Monster Manual says this: "These creatures are unaligned, which means they don't have an alignment."
That means a statblock which doesn't say Unaligned has an alignment, so how do you know what alignment it is?
I'll give a real world example. Suppose I cast Summon Fey and I hand my summon a magical shortsword, then have it attack a Rakshasa. It hits and rolls 4 piercing damage. How much damage does the target take?
Can't see a rule for it, so it's whatever your DM decides. With that stat block a DM could rule unaligned, neutral, alignment to match your own, or anything similar. If you are worried then ask the DM before you cast the spell and start handing out magic weapons.
Rakshasas have a damage vulnerability dependent on attacker alignment.
Same question comes up if your DM lets you apply the Beast Master subclass rules to a Primal Companion and you have the Beast of the Sea attack a Rakshasa at or after level 7.
I agree with RegentCorreon - it's the DM's choice. As a rule of thumb though, any creature that understands language will also have an alignment unless it's also incapable of making its own choices (e.g. golems). Unaligned creatures also tend to have incredibly low charisma since they usually act purely instinct or only follow orders and have little to no sense of self.
Both the fey spirits from Summon Fey and the Beast Master's Primal Companions really should have an alignment in my opinion, but which alignment is something the player will have to work out with the DM.
I'd imagine they are either supposed to be unaligned or have the same alignment as the summoner (otherwise I see no reason for it to not be mentioned).
They specifically don't have an alignment on the stat block - many monsters are like this in the most recent books.
Do you know any non-Tasha's examples? I haven't been able to find any, so it's been challenging finding rules precedent to apply, even retroactively. Pre-Tasha's would be better than post-Tasha's, for precedent purposes, but any non-Tasha's statblock with no alignment might prove helpful, if there's a rule in the book explaining what a statblock without any alignment means.
Do you know what the intent is for this? I can think of several examples, already presented in this thread:
Unaligned
Controller's choice (like the Xanathar's rules for simultaneous effects)
Must match controlling creature (so a summoned fey has the summoner's alignment)
DM fiat (potentially the worst option for gameplay, imho)
It manifestly directly impacts gameplay - I provided one way of many for it to come up - but I can't find any statements from WOTC explaining how they're intended to work.
They specifically don't have an alignment on the stat block - many monsters are like this in the most recent books.
Do you know any non-Tasha's examples? I haven't been able to find any, so it's been challenging finding rules precedent to apply, even retroactively. Pre-Tasha's would be better than post-Tasha's, for precedent purposes, but any non-Tasha's statblock with no alignment might prove helpful, if there's a rule in the book explaining what a statblock without any alignment means.
Do you know what the intent is for this? I can think of several examples, already presented in this thread:
Unaligned
Controller's choice (like the Xanathar's rules for simultaneous effects)
Must match controlling creature (so a summoned fey has the summoner's alignment)
It manifestly directly impacts gameplay - I provided one way of many for it to come up - but I can't find any statements from WOTC explaining how they're intended to work.
All of the monsters presented in Candlekeep Mysteries lack any alignment. The reasoning is fairly short, but presented in the Candlekeep chapter:
If no gender or alignment is specified for a nonplayer character in Candlekeep, you can choose that NPC’s gender identity and alignment
Ultimately they're saying that it's the DM's call.
All of the monsters presented in Candlekeep Mysteries lack any alignment. The reasoning is fairly short, but presented in the Candlekeep chapter:
If no gender or alignment is specified for a nonplayer character in Candlekeep, you can choose that NPC’s gender identity and alignment
Ultimately they're saying that it's the DM's call.
Ah, good! Any rules guidance is better than no rules guidance. At a bare minimum, this is some evidence that the intent is not a new, abbreviated way to express "Unaligned", but rather a way to express that the creature has some alignment that someone at the table should set it to. Thank you so much for this.
The spell says the creature "resembles a fey creature of your choice"...so I'd be inclined to have its alignment match that the the creature "resembled". I think most of the Tasha's spells indicate the forms appearance in some manner, so this could be applied across all or most of the summoning spells in that book
The spell says the creature "resembles a fey creature of your choice"...so I'd be inclined to have its alignment match that the the creature "resembled". I think most of the Tasha's spells indicate the forms appearance in some manner, so this could be applied across all or most of the summoning spells in that book
The same logic can also be applied to the Primal Companion, since you pick an animal to be its "kind". Unfortunately, it breaks down when you look at other spells; the most egregious example is Summon Celestial, but upon looking, most of the Summon Spells lack the text you're referring to - the only other directly similar examples are Summon Beast and Summon Construct. All of the others are varying degrees of distinct, with Summon Celestial as the farthest away and hence the hardest to apply the logic to.
The spell says the creature "resembles a fey creature of your choice"...so I'd be inclined to have its alignment match that the the creature "resembled". I think most of the Tasha's spells indicate the forms appearance in some manner, so this could be applied across all or most of the summoning spells in that book
The same logic can also be applied to the Primal Companion, since you pick an animal to be its "kind". Unfortunately, it breaks down when you look at other spells; the most egregious example is Summon Celestial, but upon looking, most of the Summon Spells lack the text you're referring to - the only other directly similar examples are Summon Beast and Summon Construct. All of the others are varying degrees of distinct, with Summon Celestial as the farthest away and hence the hardest to apply the logic to.
