what would any of us do without the law of gravity?
Fly free at last!
Fly? Lol. Float and be tossed about by the wind is more like it. 😁
Honestly, it's all about definitions. What does Law mean? A line of computer code is a Law the computer must obey unless it is given a tag to tell the computer to only remember it but don't execute it.
So, even computers obey laws. Laws dictate what the computer can do and how it behaves. No video games would even exist without said laws. Likewise, our universe is similar. It would not even exist as we know it without laws to govern it.
That said, I am a firm believer in law - but that law should serve not rule coldly and blindly over everyone and everything.
So, in a way, I am Chaotic Good. In fact, most "good" characters I create, and my players create, are Chaotic Good. Why? Because Lawful Good, which is supposed to be the epitome of good, or something, tends to create characters who believe the law should rule over people as opposed to the law serving the people.
A Chaotic Good character tends to live in accordance with what's right in spite of whether the law says it's right or not. Thus, they live in more of a way where the law is good, but only if the law is serving the people. When the law becomes abusive, Chaotic Good goes against it because what is more important is the well-being of people.
An example is that the law demands taxes from everyone. It sets a "supposedly" fair taxation amount for everyone. The law demands that everyone pay their fair share of taxes. Lana, the tiefling barmaid, has suffered a tremendous loss. Someone robbed her, and she can't pay her taxes.
The law would demand punishment because she can't pay. It coldly demands recompense. This is the law ruling over people.
Law serving people is when the tax collector comes along and sees she can't pay and discovers that it is true that she's been robbed and that's the reason for it. She didn't squander her money. She was a victim. So, tax collector gets permission from higher up to waive her taxes to try to help her. In fact, tax collector gets permission to dip into emergency funds to help get her back on her feet. That is the law serving people.
But when the law has no such ability to serve the people, the law is not good. Like in the Robin Hood scenario. Therefore, the law creates issues where people must breach it just to survive. Thus, the law is actually evil and people can't live under the burden of it, because there is no provision for which the law can serve. It only dictates and rules.
Animals don't have, if you notice, evil laws. They simply abide by the laws that nature has provided them. We humans are the only ones who develop evil laws. Even wolves, who attack and eat other animals, are not being evil. They're simply fighting to survive. It is nothing personal. They aren't attacking deer or whatever out of spite or envy. They aren't enslaving people so they can build grand monuments to honor themselves. They kill out of necessity.
This is why I said that I don't actually have an issue with killing the goblin kids, but I do with killing the tiefling kids. Killing the goblin kids is done out of necessity in order to save Halsin. They are evil, people-eating monsters who are about to eat poor Brian who is cooking on a spit. On the other hand, killing the tiefling children is done as an act of pure bloodlust and butchery. The kids aren't evil. They might be mischievous, but not evil.
So, yes. I have a problem playing an evil character killing a bunch of not-evil tiefling kids. Can I just not play the evil path? Absolutely. I certainly can. But, that's not the point. The point is that Larian is the DM. If they're comfortable with allowing players to kill the tiefling children, then fine. Let players be truly evil and go about butchering children. They're just pixels anyway. Right?
Do I like killing the goblin kids? No, but I can at least understand that if I don't kill them, they're going to summon more goblins to try to kill me. I can also rest in the knowledge that goblins are evil - or at least they used to be based on previous canon, and at the very least this tribe of goblins is butchering and eating people, so these goblin kids are at least evil.
The tieflings, on the other hand, I can understand Larian not wanting to let you kill them. They are NOT butchering people and eating them. They are NOT trying to kill you - except in situations where they get adults to try to kill you, in which case, I agree that in that case Larian needs to provide some alternatives to you getting attacked by the entire tiefling camp and there's nothing you can do about it but reload or kill them all.
Anyway, bottom line is, and my point is, that when you don't draw a line, you start to slide to a very dangerous place bordering on the criminal. Aside from employees at Larian maybe feeling guilty about things they are forced to do because some people might want to be a bit over the line, I have seen how not drawing the line often ends up. Cross the line too many times, and you fall off the edge of a cliff.
