And again, goblins are evil due to being attuned to evil alignment.
Originally Posted by GM4Him
[regarding drow] Yes. They have been evil for most of D&D history, but because of Drizzt, suddenly they became popular as heroes.
Just to be completely clear here, Goblins and Drow are Not inherently evil in the same way that fiends and chromatic dragons are. They are not, at all. Do not conflate the two.
A goblin that abandons its society or finds it can no longer live within it due to a burgeoning conscience or desire for better life, and who thus ceases to be evil, does NOT suddenly stop being a goblin. Evil isn't baked into their very essence.
Drow are just drow - following Lolth or another deity is purely a matter of personal religion, and, as with goblins, a drow that finds they can no longer live in their strongly evil society and ceases too be evil, does NOT suddenly stop being a drow. They are not magically transformed into something else because of this shift. Evil is not inherently in their essence.
A devil that stops being evil is literally and physically transformed and is No Longer A fiend, because to be a fiend is to be evil.
Goblins do not stop being goblins, and they do not suddenly turn into a different creature or undergo a transformation if they stop being evil, because evil is not an inherent part of their being.
This is not new; it's been like this for a long time. Creautres like goblins are listed as evil in the monster manual because most are, and most organised goblin societies are, and so it is natural that most of the goblins that players come into conflict with will be, but it isn't a built in part of them any more than it is any other mortal humanoid.
Drow are the same - this whole red-eyed lolth-worshiper rubbish is not backed up by any official book source, anywhere - it's an invention that actually detracts very heavily from the entire point behind what it means to BE a surface drow trying to leave the evils of their society behind... and for the record, populations of non-lolth-follwoing drow have existed for a very long time. Drizt was not the first, just the one that made them the most famous and visible to other races and cultures. Eilistrae is also not new, and has been the patron of good-aligned drow for many, many years.
And to the comment above, the same is true of kobolds. A kobold that abandons the lawful evil society of most normal kobold clans, and who stops being evil is not transformed and does not stop being a kobold; evil was never baked into their very essence in the same way that it is for fiends and chromatics; they are the scions of dragons, but they are not dragons themselves, and it is only their culture and society that makes them evil overall, not anything in their literal essence.