Summon Celestial indicates an Angelic Form...angels are a thing and most examples (Deva, Solar, Planetar, etc) have an alignment. I reviewed all of them, and the only one that doesn’t have an analogue to an actual creature is Summon Shadowspawn, since I don’t think that’s a subcategory of creature
Summon Celestial indicates an Angelic Form...angels are a thing and most examples (Deva, Solar, Planetar, etc) have an alignment. I reviewed all of them, and the only one that doesn’t have an analogue to an actual creature is Summon Shadowspawn, since I don’t think that’s a subcategory of creature
I'd say your go-to creature for comparison would be a Shadow Mastiff, a creature of the Shadowfell that shares some of the vague traits of the Shadowspawn as described. The mastiff is neutral evil. You'd definitely be looking at that lower right hand corner of the alignment table for these shadow things: unaligned/neutral maybe, but tending strongly towards the evil and chaotic.
Monster Manual says this: "These creatures are unaligned, which means they don't have an alignment."
That means a statblock which doesn't say Unaligned has an alignment, so how do you know what alignment it is?
I'll give a real world example. Suppose I cast Summon Fey and I hand my summon a magical shortsword, then have it attack a Rakshasa. It hits and rolls 4 piercing damage. How much damage does the target take?
Can't see a rule for it, so it's whatever your DM decides. With that stat block a DM could rule unaligned, neutral, alignment to match your own, or anything similar. If you are worried then ask the DM before you cast the spell and start handing out magic weapons.
4 points. Why would it be otherwise?
<Insert clever signature here>
Rakshasas have a damage vulnerability dependent on attacker alignment.
Same question comes up if your DM lets you apply the Beast Master subclass rules to a Primal Companion and you have the Beast of the Sea attack a Rakshasa at or after level 7.
Extremely easy answer: the DM decides (many statblocks will say Alignment: any).
I agree with RegentCorreon - it's the DM's choice. As a rule of thumb though, any creature that understands language will also have an alignment unless it's also incapable of making its own choices (e.g. golems). Unaligned creatures also tend to have incredibly low charisma since they usually act purely instinct or only follow orders and have little to no sense of self.
Both the fey spirits from Summon Fey and the Beast Master's Primal Companions really should have an alignment in my opinion, but which alignment is something the player will have to work out with the DM.
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All right. Thanks Quindraco. I missed the part about Alignment.
<Insert clever signature here>
Huh, must have been an oversight.
I'd imagine they are either supposed to be unaligned or have the same alignment as the summoner (otherwise I see no reason for it to not be mentioned).
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D&D Beyond FoundersThey specifically don't have an alignment on the stat block - many monsters are like this in the most recent books.
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Do you know any non-Tasha's examples? I haven't been able to find any, so it's been challenging finding rules precedent to apply, even retroactively. Pre-Tasha's would be better than post-Tasha's, for precedent purposes, but any non-Tasha's statblock with no alignment might prove helpful, if there's a rule in the book explaining what a statblock without any alignment means.
Do you know what the intent is for this? I can think of several examples, already presented in this thread:
It manifestly directly impacts gameplay - I provided one way of many for it to come up - but I can't find any statements from WOTC explaining how they're intended to work.
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D&D Beyond StaffAll of the monsters presented in Candlekeep Mysteries lack any alignment. The reasoning is fairly short, but presented in the Candlekeep chapter:
Ultimately they're saying that it's the DM's call.
Ah, good! Any rules guidance is better than no rules guidance. At a bare minimum, this is some evidence that the intent is not a new, abbreviated way to express "Unaligned", but rather a way to express that the creature has some alignment that someone at the table should set it to. Thank you so much for this.
The spell says the creature "resembles a fey creature of your choice"...so I'd be inclined to have its alignment match that the the creature "resembled". I think most of the Tasha's spells indicate the forms appearance in some manner, so this could be applied across all or most of the summoning spells in that book
The same logic can also be applied to the Primal Companion, since you pick an animal to be its "kind". Unfortunately, it breaks down when you look at other spells; the most egregious example is Summon Celestial, but upon looking, most of the Summon Spells lack the text you're referring to - the only other directly similar examples are Summon Beast and Summon Construct. All of the others are varying degrees of distinct, with Summon Celestial as the farthest away and hence the hardest to apply the logic to.
Summon Celestial indicates an Angelic Form...angels are a thing and most examples (Deva, Solar, Planetar, etc) have an alignment. I reviewed all of them, and the only one that doesn’t have an analogue to an actual creature is Summon Shadowspawn, since I don’t think that’s a subcategory of creature
I'd say your go-to creature for comparison would be a Shadow Mastiff, a creature of the Shadowfell that shares some of the vague traits of the Shadowspawn as described. The mastiff is neutral evil. You'd definitely be looking at that lower right hand corner of the alignment table for these shadow things: unaligned/neutral maybe, but tending strongly towards the evil and chaotic.
I assumed summon shadowspawn was related to the Sorrowsworn from MToF.
From the shadowfell, are monstrosities, are bipeds shaped by a specific emotion. It fits.
Definitely, it’s just not as clear cut as the others ,so i didn’t want to state it definitively, but it was my thought too when reviewing this spell,