--- NOTE: This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of actions which affect the player's alignment. For that, you can go here: http://www.helsinki.fi/~vviitane/spoilers/spoil802 ...and read the appropriate WCST spoiler. This is only intended to be a general guide to "what really happens to your alignment while you're walking around the dungeon hitting things". --- There are three alignment types a player may have: A_CHAOTIC, -1 A_NEUTRAL, 0 A_LAWFUL, 1 Also, there is the player's actual current alignment. This is a number which has no explicit negative limit, and which has a maximum limit based on the following formula: (10 + moves/200) This matters in a few ways. One, the minimum alignment required to go on the quest is 20, so no matter how many gain level potions you find, you won't be able to do the quest before move 2000. Two, characters who have been playing the game longer can have a much bigger alignment "buffer" for doing bad things. Taking a single example: Killing your pet is -15 alignment points. If you do this on turn 2, you'll be at -5 alignment (or -15, if you're one of the classes who starts at 0) and you'll be in pretty bad shape. But if you do this on turn 15,000 after you've been well behaved for most of the game, your alignment will probably be up to its maximum of 85, and will only drop to 70. Monsters only have a value from -127 to 20, which indicates the strength of their alignment as well as the orientation; 0 is neutral, positive is lawful, and negative is chaotic. Killing any monster nets you (or costs you) a certain number of alignment points. This number is set _at monster creation_, and follows the according sequence: - First, if the monster is a priest or an angelic minion, the monster is checked for a specific alignment, and then the base value is set to -5, 0, or 5 accordingly. - Next, the monster is checked to see if they are coaligned with the player. This will be used later. For all the monster alignment calculations below, the absolute value of the monster's alignment is used; so a monster with -10 chaotic alignment will still use 10 in these calculations. For the following list, only the first entry which matches will be used! All others will be ignored. - If the monster is your quest leader, the alignment is set to -20. - If the monster has no alignment (currently only Rodney), then - if Rodney is somehow generated peaceful, it is set to 0; - otherwise (the usual case), it is set to 20. - If the monster is a type which is "Always Peaceful", then - if the monster has been generated as peaceful (normal), the alignment is set to -3x the monster's alignment value, with a minimum of -15. - if the monster has been generated hostile, the alignment will be 3x the monster's alignment value, with a minimum of 15. "Always Peaceful" monsters are shopkeepers, @s found on the quest, miscellaneous humans, watchmen, watch captains, etc. - If the monster is a type which is "Always Hostile", then - if the monster is coaligned, the alignment value is 0. - otherwise, the alignment value is set to the monster's alignment value, with a minimum of 5. 258 out of the 396 monsters in the game are considered "Always Hostile". - If the monster is coaligned, then - if the monster has been generated as peaceful, the alignment value is set to -3x the monster's alignment, with a minimum of -9. - if the monster has been generated hostile (renegade), the alignment value is set to the monster's alignment value, with a minimum of 3. - Finally, the monster is considered just "generally" hostile and the alignment value is set to the monster's alignment value, with _no_ minimum. When killing monsters, two primary possible modifiers apply: -- Angering any peaceful monster is -1 alignment, but _will not change_ the value you receive for killing that monster. -- Killing a peaceful monster is -5 alignment. HOWEVER, simply walking up and hitting a peaceful monster does not count, because the monster will be first made angry by your strike. To receive this penalty, you must kill the monster without making them angry in some fashion. What does all this mean to the player? 1. Most crossaligned monsters are worth at least +5 alignment points. This doesn't seem like a big thing until you realize that most monsters are classified as "neutral"; 202 different monsters have an alignment rating of 0. For a lawful character, a grid bug is worth +5 alignment because it's flagged as always hostile. A goblin, by comparison, is only worth 3. Also, far more monsters are chaotic than lawful; 136 unique monsters have a negative alignment, as opposed to 55 which have a positive. This means that lawful characters can darn near kill indiscriminately. It also means that neutral characters will have the hardest time raising their alignment, since for a neutral character, most monsters are worth 0 points. 2. Killing peaceful coaligned monsters is the only way to significantly lower your alignment, barring major fouls like killing one of your pets. The general rule of thumb to take away from this is: if it's coaligned, it will usually be generated peaceful, so killing it is worth at least -9 alignment points. 3. With careful use of "always hostile" monsters and paying attention to the turn count, you can render almost meaningless the effects of killing coaligned peacefuls. The Gnomish Mines are a place where lawfuls often get themselves into alignment trouble. Dwarves are alignment 4, and killing them is worth -12. Gnomes, on the other hand, are alignment 0 and _not_ "always hostile", so they are worth nothing to a lawful character even though they're neutral and thus will be generated non-peaceful. Same with little dogs and kittens. However, other monsters commonly found in the Mines are ants, jackals, rothes, and spiders, and all these are "always hostile". So if you need to kill some dwarves to check for good armor, you can wait until a few of these are generated, kill the dwarf, and then restore the alignment points with three quick jackal kills (-12, +15). 4. Sinning before forgiveness is better in the early game. In the early game, there is no cap on your negative alignment, but there is a turn cap on your positive alignment. That -12 for killing a dwarf is a pretty big hit to a character who can't ever have more than +12 alignment in the first place. Compare the order of things for such a character starting at +12 alignment: - Kill three jackals, +15 (capped at +12, alignment now +12). - Kill a dwarf, -12 (alignment now 0). As opposed to: - Kill a dwarf, -12 (alignment now 0). - Kill three jackals, +15 (capped at +12, alignment now +12). You've taken the same actions, but the results are completely different. 5. Alignment is almost meaningless in the late game. At about turn 20,000 or so, your positive alignment cap is 110. Given simple random chance and avoiding killing coaligned peacefuls, you will be maxed out at this point. Even if you slaughter the entire Minetown Watch (four guards and a captain, say), that's still only a -75 penalty, leaving your alignment at +35 and "piously aligned". 6. Any penalty which reads "-1 alignment" is effectively meaningless. With so many monsters being worth +5 alignment, the -1 nitpick Knights and Samurai get for so many things is just pointless; killing a sleeping troll, for example, is still worth +4. 7. The following monsters are "worthless"; ie. they are neither always hostile nor always peaceful, and have an alignment value of 0, so will NEVER affect your character's alignment for killing unless you're neutral: acid blob, little dog, dog, large dog, kitten, housecat, large cat, gray unicorn, pony, horse, warhorse, bat, plains centaur, air elemental, fire elemental, earth elemental, water elemental, gnome, gnome lord, gnomish wizard, gnome king, red naga hatchling, black naga hatchling, golden naga hatchling, guardian naga hatchling, garter snake, umber hulk, monkey, ape, human, high priest, djinni, long worm tail, barbarian, healer, monk, priest, priestess, tourist, wizard. If you're neutral and these are peaceful, then the penalties for killing a coaligned peaceful still apply and these monsters are worth -9. If they are generated renegade (ie. acid blobs from a cursed scroll of create monster), then they will be worth +3.