Originally Posted by Qoray
Originally Posted by azarhal
The D&D alignment system was based off virtues. Lying fall under evil, even if you are doing it for a good cause under D&D alignment system.

Lying falls under law. Good and evil is about the intention.
Law/ chaos is deontology, and good/ evil is virtue ethics.
You CAN lie to spare somebodies feelings etc, but essentially you are breaking the unwritten rule of always speaking the truths, which is necessary for society to function.

Think of Kants famous murderer at the door thought experiment.

D&D put lying under evil, along betrayal in Book of Vile Darkness v3 (that's 20 years old I know), probably because you gain something from it.

Law/chaos is society/stability/order vs individual/change/chaos. It's just structure vs freeform. In fact, the original TSR version of lawful was very basic: creatures of habits with predictable reaction. It had nothing to do with following actual laws/rules back then.