I'll start with: I don't know much about how magic works in Thera.

Now, how does a conjurer justify taking archons/angels from their homes and dominating their wills into service?

Are archons/angels non-sentient? Does the goodie version of "bind" have a different echo to say "asks politely"? Is it something that is just glossed over for the sake of having the class?


Am I just wrong about how the process works thematically?

There is in game content from imms and mortals that examine this topic.

From a purely mechanical standpoint they added good aligned servitors for good aligned so it is clearly ok to use them.

A good conjurer that only used demons and devils to fight evil would be interesting role wise (even if it would con die in record time in the process)

I'm more and more interested to find various answers to arcane quandaries.

Now, how does a conjurer justify taking archons/angels from their homes and dominating their wills into service?

I assume your concern is regarding good-aligned conjurers doing this? You can think of binding spells as something of a short-term magical contract. When the contract is in play, the servitor must be kept happy to some degree or bad things happen.

Are archons/angels non-sentient?

No, they are sentient creatures.

Does the goodie version of "bind" have a different echo to say "asks politely"?

No.

Is it something that is just glossed over for the sake of having the class?

Not really. There is mutual benefit for conjurers and servitors when the conjurer is trying to keep the servitor happy with their arrangement.

I'll chalk it up to that and play sometime to get a first hand view I think.

The help file for lightbind says they get pissed if you fail to put enough mana in, so I assumed it was something they don't like in general.

I definitely meant good aligned. Neutral and/or evil conjurers make sense right off the bat.

"You can think of binding spells as..." I don't much like that type of answer as I think if I'm expected to "think of it as X" to follow my alignment then it should just be that by default. Of course, maybe I'm reading too much into your verbiage and you meant that's exactly what binding is: a contract. They get pissed because I offered a bad contract and now they want to kill me for it? Jeez those extra-planar types are capricious!

Then there is the idea that it was left intentionally vague so that the player/character can interpret it to their particular roleplay needs? I better research it in game anyway. Probably more fun that way.

Thanks for the input Scarab.

It would be pretty cool to have some variance in the binding echo depending on your align vs their align.

Example echos:

OG conjurer
"Emanating a wave of holy splendor, you forge a holy magical contract with a blazing archon."

NN conjurer
"You convince a blazing archon to aid you as he/she joins with you in a magical binding."

CE conjurer
"You force your dominance over a blazing archon and bind them to your servitude."

I think the flavor text would be fun at least.