Lawful Good

Part of the Alignment Rules

## Lawful Good definition

***A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. She combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. She tells the truth, keeps her word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion.***

## ‘Lawful’ and ‘Good’

The Lawful Good alignment is a combination of two elements – Lawful and Good. The first part of the alignment, ‘Lawful’ describes the alignment’s ethics, their perspective on society and how it should function. The second part ‘Good’ describes their morals.

### Lawful

A Lawful character follows the rules, respects hierarchy and believes in power given by society. Lawful characters believe in honor, following traditions and being trustworthy. They have faith in societal rules because they are how you create a functioning society where everyone acts in the way you expect.

While they may sound noble, Lawful characters can be inflexible and blindly follow the rules even if they make no sense. They can harshly judge others that don’t follow the same rules and place their loyalty to the system above their loyalty to friends and family.

### Good

Good characters care about others and act in ways that help and benefit them. They protect the innocent, defend the weak, and go out of their way to help other people.

## Lawful Good

Lawful Good characters always do the right thing as expected by society. They always follow the rules, tell the truth and help people out. They like order, trust and believe in people in positions of power, and they aim to be an upstanding citizen.

Lawful Good characters believe in societal rules because they benefit everyone. If everyone followed their own rules there would be chaos and people may end up hurting each other.

Justice is really important to Lawful Good characters. If someone doesn’t follow the rules, they should be dealt with by the authority system. They are angry when people get away with breaking the rules.

They also believe that good behavior and good deeds will be rewarded.

A Lawful Good character holds themselves to the same standards that they hold everyone else. They very rarely, if ever, break the rules. If they do break the rules they will feel extremely uncomfortable doing so.

If a Lawful Good character encounters a culture with a different belief to their own, they will not necessarily try to push their own values onto the people in that society. But it depends on what the laws are. If the laws are at odds with their alignment, the character might encourage citizens to ignore them, or even try to change the laws themselves.

Lawful Good characters can have some downsides. They can be irritatingly inflexible and dogmatic in their beliefs. They can come across as arrogant and self-righteous. They may fail to understand why an individual would pursue their own freedom and interests over the greater good.

They can come across as overly rigid insisting that the doctrines and societal rules they follow are the only ‘right’ way to live.

They will not harm an innocent person even if they are suspected of doing wrong unless they have hard evidence that the individual is guilty of wrongdoing.

There will be times when the Lawful aspect and the Good aspect of their character disagree. For example, taking down the evil leader but allowing innocent civilians to be hurt in the process would side on Law over Good. Saving the civilians but letting the bad guy get away would side with Good over Law.

If a Lawful Good character regularly chooses to take the Lawful decision over the Good decision and innocent people are negatively affected as a consequence, they can find themselves aligning more closely with Lawful Neutral or even Lawful Evil.

## Lawful Good traits

There are some traits that are usually associated with Lawful Good characters.

* Honorable
* Honest
* Upstanding
* Kind
* Fair
* Empathetic
* Loyal
* Helpful
* Polite
* Trustworthy
* Reliable
* Respectful

## Lawful Good personal code

The personal code for a Lawful Good character might look something like this.

* I will protect the weak and defend the helpless.
* I will always act with honor.
* I will never betray those I am loyal to.
* I will respect authorities that seek to do good.
* I will not harm the innocent.
* I will not break the law.
* I will not take other people’s property.
* I will help enforce the law and order.
* I will spread good in the world.
* I will tell the truth.

## Lawful Good character’s perfect world

In the Lawful Good character’s perfect world, these things would happen.

* Traditions are upheld.
* Lawbreakers and evildoers are brought to justice, regardless of their status.
* People are rewarded for their hard work, doing good and living by the rules.
* Everyone supports those less fortunate than themselves.
* Friends are always true and loyal to each other.
* Everyone is treated with dignity and kindness.
* Everyone works together to build communities and advance society.
* Those who have earned respect are given respect.
* People always tell the truth.
* Everyone uses their talents and skills to benefit the world.

## Lawful Good divergence

Like any great character, a Lawful Good character will face difficult choices while adventuring. What they choose to do will depend on whether they give more weight to the Lawful aspect or the Good aspect of their alignment.

They are still aligned with Lawful and Good, but internal disagreements arise when they are in a situation where they need to choose which aspect wins out over the other.

### Law before Good

In placing Law over Good, if they are in a situation which requires them to choose between taking down the leader of evil or saving the civilians, they will choose to take down the evil leader. They will do this in the name of the greater good.

Similarly, if the character has been ordered to bring in a person they know to be innocent and they follow through with that order, they have sided with Law over Good.

Characters that regularly choose Law before Good could transition over into a Lawful Evil alignment because they are negatively affecting people in the name of Law.

### Good before Law

In the same situation as above, a Good before Law character will choose to save the civilians and let evil leader escape, choosing to protect the lives of the innocent and taking up their Lawful plight another day.

In the example where the Lawful Good character has been ordered to bring in someone they know to be innocent, they may favor Good over Law and help the innocent person to go free. They would then seek out evidence to bring the real guilty party to justice.

## How a Lawful Good character views other alignments

For a Lawful Good character, they view others through the lens of, “Do they follow a personal code to guide their decisions and do they want to do good in the world?”

A chart showing a Lawful Good’s perspective on other alignments might look like this.