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For the Paladin itself I saw the reasons why it has a alignment restriction with the class being representing the champion of a god. But today I found also other classes having alignment restrictions and I'm wondering how strict those are.

As example the shifter from spheres of power with any non-lawful.

For races I know there is the up to 1 alignment shift that is being used. But what about these classes where there is no indication as to why they have this alignment restriction? Does it also count there? or not? And if it counts what in cases like the shifter?

Thomas E.
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Races never have alignment restrictions. Even angels and demons can change alignment, because “Always” doesn’t actually mean always in monster descriptions.

The rules for class alignment requirements state them to be absolute: you must have a compatible alignment in order to take a level of that class. Each class reacts differently to your changing alignment once you already have levels, ranging from the paladin’s fall to the monk’s “you keep every thing you have but can’t take any more levels.” See the “Ex-_____” sections of relevant classes for details.

All that said, there is no good mechanical necessity for alignment restrictions of any kind. All classes that have alignment restrictions, have them solely because it matched the image the author had in their head of what the class was like. Many, many tables find this unnecessarily limiting, and remove them. There are no ill effects of doing so in terms of the functioning of the rules and system; it just changes the setting to make it more flexible and varied. Here is a question about removing alignment.

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KRyan
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    For races and alignment restrictions: Half fiends for example have a racial alignment "restriction" and so have half succubi. – Thomas E. Nov 15 '15 at 14:18
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    @ThomasE. No, they don’t; please see the monster entry format: “The alignments listed for each monster represent the norm for those monsters—they can vary as you require them to in order to serve the needs of your campaign. Only in special cases is this more fixed, such as [...] planar monsters (outsiders with alignments other than those listed are unusual and typically outcasts from their kind).” (emphases mine) – KRyan Nov 15 '15 at 14:56
  • Good find there! Thus the only thing preventing me from accepting the answer is solved with that comment (thus accepted). And also good finds on the class parts. – Thomas E. Nov 15 '15 at 15:15