Editing Midnight RPG - Alignment Conversations (section)

== Bill ==

'''''Note:''' I left comments above in red italics.''

Another thing occurred to me, but I'm going to white it out (highlight to read) in case you don't want a possible OOC spoiler:

<font color="white">It's possible that a demon has possessed Zal.  That's how outsider spirits gain bodies - they possess other beings and take over that body.  If this is the case, we might soon lose Zal completely, and we should act to save him from this.  If it's not the case, and if in fact his soul has changed from that of a human in its own body to that of a demon that is (technically) possessing '''a''' body, then it's still going to appear to us (using the normal means of detecting this sort of thing) that he's possessed and when we try to fix it, Zal loses his body.  It's kind of a catch 22 in that respect.</font>

<font color="white">There's also the possibility that he took up a night king on some kind of offer.  Perhaps Sululael has Ardherin dead to rights and is grooming Zal as his replacement.  The transformations could be totally explained that way, because he'd be changing into a night king meant to replace Demon's Bane.  I hope we get our own opportunity to make this happen on our own though.</font>

The difference between the way a monk turns into an outsider and the way outsiders (trapped spirits) in Midnight work is pretty big.  If Zal ''becomes'' an outsider, then he's actually becoming a disembodied eternal spirit that is currently possessing a body.  

The spirit of a normal mortal is linked with the body, and once the two are severed, the spirit only has two options: "death" (freedom to be no more), or "bondage" (remain attached to a dead body - undeath).  This whole thing is the metaphysical explanation given for how resurrection magic works - the body is given life (a blast of positive energy) while the spirit is called back into oneness with the corporeal form.  Becoming a Fell is similar, except that it doesn't involve the positive energy that would give the body life, so it goes on attempting to continue the same processes without an internal source of positive life energy.

''The previous information is based on the descriptions given for how outsiders and humanoids differ, and on how the Midnight system of life and unlife is described.''

So this all changes for Zal if he becomes a demon.  He instead becomes an eternal, fully singular spirit with only one aspect, and no inherent oneness with corporeality.  So in order for him to have a body at all, he has to force the soul of a mortal into submission and steal the use of that soul's bonded "body" spirit.  If that body dies, he suffers nothing but an inconvenience as he himself simply exits and attempts to find another body to possess.  It works just like astiraxes though, so he'd have a weakness too.  Most likely Law and something else.

Monks in D&D work differently.  They simply become a magical creature.  Stats stay the same, but other things that affect the monk do so as if he were an outsider (mainly this refers to things like dominate person, which only works on humanoids - this wouldn't work on a level 20 monk at all).  The monk remains a being of a dual nature, and total destruction of the body still means death of the spirit (or freedom, whathaveyou, but it does '''not''' mean that the spirit can take another body).  The monk also gains other benefits.

So, here's something to consider, if the details aren't already worked out and Zal is in fact turning into something else.  This new being that he is going to become is considered an outsider of the [http://dndsrd.net/monsterTypes.html#chaotic Chaotic subtype] (even though he's still a human).  As such, from the SRD for that subtype: "A creature with the chaotic subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any weapons it wields were chaotic-aligned."  This doesn't prevent him from becoming more Lawful, but it fits the character.  Similarly, the Evil subtype could be applied as well, and not necessarily change him to Evil alignment - but he's still subject to things that target or detect Evil.  In actual fact and implementation, Zal's body and spirit are still linked - resurrection works on his flesh, and there is still the oneness between the "soul" spirit and the "body" spirit.  He doesn't become a trapped spirit at all, but his body is considered Outsider (native) to all things that affect him.  If you give him other Outsider abilities like Darkvision and Telepathy, I suggest he also have vulnerabilities, since there is no drawback to any of this.  These could be rolled from [http://darknessfalls.leaderdesslok.com/world_creatures-trapped.htm this table] (scroll down) or just picked.  Perhaps this vulnerability simply cannot be protected against (like any source of DR he gains has this key) OR he takes 50% more damage from this source.

If it's judged that this is a bad idea, I'm still not too hip to him becoming a demon.  What's happening is that he's becoming a different type of creature with a lot of benefits and few drawbacks - namely, he has to commit a pretty evil act to get a body if his current one dies, and he can be called/summoned.  The first sucks because it requires an evil act (possession) but there's no way to kill him now.  Ever.  Compared to Kyuad's phylactery situation, that's pretty uber.  Especially given that possession is based on Charisma, and that gives him a pretty good chance of possessing any of the PCs, much less everything else.  The drawback of being able to be summoned/called is similar to Kyuad's vulnerability to Turning - it would suck more if it happened but it's far less likely to happen too.  So for similar benefits and penalties as what Kyuad got for turning into a lich, Zal suffers two of the drawbacks (but no social interaction problems, and standard healing isn't deadly) and becomes a trapped spirit.  

The balance issues I'm fine with.  I only point it out to show the similarity.  But I kinda wish the situation had less than a plainly obvious correlation with what happened to Kyuad.  Seems like we could come up with something more imaginative than "Let's do this again!"  For that reason more than the demonic stuff, I hope something else is going on.  It really makes Kyuad's situation seem like a trial run instead of something unique in the group.

Then again, I don't know, maybe this is just "the plan" for everyone, and Kyuad was only the first of the four of us to get hit with it.