative decision-making should open up roleplay and gameplay opportunities based on the moral/ethical/social/value-based content of your choices and behaviors.

In the past video games have really struggled with morality scales because of the limitations of the format, it's easier to write for extremes, and harder to write all the multitude of grey-morality choices that might exist in a certain situation.

This leads to video games in particular presenting scales of morality that are skewed towards extremes, you're either the goodest of goods, or a baby-murdering villain, because if you're neutral, the game doesn't really know what to do with you. This is perhaps exacerbated by some game that only offer certain choices, actions, or quests to the player only after they become very good or very evil, so the player feel like they get left out if they aren't one of these extremes. I recall the Fable and Infamous series being pretty bad for this, despite the fact that they both had some really decent grey-moral characters.

It's in prep for their new IP, Forgotten Realms 40,000. Later on they'll kinda bring it back with Age of Elminster.

I think that alignment is an interesting feature of D&D as a matter of flavour, but the more gets mechanically tied to it, the more awkward things can get. I like alignment and it's a good way to help define your character, but it should be descriptive, not prescriptive. I think that in general it's best when alignment only impacts magical, realm stuff involving it, as opposed to too much stuff in the material plane. Alignment can potentially provide some really deep, interesting character insights-I point to Wrath of the Righteous as a high bar for it being done well, but alignment is vital to that game in a very real sense, with the story revolving around it in a way. And Owlcat writers are really good and already had practice with the system. I honestly do not believe that Owlcat has the writing chops to pull alignment off with the kind of interesting nuance that would make it a benefit to the game rather than a hinderance.

And as for alignment in 5e and it being deemphasized, I really don't think it takes away that much to have alignment be more of a background, setting feature than anything else. Many, maaaany games lack an alignment feature (most games, in fact) and it doesn't harm the game at all.

I have to admit that the "alignment controversy" is something that I'm personally completely disinterested on, but it's always curious to read how people on both fronts feel about it.